On the occasion of Sri Krishna Jayanti we celebrate Sri Krishna's birth day. Sri Krishna was born a few thousands of years ago. He is considered to be an Avataara of Maha Vishnu, as per our PurAnAs. This avatArA is taken up to bring in peace and to destruct the evil forces on earth. He demonstrated a number of Super Human powers during his life time. This made every one to believe him to be God in the human form.

As per our Hindu Philosophy, we believe in the existence of cycles of birth and death to every soul. Soul is different from the body. Soul can take any form as it likes - human or any living or non living form. The body is only a carrier of the Soul. It is the soul that uses the body for gaining the absolute knowledge. If it is not satisfied with the knowledge it attained in one life, the soul would take another life (body). Though the body has the properties of birth, growth, self maintenance, reproduction and death, the soul is independent of these. It is said that the soul has its likes and dislikes and continues to have its ties with the activities of this world and enjoys all the worldly pleasures through the vehicle- the body (human or otherwise) While each body has a limited life in this world, the soul – the occupier of the body leaves the body whenever it is convenient and reoccupies the living body. It is clear to us that while the body is inactive in deep sleep (save the vital organs like heart, brain and lungs which keep working even during sleep) we feel the deep sleep after we wake up. This enjoyment of deep sleep is that of the soul occupying the body. It is possible that more than one soul can occupy one body at the same time! These are the instances of weak souls being occupied by the stronger ones like the spirits occupying the living body. However the spirits can be thrown away while the real soul which occupied the body from its inception is all that continues with the body.

The soul gets attached to and gets entangled in the web of relations with other living and non living beings as if they were its own. Its knowledge gets eclipsed with thoughts of ownership and permanency of life or selfishness. This entanglement is the cause for the continuance of the cycle of births and deaths. It is this entanglement that is called as Moha by Lord SriKrishna when Arjuna
was sorrow stricken seeing his own kith and kin to be killed by him in the Maha Baharat War fought between Kauravas and Pandavas.

Lord Sri Krishna was born to quell the evil forces and reduce the load of the great sinners on Earth. In this process there broke a war between Kauravas and Pandavas. This war was fought between eleven Akshouhinis of army on Kauravas side and seven akshouhinis of army on Pandavas side. A total of eighteen akshouhinis of army was killed during this war. No one could avert it including Lord Sri Krishna. Lord Sri Krishna was the wisest of all and the best manager. He managed the unwilling warrior Arjuna, in the battle field, to fight the battle convincing him with His teachings known as SrimadBhagavad Gita. He clarified various doubts and answered different questions raised by Arjuna freely and frankly. The great teacher Lord Sri Krishna didn't allow his student Arjuna to have any doubts unclarified. He never brushed him aside that these questions are not relevant or out of context. He demonstrated how an ideal teacher should behave with his student. He was thus known as Jagatraya Guru.

His super human characteristics were demonstrated even from his child-hood, nay from his babyhood! He was born with four hands with Sankha, Chakra, Gada and Padmam. He explained to his mother Devaki Devi that He was born to her due to the penance she and her husband performed during their life in Swaayambhu Manmantaram as Prushni (Devaki Devi) and Sutapudu (Vasudeva). They performed this penance for a few thousands of years facing all inconveniences. Lord Vishnu appeared
before them and offered to fulfill their wishes. Fraught by the strong desire to beget children they didn't ask for salvation but for
a child of the stature of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu agreed to be born to them three times in different lives. During that very life he was born to Prushni and was known as Prushni Garbudu. During their next life Prushni and Sutapudu were born as Aditi and Kasyapa. Lord Vishnu was born to them as Vaamana and killed Bali chakaravarthi. During their present life He is born as Lord Sri Krishna and clarified to them that he wouldn't be born to them any more.

This episode shows that Lord Sri Krishna is Lord Vishnu Himself. He was aware of His stature as God Himself and demonstrated such capabilities of creation, maintenance and destruction during his life as Lord Sri Krishna, to the surprise of Lord Brahma, Indra and other Devatas.

This further indicates that the strong desires associated with the Soul would never be lost and they would take their shape even after a few lives. Moreover, it indicates that Penance is not the panacea to the problems but it is the knowledge and analysis that would help the soul to get liberated from the cycle of births and deaths. Had Prushni and Sutapudu asked for their salvation would they not have been freed then itself? One should understand that the Divine Plan is to be adhered to by every soul and that it cannot work by itself independently. It is the Divine Plan that is all pervading and all souls and bodies have to behave accordingly including the Avataaraas.

Keeping these lessons taught by the Jagatraya Guru, Lord Sri Krishna, we celebrate the Sri Krishna Jayanti even today. It is essential that the younger generation should know these facts and not to be mislead by the spokesmen of other religions.

Though there is no academic syllabus in our present modern system of education which includes our Sanathana Dharma, the students of the present day must be made aware of this through extra curricular studies and participation in seminars and essay writings on this subject.