Can a person be a devotee of Lord Krishna and Rama at the same time?
Ayyan Addy asked like this:
Can a person make Lord Krishna as his friend in addition to it could he make Lord Ram as his eastdev? In other words, what I want to say is it that can a person be a devotee of both Lord Ram and Lord Krishna?
REPLY:
Definitely possible. However, it is better to concentrate in a single form at a time.
Let me explain why.
Take Hanuman. He did not take even Krishna in the place of Lord Rama. There is a story in puranas.
Keep in mind that Hanuman is blessed with the eternal life on earth. He is believed to live even now invisibly.
Once Lord Krishna wanted to show the faith of Hanuman on His master Rama. He wanted to bring Hanuman to His palace court. He sent His messengers to call Hanuman telling that Krishna called him.
The messengers went to Hanuman and told that Lord Krishna called him to his palace.
Hanuman categorically refused to come with them.
He said that He can’t accept any call except from His master Rama. So, the messengers returned and told Krishna as said by Hanuman.
Then, Krishna told them to call Hanuman again telling that Lord Rama is calling him. They went and told so.
Then, Hanuman came. Krishna appeared like Lord Rama and gave darshan to Hanuman.
Thus, Hanuman focused his mind only in the form of Rama though he had known that Krishna and Rama are from the same source.
What this means?
Focusing on a single form is recommended in Bakthi yoga.
This does not mean that we should not honour other forms. As I have been repeatedly saying in our media, we should respect all the forms of Krishna and demigods also because everyone of them have the single source Krishna, the adhi purusha.
Don’t mistake me for giving this example. I am just giving for understanding. If a boy loves 3-4 girls, can he develop deep love on any one of them? It is impossible. Only if he loves a single girl, he can take time to understand her and satisfy her. However, he will not hate all the girls totally just because he loves a girl. Isn’t it?
Similarly, focus on a single form at a time in Bakthi yoga.
Lord Rama is undoubtedly Krishna Himself. That is why, we have Hare RAMA also in our Hare Krishna Maha Manthra.
However, our life time is very short. So, we can’t focus on both Rama and Krishna at a time. To focus on them, we have to understand them properly within this life time. Understanding Krishna Himself fully is not possible even for Brahma deva. Than, what about us, the humans?
Since we can’t understand the full potency and vaibhavs of Krishna within this time, we simply surrender to Him as said by the scriptures and develop love on Krishna.
Whether we understand Krishna fully or not, we accepted that He is the Adhi Purusha and Supreme Personality of Godhead and focusing on Him alone in this life time.
So, when we divert our time and energy in focusing on many forms, we can’t excel in our devotion towards any form.
So, if you like to focus on Lord Rama alone, do that. If you focus on Krishna alone, that is also good.
Some people get naturally attracted towards Lord Rama’s pastimes and accept him as their prime deity. We, the devotees of Krishna have been much attracted with the pastimes of Krishna and hence we are following devotion to Krishna.
Since Krishna is the actual person who created these entire creations, we are satisfied with Krishna alone and proceed with our devotion peacefully.
You can follow Krishna Consciousness and also honour the positions of Lord Rama as yuga avatar and also the demigods as His expansions.
Disrespeecting any form of Krishna is strictly prohibited in a devotional way of life. If some persons do so, it may be out of their immaturity.
So, follow Krishna Consciousness and treat Lord Rama as Krishna’s yuga avatar.
The difference between Krishna avatar and Rama avatar is: Krishna came as Lord Rama hiding a few of His qualities in treta yuga, whereas Krishna came as Krishna Himself with His full potency in dvapar yuga.
This is the only difference between Lord Krishna and Lord Rama.
Understood?
Hope you have. All the best.