Many people assume that to be spiritual is to be serious; to be religious is to stay away from everything that gives happiness. Some people are afraid of religion and spirituality for the fear that all joy will go out of their lives. Such fears are not misplaced. When we think of a sadhu, we picture a solemn person who never has fun.
It need not be so. Sri Krishna was the epitome of Dharma. Through the complex events of the Mahabharata, he was the one person who could always see the subtle path of the Dharma when others could not. When Arjuna was confused, he taught him about life in such a knowledgeable way that people read his sermon till today as the Bhagavad Gita. Despite such heavyweight achievements in the fields of religion and spirituality, Sri Krishna was a fun-loving person.
His entire childhood was full of fun and games. When he was very young, gopis of Gokula would promise to give freshly churned butter if Krishna danced. Krishna would dance and win everybody’s heart. When Krishna grew up a little and was allowed to go out of the house, he formed a team of friends that would go around stealing curd and butter. The gopis would hang their pots from the ceiling but even this would fail to deter the ingenious boys. They would form a human pyramid by standing on each other’s shoulders and Krishna would stand at the top to take down the pot. All the friends would eat butter to their heart’s desire. Krishna would even feed monkeys who followed their group.
Krishna learned to play the flute and began to play it magically. When he played, cows and calves would stop grazing and look up with blades of grass still in their mouths. The gopas and gopis would hear the music and get enchanted. The gopis would gather around Krishna and they would dance to his music. He would join them and dance with them for hours. Up to this day, several modern dance forms take their inspiration from the dance of Krishna and gopis.
In this period Krishna had already developed his own ideas about religion and spirituality, reflected in his suggestion to the people of Vrindavana to worship their cows and the Mountain Govardhana instead of Indra. He was also engaged in several heroic acts of killing demons like Shakatasura, Putana, Bakasura, and Trinavarta sent by Kansa to kill him. But this did not stop Sri Krishna from enjoying himself and adding joy to others’ lives. In the same way, our day-to-day struggles and our efforts to become more spiritual should not stop us from having fun.