I took the photos for this collage in Little India, Toronto. My friend and I go there to have a thali and to look around from time to time. There are fascinating finds in the stores there. One of my favorite stores is the one with a variety of artifacts and pictures. I liked this picture and didn’t know who the two lovely people were. I mentioned to my friend what a lovely picture this was and she said: “Krishna and Radha.” I decided to find out more about this couple and discovered that this is one of the epic stories within the Indian culture. I made each photo look different and the effects are pleasing to me. Enjoy!
The great exponent of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is one of the most powerful incarnations of Vishnu, the Godhead of the Hindu Trinity of deities. Of all the Vishnu avataras he is the most popular, and perhaps of all Hindu gods the one closest to the heart of the masses. Krishna was dark and extremely handsome. The word Krishna literally means ‘black’, and black also connotes mysteriousness. Although I haven’t read the Bhagavad Gita, this reference to the Hindu Trinity brought to mind the Holy Trinity in Christianity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It makes me think that all wisdom traditions have similar stories and we can learn from each other.
The Importance of Being Krishna
For generations, Krishna has been an enigma to some, but God to millions, who go ecstatic even as they hear his name. People consider Krishna their leader, hero, protector, philosopher, teacher and friend all rolled into one. Krishna has influenced the Indian thought, life and culture in myriad ways. He has influenced not only its religion and philosophy, but also into its mysticism and literature, painting and sculpture, dance and music, and all aspects of Indian folklore. It’s easy to see the kind of “aura” that Krishna emanates and why he is so prominent in Indian Mythology.
Looking at the picture of Krishna and Radha makes one very aware of why they influenced all aspects of Indian life and culture. During his life, Krishna met Radha and they fell in love with each other. Krishna had a motive behind his life i.e. to kill Kansa and to fulfill this mission; he had to face many problems. But, Radha with her intense affection and steady devotion helped Krishna to overcome the problems.
We all love stories about love and falling in love. This reminds me again of other wisdom traditions and their stories. The individual and collective myths and stories that have been handed down to us may after all be more similar than dissimilar. We can see a little bit of ourselves, perhaps, in many of these stories. Here’s a great quote on Hindu Myths:
“As the Hindu gods are ‘immortal’ only in a very particular sense – for they had born and they die – they experience most of the great human dilemmas and often seem to differ from mortals in a few trivial details… and from demons even less. Yet they are regarded by the Hindus as a class of beings by definition totally different from any other; they are symbols in a way that no human being, however ‘archetypal’ his life story, can ever be. They are actors playing parts that are real only for us; they are masks behind which we see our own faces.”
― Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Hindu Myths
This quote leaves us with much room for thought and may even inspire us to dig a little deeper into Indian Mythology.