Page 3 - Sri Aurobindo on Sri Krishna
P. 3
Sri Aurobindo on the Historicity of Sri Krishna
The historicity of Krishna is of less spiritual importance and is not
essential, but it has still a considerable value. It does not seem to me that
there can be any reasonable doubt that Krishna the man was not a legend
or a poetic invention but actually existed upon earth and played a part in
the Indian past. Two facts emerge clearly, that he was regarded as an
important spiritual figure, one whose spiritual illumination was recorded
in one of the Upanishads, and that he was traditionally regarded as a
divine man, one worshipped after his death as a deity; this is apart from
the story in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. There is no reason to
suppose that the connection of his name with the development of the
Bhagavata religion, an important current in the stream of Indian
spirituality, was founded on a mere legend or poetic invention.
(CWSA, 28: 482-483)