When your eyes are closed it verily appears
When you wake up it disappears in you….
in circumambulation of the sacred space
there is purification of the elemental force
around the vortex there are time capsules that floor dynamic patterns
they emerge from the spectral radiance that uniformly maps all space-time vertices
all nature is vibrating through these patterns
from the seed to the flowers, from the grassy bank to the shores
there is movement in and through
there is poise and potency
there is a column of light that stretches back to infinity
in the oracle of zero it meditates on the Self
”caitanyam sasvatam santam vyomatitam niranjanam
nadabindukalatitam tasmai srigurave namah”
-J
Journey towards the Origin by Khagendranath Jana, Author, IT Consultant & Consciousness Researcher
Vaishnavism is one of the major traditions in Indian culture which considers Vishnu as the Supreme Lord. The followers of this tradition are called Vaishnavas. This tradition is known for their loving devotion towards Krishna who is considered to be the incarnation of Vishnu. The form through which they offer their love and devotion is a combination of both the feminine as well as the masculine aspects of the divinity – Radha-Krishna, as depicted in the next image.
The form has the following visual characteristics.
· Radha represents the feminine form of divinity and Krishna represents the masculine form of divinity.
· Krishna has dark complexion and is seen standing with one leg crossed over the other, playing a bamboo flute
· Radha’s complexion is fair and bright.
· Both Radha and Krishna are holding each other closely, which represents intense mutual love between them.
From the earthly point of view, the above form symbolizes intense love between couples. The love between two attains its highest level when it is equally reciprocated. Two entities become a unified soul, though physically they are separate. Vaishnavas worship this form as a symbol of love towards the divine. Let us first try to interpret what this form could mean from the perspective of the creation.
· Assume that Krishna is standing in a normal human posture, without his legs crossed and without a flute. The color black normally symbolizes hidden existence of something. Krishna in his dark complexion possibly represents the state of conscious prior to the start of the creation as a single-reality or the Supreme-Soul or the Purusa mentioned in the Vedic scriptures. But every existence needs a form! What was the form of this single-reality? According to Vedic scriptures it was Prakriti in an unperturbed state of equilibrium. According to modern cosmology the prakriti can be viewed as the insentient quantum vacuum, a continuum of energy which is also called as dark-energy. So this state of Krishna, prior to the creation, can be viewed as a desire-less state of the conscious single-reality having an unperturbed Energy Continuum or prakriti as the form. prior to the start of the creation.
· From the perspective of a normal form of human posture, One leg crossing the other can be viewed as distortion. This represents, desire to come out of the state of single-reality and manifest as multiplicity. This is the primordial desire or primordial ripple or a distortion in the unperturbed mind of the single-reality to break loneliness. From the point of view of modern cosmology, this distortion possibly resembles the Quantum Fluctuation that caused the Big Bang.
· Bamboo-flute is an ancient musical instrument referred to as bansuri in mythological stories in India. It has a rich tradition of its use. The player blows air stream using his lips and creates orderly vibration of air column using fingers to produce various tunes. So playing of the bamboo flute could be symbolizing the omnipresent primordial vibration, AUM, initiated by the inner creative energy of Krishna to bring dynamism or perturbation into the inert energy-continuum or prakriti to start the creation. From the point of view of cosmology, this could the Big Bang explosion/expansion at the start of the creation.
· Fair and bright symbolizes manifested state of something. So Radha is possibly symbolizing the manifested Universe; the dynamic and granularized state of energy-continuum or prakriti, encompassing all forms, insentient and conscious, made out of luminous matter and energy that we see in our universe.
· And finally, Radha and Krishna are closely holding each other. The manifested universe, represented by Radha is inseparable from Krishna. Radha is inseparable from Krishna, as she represents transformation of Krishna’s own form, the energy-ontinuum or prakriti from the unperturbed state of sattva to the perturbed state of rajas and tamas to bring multiplicity into the creation. The manifested universe represented by Radha is inseparable from her origin represented by Krishna, similar to the trunk, branch and leaves of a tree are inseparable from the hidden root.
The whole universe, represented by Radha, is a melody created out of the orderly vibration of the energy-continuum or prakrit, represented by a flute being played by Krishna. Krishna can be also viewed as the primordial energy and Radha is the energetic manifestation of energy, the matter that brings multiplicity in the universe. Matter is a transformation of energy and hence they are in-separable; Radha is a transformation of Krishna and hence they are inseparable.
We can also interpret the form of Radha-Krishna from the perspective of the goal of the creation – evolution of individual consciousness represented by Radha to the level similar to that of the Krishna. Let me use the following diagram to explain what I mean.
In the above diagram, K represents Krishna, the Universal Consciousness and R represents Radha, the individual conscious, say humans. Radha resides in a magnificent palace protected by an eight layered strong boundary wall, outside of which her true-love, Krishna, dwells and calls her by playing his flute. Radha’s ownership of the palace keeps her extremely busy in her day-to-day activities which she also enjoys doing. The obstruction of the protections and attraction of the activities within the palace keeps her away from Krishna, though Krishna always wants Radha to be near to him. But when Radha realizes that the perpetual bliss lies in the company of Krishna, she reverses her focus and performs activities to meet Krishna, overcomes the obstacles of the protectors and finally joins Krishna to enjoy the eternal bliss.
Humans, the individual conscious entities, reside in this magnificent universe and the individual consciousness is protected or covered by eight elements. Krishna, representing the Supreme Consciousness, says in the Gita,
bhumir apo nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva ca
ahankara itiyam me bhinna prakrtir astadha
“Earth, water, fire or heat, air, space, mind, intelligence and I-ness are my eightfold nature (that has manifested as the universe).” The physical form of every conscious entity is made of five physical and three subtle elements which have their origin as Krishna. Five physical elements are space, air, fire, water and earth and three subtle elements are mind, intelligence and I-ness. The word I-nees refers to the Self that has the feeling on ownership of the body, mind and intellect. These eight elements create a boundary between the individual and the surrounding and protect individual consciousness by generating a feeling of self-identity with regards to the surrounding. These eight objects are like eight intimate friends of Radha. But their protection also creates an obstruction and hides true reality of creation, by driving individual consciousness to focus on the isolated view of the Self and the subjects and objects of the Universe, perceived through sense organs. From this perspective, there is only one Krishna and we are representatives of Radha!
Every individual feels a sense of ownership towards the surrounding and passionately carries out life process activities by using sense organs and organs of action; life goes on…… through a mix of joyous and gloomy events. But sometimes, driven by some indescribable internal and external stimuli, an individual reverses direction of his/her actions in search of discovering the self, the purpose of existence and the source of true bliss. And from the perspective of an individual, reciprocation of love for Krishna starts from there. Being the owner of the creation, Krishna is always in love with and affectionate towards his creation. But it remains unidirectional until the reciprocation starts from the other end. And once it starts, the bidirectional attraction brings both nearer to each other and finally the individual consciousness unifies with the Supreme Consciousness, the individual hears the omnipresent primordial vibration or melody of Krishna’s flute. Radha discovers Krishna and joins him, attains a state of perpetual bliss, enjoys the divine play of the flute and acts to serve the purpose of creation – the goal of the creation is thereby achieved!
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