Lord Krishna, Udho, and the gopis of Vrindavan By Justice Katju

Today 16th August, is Krishna Janmashtami, the birthday of the Hindu god Lord Krishna, which is being celebrated in India today. This reminds me of a story connected with the life of Lord Krishna.

Man has two basic attributes, reason and emotion. While the French thinker Voltaire ( 1694-1778 ) emphasized on reason, the French political philosopher Rousseau ( 1712-1778 ) said that overemphasis on reason and ignoring emotion will result in man becoming cunning, crafty, scheming and totally selfish and calculating, instead of being patriotic and compassionate towards his fellow human beings

Udho ( Uddhav ) was a friend of Lord Krishna. Udho represents reason, while the gopis of Vrindavan, who love Krishna, represent emotion or passion. Udhav was very learned in the Vedas and other shastras, but he did not know about the second attribute of man, viz. emotion. He was a gyani, who believed in nirguna brahman, and had no understanding of bhakti marg

When he was young and an adolescent, Lord Krishna lived in Vrindavan and used to play with the gopis ( girls ) there. Later, when he grew up, he shifted to Mathura, where he became the king, but the gopis still pined for him.

Udho told Lord Krishna that he should send a message to the gopis of Vrindavan that they should forget him, since now they too had grown up, and would get married and have families of their own. Their earlier relationship with Krishna was only a teenage infatuation and adolescent flirtation, but it could not continue, and they must now behave in a mature manner and forget him. On hearing this, Lord Krishna smiled, but told Udho to be his messenger to the gopis.

Accordingly Udho travelled to Vrindavan and tried to persuade the gopis to forget Krishna. On hearing this the gopis were shocked.

In the words of the great poet Surdas, they said :

“Udho, man na bhaye das bees

 Ek huto so gayo Shyam sang ”

that is

” Udho, we dont have 10-20 hearts

We have one, and it has gone with Shyam ( Krishna ) ”.

When Udho kept repeating that they should forget Krishna, the gopis told Udho that he had gone mad, and they the drove him away.

On returning to Mathura, Udho related to Lord Krishna what happened. Lord Krishna again smiled, and said he knew what would happen, but since Udho would not listen and was adamant, having great vanity about his learning, and thinking he had great power of persuasion, he let Udho go to Vrindavan.

This story shows that humans do not have reason alone, they have emotions too.

I have mentioned the above story to explain that what is needed in India today is not just reason ( i.e. rational thinking ) but also emotion ( in the form of patriotism and the passionate desire to help our suffering countrymen and women ) to solve India’s massive socio-economic problems of widespread poverty, record and rising unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index, and the condition is getting worse, India slipping from position number 101 to 107 in recent years of the 125 countries surveyed), skyrocketing prices of essential commodities like food, fuel etc, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc.

Patriotism and a passionate desire to help the country is the crying need of the hour, but the unfortunate fact is that today’s Indian youth, who should be in the forefront of this struggle, are almost totally selfish and unpatriotic. After completing their studies they only want comfortable well paid jobs in the civil services, or in the corporate sector, or as doctors or engineers, or to go to a western country to settle there. There is no patriotism or desire in them to serve and uplift India.

In the American War of Independence ( 1775-81 ) great Americans like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. came forward to lead their country’s fight against British rule, at the risk of their own lives. These were rich people, and if they had only thought and cared for themselves and their own families they would never have fought the British rulers who would have hanged them if the former were defeated. But it was the spirit of patriotism which made them forget their own comforts and self interest to fight for their country.

Similarly, in India, great revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen ( Masterda), Chandrashekhar Azad, Bismil, Asfaqullah, Sukhdev, Khudiram Bose, etc gave their lives fighting against British rule without a thought for themselves.

One of my heroes is John Brown, who though a white man, gave his life fighting against slavery of blacks in America

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879 ) the publisher of the journal ‘The Liberator’, who strongly advocated abolition of slavery in America, despite great personal dangers to himself, wrote :

” Slavery will not be overthrown without excitement, a most tremendous excitement “

Similarly, poverty, unemployment, hunger, and other great socio-economic evils in India, will not be overthrown without ‘tremendous excitement’, which means a massive, historical, united, protracted people’s struggle and a people’s revolution, led by patriotic, selfless, modern-minded leaders determined to set up a political and social order under which the standard of living of our people steadily rises and they get decent lives

https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-a-call-to-indian-patriots

https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-the-task-before-indian-patriots

https://countercurrents.org/2024/06/india-shall-lead-the-historical-transformation-of-the-underdeveloped-countries-into-developed-ones