Krishna Can Only Steer Indra’s Chariot: India’s Cultural ‘Editing’ of Indra

THE SUN, THE STORM, THE SOVERIGN

Krishna is a part of daily life in India, even more so, in the northern plains. There is an adorable little Ladoo Gopal in every Hindu household who is bathed, fed, and clothed every day. Every Indian knows the story of that stormy night of His birth regardless of their religion. However, the society that swears by the Bhagwat Gita today, that adores as much as it worships the notorious butter thief and strategic 'Ranchhor', wasn't always this... yielding, unto the divine. Rather, it finds its origins in the Rig Veda, where Rishis have outright asked for wealth, fame, and progeny from the most frequently venerated one—Lord Indra.

The God who we later reduced to a bringer of storms used to be worshipped for victory over enemies, providing cattle, wealth, and progeny after being offered Soma. The question isn’t “What is Indra the God of?”, the Vedas didn’t limit its object of devotion in compartmental constraints. Indra is the slayer of Vritra, the serpent demon hoarding the seven divine rivers that could sustain life if released, and Indra annihilates him with his thunderbolt. He is the one who struck down the Vala cave to release stolen cows. He is revered as the one who makes the sun rise, he is the king of Swara—the realm of light—as opposed to Swarga in the later Puranic conceptualization.

But if Indra is to be contextualized, he can be regarded as the King of Illumination. He is the one who sparks action (hence holding the Vajra), He is the force that strikes inertia. He is the Sun, the Storm, the Sovereign.

The early Vedic society was agrarian, and majorly pastoral, very close to nature in its raw form. Living the kind of life they did, what led to the conception of Indra might have been the need for a champion of natural obstructors of life, and battles alike; because Bhārata was undeniably on the verge of grandiosity; all thanks to ancient India’s Indraic spirit.

But what prevented it from becoming a force of relentless conquer and greed was its quality of constant introspection; it was its philosophy of restraint, of balance. It was the spirit of Varuna.

Varuna has had a more subtle trajectory, but one, that was soon going to challenge the place held by the King of Heaven. His qualities, having overlapped with figures like the all-pervading, ocean-dwelling Narayan and later, the Upendra himself—Vishnu—emerged as Vasudev Krishna who went on to boldly declare, “Vedānāṁ sāma-vedo ’smi devānām asmi vāsavaḥ” I am Sama Veda amongst the Vedas, and amongst the Gods, I am Indra. (B.G. 10.22)

Krishna poses an open challenge to Indra by convincing the people of Vrindavan to worship Govardhan mountain instead of the ‘arrogant’ Indra. He dances on the hoods of the serpent demon Kaliya who had poisoned the waters of Yamuna.  Krishna liberates the river, not by violence, but a simple command to leave, effectively establishing himself as the neo-Indra in the local psyche. Later in the restorative war of Mahābhārata, he is seen steering Indra’s son philosophically, and literally, as his charioteer.

India had Indra when sovereignty needed to be established, it had Rāma when righteous order needed to be preserved, and it had Krishna, when rotten systems needed to be navigated through, and eventually erased, to begin anew. But the night doesn’t erase itself, the sun doesn’t rise itself, it’s the dirt you and I stand upon that has to move away from darkness dragging itself through the void. The desire to be the brightest, the greatest, and to enjoy the sweet fruit of the tree you planted isn’t taking you away from righteousness, or God, for that matter. In fact, if God is the greatest, striving for such greatness must bring you closer to the said God.

The reduction of Indra to a storm god and an insecure king of “pleasure-heaven” (Swarga) who uses celestial nymphs to distract austere sages has led to generations believing that power has no function except corruption. Today, we the citizens of India are navigating an administratively, socially, and psychologically corrupt system, which means, we have redundancy to smite and a civilization to rebuild.

Today’s India needs to relearn to demand from its kings like the sages of the Vedic era demanded from their Gods, it needs to dream big, and it needs to establish itself in greatness, and illumination, unapologetically. Krishna’s steering will only be fruitful if you are the child of Indra. True humility is surrendering unto the divine at your best. In simpler words, contemporary India needs Indra’s storm with Krishna’s course.