Question & Answer sessions with HH Sri Datta Vijayananda Teertha Swamiji – 2015
Nitya Brahmachari
Question :
How can Krishna be called a perpetual bachelor?
Answer :
How can one who has sixteen thousand wives be called celibate?
All men, women, and all living beings existing in the world are Krishna’s wives. A husband supports a wife, and has taken the responsibility for her wellbeing. We are all nourished and protected by Krishna. He is always a Brahmachari.
If you consider from a worldly sense, yes, it does not make sense. But the question will yield an answer if viewed from a spiritual angle.
It is Krishna’s Birthday today. His title is: Nitya Brahmachari/Perpetually merged in God. I ask the questioner: What is Brahmacharya? That must first be understood before posing this question. Is a married person not a Brahmachari? You are thinking along the lines of bachelor, householder, renouncer, and ascetic. You are not thinking of the inner meaning of the term. The Ramayana mentions two types of Brahmacharya. One is to remain unmarried. The other is to remain merged in God while being married. Sri Krishna followed the second type.
Once, a rishi asked Sri Krishna how Krishna could be considered a Nitya Brahmachari. Krishna was seated on the banks of Yamuna. He told the rishi to tell the river that he was a great rishi and that he was ordering the river to give way for him to cross the waters. The rishi did so. The river did not budge. The rishi returned and reported the result. Now Krishna told the rishi to go back to Yamuna and announce: “Krishna, the Nitya Brahmachari is ordering you to give way”. At once, the river parted. This miracle occurred in Krishna’s lifetime. How the river understood, you have to ask Yamuna.
He, who is constantly in the awareness that He is Parabrahma, is a Nitya Brahmachari.