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Originally Posted by Still_Waters
Since the insights on this thread are so illuminating, I want to raise a somewhat related issue. In the Ramayana, I was always disturbed by the fact that Ram sent Sita away to the forest despite her being totally pure of any involvement with Ravana. (She had even gone successfully through the trial by fire.) I have an acquaintance, a Vedanta scholar, with whom I discussed this subject. According to him, Ram abided by the rules of society for a king when he did this but, when he returned as Krishna, he cleverly found ways to bend the rules. I'd be curious to hear the comments of the illustrious ones here on this subject as well.
His what my acquaintance had to say on this subject. It makes sense, but it still doesn't completely satisfy me. Somehow, I think that Krishna might have acted differently.
"Ram did not send Sita away. It was his role as a king and his strong adherence to rules that did. He enforced rules down peoples' throat because he thought that that was the right thing to do. That was what his forefathers did. He also saw how they suffered when they let emotions got into their ways.
Ram suffered tremendously to send Sita to the forest. But, as a leader, if your actions disturb your people then you have to choose your people. The laundry-guy that caused this conflict was adamant and Ram had trouble retorting simply because it was Ram against him and not just two mere citizens.
The whole message demonstrates that we cannot forget that rules and logics are just man-made constructs placed for a higher cause. Often people forget this, not because it is their faults but, because of the culture that they are involuntarily born into and expect to carry on without deeper understanding. Majority of people are ok with following. It is just a few that question the status quo. Eventually, when things got so out of hand, that same Ram came as Krishna and showed us ways to bend the rules.
This is the reason people love Krishna so much: he cleverly shows how to live by rules and at the same time bend those rules or even break them."
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Rama sent Sita away according to the dharma of a king. He is right.
The most obvious way for
me that Krishna 'bent the rules' was in the battle between Duryodhana and Bhima.
Because Draupadi said "your penis shall be your downfall" - or something like it to Duryodhana, Krishna ordered Bhima to strike him there.
Now, striking a guy 'down there' goes against every rule of Hindu warfare and everybody...I mean
everybody was pretty disgusted with it at the time.
This gave a misguided king (Duryodhana) almost cult celebrity status and he was wheeled around the battlefield on the back of a chariot to talk to the soldiers until he died a few days later.
Some of those talks were very enlightening, as well as his final discourse with Lord Yama.
If I had anything 'against Krishna' it would be putting a self-fulfilling prophecy into play by breaking the rules of war to do it.
Aum Namah Shivaya