Questioner: Namaskaram Sadhguru. I was part of the Leela program in 2005,
I am from Gujarat, but brought up in the US and my understanding of Krishna was
largely his stories of stealing butter and other childhood stories of mischief.
Only after I attended the program my understanding of Krishna
matured and changed completely.
Recently I saw that people are misinterpreting
a video from the same program and saying that you are against Krishna
and you said some vulgar things about him.
How can devotees of Krishna do such things and why are such things happening?
Sadhguru: So, this video or mischievously edited video
comes from the Leela program of 2005.
We are talking about Krishna’s growth.
When he’s an infant, and he comes into Yashoda’s life
and into the life of Gokula, he’s just another child.
As he grows up, he draws everybody’s attention with his pranks.
But as he grows further, then people start recognizing him
as not just another child. The entire town, men, women, children are drawn to him.
They say even the animals, the cows and birds hung around him.
Well, this phenomena is happening when he’s just seven, eight years of age.
So, after this Kaliya mardana,
then slowly Yashoda, who, as any mother would be,
is fond and possessive about this little wonderful child that she has.
But she starts realizing this is not just another child.
This is a divine possibility that everybody is recognizing it already.
Everybody in the town is recognizing it, but she is wrapped in her
motherly love for her little cute child.
So, from Krishna being a cute little boy to a divine possibility, slowly dawned upon her,
and her love for the child, which was a motherly relationship, slowly transformed itself.
From Matruprema, it became Krishaprema. Nobody could have helped it.
It’s inevitable; it has to happen. It always happens everywhere.
Here also it happened, rather quickly. He’s just seven-eight years of age,
but already he’s displaying that in so many ways, you cannot take him as just another child.
So, naturally she evolves from just loving this young boy as her own
to understanding that this is a divine possibility.
Some mischievous translation in Hindi language happened because I said,
“From being a mother, she became his lover.” The word lover
in... probably in small towns where they understand the word lover
only as, you know, as sexual relationship.
Somebody went and played mischief, and made it like I’m suggesting that
Yashoda had sexual kind of draw towards Krishna,
so there is a whole reaction. Well, in this, there may be…
there are devotees who are genuinely hurt, “Why is Sadhguru saying this?”
To all of them, I bow down and my profoundest apologies for you to be hurt like this.
But, at the same time, I want you to know (Laughs), that
from your wildest stretch of imagination, how do you think
that I will go about saying such obscene things about Krishna, of all the people?
I will not say such obscene things about any human being,
especially someone like Krishna, of all the people.
As far as I’m concerned, Krishna is among the highest expressions of Yoga,
because through his entire life he displayed that he could be involved in every kind of drama
including war, but still remain playful and untouched.
This is only if somebody is established in Yoga, this is possible.
So we see him as the highest manifestation of Yoga.
And you think I will go and say such a thing?
This is a mischievous translation and a mischievous edit of a 2005 program.
It is a live program; it is not a prepared text that I’m reading. It’s a live program.
Maybe I left out the word divine and just said,
“She started loving him as a lover.”
Those who are translating this, if they’re doing it innocently due to lack of language,
I would like to tell them, you can be a lover of flowers,
that does not mean you’re sexually aspiring a flower; you can be a lover of wild animals,
that does mean you’re sexually aspiring wild animals; you can be a lover of the divine,
this does not mean you’re aspiring sexually towards the divine.
So, this is English language. If you’ve done this translation innocently,
not knowing and translating the English words literally into Hindi and
making it sound and look ugly,
well, please correct it. If you’re doing it mischievously,
well, your karma will breed its own consequences for you for doing such things.
But for those devotees who are genuinely hurt
by believing this kind of mischievous act, I’m extremely sorry that such a thing has happened,
and it’s happened because of my video to you.
Please do not be hurt about it. You can be rest assured – Krishna is of highest value to us,
we will not say anything wrong. My whole effort has been to present him
as one of the most matured spiritual possibilities on the planet,
and we’ve done that in many different ways.
Those of you who are genuinely hurt because you thought this was said,
I would like you to watch the… probably there is thirty-five-forty hours
of Leela video which happened over eight days.
In that, somebody takes a minute-long video which is pieced together
with the intention of causing mischief. Please do not go by that.
And those of you who think on these lines,
unfortunately you don’t come to such things just like that; you unfortunately think like this.
Now, leave Yashoda aside. It is well-established in our culture
everybody in that town loved Krishna. They danced with Krishna.
They engaged in Raas with Krishna. If in your mind, Raas means sexuality, are you saying
every other man, woman and child and even the cows and birds were
having sexual engagement with Krishna in the Raas Leela?
When the whole town is involved, what is wrong if the mother also goes there?
Because she also started recognizing his divine qualities,
rather than seeing him as just her child, it is a transformation for a mother
that instead of seeing a little boy as her possession,
she sees him as a divine possibility. This is a tremendous transformation for a mother.
And that is the elevation that you must give to Yashoda, not simply being reactive like this.
And anyway, if we’ve hurt anybody, we’re very, very sorry for that. But
there is no need for any genuine Krishna bhakta to be worried about me
saying something against him (Laughs).
That has not happened till now, that is not happening now, that will never happen again.
I can assure you this... You will be assured yourself if you see everything else,
rather than seeing this concocted two-minute or one-minute video.