Two roles of Krishn

Vraja Krishn showed us the way to attain aparoksha anubhuti, indirect experience. Jivas, beings, come closest to Param Purush through devotion, through Radha bhava, love for him. Vraja Krishn taught his devotees that they must realise the sweetness of the world and make it their own through love.

In his Parthasarathi role, Krishn said that although everything in this world is sweet, people have to taste that supreme sweetness through severity, harshness, struggle and bitterness. Struggle in life is inevitable. This is the first and foremost difference between the two roles of Krishn. The one wished to lead us to the highest realisation through aparoksha anubhuti, while the other wished to lead us to that highest state of human excellence first through paroksha anubhuti, direct experience, and only then through aparoksha anubhuti.

The difference is vast. The resoluteness, the firmness, that is found in Parthasarathi Krishn is conspicuously absent in Vraja Krishn. Similarly, Parthasarathi Krishn is ever ready to take up arms for the protection of those who have come under his shelter, whereas Vraja Krishn protects his followers with softness and charming sweetness.


In one role, Krishn converted an ordinary community of people into a God-loving and highly devotional group; in the other, he goaded that same community to greater and nobler deeds. Both roles were equally necessary then, and both are necessary today.