The Maya Contest

 

The Maya Contest

Krishna was playing in Brindavan with his fellow mates. This particular avatar of Krishna was so enticing that everyone wanted to be part of Krishna’s daily life and be near him. It was making the Gods envious Lord Brahma of the people who were getting to spend time with him every day.

One day the creator Brahma himself was watching Krishna and his friends play. The cows and the calves were grazing nearby. Krishna and his play mates were climbing trees, plucking the fruits and jumping into the stream with complete abandon. Lord Brahma wanted to join the fun. He decided he wanted to play too, but a different game. A game of make believe.

Brahma captured the minds of the cows and the calves. Slowly he distracted them into a state of trance that each of them started wandering away from the boys and going further and further. The boys who were busy in their play did not see their herd wandering off.

After some time, one of the boys woke up as if from a trance. He shouted “Where are the cows and calves.?” The boys started looking for their herd and slowly lost their sense of time and who they were. Again, Lord Brahma was controlling their minds. The boys moved in the same direction as the herd. They entered a huge cave away from the village where all the cows and calves were patiently standing. The boys did not remember that they had to go back home with their cows in the evening.

Krishna who had climbed the tree and was among the leaves realized that the whole place had suddenly become quiet. No boys. No mooing cows or playful calves. There was only Krishna. Krishna called out to his friends. No one answered. He called out to his favourite cow and calf. She did not answer nor did the calf come running to him.

The sun was setting. It would be dark soon. Krishna did not want to go back to the village without his friends and the herd. He knew that the parents of the children would be very worried about their kids and may not understand.

Krishna closed his eyes and pondered. Krishna realized that this was a prank by a higher power. He closed his eyes and magically his body expanded slowly. From it emerged cows, calves and boys of all ages. They were a replica of the entire brood of boys and animals that were in a trance in a cave. Their appearance, voice and even their mannerisms were similar to the boys and the animals. Once the numbers were the same, Krishna and his friends took their animals back to the village. The parents of the kids and the owners of the herd did not know that they were looking at an optical illusion.

On the contrary, they felt a strange sense of affection towards their wards more than normal. They also sensed that their animals were calmer, did not fall sick and were giving more milk that was more fresh and tasty. The village itself felt that there was some kind of a divine energy infusing their lives

Many months passed. The monsoons came and went. It was winter and then it was spring again. There were two sets of boys and animals now - one group living in the cave completely at peace with each other and not realising that they had a famiHe ly that might be missing them. There was another group that was going about mundane activities of eating, bathing, sleeping and grazing cattle and attending to their daily chores assigned by their parents.

Lord Brahma who wanted to create some confusion in Vrajbhoomi by making the children and herd disappear realized that his plan was not working. He also realized that he had under estimated the powers of Krishna. Lord Brahma had expected Krishna to be helpless. The last thing he expected Krishna to do was to create a duplicate set of kids and animals using his powers of maya.

Lord Brahma was repentant by now for separating the children from their parents. He came to Krishna and asked for forgiveness. Lord Brahma also removed the cloak of maya from the real group of kids and animals in the cave. They all came back to reality like getting up from a dream.

They came out of the cave without realising the exact passage of time. They went back to their homes that day after the sun had set. The illusory kids, cows and calves created by Krishna had disappeared into thin air.