The term ‘akhand brahma-chari’ in Sanskrit means akhand, intact and brahma-chari translates as celibate, that is, one whose vow of celibacy has remained intact. A monk of the Hindu order, especially a young one, is basically called a brahma-chari, who is supposed to remain celibate throughout his life.
Among Ram and Krishna, the two avatars of Vishnu, the latter is the most colorful. Rama, on the contrary, is the defender of the highest moral values and defender of the just order, he is also somewhat distant. Krishna, on the other hand, is the playful deity, who comes and touches people’s lives in innumerable ways. These two incarnations of Vishnu are worshiped by the majority, including the Vaishnavites themselves. Between the two, Rama had only one wife, Sita, who in turn was the incarnation of Lakshmi, Vishnu’s heavenly consort, while in Hindu scriptures, Krishna, the eighth avatar, is reported to have 16,108 wives.
Krishna, among others, was reverently worshiped by many celibate and celebrated sages of his time as their idol and ideal: the lord of all akhand brahma-charis of his time, those who had taken an unbreakable vow of celibacy. There were many who made fun of them, and rightly so; because how can a husband of 16,108 wives be a person of uninterrupted celibacy? To a man of ordinary sight this was certainly the case, but seers saw what other common mortals did not or could not see.
In the great Sanskrit epic of ancient India, Mahabharata, at the end of the Great War, fought between the armies of the Kauravas and Pandavas, Ashwathama kills Parikshit’s fetus in the womb of Uttara, using the deadliest weapon called the Brahmastra, literally it is that is, the weapon given by Brahma, the first in the holy trinity of the Hindus.
It is said that only an akhand brahma-chari could revive the fetus. As a challenge, all the sages and seers of that time were asked to touch Uttara’s womb with stalks of kusha grass (Elephant–Desmostachya bipinnata) (according to the Vishnu Purana, Kusha grass is considered Vishnu), but none of them they dared to accept the challenge.
Seeing the crucial moment pass, Lord Krishna himself picked up the kusha grass stalks and gently touched Uttara’s womb. Lo and behold, the fetus came back to life!
Krishna and akhand brahma-chari? Husband of 16108 wives! Yes, because akhand brahma-chari actually translates as: akhand (undivided), brahma (consciousness), chari (functions), that is, the one who functions in undivided consciousness, the one who has no duality.
Echoes of when Jesus said -I and my father are one (John 10:30)?
