Silly questions

BIG Stories

Okay, phew, this isn’t very serious, but I hope it lifts your mood. We all have the right to "silly" questions—things that seemed off to us when we were in temples and around other devotees. Questions that would get responses like, "Why are you even thinking about this?" or "You just don’t understand," etc. Honestly, I’d love to hear yours too, really, and maybe you’ll find it fun as well.

For example, my silly question, which has been bothering me probably since childhood: Why do almost all stories have to include something BIG or A LOT? What do I mean? Krishna doesn’t just eat with his friends—he has A LOT OF FRIENDS, like MILLIONS OF FRIENDS. Then comes a story about a BIG SNAKE, followed by a HEAVY RAIN with A LOT OF WATER. And then Brahma steals the cowherd boys and sees A LOT OF BRAHMAS with A LOT OF HEADS—MORE THAN FOUR.

And it’s not just about Krishna—it’s everything. When the sages emerged from the water, they saw that the world was covered with BIG trees. When Chaitanya was marching with kirtan towards that guy who banned singing, they weren’t just marching! Actually, demigods also joined them, and they multiplied, so in reality, there were MILLIONS of devotees. Oh, and if you read about the number of troops in the Mahabharata, well... A LOT OF TROOPS. Oh right, and Krishna had A LOT OF WIVES (16K+). Hanuman could become BIG, and there’s also that demon who asked Shiva for A LOT OF ARMS.

There’s actually a pretty simple answer to this question, especially if you don’t look at it from the perspective of divinity—it’s just how human imagination works. You take something familiar, make it BIG or add A LOT of it, and boom, it sounds fantastical enough, especially if you’re a medieval Indian.

And then there’s the whole issue of God being one and us being many, which means they have to shove quadrillions of devotees somewhere—but it turns out pretty... bad. Krishna, even in Vrindavan, has to be constantly multiplied, or else most of his friends would never see him. And then what’s the point of having any schedule on Vaikuntha? He should be constantly multiplied there too. But what if there’s only one room? That would look weird and disproportionate. Maybe Krishna could be made BIGGER so it would be easier to interact with him, but apparently not—he’s human-sized, at least in Vrindavan.

I mean, imagine if EVERYONE became a devotee and found out they were all manjari and cowherd boys—that’s already 8 billion people, and we haven’t even included other worlds yet.

What does Vrindavan even LOOK like then? A village? That doesn’t even sound comfortable—it sounds like living in an overcrowded Indian... oh... right. LOL, imagine you finally reach Vrindavan, but instead of playing with Krishna, you find yourself waiting in line for it, with quadrillions of people ahead of you, and Krishna just doesn’t feel like multiple himself today.

But in the Hare Krishna movement, of course, they’d just laugh at such questions—because how dare I think Krishna has, well... bad creativity, by modern standards. And overall, it’s just kind of weird.