The Man the Most Attractive: Wonderful Stories of Krishna - Part 1

By Dr.King

This is a collection of wonderful stories of Krishna from the 5000-year-old Indian scripture namely the Bhagavata. The word Krishna literally means someone who attracts. He is believed to be the incarnation of God on earth.

In this part of the book, author discusses following episodes

Episode 1. Good news! God is coming!
Episode 2. Krishna descends on earth!
Episode 3. Baby Krishna in Gokul
Episode 4. Pranks of child Krishna
Episode 5. Krishna moves to Vrindavan

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr.King
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005675844

Dr.King

Dr.King is an avid writer in the nonfictional category. In the past 3 decades he has written several books in the areas of philosophy, Yoga, religious practices, sculpture, gardening, and so on. His books often blend scientific outlook with traditional faiths and practices. His books especially in the area of ancient philosophy succinctly showcase volumes of ancient literature in a condensed form, providing very authentic, insightful and unbiased portrayal. These books are generally characterized as thought provoking, giving an incisive look at the otherwise difficult to understand topics. One can expect to find reliable information, devoid of glorification and hype that is typical in this category.

Book preview

Prologue

This book is based on the Indian scripture namely the Bhagavata Purana. This is a scripture comprising of stories about God Vishnu in many of his Avatars or incarnations.

The word Vishnu literally means – someone who is all pervasive. Who can be all pervasive, but God? That way, Vishnu is not limited to God of some sect of Indians, nor some specific religion. He is the God of any God centric religion. His reach is beyond sects, beyond religions, and even beyond India.

Some of the stories of Avatars of Vishnu appear even in scriptures of ancient Iranians. There are references to the Trivikrama Avatar of Vishnu, where he covers the entire universe spanning his two steps. The story of God rescuing the world from the inundating floods, can be found in almost all ancient world scriptures, be it the Matsyaavataar story of Hindu Puranas, or the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, or even some ancient Chinese scripture.

Among these many Avatars of Vishnu, what is most popular is the Avatar as Krishna. The popularity is so much, that many even go to the extent of equating Krishna to Christ!

There is one group of Yoga promoters, quite popular in the west as well as in the east, who highlight similarities between lives of Krishna and Krista. I have intentionally spelt the word Christ as Krista. The latter is a modified form of the word Christ by people who try to equate the two words Krishna and Christ.

So, Krishna is the central figure in the episodes that follow.

Krishna is believed to have been born in human form in Mathura – a north Indian city, 5000+ years ago.

Religious stories are normally woven around devotion. There is very little emphasis on reasoning when it comes to faith. In fact, faith and reasoning often don’t go together. I have always been emphasizing on ‘thinking’.  So, am I deviating from that path which I have been pushing all along? Why am I planning to discuss on a purely faith-based subject?

Before I explain my reason, let me talk about what motivated the author of Bhagavata to compose it.

Bhagavata was composed by the great sage Vyasa. Traditional belief is that Vyasa composed it around 5000 years ago. People who have read ancient Indian scriptures are quite familiar with Vyasa who figures prominently in most Indian scriptures. Let me briefly outline this great person.

Vyasa was a great author/sage who was born as a result of a chance meeting between a great sage namely Parasara and a fisher woman whose name was Satyavati. His original name was not Vyasa.  He was called Krishna, probably owing to his dark skin color.

But he was not the Krishna that I talked about in the beginning. This Krishna was ‘Krishna Dwaipayana’ – Krishna born in an island. Probably his mother brought him up in an island fearing social repercussions, given the circumstances in which he was born.

This Krishna became Vyasa when he divided what was originally a single monolithic Veda into 4 parts – Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. The word ‘Vyasa’ means divider. He did this to facilitate the study and usage of the Vedas since they were quite voluminous and beyond the reach of any single individual.

I have discussed these details my book ‘Unraveling the hidden mysteries of the Vedas’.

Vyasa is also believed to be the author of Brahma Sutra, where he tries to clarify some technicalities in the Upanishads that form part of the Vedas. You can refer to my past talks on this subject for more details.

It was the same Vyasa who composed the great Indian Epic Mahabharata. Indians categorize this composition as ‘Itihasa’ which literally means history.

This composition was based on real incidents that happened sometime around 5000 years ago. Vyasa was not only its composer, but he was also an active player in the entire narrative, that unfolds as a story of two warring factions and the subsequent annihilation of one of them.

I have discussed this story in my book ‘Crux of Mahabharata for busy people’.

As part of Mahabharata, Vyasa also composed the Bhagavad Geetha,