Why is Krishna blue?

From Panca pandava Prabhu:

Why god is blue, as there is many colors if we see, we are generally attract to like humans white body or black beauty?

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Transcription (edited) by- Keshavgopal Das

Question- Why is God blue in color? There are so many colors that we see and we are generally attracted to a human body that is either white or black in color. Why God chose blue color for Himself?

Answer (short)-

• Krishna’s blue color is a matter of His personal choice and we cannot explain it logically.
• For understanding such issues we should depend on revelation (scriptures) and not logic.
• Even in this material world, we are not able to explain logically why a particular person has a strange hobby, why a young boy loves a particular girl etc.

Answer (long)-  Krishna is blue because He wants to be blue. That is His personal choice.

Individuality and personality is beyond the realm of logic. Even in this world everything cannot be explained logically. For example, if a boy falls in love with a girl, can he give a logical reason for loving her? Others probably can give logical reasons why he should not love her. The boy cannot defend her loving of the girl logically because it involves feelings. Of course these feelings are material and they often degrade us, but with respect to Krishna it is spiritual.

Often what is not logical in this world is below the level of logic, whereas in spiritual world, which is not logical is above the level of logic.

Even in this world we have experience of things which are beyond the realm of logic. There are people who have strange hobbies. For example, one person has a hobby of collecting beetles. Now we may wonder what is attractive about beetles. However for that person he may spend a lifetime’s fortune just for collecting beetles! He may try to give some explanation about why he has such a hobby, but the explanation of the heart cannot be given in terms of logic.

Similarly, for Krishna, in the spiritual world, everything is about reciprocating with His devotees. He manifests those forms, personality, qualities, attributes, etc. that will attract His devotees to Him and consequently have wonderful reciprocation of love. Krishna is known as Gopal, since he loves cow. Now someone may ask, why is Krishna not called bhainspal (‘bhains’ is Hindi for buffalo)?  Why does He not like buffalos? Buffalos give more milk than cows and since Krishna likes milk, He should love buffalos more than cows. Actually Krishna loves buffalos also since He loves all living beings, but His special love is for cows.

The Vedanta-sutra in its third aphorism mentions – Sastrayonitvat (शास्त्रयोनित्वात्)– (Vednata-sutra – 1.1.3). This means that absolute truth, brahman or God, can be known only through scripture not through perfection or inference. Of course by observing the design in the world and inferring that a design requires a designer, we can to some extent come to a logical conclusion about existence of God, but logic cannot take us beyond existence of God to the personality of God. For that we depend on revelation. This is not a call for blind faith, but a call for intelligent understanding. What is beyond the realm of logic cannot be brought into the realm of logic just because we like logic. We should not reduce reality to fit into our understanding, rather we should expand our understanding so that we can grasp the reality.

Logic is basically like a tool having a utility. But it also has limitations like for any tool. When we come to issues like God’s personality, personal features, personal attributes, etc. then rational theology is not much helpful. For that we need revelation theology, which means that we need to learn from scripture and grow thereby.

We do see people who are fair and dark complexioned in this world, but Krishna is not a form of this world. That is why statements in Abrahamic scriptures – that one should not worship anything which resembles to what you see on land, air, or water – are taken by followers of Abrahamic tradition that one should not worship any form. But factually what it indicates is that we should not worship any form that we see in the material world. Krishna’s form is not like anything we see in this material world. That is also indicated by the prohibition in Abrahamic traditions. The extraordinary bluish-black color of Krishna is not in our normal experience. This also indicates Krishna’s uniqueness and distinctiveness. But such distinctiveness does not have any logical reason. It is actually result of Krishna’s own individual choice.

To summarize- personality, individuality, and the choices that result from that are beyond the realm of logic. When we are motivated by short-sighted material desires, then they are below the realm of logic. But in case of God and His personal attributes, they are not only beyond the realm of logic but also above the realm of logic. What can help us understand such issues is not logic but revelation. From scripture we understand that whatever Krishna feels best needed for reciprocating with His devotees, He has used those attributes, which are eternal. Krishna’s personal complexion is one feature of His personality that enables such reciprocation.