KRISHNA
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KRISHNA
posed by some to illustrate the prophecy of the Garden, Divrvasa had once warned him, " Oh, Krishna, take care of the sole oft/ii//oot ; for if any evil come upon thee it will happen in tliat place" (as is related in the Jlaha- bharata in Maurice, ibid, ii, 472). As he sat one day in the forest meditating upon the fearfid destruction of Kuru and Yadava alike, he inadvertently exposed his foot. A hunter, Jara (old age), mistook him for a beast, and with his arrow pierced the sole of his foot. In his death so great a light proceeded from Krishna that it enveloped the whole compass of the earth, and illumi- nated the entire expanse of heaven. He abandoned his mortal body and " the condition of the threefold quali- ties." According to the Purana, " he united himself with his own pure, spiritual, inexhaustible, inconceivable, un- born, undecaying, imperishable, and universal spirit." He returned to his own heaven, denominated Goloka — the sphere or heaven of cows — a region far above the three worlds, and indestructible, while all else is subject to annihilation. "There, in the centre of it, abides Krishna, of the color of a dark cloud, in the bloom of j'outh, clad in yellow raiment, splendidly adorned with celestial gems, and holding a Hute" (Wilson, Relirjion of the Hindus, i, 123).
In this entire Ufa we find no high moral purpose to elicit our admiration or command our faith. Now and then there appear in the Puranas suggestions of relief from individual burdens of oppression and woe, but they are as void and dissevered as flashes of Ughtning, which serve but to intensify the gloom. Like Buddha, our di- vinity bewails the evils of existence. Whatever may be the recognition of human need, the idea of succor is most limited, and only proves that the religion feels it- self inadequate to the emergency of man's mortal estate (comp. the opening of the Bhagavat Purana). Its sub- limest thought is a method of escape from the necessity of repeated births, but even this it fails to elaborate. With our eye upon the balance in which Krishnaism is weighed, the confession of Porphyry still presses pain- fidh' upon us that '' there was wanting some universal method of delivering men's souls which no sect of phi- losophy had ever yet found out" (Augustine, De Civitaie Dei, lib. x, ch. xxxii). See Incarnation, vol. iv, p. 630.
III. The Worship of Krishna. — The worship of this divinity is so blended with that of Vishnu and Eama, another of the incarnations of Vishnu, that it is difficult to treat of the one without trenching on that of the others. These are all generally considered under the denomination Vaishnavas, or worshippers of Vishnu, who are usually distinguished into four Sampraddyas, or sects, designated in the Padma Purana as Sri, Madh- wi, Rudra, and Sanaka (comp. Wilson, Relig. of Hindus, i, 34). The worshippers of Krishna have been subdi- vided into, 1. those who worship him alone; 2. those who worship his mistress Radha alone; and, 3. those who worship both conjointly (see Vollmer, Wui-terh. d. Mythol. p. 1093). According to H. H.Wilson, through- out India the opulent and liuxurious among the men, and by far the greater portion of the women, attach themselves to the worship of Krishna and Radha either singly or together. In Bengal the worshippers of Krishna constitute from one fifth to one third of the entire population (Ward, On the Hindus, ii, 175, 448). The temples and estabUshments devoted to this divinity are numerous all over India, particularly at JMathura and Brindavan, the latter of which is said to contam many hundreds, among them three of great opulence (Wilson, ^it supra, i, 135). For the controversy on the extent of Krishna worship, see Wdsou's Vishnu Parana, vol. V, Appendix.
We shall have to content ourselves with glancing at some of the more notable sects or Sampradayas. The Rudra Sampradayis or Vallabhacharis adore Krishna as an infant. This form of M'orship is widely diffused among all ranks of Hindu societj'. In their temples and houses are images, not unfrequently of gold, in the form of a chubby boy of a dark hue, and with a mischievous
face, in some cases holding butter in both hands, by which is perpetuated one of his boyish pranks (Paulli- nus, Systema Brahmainciim, p. 146, and plate 15). This image eight times a day receives the homage of its vo- taries with most punctilious ceremony. At the first ceremony, being washed and dressed, it is taken from its couch, where it has slept for the night, and placed upon a seat, about half an hour after sunrise. Lamps are kept burning, while refreshments are presented, with betel and Pan (see Wilson, Rdirj. of Hindus, i, 126-128). The Sanakadi, who are scattered throughout the whole of Upper India, the Sakhi Bhavas, the Raddha Valla- bhis, and the Charan Dasis differ in minor particidars of creed and rituahsm, but all worship Radha in union with Krishna. The Chaitanyas are schismatics. They believe in the incarnation of Krishna in Chaitanya their teacher, who on this account is elevated to joint adora- tion. With them the momentary repetition of the name of their divinity is a guarantee of salvation.
Festivals in commemoration of Krishna are annually observed throughout India, and still maintain a most powerful hold of the popidar heart. The third day of the Uttarayana, a festival held about the middle of Januarj', is sacred to Krishna as gopala or cowherd. In the afternoon the cows and bidls are washed and fed with sacred food, then decorated with chaplets of flow- ers. Thereupon the Hindus, with joined hands, walk around the herds as well as around the Brahmans, and prostrate themselves before them (Wilson, ihid, ii, 171). The Holi festival is observed about the middle of March. It may be not improperly described as an older and more crazy sister of our April Fools' Day, and is mostly devoted to Krishna. His image enjoys a swmg several times diu-ing the day, is besmeared with red powder, and dashed with water colored red. In the mean time unbounded license reigns through the streets. " It woidd be impossible to describe the depths of wick- edness resorted to in celebration of the licentious in- trigues of this popular god" (Trevor's India, p. 97). The festival of Jaggernaut (" Lord of the world"), in whose magnificent temple a bone of Krishna is most sacredly preserved, commemorates the departure of Krishna from his native land. See Jaggernaut. This also takes- place in the month of March. Those who are so highly favored as to assist in the drawing of his car are sure of going to the heaven of Krishna when they die (see Gangooly, in Clark's Ten Great Religions, p. 134 ; Du- bois, Manners ami Customs of India, p. 418). The na- tivity of Krishna is celebrated on the eighth day of Au- gust. This is the most popular of all the festivals at Benares. The Rasa Yatra falls on the fidl moon m Oc- tober, and perpetuates the dance of the frolicsome deity with the 16,000 gopis. Though it is universally ob- served in Hindostan, the details are such that it wiU not be seemly to treat either of the occasion or the ob- servance of this festival (see HolweU's Indian Festivals, pt. ii, p. 132; Maurice, Indian Antiquities, \, 159).