Wrathful Krishna?

[rainycity]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namast�

to us ~wrathful ~ after 100 insults to the Supreme, yet to the universe ... housekeeping.


praṇām

what is this supposed to mean?

Why would the Supreme care about being insulted any amount of times, seems like a silly story to me.

[sanjaya]

what is this supposed to mean?

Why would the Supreme care about being insulted any amount of times, seems like a silly story to me.

Mahabharata is one of the sacred texts of Hinduism, I don't think that its wisdom should be so quickly cast aside.

It is one thing to say that God is not petty like man. But to say that Bhagavan doesn't care about the things we do is to make him impersonal and disinterested. Essentially it takes the personal attributes away from Brahman, leaving only an impersonal force who does not care about good or evil. Is that how you would want God to behave? I certainly would not! Fortunately Krishna says that he becomes incarnate time and again in order to uphold Dharma and oppose Adharma. To insult God is adharmic to say the least.

Besides this, any man who dies at the hands of God is sure to attain moksha, so this was ultimately a blessing for Shishupala.

[rainycity]

Mahabharata is one of the sacred texts of Hinduism, I don't think that its wisdom should be so quickly cast aside.

It is one thing to say that God is not petty like man. But to say that Bhagavan doesn't care about the things we do is to make him impersonal and disinterested. Essentially it takes the personal attributes away from Brahman, leaving only an impersonal force who does not care about good or evil. Is that how you would want God to behave? I certainly would not! Fortunately Krishna says that he becomes incarnate time and again in order to uphold Dharma and oppose Adharma. To insult God is adharmic to say the least.

Besides this, any man who dies at the hands of God is sure to attain moksha, so this was ultimately a blessing for Shishupala.

If God is offended by insults, he hasn't transcended ego. There are many men who wouldn't kill after hearing a hundred insults.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namast�

what is this supposed to mean?
Why would the Supreme care about being insulted any amount of times, seems like a silly story to me.

What this means is, to us we may view things with a blemished eye on what really is transacting. Yet to the Supreme, each and every movement is in line with the full universe. There is no wasted action, no purposeless deed when the Supreme is involved.

praṇām

[smaranam]

Namaste

This is for those who wish to understand.

Lashing out at the divine (and hence at righteousness and divinity), has its repercussions is, i believe, the moral of the story. It creates negative saMskArs (imprints) on the jIva and the society.

In the context of DvApar Yug and Mahabharat, ShishipAl's mother knew who was born to her. This child caviled at KrushNa right from birth - that was in fact, the purpose of his birth:
ShishupAl was one of Jaya and Vijaya - Vaikuntha gatekeepers who refused to allow the four (SaNakAdi) Kumars into Vaikuntha, thus falling from their position of success (Jay) and victory (Vijay). So the Kumars cursed them to be born as rakshasas on earth. Lord VishNu was sorry for this and gave them a choice - do you prefer 7 daivi births or 3 asuri births before coming back here ?
Jaya and Vijaya could not bear the seperation from the Lord and chose the 3 (shorter time) asuri births where their *job* was to curse, insult, blaspheme and fight against VishNu BhagvAn. This is how devotees think - i would rather tolerate an undesirable birth than be separated from You for too long.

In each birth (prior to this the two became Hiranyakshya - Hiranyakashyapu ; Ravan - Kumbhakarna ) - when their atrocities reached a certain height they died at the hands of BhagvAn, this third birth was time for moksha.

ShishupAl hated and blasphemed KrushNa all the while he was growing up. His mother had pleaded to Shri KrushNa to be forgiving of at least His first 100 offenses/insults to Him i.e. Supreme Brahman. This gave her solace that she will see her son alive for some time before he got annhilated.

On top of all, earlier, ShishupAl wanted to marry Rukmini, and Rukmi had brainwashed his father into agreeing to give his sister's hand in marriage to ShishupAl - this was a nightmare for RukmiNi whose heart was set on KrushNa. So at the Rajasuya yadnya, ShishupAl could not handle the truth that Rukmini escaped and was married to Shri KrushNa. He kept insisting to all guests on how can this petty cowherd be the guest of honor, He is not even fit to be a ruler, He has shamelessly married so many etc. etc.

Sending final Sudarshan Chakra at ShishupAl cannot be a good example of wrath. KrushNa was calm, He did not feel any wrath. In fact He stopped Bhim and others when they were angry at ShishupAl for his behavior at Rajasuya. Bhim especially, was very angry - devotees cannot stand it when someone behaves like this towards the Lord.

Jai Shri KrushNa

[smaranam]

Looks like the doubt was answered more concisely, while i was busy writing the history.

[anirvan]

I feel its not necessary to justify supreme"s action to anybody. only mudha(dumb) questions on the action of supreme. Daily billions of incidents happening.many are being killed,many are saved by miracles. Isn"t these things happening with approval of supreme ? so why question a single instance of shisupal killing ? is it because supreme did this thing directly (in person) ? everything is done by supreme either impersonated or in person. and only he knows the secret of this karma and he is not bound to justify it to anybody.


And supreme never does anything wrathfully or emotionally. its the simple dharma that takes it own path. just like if you put hand in the fire,it will burn the hand lovingly ,but not wratfully !!!

[Adhvagat]

Shishupala put his tongue in the fire and Krishna was kind enough to bless his whole head.

[Tirisilex]

The question is.. Does Krishna feel wrath? The way I see it is retribution and not a hateful lashing out..

[sanjaya]

The question is.. Does Krishna feel wrath? The way I see it is retribution and not a hateful lashing out..

I don't think that Krishna would actively feel wrath. He says that even when he descends into his maya, he is not bound by it. Sri Krishna knew that Shishupal death at his hands would result in his moksha. Though we will interpret his actions through the fog of maya, Krishna has perfect understanding of what he is doing.

I hate to make the wishy-washy platititude of "God has a mysterious plan...," but that basically seems to be the case here.