KRISHNA IS THE SUBSTRATUM OF ALL THAT EXISTS AND DOES NOT EXIST! Someone made a video and called Him the ‘backbone of India!’ What? And What about the rest of the universe??
Eisegesis is the practice of reading one’s own ideas into a text instead of drawing out the meaning that is actually there. That is exactly what the speaker in a video I recently watched did.
The ideas promoted in the video, reduce the universal philosophy of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita to shallow slogans, and that needs to be corrected. The speaker takes ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and forces his own narrow view into it, capitalising on the fact that most people have neither read nor understood the Srimad Bhagavad Gita.
There are confusions and distortions that get repeated again and again. Let us set them straight.
Was it written for George V?
Many people have said that Tagore composed the song in praise of George V in 1911. The timing made the suspicion stronger, since it was sung at the Indian National Congress session just when the King arrived in India. Tagore denied this charge later and said he had written it for the “Eternal Charioteer.” The truth is that the words are veiled in such a way that they can be read in more than one way. That ambiguity itself should alert us to be cautious and not jump to easy conclusions.
It is also worth remembering that when this song was written, the modern political entity called India did not yet exist. To confine Krishna, the all-pervading Self, within the limits of a political boundary on Earth is to miss the essence of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. The Gita reveals the cosmic Krishna, whose presence transcends nations and even this planet, which itself is but a speck in the vast universe.
Krishna is not a human deity
In SBG 7:24, Krishna says: “Foolish people who do not know My formless, exalted, imperishable, and supreme nature think I assume a manifest human form.”
And in SBG 10:20, He states: “I am the Self, O Gudakesha (Arjuna), situated within all living entities. I am the origin, the middle and also the end of all beings.”
This makes it clear that Krishna is the universal Self, not a political or sectarian figure limited to India! To call Him the “backbone of India” is to completely misrepresent the entire Krishna Tattva or Krishna Principle.
Contradicting Chapters 10 and 11
- Chapter 10 shows Krishna as the essence behind every greatness, not as the ‘backbone’ of a single land.
- Chapter 11 shows Arjuna the universal form, containing all beings, all worlds, and all time. Reducing Bhagavan Shri Krishna to a mascot of a country is to rubbish these chapters.
Tagore’s wording
Tagore’s phrase “Eternal Charioteer” was a universal metaphor. To twist it into a sectarian slogan is dishonest and disrespectful to his intent. Tagore was a poet and philosopher who could have deliberately used metaphors broad enough to be interpreted universally.
Exploiting ignorance
Since most people mistake the personification of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita for an anthropomorphic deity, speakers like this exploit that gap. They impose their own ideas and turn Vedanta into shallow propaganda.
One word twisted into nonsense
The speaker picks up a single word “chira-sarathi” and cooks up an entire narrative out of it. In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Krishna’s role as Arjuna’s charioteer serves as a metaphor for the intellect guiding the mind. As per the chariot analogy, the chariot is the body, Arjuna is the owner of the body, Krishna is the intellect, the reins are the mind, the horses are the senses, and the path is the world in which one lives. To literalise it and claim that Tagore’s “Eternal Charioteer” must mean a historical Krishna who is the backbone of India is pure invention. Worse, it reduces the Bhagavad Gita’s universal truth to a narrow slogan.
The truth is simple. Krishna is the eternal, formless Self. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita is a universal scripture that points us to clarity and self-realisation. Do not allow your ignorance of the great life-altering scripture to make you fall for shallow interpretations that limit the boundless truth of Vedanta.
Have you completed reading or listening to the Srimad Bhagavad Gita? Whether your answer is yes or no, here is your chance to spend just three hours and internalise the most supreme philosophy of nondual universal oneness.
Tavamithram Sarvada 