Krishna: The Living Spirit of Vrindavana

This picture album with 28 color plates with introductory text captures the multi-dimensional entity that is Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna, the living spirit of Vrindavana was never born nor he ever died. We identify him with one who was present before the solar cycle began to operate, or before anything came into being. We conceive him as the ultimate the first and the last. He exists in love, is attainable in submission and blends, transcends into him who in his love and submission forsakes himself. Scholars assess and fix the date of his deification, and the ritualists celebrate his birth performing his birth rites, but, to most of us, the cycle of birth and death always appeared to be too narrow to encompass in it an entity like Lord Krishna. Rigveda refers to some Krishna Angirasa. The Aittareya Aranyaka alludes to a Krishna Harita, a teacher. The Chhandgya Upanishada mentions a vedic seer by the name of Krishna who was Devaki’s son. In the Mahabharata he emerges for the first time as its central figure with the multifarious personality. Here he is a great warrior, an accomplished charioteer, teacher, intrepid Vrishni hero, and a statesman and diplomat of very high caliber. He appears to be first a semi-divine entity, then something like an incarnation of Vishnu and finally, the supreme God. However, the emphasis in the Mahabharata is laid only on his personality aspect. The elaborate details of his early days and personal aspect of his life were subsequently added by the Puranas such as Harivama Purana, Brahma Purana, Vishnupurana, Bhagavata-Purana, Brahmavaivartya Purana and others.