Today is the first in a year long series exploring holidays and holy days of other religions. Why, you ask? Because as Unitarian Universalists we draw our own tradition partly from the wealth and wisdom of other traditions. Because respecting, learning about, and understanding the faith and customs of other peoples promotes peace. Because in them we can probably find nuggets of universal meaning and truth which we can take to heart and mind. So we explore. We look. Not to take those religious customs and holy days and use them for our own purposes or entertainment, but to seek to know them in their own context, as best we can accomplish that.

Krishna Janmashtami is a Hindu holiday celebrating the birth of Krishna. It occurs in the summer, usually in August, but timing also depends upon location of the celebration. We heard the story of Krishna’s birth, as an avatar of Vishnu, come to protect people from evil. Krishna is one of the most beloved and revered of the Hindu gods.

Hinduism is the predominant religion of India, where the majority of its adherents live. Formed from a diversity of contexts, it accommodates a wide variety of practices and beliefs, including folk beliefs and customs, a devotional tradition, called Bhakti, yogic traditions, and Vedic Hinduism, the Vedas being the oldest preserved Hindu texts, at least 3000 years old. Hinduism is the third most populous religion in the world, after Christi anity and Islam. Within HInduism, “Krishna is a deity worshiped across many traditions . . . in a variety of perspectives. While many . . . groups recognize him as an avatar of Vishnu, other traditions . . . consider Krishna the Supreme Being,” perhaps due to his association with Vishnu, who is widely described as the “All-Pervading essence of all beings, the master of—and beyond—the past, present and future, the creator and destroyer of all existences, one who supports, sustains and governs the Universe and originates and develops all elements within.” (Wikipedia) Vishnu is a preserver who came back to earth, taking an avatar, a human, lesser spiritual form, in order to conquer the evil of the time. Vishnu has one more avatar to come, in the future. Krishna and20Rama are among the most well known avatars of Vishnu.

“Krishna is often depicted as an infant, as a young boy playing a flute . . . or as a youthful prince giving direction and guidance as in the Bhagavad Gita. The stories of Krishna appear across a broad spectrum of Hindu philosophical and theological traditions. They portray him in various perspectives: a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero and the Supreme Being. . . . “ (Wikipedia-- Krishna) Krishna, as an avatar of Vishnu, protects the world order. “Whenever there is a decline of dharma and the rise of adharma, O Arjuna, then I manifest (or incarnate) Myself. I incarnate from time to time for protecting the good, for transforming the wicked, and for establishing dharma, the world order.” (Bhagavad Gita IV.7-8)

“The earliest text to explicitly provide detailed descriptions of Krishna as a personality is the epic Mahabarata which depicts Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu. Krishna is central to many of the main stories of the epic. The eighteen chapters of the sixth book . . . of the epic that constitute the Bhagavad Gita contain the advice of Krishna to the warrior-hero Arjuna on the battlefield. Krishna is already an adult in the epic, although there are allusions to his earlier exploits. The Harivamsa, a later appendix to this epic, contains the earliest detailed version of Krishna's childhood and youth.” (Wikipedia -- Krishna) As in all things Hindu, Krishna covers a wide swath of belief and practice.

The celebration of Krishna Janmashtami commemorates Krshna’s birth and is marked with certain ritual events and customs which vary by locale. Many people fast the day before and then keep a vigil until midnight, the time of Krishna’s birth. The image of the infant Krishna is bathed at midnight and placed in a cradle. The fast is broken and devotional songs and dances mark the celebration all over Northern India. In the early morning, women make=2 0a paste of rice flour and water and draw patterns of little children's feet outside the house, walking towards the house. This symbolizes the entry of the infant Krishna into his foster-home, where his father Vasudev brought him for safe-keeping.

Because Krishna was raised by Nand and Yashoda in the countryside, taking care of cows, Krishna is also known as a friend of cows, a protected creature in Hinduism, whose scripture forbids the slaughter of a milk-producing animal. Most Hindus do not eat beef and the five products from the cow: milk for nourishment, dung for energy and purification, ghee butter, (clarified butter), for ritual sacrifices and food preparation, curds for food and ritual sacrifices, and urine distillate for medicinal and other purposes are all considered life enhancing. (www.religionfacts.com, www.hinduism.about.com)

As a child, the stories go, Krishna loved dairy products and he, with his buddies, used to steal butter and curds from the pots where people hung them to ferment. Janmashtami re-enacts the stories as people form human pyramids and climb to their top in order to break large, earthenware pots filled with milk, curds, butter, honey fruits, etc. suspended across the street. Young Krishna and his friends would form a pyramid and break the pots in order to gobble up their delectable contents. Today thousands of young men and children, who go in large groups to form similar human pyramids and break earthen pots suspended usually 20-40ft., but sometimes as high as 75-100ft. above the ground. To encourage and preserve this tradition local residents, and now even political parties, collect money, which is either kept in the pots or suspended next to them, and which is given to the group that succeeds in breaking the pot.

As an adult, Krishna assumes a much more serious role as the presenter of teachings on various aspects of human life to Arjuna during the epic battle of Mahabharata, as found in the20Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavad Gita literally means divine songs of Lord. These teachings encompass much of the nature of Hinduism and they take up questions like What is the nature of the human soul? What is the purpose of creation? What is our relationship to God? How can we achieve liberation from the wheel of rebirth. Krishna describes, Karma (action) Jnana (Knowledge) and Bhakti (Devotion) as the three fold way to attain and please god, to achieve happiness and liberation. Being knowledgeable will help perform the right Karma and not worry about the fruit of the action. Devotion to God helps introspection and removal from worldly desires. The three paths lead to removal of illusion or maya. www.krishnajanmashtami.com) ) Arjuna said: “By Your grace my delusion is destroyed, I have gained knowledge, my confusion . . . is dispelled and I shall obey Your command.” (XVIII.73) (Philosophy of Bhagavad Gita by Octavian Sarbatoare.)

