Meaning of the word 'Krishna' - By Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj

Let us understand the meaning of the word 'Krishna'.

kṛiṣhirbhvāchakaḥ  śhabdaḥ  ṇaṣhch  nivṛitti  vāchakaḥ tvayoraikya  parabrahm  kṛiṣhṇa  ityabhidhīyate  (gopālatāpaniyopaniṣhat)

In the Vedas, the meaning of the word "Krishna" is Satchidanand Brahman (the absolute divinity full of bliss, knowledge, and eternity).

karṣhati paramhañsānām chetañsi iti kṛiṣhṇaḥ

The one who attracts and entices everybody's heart (mind), the Supreme Soul, is Krishna. Even Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, and Lord Shankar (Shiva), are attracted to Shree Krishna. He attracts his own Self! Is it not astonishing?

The Supreme God, Shree Krishna has three main forms -  Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. Just like the three forms of water - steam, ice, and water itself (liquid). If we decrease the temperature of water it becomes ice, and if we increase the temperature, it becomes steam. Even though we have three forms, they are fundamentally the same. Similarly, there is only one God who manifests himself in three different forms.

Let us now understand the meaning and qualities of these three forms of God.

Brahman - This refers to the all-pervading form of God. Two main powers that are revealed in this form. The first is self-protection and the second is Swaroopanand (personal bliss). The other powers are present but are not manifest. Another important aspect of Brahman is that he is formless.

Paramatma - This refers to that form of God that resides in everyone's heart. The Paramatma also manifests in the personal form as Vishnu, and various avatars such as Narsingh and Varaha.  Many more powers are manifest in the Paramatma form, than in the Brahman form.

Bhagavan - God reveals all his powers in this form. This is the form of Shree Krishna, in which he manifests his divine Names, Form, Pastimes, Abodes, and Associates.

Worldly happiness is temporary

 

Our experience of this world has taught us that there is no real happiness in material objects.  Initially, we may derive a lot of pleasure, but with time, happiness disappears.  We might have embraced our dear ones - mother, father, son, daughter, husband or wife thousands of times and cherished our favorite Indian sweet - rasgulla thousands of times, but we still remain tensed and disturbed.  We have not achieved eternal peace or happiness from any of them. Our ultimate goal is to find happiness but our experience seems to be the opposite.

Pleasures related to the senses are present in this material world as well as in heaven.  It is a myth of this material world that we get immense happiness.  After the initial pleasure, it keeps decreasing with time and finally turns to sadness.   For example, on the arrival of a newlywed bride, we dance, sing and spend lots of money.  Extra care is taken for her.  But after a few days or weeks of association, we tend to be disappointed with her.  We think that, "may be the other bride is good ; the others person's wife is better".

Everybody wants his / her own happiness.  The way you expect to get happiness from your wife, similarly, even your wife expects to get happiness from you.  It is very obvious that there will be a conflict since both are fooling each other to get happiness, but none of them have it.  Both say that they wish for happiness to the other.  But in reality no one wants the happiness of the other.

We think that the attainment of a material object or a person will make us happy.  But when we get it, we no longer derive happiness from it.  We get disturbed because that object no longer provides the same level of happiness as before.  We have all experienced this before, across countless lifetimes.  It is the intellect that must decide that the material world has been created for the body, and not to provide happiness for the soul.