Krishna as Trickster
Janamashmi Celebrated September 2nd
The Trickster Archetype is found in many cultures, traditions and spiritual communities. This individual breaks rules to bring needed social change. This person is often charming and has a lot of charisma. The Trickster is cunning, shrewd, a savior, or even a villain at times, and loves to shake up society.
I come from a northern Minnesota rural city called Bemidji. Growing up there I was fortunate to experience Native American cultures, especially Objiwe tribal groups of Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation and Leech Lake Nation. All of them have trickster characters. The Coyote and Rabbit are the two most common Native American trickster figures. Nanabozho is the favorite trickster character of the Objiwe. He is, of course, a white rabbit. Northern rabbits often turn white in the winter and are brown in the summer. In these northern climes story telling is a supreme past time in winter months when you have to stay indoors most of the time.
In cartoons the Trickster was the Roadrunner, not the Coyote. The Roadrunner would always out fox the Coyote who wanted to eat him. Coyote tried all kinds of violence, but Road Runner always defeated him with cunning and intelligence. In the Native stories Coyote is always shaking up society and is a shape shifter who takes many forms, even the form of a beautiful maiden. He tricks the chief into marrying his son by becoming a beautiful woman.
These were my first ideas of the Trickster, but as an adult I came to know the great Krishna who was one of the greatest tricksters of all time. Many know the story of his youth of stealing butter and getting away with it until his mother decided to teach him a lesson. She tried to tie him up for awhile, but as the Trickster Krishna made the rope always too short and his mother could not tie the ropes until Krishna allowed her to do so. He did that to make her happy.
One of my favorite trickster stories is the story of Draupadi and how Krishna came to save her from the wiles of the son of the evil crown prince, Duryodhan, who was trying to disrobe her. Krishna as the Trickster makes her sarrie infinite, so the son can not disrobe her in front of the crowd. In this story he becomes the Savior.
Another great story is how he comes to Duryodhan's dinner which is very lavish with many courses of fine foods. Krishna turns the meal down because the evil prince's heart is not in the right place. He goes to Vidur's abode and has a simple meal because Vidur is a pious man whose heart is in the right place.
A very great story of his trickster ways is at the Lila Dance where he takes many forms and dances with each of the gopis all at one time. Each gopi thinks he dances only with her. Krishna is like that. We think he only appears for us, but he really appears for everyone all at the same time.
In the Mahabharata we learn about a very famous solar eclipse. It happened on the 13th day of the Kurukshetra War. On this day Jayadratha, King of the Indus Valley, killed Abimanya, son of Arjuna and Subhadra. Arjuna is general of the army of the Pandavas. Subhadra is Krishna's sister. He is also married to Draupadi. Of course Arjuna is not happy with this situation. He vows to destroy Jayadratha before sunset the next day. The sun appeared to set, but what was happening was a solar eclipse. When the sun came out again, Arjuna slew Jayadratha. Now some people say Krishna altered the sun that day by using his Sadarsana Chakra. Some say he tricked Jayadratha because he knew the eclipse was coming, like Arjuna's brothers, Nalkulan and Sahadevan. They were experts in solar and lunar calculations. No matter how you look at it, Krishna was the Trickster in this situation.
In my personal situation I know Krishna's flute very well. I always seem to hear it when he is solving one of my terrible crisis situations. I hear those high frequencies of his unworldly flute. No one else plays it like Krishna. He becomes my Savior and Trickster all in the same moment. I think I am in a bad situation, but he comes through for me with a better story and ending than what I wanted in the beginning. For all in the Hindu World we know the greatness of Krishna. Celebrate his Appearance Day. Happy Janamashmi!
JAI SHRI TRICKSTER! JAI SHRI STORIES! JAI SHRI KRISHNA!
Radhapriestess
