Lord Krishna is the most complete personality, making it tough for us to understand. An avatar who lived life the way it should be, in a completely adaptive way, living for the moment and accepting every frame of duality in life. Unpredictable as life itself. And the best understanding of Krishna I have read came from Osho. I am in the frame of referencing Krishna as I continue to read more about him and Gita, and attend the Sunday Krishna Consciousness session. Hence, the large ads in TOI screaming about the release of the book “200+ Shocking Truths About Krishna” by Deep Trivedi raised my curiosity as Krishna’s understudy and the book’s marketing. And that’s how I ended up ordering the book.
Lord Krishna can be considered the most popular personality/ avatar of Lord Vishnu, a complete and most loved man and the most worshipped avatar. The magmatism of his life, deeds and acts is so strong that it pulls everyone in. People who have tried to understand or even been exposed to a small part of his life through Mahabharat of teaching through a few shlokas of Gita end up debating, discussing and following him. However, there is a lack of understanding- as belief overpower everything else, closing the doors of doubt. Do read the other Book review of a book on Krishan written by OSHO
MILD AGREEMENT – NOBLE THOUGHT.
I agree with the author that the older generation’s understanding of Krishna is derived from TV shows- primarily Mahabharat. And the current generation understands it better through Devdutt Pattanaik and other mythology fiction authors freely presenting new accounts as storytellers. Gita and the understanding of Krishna’s life through scriptures is missing. Someone must make an attempt to end this corruption of truth. Someone should research through the multiple scriptures and project the consistencies and raise questions for interpretations of the inconsistencies.
That can be termed as a noble thought and intention. Deep Trivedi seems to be yet another author trying to encash the rejuvenated interest of the masses in religious fervour. This is where it stops. Deep Trivedi’s book “200+ Shocking Truths About Krishna” claims to be based on in-depth research ( rather referencing) of all (read many) ancient scriptures, including Mahabharata, Harivansha Puran, Bhagavata Puran and Garga Samhita and others.
DON’T BE MISLEAD
A claim that “200+ Shocking Truths About Krishna” available in Hindi, English and Gujarati, will acquaint you with the real life of Krishna, so much so that you will not feel the need to read any other scripture or book related to Krishna’s life is absolutely baseless and without any foundation. In fact there is so much contradiction and frivolousness with a dose of arrogance and self-styled claims of “I know it all’, that in case you do end up reading this book for whatever reason- so read more books on Krishna to sanitise your understanding. And the question remains how much trivia do you need to know about Lord Krishna? What is important to know?
The book provides valid references to the answers and many questions, most of them irrelevant. As Lord Krishna is not and should not be open to scrutiny and logical answers but belief. So, you have questions like Did Krishna actually steal the Syamantaka gem? Were Krishna and Draupadi related? How many siblings did Krishna have? What was the name of his wives and sons and daughters? Did Krishna rehabilitate the prostitutes in Dwarka? Were there 16,108 wives of Krishna? Did the majority of Krishna’s family perish in front of his eyes? Was Shishupal killed by Krishna? Somewhere, it seems that 200 was considered a good number fit to be the title of the book, and then one started hunting for questions that should make the number.
LET DOWN
Also when you use the title like “200+ Shocking Truths About Krishna”, you lose the freedom to be vague. The author is expected to take a stance based on research. Deep Trivedi remains vague and at many places, ask the reader to make the judgement. It is definitely a no-no for me.
NET NET.
Don’t waste your time trying to read “200+ Shocking Truths About Krishna”. The book is clearly a further strategic attempt to place Deep Trivedi into the workshop-speaker market- where he claims to have had huge success. He seems to have written many books, worked the workshop circuit and held a few records. If you read about him primarily in the ego pages of the book, it is completely a letdown.
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