Krishna, The Pot-breaking Butter Thief
Damodara Pandita Dasa
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It's astonishing! A mischievous boy I breaks pots and steals butter and yogurt in Gokula. Today, even after 5,000 years, those memories are so vivid in the minds of people. Why is this craze for breaking pots so deeply embedded in the Indian psyche on Krishna's birthday?
An inquisitive child was in the temple. She asked her grandmother, “Why do people break coconuts in temples?“ Her grandma said, “Don't ask! We just follow what our ancestors did!“ The little girl was shocked and dejected. She grew up to be an agnostic.Ignorance must pay a heavy price! I, too, became obsessed with that same question, “Why do people break coconuts in temples?“ No answer! I was in Jakarta in 1992. An Indian gentleman gave me a book of Questions and Answers. I found the answer! “The hard outer shell of the coconut signifies the false ego. When the false ego is destroyed; only then can one relish a loving relationship with God, through devotional service, which is as tender and sweet as the kernel and coconut water.“Every spiritual emotion is generally offset by an appropriate physical gesture. That external gesture is termed ritual. Just blind ritual, without any concept of its devotional significance, makes the heart run dry. This is very much the scene on Gokulashtami breaking pots for big money! Little Krishna's potbreaking has a deep signifi cance. The concept of `i' and `mine' is a characteristic symptom of the false ego. `I' have butter in `my' beautiful pot! The delicious butter is my devotion to God; but the decorative pot is covering my devotion just as the false ego covers the soul. Krishna is eager to taste the butter, but the pot is blocking Him. Therefore, He smashes that pot (false ego) because He is hungry for devotion (butter).
Why so much ado about the false ego? When the seed of ignorance sprouts within the heart, it ultimately grows into an enormous tree of illusion with the formidable mind as its trunk and the dissipated intel ligence as its many branches.
The countless leaves are incessant desires that haunt us, day and night, and the fragrant colourful flowers are the endless varieties of sense objects that mesmerise the five senses. The fruits of this tree are irresistible.Anyone who tries to pluck one of those juicy fruits is pricked by the thorns of lust, anger, envy, greed, delusion and madness. Despite the pain, if someone manages to taste that treacherous fruit, he is engulfed in a nightmare wherein he finds himself drowning in an ocean of suffering, helplessly tossed about by the endless waves of birth, disease, old age and death.
The monstrous roots are the false ego. They are spread in all directions and are so deeply entrenched within every nook and corner of the heart that it requires superhuman powers to uproot this tree of illusion. It is this false ego which binds the Atman or soul to the illusion of `i' and `mine'. In this deluded state, the eternal soul mistakenly identifies itself with the decorative pot forgetting all about the delicious butter.
However, naughty Krishna comes along and destroys the soul's delusion, by breaking the pot (false ego), so that the soul can refocus its attention on the soft, pure butter, that is, unalloyed devotion to God.
An inquisitive child was in the temple. She asked her grandmother, “Why do people break coconuts in temples?“ Her grandma said, “Don't ask! We just follow what our ancestors did!“ The little girl was shocked and dejected. She grew up to be an agnostic.Ignorance must pay a heavy price! I, too, became obsessed with that same question, “Why do people break coconuts in temples?“ No answer! I was in Jakarta in 1992. An Indian gentleman gave me a book of Questions and Answers. I found the answer! “The hard outer shell of the coconut signifies the false ego. When the false ego is destroyed; only then can one relish a loving relationship with God, through devotional service, which is as tender and sweet as the kernel and coconut water.“Every spiritual emotion is generally offset by an appropriate physical gesture. That external gesture is termed ritual. Just blind ritual, without any concept of its devotional significance, makes the heart run dry. This is very much the scene on Gokulashtami breaking pots for big money! Little Krishna's potbreaking has a deep signifi cance. The concept of `i' and `mine' is a characteristic symptom of the false ego. `I' have butter in `my' beautiful pot! The delicious butter is my devotion to God; but the decorative pot is covering my devotion just as the false ego covers the soul. Krishna is eager to taste the butter, but the pot is blocking Him. Therefore, He smashes that pot (false ego) because He is hungry for devotion (butter).
Why so much ado about the false ego? When the seed of ignorance sprouts within the heart, it ultimately grows into an enormous tree of illusion with the formidable mind as its trunk and the dissipated intel ligence as its many branches.
The countless leaves are incessant desires that haunt us, day and night, and the fragrant colourful flowers are the endless varieties of sense objects that mesmerise the five senses. The fruits of this tree are irresistible.Anyone who tries to pluck one of those juicy fruits is pricked by the thorns of lust, anger, envy, greed, delusion and madness. Despite the pain, if someone manages to taste that treacherous fruit, he is engulfed in a nightmare wherein he finds himself drowning in an ocean of suffering, helplessly tossed about by the endless waves of birth, disease, old age and death.
The monstrous roots are the false ego. They are spread in all directions and are so deeply entrenched within every nook and corner of the heart that it requires superhuman powers to uproot this tree of illusion. It is this false ego which binds the Atman or soul to the illusion of `i' and `mine'. In this deluded state, the eternal soul mistakenly identifies itself with the decorative pot forgetting all about the delicious butter.
However, naughty Krishna comes along and destroys the soul's delusion, by breaking the pot (false ego), so that the soul can refocus its attention on the soft, pure butter, that is, unalloyed devotion to God.
