Reading Diary A: The Different Sides of Krishna

Krishna is a fascinating character in The Mahabharata for me. It is said he is God, and presents an image to Dhritarashtra that is so grand that it says the king regained his sight more a moment in order to see it. However, during the war Krishna proposes a plan that is quite deceitful and in my opinion not very godly or omniscient. He says to lie to a foe about the death of his son in order to make him more vulnerable. This does not sit well with me. Maybe it is because of the barriers of growing up in a very different religion that I see God in a very different way, but to me Krishna is too human. I do not see God lying to people in order to kill them, or speaking rashly the way Krishna does at the end of the tale. I do not know if it is because he is reincarnated, and therefore has human restraints. He knows of his reincarnation though, so I do not think he surmises himself to be human. This is an interesting point for me, and one I will continue to ponder.


The Death of Jayadratha
Image Source

Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.