In the previous episode, we had witnessed how Bhagawan Bala-Krishna was an epitome of “Sousheelyam”, which is a very important characteristic of a leader. “Sousheelyam” is something wherein a leader comes down to the level of his / her followers, understands their needs, wants and grievances in person, tries to solve them and takes them along. Thus, a leader with high levels of “Sousheelyam” is a very considerate person, who ensures that he / she takes all of his followers along, not leaving anyone behind. Bhagawan Rama and Bhagawan Krishna are great epitomes of this quality called “Sousheelyam”. It is for all of us to see how both of them carried their devotees along with them and ultimately granted them the highest “Moksha”. We’ve seen many such instances in the past episodes as well.
Moving on thus, as the union between Bhagawan Krishna, Balarama and their parents happened, it was time for some formal education for the children. The parents are very eager to send Bhagawan Krishna to the “Gurukula” education and Bhagawan Krishna too decides that it is time now to get educated. He has spent ten long years at Gokula, playing around with His friends and He hasn’t obtained any formal education as yet. It is now time for that to happen. Vasudeva thus sends both Bhagawan Krishna and Balarama to a teacher by name “Saandeepana”, who was an expert in teaching all different types of art forms, Vedas, Upanishads, etc. and their meanings. As Sage Paraashara was narrating thus, Sage Maithreya had a doubt in his mind. Readers should always keep this in mind – All these “Charithras” are being narrated by Sage Paraashara to Sage Maithreya, and this is the crux of the entire Vishnu Puraana. Thus, this entire text is nothing but the conversation between these two great sages. Here, as Sage Paraashara is narrating this section, Sage Maithreya asks a question thus, “Oh Sage Paraashara! Why should Bhagawan Krishna Himself go to a Gurukula for formal education? He is Bhagawan Vishnu incarnate, isn’t it? Bhagawan Vishnu, as we all know, is all pervasive and is beyond any sort of knowledge. He is the master of the Vedas, Upanishads, etc. isn’t it? Being thus, why should Bhagawan enter a Gurukula?”
Now here is an important question asked by Sage Maithreya and Sage Paraashara is going to give an even more important answer to him. Sage Paraashara replies thus, “Oh Maithreya! You’ve asked a very important question. Even though Bhagawan is all pervasive and all-knowing, He has taken a human incarnation in this world. This world has certain norms and regulations that a child should undergo formal education at a certain age. Even though it is Bhagawan Himself, He cannot skip that norm. If He does so, the world would start taking this as a role model in future and everybody would start disowning the norm. By going for formal education thus, Bhagawan is teaching the world that it is a mandate for everyone to undergo formal education, no matter who and what we might be! This is something that you should understand. Thus, to maintain the norm of the world and to propagate it further, Bhagawan Krishna went to the Gurukula!”
This is an important lesson for us too. If Bhagawan does all these things correctly and shows, we would also follow Bhagawan’s footsteps. Had Bhagawan not done any of these, we would immediately start propagating thus, “Oh! Bhagawan Himself did not do it! Why should we do?” Also, all our “atheist friends” around would start twisting and turning stories as per their convenience and would start projecting Bhagawan to be faulty, isn’t it? Keeping in mind all these, Bhagawan decided to take it upon Himself, to show the path to the world by setting Himself as a role model. We can see a similar context in the Ramayana too. During our previous Ramayana project, we’ve seen Sage Vishwamitra taking Bhagawan Rama and Lakshmana to Mithilapuri and whenever they rest on the way for the night, Sage Vishwamitra made sure that the two children perform their “Nitya-Anushtaana” every morning at 4 AM during the “Brahma-Muhurta” time. Now we might ask a similar question here too – “Why should Bhagawan Himself do the “Nitya-Anushtana and Sandhyavandana? What is He going to gain by doing so?”
The answer is very simple – Bhagawan is of course not going to gain anything by doing the Sandhyavandana. The reason behind this is that only if Bhagawan performs the Sandhyavandana properly, people like us would look at it and do today. If not, we would start talking, “Oh! Even Bhagawan Rama did not do the Sandhyavandana, isn’t it? Why should we do?” Bhagawan did not want to give any room for such talks and running away from our daily spiritual practices. Hence, He took it upon Himself to show the right direction to the world.
So for today, let us understand this important point as to why Bhagawan Krishna Himself goes to the Gurukula for formal education, although He is all-knowing and all-pervasive in nature. We shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further, and how did Bhagawan Bala-Krishna undergo His formal education with Saandeepani. Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 