History of Krishna Consciousness and its importance in the present age.

 

                                                   Veerendra Ekbote

 

            The history of Krishna Consciousness or Krishna Bhakti begins at the dawn of creation when Lord Brahma appeared from the navel of Vishnu and glorified Bhagvan Krishna with his Brahma Samhita prayers and resumed with his duties of Universal creation. Thus began Brahma’s life which is known as Vikalpa and at present we are staying in a day of Brahma known as Varaha Kalpa, in its 7th Vivasvan Manvantar’s 28th Mahayuga 5115 Kaliyuga year.  Krishna Bhakti or Krishna consciousness is time immemorial since it originates from the Spiritual world and the Supreme Lord himself descends from the Spiritual world in his various incarnations (Avatar) to destroy evil miscreants and establish the principles of religion (Dharma) or righteousness in this material world and also protects his devotees that are engaged in Krishna Bhakti or devotional service unto him.

             The Supreme Lord’s scheduled incarnations are mentioned in SrimadBhagvat Purana which was composed by Sage VedVyasa just after Lord Krishna disappeared to his Spiritual abode some 5000 years ago. SrimadBhagvat Purana is hence known as the factual recorded history of the entire cosmic creation and of the earthly planet since the beginning of time. It can be also called as Yuga Manvantar history since it describes the activities of the various incarnations of the Supreme Lord that appeared from the Spiritual world during the various Manvantars and Yugas to vanguish evil demons like Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashipu, Ravan, Kamsa, Shisupala and saved mankind from irreligion by instilling in them faith and devotion. The aim of the Supreme Lord was to destroy atheism and establish theism by increasing the number of his theistic followers and devotees respectively in the material world.

           In the 4th chapter of Bhagvad Gita the Supreme Lord Krishna assures and justifies to mankind about his appearance by saying that whenever there is increase in irreligious principles and moral values he will descend again and again in the material world to vanquish evil miscreants and establish the real principles of Dharma or religion                          

Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati Bharat

Abhyutanam Adharmasya Tadatmanam Smrujyamhyaham

Paritranaya Sadhunam Vinashya cha Dushkrutinam

Dharma Sansthapanarthay sambhawami Yuge Yuge.

 

So the above mentioned verse is self explanatory in which the Supreme Lord confirms that he will appear millennium after millennium to save mankind from irreligious miscreants and from the clutches of evil doers, punish them by getting rid of them and once again establish real principles of religion. So throughout Bhagvat history or Krishna Conscious history or Yuga Manvantar history we find the Supreme Lord appearing to save his devotees from irreligious miscreants, vanquishing them and establishing righteousness or Dharma. The Supreme Lord descends from the Spiritual world at the insistence or call of his sincere devotee who is in distress and is constantly praying, worshipping and remembering the Supreme Lord for help. For example the Supreme Lord readily appeared to save the Elephant Gajendra who was battling for his life against the crocodile that was pulling him in the water for 1000 celestial years. At the insistence of Gajendra the Supreme Lord Vishnu appeared flying on his Garuda vehicle and severed the head of the miscreant crocodile with his Sudarshan Disc.

 

          The stories in Bhagvat Purana should be called as Bhagvat history and not myths or mythologies as they are real historical events associated with real historical personalities such as the devotees of the Supreme Lord, the miscreant demons that tormented them and the various incarnations of the Supreme Lord that incarnated in that particular Yuga, Epoch and particular millenium of Yuga Manvantar Vedic history.

           Modern western science and history don’t give credibility to Vedic Bhagvat history since Vedic culture follows a cyclical time period of Yugas to calculate time and the events which occurred therein whereas the Judeo-Christian measurement of calculating time is linear. Since the whole world including the modern historians and western scientists follow the linear time calculation system as per the Judeo-Christian measurement of calculating time they will never accept Vedic Bhagvat history and the events that occurred in it since the beginning of time as real historical events because for them the cyclical Yuga Manvantar period which records Vedic history in remote times is highly difficult to grasp with their western type of mindset and hence they term  Vedic Bhagvat history as mythological histories. First we have to change the mindset and outlook of these westerners and Indians alike who consider Bhagvat history and the events occurring in it as mythology as it is a matter of grave concern for our devotion to Supreme Lord Krishna and his incarnations when we consider all the real events that occurred in Bhagvat history to be unreal by terming them as mythology or imaginary stories. At least Indians or followers of Sanatan Vedic Dharma should not let this happen for by establishing the factual Vedic Bhagvat history before the world as real we can negate modern historians and scientists with proofs and then it will be no longer considered as mythology.

