Hinduism is currently the third largest religion in the world by number of followers and is one of the main religions in India, being a type of union of beliefs with lifestyles. Its religious culture is also the junction of ethnic traditions, and in addition to India, it has a large number of followers in countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Hindus are polytheists, that is, they believe in several gods, being the main gods: Brahma (represents the creative force of the Universe); Ganesha (god of wisdom and luck); Matsya (the one who saved the human species from destruction); Sarasvati (goddess of arts and music); Shiva (supreme god, creator of Yoga), Vishnu (responsible for the maintenance of the Universe). According to this religion, Krishna is a goddess, and is the eighth avatar of Vishnu, that is, he is considered a God, the Supreme Personality. Krishna appears in several Hindu traditions, always talking about a divine incarnation, even several religions ended up with this deity, and then, we will get to know this god better and discover his teachings for life.
Krishna is one of the main names of God, because in the Vedas – the sacred scriptures associated with the Hindu religion – we find many, many names for God, and for each quality, we can have a name. As God has unlimited qualities, technically He has unlimited names. However, the name Krishna has a very special connotation, as it refers to the most attractive, intimate and complete aspect of God. Krishna is the absolute truth, the source of everything and the cause of all causes. In the scriptures there are detailed explanations of His abode, His appearance, His hobbies, His expansions, His energies, etc. He is endowed with six opulences, all to an infinite degree: beauty, strength, wisdom, wealth, fame and renunciation; he knows everything that has happened, everything that is happening and everything that will happen; he is infinitely merciful; he is the beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities.
There are still those who consider Krishna the god of love and his name means "the one who attracts everything", so he is considered the most important god in his facet for those who follow him. This figure is for Hinduism the strongest divine personality, the absolute truth, the source of all wisdom, power and strength. This would be the closest image of God to what we know from other religions, for being always willing to lift those who stumbled in life's mistakes and renounce evil. Krishna frees them from all fears, sins and misfortunes, being the supreme god who rules all planets and planes. There are several stories from Krishna's life that show his bravery, and it is considered that he was born to eliminate everything that brings evil to the world.
Despite being part of the Hindu religion, Krishna's teachings and lessons should be adopted by any religion, since they instigate ethical values and can serve as a basis for various moral principles, when starting with the true knowledge of the soul and body. Check, now, some of his speeches that generate an intense and deep reflection, mainly about the spiritual search, to find who you are inside yourself:
“You grieve for those who are not worthy of your grief, yet your words carry grains of truth. They express the wisdom of the outer world, but they are still insufficient to satisfy the inner mind. The wise, in fact, do not allow themselves to be put down either by the living or the dead.”
“Just as the soul acquires a child's body, a youth's body and an old man's body during its lifetime, so the soul acquires another body after death. This is very clear to the sages.”
“At the contact of the senses, shapes and objects give rise to sensations of cold and heat, of pain and pleasure. All these sensations are transient and impermanent. In this way, we must learn to bear them without clinging to them. For a truly calm and tranquil person, who does not allow himself to be afflicted or attached to these forms and objects, and remains always stable in the midst of pains and pleasures, becomes able to walk the path to immortality.”
“The invisible spirit (atma) is eternal, and the visible body is transitory. The reality of the relationship between the two is certainly known to the sages, who investigated themselves for a long time, and finally arrived at the truth about their own essence.”
“He who thinks the spirit is a murderer behaves like he who thinks the spirit can be murdered, and both live in ignorance, for the spirit neither kills nor can be killed. The spirit is never born or, at some point, dies. It does not come into existence, nor does it cease to exist. He is uncreated, eternal, permanent and primordial. When the body perishes or is destroyed, the spirit endures.”
“And even if you believe that the soul is born and dies along with the body, that would still not be a reason for such sadness. For death is a certain thing for him who is born, and birth necessarily precedes him who lives. In this way, one derives from the other, and both are inevitable. Don't whine too much about what is inevitable.”
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According to Krishna's wisdom, we should not fear or be responsible for what is beyond our reach. Death, for example, is inevitable, however, the spirit is eternal and will continue its journey inside or outside a visible body, like the one we inhabit now.
