Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE
that women attracted him, but I don’t know if he also attracted women. So Surdas had to remain
content with the childish pranks of Krishna. He ignored the rest of him.
That is how all the scriptures about Krishna are – fragmentary. As Surdas chooses his childhood,
another poet, Keshavadas, opts for a different Krishna, the youthful Krishna. Keshava is not in the
least interested in the child Krishna, he is in love with the youthful energy of Krishna, singing and
dancing with his village girls. Keshava’s mind is youthful and vigorous and hedonistic he delights in
the indulgence and exuberance of youth. He would never go blind; if he could, he would even keep
his eyes open in the dark.
So Keshava does not talk of Krishna’s childhood; he has nothing to do with it. He chooses for himself
the dancing Krishna. It is not that he understands Krishna’s dance, he chooses it because he has a
sensuous mind, a dancing mind. He eulogizes the Krishna who disrobes young women and climbs
up a tree with their clothes. Not that Keshava understands the deeper meaning of Krishna’s pranks,
he does so because he derives vicarious pleasure from Krishna disrobing the women of his village.
So he too, like Surdas, has chosen a fragment of Krishna, a truncated Krishna.
That is why the GEETA talks of a Krishna who is utterly different from the Krishna of the BHAGWAD.
It is so because of the differing choices and preferences of his devotees and lovers. Krishna himself
is choice less and whole, but we are not. And only a man who is himself choiceless and whole can
accept and assimilate the whole of Krishna. Those of us who are fragmented and incomplete will
first divide him into parts and then choose what we like. And when you choose a part, at the same
time you deny the rest of him. But you will say that the remaining Krishna is a myth, an allegory. You
will say that the rest of Krishna will suffer in hell till the end of creation. You will say you don’t need
the whole of Krishna, that a fragment is enough for you. So there are many Krishnas, as many as
his lovers and devotees.
Krishna is like a vast ocean on whose endless shore we have made small pools of water we call our
own. But these pools don’t even cover a small fraction of the immensity that is Krishna. You cannot
know the ocean from these petty pools. The pools represent Krishna’s lovers and their very limited
understanding of him. Don’t take the pools for the ocean.
So I am going to discuss the whole of Krishna, the complete Krishna. Because of this, many times
in the course of these talks, you will find it difficult to understand me. Many things will defy your
mind and intellect, and a few things will even go beyond you. I would like you to rise to the height of
the occasion and in spite of your mind’s conditioning, prepare yourself to go along with me. If you
remain bogged down and cling to the Krishna of your concepts, you will, as you have done so far,
again miss the complete Krishna. And I say that only an integrated Krishna, a whole Krishna can be
of use to you, not the truncated one you have known so long.
Not only Krishna, even an ordinary person is useful only if he is integrated and whole. Dissect him
and you have only his dead limbs in your hands; the live man is no more. So those who divided
Krishna into fragments did a great disservice to him and to themselves. They have only his dead
limbs with them, while his whole live being is missing. The real Krishna is missing.
There is only one way to have the whole of Krishna, and that is to understand him choicelessly. And
understanding him so will be a blissful journey, because in the process you will be integrated and
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 30 Osho