POPULAR STORIES FROM HINDU GRANTHS

SOME POPULAR STORIES FROM HINDU GRANTHS

The stories that follow are extremely difficult to believe, if not completely unbelievable, simply because they defy all logic and there is no consistency.  Gurbani does NOT believe in these stories even though they have been used as examples simply to glorify God.

Ø Birth and death of Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna was born around 5500 (the date varies by thousands of years as different sources provide different dates) years ago in incarceration ordered by Kans who was the ruler of Mathura and Krishna’s maternal uncle.  Vasudeva was a friend of Kans who married off his sister Devki (Krishna’s mother) to Vasudeva to galvanize their friendship.  Just as Kans was seeing off the newly married couple, a sage told Kans that he would be killed by the eighth child of Devki and Vasudeva.  So, Kans put both of them in confinement under strict supervision so that he could kill all the children born to his sister.  He killed six of her children right after their birth but Balram, a brother of Krishna, escaped (nobody knows how).  Krishna was the eighth child, whom Kans was most afraid of. So, he increased the security to ensure that the child does not live. It is said, when Krishna was born, the doors of the cell opened automatically, and Vasudeva hurried to take his son to some safe place. He took him across the Yamuna River to family friends, Nand Lall and Yashodha, who lived in Gokul at the edge of a forest called Vrindavan.  Just by chance, Yashodha had given birth to a daughter at about the same time.  Nand Lall and Yashodha agreed to swap the children even though they knew that their daughter would be killed by Kans.

Vasudeva returned to his cell before the day break and laid the girl next to Devika creating the false impression that she was the newly born child.  When Kans heard the news that a daughter had been born to Devika, he became a little apprehensive because he was expecting a boy as forecasted by the sage. But, he could not do much, and had the girl killed right away.

Comments: A very simple question arises here that rather than killing at least 8 children, would not it had made more sense either to kill Devika alone, or at least put them in separate cells far apart from each other where they would have had no chance to get together?  Such illogical events make these stories hard to believe.

Krishna began to grow up with his adoptive parents.  He was a mischievous child and used to tease girls and steal milk and butter. When Kans came to know that he was fooled by his sister and his nephew was alive, he tried to have Krishna killed a few times, but was unsuccessful. In the meantime, Krishna attended school and was taught by Sandeepni.

Krishna grew up among the milkmaids whom he used to tease too much. Many a time he would hide their clothes when they were bathing naked in Yamuna. He married Rumini, but Radha was his real sweet heart. In total, he had 16108 wives.

Krishna’s Death: Kans had imprisoned his father, Uggersen, as well to gain control of his state. Eventually, Krishna killed Kans, and put his grandfather, Uggersen, on the throne of Mathura. He spent a few years there, and then moved to Dwarka by the Arabian Sea (in present Gujrat) to establish his own kingdom. It is believed that Dwarka was designed and built by the mythical Vishavkerma. Shortly before his death, Krishna, along with his friends played a practical joke on sage Durbasha. They groomed a young boy as a pregnant woman by covering his belly with a circular iron plate and took him to the sage and asked about the gender of the child to be mothered by the young boy. The sage saw through the trick and got very mad. He cursed Krishna saying that whatever is born will be the cause of the destruction of your (Krishna’s) clan.  Krishna got very scared because he knew that the curse would not fail.

They took the iron plate to the sea, and began to rub it hard on the rocks to change it into iron dust. The underlying belief was that if they destroyed the plate completely, nothing would be left behind to cause destruction of the clan. Towards the end, a tiny piece of iron was left which was too small to be changed into dust. So, they threw the piece in the sea far away from the shore. As the story goes, the piece was swallowed by a fish which was caught by a fisherman.  When the fisherman cut the fish to cook, he found that piece of iron in the stomach of the fish.  Now, it is further believed that such a piece of metal found from the stomach of a fish is highly valuable to make weapons. He sold it to a blacksmith who made an arrowhead from the piece and sold it to a hunter.

The iron dust from the plate was spread over a large area along the sea by a huge tide as a result of which very lush and big bushes grew up there. Soon, all the males of the Yadav Clan of Krishna gathered to celebrate a fair by the shore where those bushes had grown. They all consumed a lot of liquor and then began to fight among themselves.  They uprooted the bushes and used them as weapons to kill each other. All the Yadav males were killed excepting Krishna who became highly distraught. He lied down under a tree with one leg raised and resting on the other.  He was lost in deep thoughts as to what had happened when it got dark. They say that Krishna had a jewel in the sole of his foot which shone in the dark. Jara, a hunter, who had bought that arrow from the blacksmith, was in the area looking for a prey.  He mistook the jewel in the foot of Krishna for the eye of some deer, and shot the arrow aiming at the foot of Krishna. The arrow hit Krishna fatally and he died soon after. This is how Krishna died.

OTHER STORIES RELATED WITH KRISHNA

Ø Lifting the Goverdhan Mountain: Krishna grew up in a farming area where people needed rains badly for the crops to be healthy and meadows to be lush and green. So, they used to worship Indra, the god of rain. Krishna advised the people of the area to worship the nearby Govedhan Mountain, which was the source of rain rather than Indra. Indra got mad at Krishna’s advice and caused a big rain fall in the area to punish the people. It rained for days and there was water everywhere. To save the people from the rain, Krishna lifted the Mountain with his little finger and provided cover to the people like an umbrella!!