Henry David Thoreau, in comparing the Bhagavad Gita20to other texts wrote, ". . . our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial." Also J. Robert Oppenheimer, the famous physicist and father of the atomic bomb, learned Sanskrit in 1933 and read the Bhagavad Gita in the original language. He later cited it as one of the most influential books to shape his philosophy of life. At the first test of the atomic bomb in New Mexico, Mr. Oppenheimer famously recalled the Bhagavad Gita "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one." (XI.12) and "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."(XI.32). (www.teachingsofbhagavadgita.com)

Krishna plays a central role in Hinduism. In the course of thinking about him and this Janmashtami holiday, several things occur to me. Krishna, as avatar of Vishnu, preserves and protects human beings. Part of the celebration of his birth has to do with that assurance of relative safety. Vishnu is part of a triad of Hindu gods, a triad which encompasses the forces of life. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer. Together they symbolize the cycles of life, cycles which we all will experience.20Thus preservation and protection is not absolute, but rather a part of a larger whole.

One of the universal questions I’m finding in Krishna today has to do with safety, preservation, and protection within a larger context of creation and breaking down, birth and death. We humans look for protection and preservation all the time; we need to find some measure of them. Sometimes we find them in those beings and forces outside of ourselves. Sometimes we find them within ourselves. I’m wondering who or what protects us and keeps us safe? Is it Krishna? Some other god or force of nature? Is there nothing? No one? Do you believe in a personal god that does so for you? Sometimes I wish I did. Sometimes I wish the universe was completely benevolent. But I come back to my experience, which tells me that life is risky, inherently, and that nothing can fully protect me from its bruises and tragedies. Creation and destruction are parts of the whole. Does that mean there’s no protection, no safety at all? Does it mean that nothing is preserved? Within the changing, shifting sands of life, where do we find our protection? Personally, I find it in other people. I find it in myself. I find a measure of protection in the help and support we give one another, in our generosity, in our willingness to listen and try to understand one another, in our extending of compassion, in our courage and integrity, in our willingness to begin again. I believe that there are always helpers around. I look for them. I believe in my own ability to deal with fear, one of the greatest barriers to feeling safe.

I find our preservation in our stories and in our rituals. Telling our stories, sharing our histories and memories preserves us. Recounting the story of Krishna’s birth each year is a way of preserving what he represents. Celebrating Flower Communion each year, or the Water Gathering, is a way of keeping our own stories, our own meanings alive. That which we do over and over, which carries meaning for us, preserves us. I make it a priority to have dinner with my son as=2 0often as I can. We have a ritual. We get our plates, sit in the same seats and ask each other about our day. The very ordinariness of it forms a bond that preserves. Krishna represents those forces in life that preserve. Those rituals, those stories, those helpers.

Secondly, the joyous nature of the celebration and the joy in the devotional practice of chanting Krishna’s name, which we heard during the meditation, prompt me to ask, What is the place of joy and fun in religion? If life has its beauty, its goodness, its love, wouldn’t joy and even fun arise from these and isn’t joy a part of our relationship to the ultimate in life, by whatever names we call it?

When have you experienced joy in a felt connection with whatever that greater life force is, be it god or something else? Has it happened here on Sunday mornings? It happens for me when my body stirs with joy sometimes20upon hearing the music or singing a hymn or listening to the choir. It happens for me when my being fills with peace and joy in meditation as we sit here together, quietly breathing. Do you experience joy in learning something new, something that can guide you through the weeks and days? Has joy happened for you elsewhere? Until I went to Salt Lake City two or three weeks ago, I had not been there for about ten years. I remembered a small city with spectacular views of mountains. No more. The city has grown and high rise skyscrapers obscure the mountains. I felt very disappointed. One day, late in the afternoon, thunderstorms rolled through. Big and loud, with sheets of rain. Lightning struck the convention center and tore up one of our Standing on the Side of Love banners. It was kind of awesome. I got stuck in a hotel, waiting for the rain to stop so I could go to a worship service. When I ventured out into the street and looked again, for the mountains, only to find the skyscrapers, I saw a bright, double rainbow over the Mormon Temple and weaving in and out of the buildings. It was magnificent. I stopped in my tracks and just watched it grow. My soul filled with joy and gratitude for the wonders of this world. Is that at all similar to the joy some Hindus seem to feel in celebrating the birth of the beloved god Krishna? Is that at all similar to the joy some Christians seem to feel at Christmas, the time of the birth of the beloved god, Jesus?

Now the fun part is that you remember that the Mormon Church spent millions to pass Proposition 8 in California, which bans same sex marriage. People wondered if the lightning strike to the convention center, where we hung our Standing on the Side of Love banner, which promotes marriage equality, was a message of some sort from heaven. Until we saw the rainbow. Then we were sure it was a sign from heaven -- in our favor. Cultivate joy in your relationship with what you believe to be ultimate, god, the nature of the universe. Pay attention with wonder; let gratitude enter your heart. Have fun with it. Cultivate the spirit of a child. It’s part of the interconnection that holds us all. And it is the interconnections, with their bonds of help and support, of trust and wisdom, of compassion and understanding, and courage, that protect us. Helpers are all around. It is our stories and rituals, all a rising out of the connections, that preserve us. Whether they exist through human or divine or natural agency. Cultivate them.

Today I say thank you Krishna Janmashtami for these messages about joy and these questions about protection and preservation. Happy birthday, a bit in advance.

Closing song #338 I Seek the Spirit of a Child

Closing words by Rabindranath Tagore, 20th c Indian poet and philosopher:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances to rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.