             First by establishing real Bhagvat history we can spread, enlighten and preach the greatness amongst the non-believers and especially to those who call it as mythology by negating their mindset and outlook towards Vedic culture and authenticity of Bhagvat history. Thus we can gradually build a great and glorious India with strong spiritual foundations based on its Vedic Bhagvat history. The whole world especially Hindus will then readily have faith in the Supreme Lord and his various incarnations which until now were considered as mythological stories by majority of people as their minds were deluded by western logic and reason which don’t give that much importance to Vedic history and its remoteness as the Vedic culture believes in the cyclical Yuga Manvantar history comprising of Yugas, Mahayugas, Manvantar, Kalpa and Vikalpa which is non-existent in Judeo-Christian tradition as they follow linear type of time calculation. Soon that time is going to come in India when Indians will accept and inculcate Bhagvat history in their school and college curriculum whereby benefiting our future younger generations that will study Vedic history, some part of Vedic philosophy and based will develop good moral values keeping in mind spirituality at the core of everything because the Vedic system of education was not only meant to improve a person’s material well-being but he was also imparted spiritual education for him to achieve the ultimate goal of human life by following devotional service to the Supreme Lord.

         You may wonder why present day India is so lethargic and ignorant about its Vedic past, culture, philosophy and history then in the previous centuries. The answer for this lies in history when India became a dependent country under Islamic rulers from 12th cent onwards although many parts of India were free and ruled by Hindu kingdoms such as Vijaynagar, Rajputs, Marathas etc. At that time under Islamic rule Sanatan Vedic Hindus were not at all lethargic or ignorant about their Vedic past. There was a system of Gurukul and Sanskrit was taught in many Pathshalas were traditional Vedic sciences, maths and arts used to be taught. Spiritual education was a part of school curriculum like Bhagvad Gita, Upanishads, Puranas, Vedanta and Itihisas used to be taught to everyone prior to British rule in Pathshala system. By such type of education everyone had faith in their glorious Vedic Bhagvat history and no one like today didn’t believe or consider Puranic stories as mythology or imaginary. After the arrival of British and start of English education in India as designed by Lord Macaulay in AD 1835, we Indians or Vedic Hindus as a culture suffered a major setback.

            First the Indians readily accepted English system of western education that was totally absent from spiritual education and upliftment. It only stressed on western modern education which inundated and brainwashed the minds of Indians and instilled in them western values and ideals which produced many Anglophiles of Indian culture having no respect for their own culture but praising foreign English western education. Slowly Indians or Hindus started forgetting their advanced system of Sanskrit education. The British rulers started negating our own Yuga Manvantar history as it didn’t match or synchronize with their Judeo-Christian linear time calculation mindset. So in order to synchronise with their Judeo-Christian history they introduced the false Aryan Invasion theory which purposely reduced our long glorious Yuga Manvantar history to be just 5000 years ago which is totally false, illogical and redundant in modern times and hence they termed our Yuga Manvantar history to be mythological and hence many present day non-believing Indians in Puranic or Vedic Bhagvat history call these histories or Ithisas as mythology which is very wrong. Here our Indians should inculcate faith and devotion in Supreme Lord and his incarnations and the stories associated with them as real historical events, then the whole mindset of Indians and westerners will change gradually and altogether.

          The conclusion of this article is to know the history of Krishna consciousness which is eternal since the Supreme Lord is eternal and he descends in various incarnations from the Spiritual world. He assists Lord Brahma – the Universal creator and demigods by taking various incarnations to maintain Dharma and vanguish evil in this material world for example he appeared as Lord Krishna on the earthly plant at the insistence of Lord Bramha and other demigods alongwith mother Earth who approached on the banks of Kshirsagar in the form of cow. Even though Lord Krishna disappeared to the Spiritual world some 5000 years ago he is still present in this material world through his spoken words in the Bhagvad Gita, through the composition of Bhagvat Purana by Sage VedVyasa which is non-different from the Supreme Lord and was composed when the Supreme Lord disappeared from the material world and is the authentic book to know Yuga Manvantar Vedic history in detail which is full of Krishna conscious philosophy that inspires the mind of devotees (Bhakta) to perform devotional service (Bhakti) and eventually we revive our original consciousness from this material world through the process of NaamJapa or chanting of holy names.

           Krishna conscious history at present is continued through the 4 bonafide Sampradaya or sect namely BramhaMadhva – from Madhvacharya in which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared as the devotee of Krishna some 500 years in Bengal and established MadhvaGauda sampradaya

Srisampradaya – from Ramanujaya

Kumarsampradaya – from Nimbarkacharya and

Rudrasampradaya – from Vishnuswami

All these 4 sects are spiritual in origin and have a long history in remote times and start from Lord Bramha. Laxmidevi, 4 Kumaras and Lord Shiva respectively. All these follow the authentic Bhagvat history and perform Krishna Bhakti and are theistic followers of the Supreme Lord and don’t consider Bhagvat history as mythology unlike the modern historians and are all Krishna conscious in nature.

|| Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare |

  | Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ||

 

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