Ø Killing of Jarasandh: Jarasandh was a king of a small state and was the father-in-law of Kans. He was born from two mothers in two halves which were mirror images of each other. As with most of the kings in Hindu mythology, Jarasandh’s father had two wives but no children. He went to a sage for boon to have children. The sage gave him a mango and told him that if the queen ate the mango, she will give birth to a son. On reaching home, he realized that he had two queens and only one mango, so if he gave the mango to one of them, the other will be very unhappy. So, he split the mango into two parts, and fed each queen with half of the mango. When the time came, each queen gave birth to half a boy with half a head, one arm and one leg each. The king got scared and he ordered the two parts to be thrown away for some carnivores to finish them. A female demon happened to pass by the two-part boy who was crying. When the demon looked at the parts, she joined them together, and lo, there was a complete boy. She changed her mind to eat the boy and took him to the king to be returned to the parents. When the king heard the story, he realized that it was his own son whom he named Jarasandh. According to the story, when Jarasandh became the ruler of his father’s state, he turned out to be an evil ruler. He married his daughter off to Kans who was equally evil.

Because of his evil deeds, Krishna made a plan to kill him. He agreed to have a duel with Bheem (second of the Pandavas brothers). Bheem tried very hard to kill Jarasandh, but failed to do so even after he split Jarasandh in two parts because they would reunite again. Krishna advised Bheem to throw the two parts in opposite directions so that would not reunite. Bheem did just that and that’s how he killed Jarasandh.

Comment: Can you believe these stories?? If you find it hard to believe them, how can the holy Gurbani believe in them?

Ø Krishna and Sudama: Krishna and a poor Brahman, Sudama attended school together and were taught by the same teacher, Sandeepni. As the time went by, Krishna became a king while Sudama remained very poor. One time, Sudama wife asked him to visit his childhood friend, Krishna for help. As ppor he was, Sudama took some rice with him as a gift for Krishna. When Sudama reached Krishna’s court and Krishna saw him coming, he alighted from his thrown and went running to receive his friend. He made Sudama stay with him for a few months during which time, Krishna ordered his employees to build a beautiful house for Sudama which was a surprise for him. This is an example of a healthy friendship.

Ø Pootna (or Poodna): She was a hired woman who was sent by Kans to kill Krishna by feeding him with her breast milk with her breasts soaked in poison. Krishna did take her breast in his mouth, but killed her by sucking her life. Krishna was not harmed, but he forgave Pootna and sent her to paradise.

MORE STORIES

AJAMAL

He was a Brahman of Kanauj (U.P.) who is labelled as a highly immoral person simply because he married a prostitute (?).  To pull him out of his immoral life, a sage advised him to worship Vishnu, but Ajamal told the sage that it was a very tough job for him, and he could not do it. Next, the sage advised him to name his youngest son, Narayan (which is another name for Vishnu). The underlying thought of the sage was that since the youngest son is around his parents most of the time, when Ajamal would call him by Narayan, he would unwittingly be reciting the name of Vishnu thereby worshipping him. Ajamal did that, and as a result, he found salvation.

Even though Gurbani does not believe either in any of the gods as saviour or worshipping God that way, the story has been quoted quite a few times to motivate people to worship Waheguru. If people could find salvation just like that then more than half of the Hindu names are after gods and goddesses. So, all the Hindus shold find salvation.

NOTE: I don’t understand why Ajamal was an immoral person!  Was he immoral simply because he married a prostitute, which is a noble thing to do because he emancipated a helpless woman?  There are millions more immoral people who cheat on their wives or other helpless people.

ELEPHANT AND OCTOPUS

A Gandharbh (singers of gods) was reborn as an elephant because of a curse by Daival - a sage.  Once the elephant was drinking water at the pool of Varun (who is thought to be the god of water or ocean) and was gripped by the tentacles of an octopus. When the elephant was about to drown, he took a lotus flower in his trunk and prayed to Vishnu to save him. Vishnu cut the tentacles of the octopus with his disc-like weapon and saved the elephant.

The story is impossible to believe for a variety of reasons as follows.

1. The largest known octopus which lives in the ocean at a depth of about 800 m (2500 ft) has an arm span of about 7.5 m (25 ft) and weighs less than 180 kg (400 lb).  An adult elephant can weigh up to five tons (5000 kg).  It is highly unlikely that a 180-kg octopus can pull a 5000-kg elephant into water.

2. An octopus is an ocean animal, but elephants do not drink ocean water because it is too saline (salty) for them. So, why would the elephant go to the ocean?  Also, lotus flowers do not grow in ocean.

3. The holy Gurbani does not support the idea that animals have any concept of God let alone pray to Him. So, how can an elephant pray to a god especially with a lotus in his trunk?  Moreover, a lotus flower does not grow in ocean water.

All these unanswered questions make the story impossible to believe.

As discussed earlier, Gurbani does not support these stories, but uses them to invoke love in the hearts of people for Waheguru.

GANIKA

She was a prostitute and fell in love with a very rich young man who promised to visit her one evening but never showed up. Ganika waited for him the whole night and was highly depressed when he did not show up.  She became so depressed that she would take no interest in life.  A sage gave her a parrot and advised her to teach the parrot to utter ‘Ram, Ram’. While Ganika was teaching the parrot, she had to utter ‘Ram, Ram’ herself.  In doing so, she became  a devotee and of Lord Rama, and found salvation.