tell me about krishna

[somniumrex]

i'm a little confused about exactly what he represented. i know the synopsis of his life's story but what did he teach? what was his goal? what do people take away from his story and teachings? are his teachings like the buddha in that they are clearly laid out somewhere or are they more like jesus where they are totally random and spread out through stories, parables and lessons that border on being riddles? also any general information on hinduism is welcome. that is one cool religion and it really interests me!

[somniumrex]

dang, like i said in my other post i misjudged the climate on this site lol! i thought all the talk of meditation all over the place meant there were people around that knew meditation from having learned it in a religious framework and i could learn something and share some knowledge. oh well. mod, feel free to delete this thread it's not going anywhere lol!

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Krishna is the ultimate in the path of devotion. Bhakti yoga. On this path, you use the power of your devotion to union with God to get you there. But you don't actually ever merge, because then your devotion would be gone. You keep just separate enough to feel intense devotion. With Krishna, you transmute all of your worldly desires into the desire of union with Krishna. That is why he is beautiful (it is kind of gay if you are a man). All of your desires for are channeled into the desire to merge with the Divine. There are Tantra teachings also, basically apply that to sex, and hold out on the orgasm in order to increase your desire. Krishna and Radha are the divine couple. Even though he had something like 14,000 lovers, who were all married women, Radha's devotion was perfect. But also the Divine Mother is the ultimate in the path of Bhakti yoga also. I like her better for some reason. But I am not Hindu. The BaghavadGita is the book of Krishna's teachings to Arjuna. They are basic Hindu teachings, that the soul never dies, that there is no death, so Arjuna should do his duty as a warrior (he is in the warrior caste) and kill his brothers because the soul never dies and he really isn't killing anybody. Krishna is held to be the highest of the Hindu gods by his devotees, but Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu the Preserver (one of the trinity of Gods, the others being Brahma the creator, and Shiva the destroyer). His devotees say that even Shiva worships Krishna. Shiva is the Lord of Yogis, but the Krishna devotees say that Shiva is the lord of demons. Krishna is the root word for the Greek word Christos. And both Jesus and Krishna have many similarities, but many differences also. Brahma the creator isn't very important in Hinduism, perhaps because he is the one who got us all in this mess in the first place. In fact, I am a little fuzzy on this, but I think that Vishnu falls asleep, a lotus blooms out of his belly button with Brahma sitting on it who dreams the Universe into existence. Brahma is similar to Brahman, but different. Brahman is the primordial consciousness that is omnipresent and in which all things come from like mirages, have their being in, and return to. Shiva is the destroyer who destroys all illusions, all things that are temporary and reveals the indestructible eternal immortal self. That is why he is the Lord of Yogis. He mastered every single meditation technique possible, all 112, and taught them to his lover Devi (Parvati, Shakti, Durga, Kali) and to all human kind and all sentient beings of the Universe. It is interesting that his book of techniques, the Vigyan Bhairava Tantra, predates the Buddha, but every technique Buddha taught is found in Shiva's book. Shiva is grey because he is covered with ashes. Ashes being the one thing that won't burn. They are ashes of burnt bodies from the cremation pyre. His throat is blue because he drank the poisons of the world in order to save life. His eyes are half-closed because he is looking halfway within and halfway out. His third eye is likewise half open. His hair is long and dreadlocked because he has been immersed in samadhi for eons. In fact, his wife Parvati (The Daughter of the Himalayan Snows) cannot rouse him from his samadhi in order to make love to him. But when he comes out of his samadhi he makes love to her tantra style for 10,000 years. It was Shiva who first mastered and taught Tantra. He has cobras wrapped around his arms and neck symbolizing supreme transcendental knowledge, and also yogic breathing. Shiva also incarnates into living people today. The immortal himalayan master Babaji (who looks like he is 16-25) is an incarnation of him. Shiva also taught alchemy. In this regard he is similar to Hermes from Greek mythology (whose symbol was also the cadeaucus of snakes representing the kundalini). Esoterically Shiva is the still point of silent eternal transcendental consciousness within us, the center of the wheel, Nirvana, the point, the seed, the bindu. He resides in our crown chakra. At the end of time, Shiva becomes Nataraj, the Lord of the Dance, and beats his drum and dances as the whole universe burns up in flames and all that is left is Shiva consciousness. His drum has two sides and is the drum of creation, it creates all vibration which is the matrix of creation. He carries a trident with skulls on it. The three prongs or tines represent the holy trinity of creation, sustaining, and destruction. Shiva corresponds to the Tibetan Chakrasambhava, who descended into Shiva's mandala in order to tame him. Hindus won't agree with this, and I don't either, but it is a myth and an interesting story of how Shiva's energy was incorporated for Buddhists to use. Well, this became a "tell me about Shiva" response, but it is part of Hinduism and all the Gods overlap.

[somniumrex]

dannon you rock man! thanks very much! where can i find out more about the dreaming vishnu thing? all this is very cool. how does the baghavad gita describe krishna showing his universal nature to arjuna? i heard about this part and have seen art about it and always wondered how it was described. i wonder if kratos skin was inspired by shiva? i think i read the 112 meditation techniques once, very cool. i love your description of shiva! sounds like such a cool character. it's a pain because i want to learn more but there is no way i'm reading the vedas or the gita or any of those ancient texts. they are to long and i'm not that interested lol! maybe someday when i have more time on my hands but for now i want to just learn the cool parts without sifting through thousands of pages of other things.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

I have never read any of those entirely either. Just parts. You can find out more just searching the web. There is lots of information on it out there. Those 112 meditation techniques are amazing. It is such an ancient text that predates everything about meditation yet it includes all, nothing really can be added to it, only elaborated.

[somniumrex]

I have never read any of those entirely either. Just parts. You can find out more just searching the web. There is lots of information on it out there. Those 112 meditation techniques are amazing. It is such an ancient text that predates everything about meditation yet it includes all, nothing really can be added to it, only elaborated. is that the list that each one is just a quick sentence or two? i can't remember any specifically and this quote is made up for an example but they are worded like: "the moment you sit up: the balance." cool i'll search and see if i can find more.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Yes indeed. It starts out with Devi asking Shiva to help her clear her doubts and what is this mystery? Then he doesn't answer her but gives her techniques. Each technique is a sentence or two.

[somniumrex]

Yes indeed. It starts out with Devi asking Shiva to help her clear her doubts and what is this mystery? Then he doesn't answer her but gives her techniques. Each technique is a sentence or two. cool, i believe it's in the book "zen flesh zen bones" by by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. i think they have this book in pocket size which would be pretty sweet. i have the book of the dead and the dhammapada in pocket size i used to bring them to work and sneak reads lol.