The knight in shining armor is a staple theme in fiction. Usually appearing as the savior of a damsel in distress, the knight fights to overpower the villain and rescue the damsel. Some fiction narratives expand the theme beyond romance to protection of the world. For example, when humanity faces an imminent catastrophe, Superman saves the world and gets the girl. This theme is so universal that even feminist fiction thrives on it, merely replacing the knight with a knightess.
The enduring appeal of this theme stems from the deepest recesses of the human heart – from its longing for undying love, and from the undying soul that is the seat of this longing. As souls, we are meant to delight in spiritual love for the supreme hero Krishna. He is supremely strong, supremely intelligent and supremely loving – he is the ultimate knight in shining armor.
Gita wisdom explains that our root distress is graver than intermittent worldly misfortunes. The foundation of all our distresses is the distressful incompatibility at the heart of our present existence – we are indestructible souls trapped in destructible bodies. Irrespective of our physical gender, we are all akin to damsels in distress needing to be rescued from material existence.
The ultimate hero strives therefore not just to set things right in a place where they will inevitably go wrong again, but to set us right on the path to get out of this world. The Bhagavad-gita (04.08) delineates this purpose of the divine descent – to establish dharma by empowering the proponents of dharma and disempowering its opponents. The next verse stresses the ultimate purpose of the descent – to perform spellbinding pastimes involving stupendous feats that attract our hearts to him. Such redirection of love catapults us to an eternal ecstatic union with him in his indestructible abode.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji,
Great analogy of the knight. I was really amazed.
Please keep us inspired.
Your servant
Akshay