Why Did Krishna Steal ?

Swami Chinmayananda

Puranas and Puranic Gods have been objects of ridicule and criticism all these years. And especially
charges leveled against Lord Krishna are many and varied. (Some typical questions asked by students are
answered here by Swami Chinmayananda.)

Puranic literature is never to be read as a history or biography. It is written in the style of the Vedas
Mystic style. Though it explains the story of the Mahabharata, it is at once a Song of the Soul's
Adventure to rediscover itself.

Veda Vyasa a Vedic Teacher, a master mind, a man of full realization^-when he took the pen, in his
maturity, he did not do so only for writing a love story or a novel. Krishna is painted through-out the
Mahabharata as Sri Krishna Paramatman.

Story by story, incident by incident, the canvas of Mahabharata reveals a word-picture of the science of
self-mastery; the spiritual self developmentboth in theory and practice.

Now to your questions:

(a) He indulged in petty thefts in his childhood.

Ans.: Krishna stole like a thief. Thefts of what and from whom? If a doctor cuts open a carbuncle and
draws its contents out and allows the bad blood to drain off, we don't call it a crime, in a* much as the
doctor has done it, in his better knowledge and efficiency, upon the patient who thereafter would feel
happy. Krishna looted the material possessiveness and the vanity of possession from the hearts of his
devotees and chastened them. The "childhood of Krishna" means only the early "awakening of the
spiritual urge" in a seeker. When one has taken to the Path of God, one finds one's thoughts have no
more that negative 'vasana-giving-sting1 in themthey become purer and purer in his bosom as one
constantly contemplates upon the Self, Lord Krishna.

(b) He was very fond of running about with women.

Ans.: In Sanskrit, thought is feminine and the Copies of the Yamuna banks are all the dancing thoughts
that live their individual pursuits of "churning experiences and gathering the butter of new impressions".
Krishna is the Central Self, the Pure Awareness in us.

(c) He Married 16008 Wives.

Ans.: The entire human thought possibilities fall under 16008 families. In each family is an indefinite
number of specimens. All of them are coupled with consciousness or else they have no existence.
Krishna is married to 16008 wives! Each thought is his consort. This means that each thought in the life
of man is borrowing its entire existence and fulfillment in life from the Atman. After releasing them from
the prison house of ego and egocentric desires, He married them!

(d) He played the fool, stole clothes and asked the Gopis to approach Him naked with their hands
upraised away from the Yamuna waters.
Ans.: Unless you go naked unto Him He is not revealed. The Self clothed in matter is the ego, and the
ego cannot realize the Self unless it becomes naked again. The ego is the Gopi. She undresses on the
Yamuna banks and enters the water to cleanse herself. Dropping our negativities and animalisms for the
time being we enter the pooja-room or out the Guru's presence or the temple, to revel in the joyous
atmosphere of contemplation of the divine. After the bath the Gopis used to come and wear their old
clothes; ordinary seekers after their religious moods take back upon themselves the good old animalistic
personalities.

When this is continued for some time the Light of Consciousness emerges out of its hiding place and
steals forward to loot away the dirty bundle of false values of egoism and selfishness. When the practice
of taking regular dips in the Shastra-study is under-taken by the 'lovers of the Lord', they soon, one day,
discover that their old clothes have disappeared. They learn to approach truth without their ego-dress,
without their matter envelopments! And the naked Self, re-discovers its own identity with the
Paramatman. After this inward experience, the matter vestures are given back to them. The Jeevan
Muktasthe liberated oneslive within the garb of flesh, and yet are ever-free, after their Sri Krishnadarshan.

A literature is to be read in its appropriate spirit Srimad Bhagavat was read in the past only by students
who knew the entire Science of the Self. They could read in the picture the true import. "Madonna and
the Child" is a picture of blissful ecstasy for allovers of painting;* the same picture is a self-debasing,
self-insulting lusty picture for the low, voluptuous sensualists. We often see the outer world through a
film of what we have already in us.

Those steeped in the philosophy of the flesh, when they enter this haven of joyous mystic symbolism,
can enjoy only the superficial meaning. They get really confused. They rave at it. And we, a generation
who had to reach miserably our own culture in the leaky boats of the British, and read our own culture
through books published by them, we, who are taught from our childhood in the missionary high
schools and collegeswe, poor victims of a villainous treachery against the greatest culture of the
worldbelieved them.

Let us try to unlearn, the unhealthy ideas that have been taught to us by a foreign imperialist handmaiden. Read independently the pages of our sacred Bhagavat. You will see clearly a new meaning and a
healthy message in every line.

Remember Lord Krishna was 8 years old when He was in Brindavan. "He married 16008 girls" and
danced with them in the moonlit-nights on the banks of Yamuna are the complaint of the sadistic nonHindus. But why blame them? How many Hindus know the real import of the Bhagavat? Suppose your
son of 8 years old is in the midst of 160080061 women, unless you are not in your own senses, you will
not say that the boy is seducing them all!