Krishna teaches us the way of acquiring inner happiness. Four cycles of Krishna are described in the Vedic literature: Krishna the Child, Krishna the Husband and Friend, Krishna the Preacher and Krishna the Sanyasi.

The childhood of Krishna describes the methodology and components of a childhood.  

Krishna (pure consciousness), was born as the eight child of Devki on 8^th day (Ashtami) signifying that during pregnancy one needs to follow the eight limbs of yoga to get a perfect child.

During initial childhood, the child is full of pure consciousness that spreads unconditional pure love to everyone without any discrimination. The only thing the child during this period does is to steal and spread love and that is what Krishna as Makhan Chor depicts.

With time the child’s mental faculty starts developing distracting the child’s mind. During this phase of life the child needs to be taught to control the thoughts and mind by learning viveka (discrimination between good and bad) and doing abhyas or hard work. The episode of Krishna entering into the pond (disturbed thoughts) fighting with Kaliya (duality of mind) and controlling it represents the same. This also coincides with the time a child should be sent to the school.

The next phase of childhood is activation of intellect which in Krishna’s life is depicted as the questions in his mind “Radha kyun gori, main kyun kala?” The incident is during Krishna playing Holi with Gopis and Radha. This happens when the child is exposed to the worldly atmosphere and starts getting attached to it. Here, Radha depicts the body or the five elements representing the worldly desires.

This is the time for the child to be taught control of mind and intellect by one point concentration on the object of concentration. This is also the time when the child should be taught the purpose of life, and the aim for which he has to live in future (usually adolescent by this time).

Krishna controls the intellect by winning over Indra (intellect) and raising Govardhan Parvat (turmoil of the mind) on his little finger and saves the public from the rainy storm (wavering thoughts). One finger here indicates one point concentration on the object of concentration. Once the child is taught how to control the intellect, he or she complete spiritual education and learns about the true self.

Control of mind (Kalia) and intellect (Indra) leads the child to the next phase of life. In Krishna’s life, this coincides with Ras Leela where Krishna is seen dancing with Radha and every Gopi.

This also reflects the time for the internal ego to get killed and one acquires the qualities of humility. Killing of Kansa depicts the killing of ego.

Once the ego is killed and humility is acquired Radha and flute are no more required and Krishna is now a perfect man and is ready to enter the next ashram of life called Grahasth ashram.

Radha (body) gets merged with consciousness and flute (humility) is a part of person’s nature.

One now acquires a Sudarshan chakra or a weapon to take decisions and adopt the good and kill the evil.

Krishna is always depicted with a blue color with yellow clothes and a flute in his hands. Blue color indicates everything is possible and yellow clothes indicate that one can acquire it provided one has the flute, which is a hollow wood representing egoless nature.

Whenever Krishna is shown with a flute, the lady with him is Radha with blue sari and yellow color, along with Gopi’s (thoughts) dancing around them indicating that the thoughts of the mind are in symphony with each other and there is a union of mind, body and soul. Here the soul is represented by Krishna, mind by the flute, thoughts with the Gopi’s and body with the Radha.

The second phase of Krishna’s life is shown as a perfect achiever and friend, which is evident from the story of Sudama.

The third phase of Krishna’s life represent Krishna as an advisor, which shows his role in Mahabharata and his preaching in Bhagavad Gita. He teaches the message of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Gnana Yoga and Raja Yoga for acquiring excellence in life and inner happiness.

The last role of Krishna as a sanyasi is the end of Krishna’s life. The four cycles also coincide with the four ashrams of life.

The message from Krishna’s life is that to achieve inner happiness, one must learn to make efforts to control the mind, to win over the intellect by one point concentration and to acquire qualities of humility and killing internal ego. Only by this can one become a perfect man like Krishna.

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Elect Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania (CMAAO)

Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications

President Heart Care Foundation of India

Past National President IMA