Krishna is the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. He is the son of Vasudeva and Devaki.
His complexion is blackish, the colour of a new rain cloud. He stands in a
threefold bending form, and plays on a flute. When worshiped in a temple,
he will often be seen with his consort, Radha. In paintings, he may be
seen dancing with the cowherd girls (gopis), playing with the cowherd
boys, or as the chariot driver of Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
He is also seen with cows because he was born as a cowherd boy. He is
often seen in Deity form as a small baby crawling, with a sweet in one
hand. He appeared in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh about 5,000 years ago. He
performed many of his pastimes in Vrindavan. Both of these places still
exist and are located about 150km from Delhi, between Agra and Delhi. In
order to protect his devotees he killed the evil king Kamsa and many other
demons. He is the speaker of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna was married to 16,108 wives in Dwarka. His
main consort in Dwarka is Rukmini, an incarnation of Lakshmi, the goddess
of fortune.
Krishna was born of Devaki, the wife of Vasudeva,
while they were imprisoned in Mathura. They were imprisoned because their
eighth son, Krishna, was destined to kill the evil King Kamsa. When
Krishna was born, the doors of the prison mystically opened and the guards
fell asleep. Vasudeva walked out of the prison and took Krishna across the
Yamuna River to Gokula to be cared for by his foster parents, Nanda and
Yasoda. When Vasudeva arrived in Gokula, he found Yasoda asleep after
having just delivered a baby girl. He exchanged babies and returned to the
prison. When Kamsa found out that Devaki’s eighth child had been born, he
rushed to the prison. He seized the baby, but the baby slipped from his
hands and flew into the air, as a goddess. She said, “Fool, you cannot
kill me. The baby that is destined to kill you has already been born
elsewhere.”
Krishna spent his childhood with Nanda and
Yasoda in Vrindavan. Kamsa sent many demon followers to Vrindavan to kill
him. First he sent Putana, a child-killing witch, who assumed the form of
a beautiful woman. She offered to nurse baby Krishna after covering her
breast with poison, but Krishna sucked both her breast and her life-airs,
killing her. He then killed Trinavarta, the wind demon, who grabbed
Krishna and flew away with him. Krishna made himself so heavy that the
demon fell to the ground and died. The Aghasura demon, in the form of a
gigantic snake, swallowed Krishna and his cowherd boy friends. Krishna
then expanded himself and killed Aghasura. Aristasura, the bull demon and
Keshi, the horse demon, both fought with Krishna and were killed. He also
punished Kaliya, a many-hooded serpent. This snake had poisoned the Yamuna
River. Krishna danced on his head and eventually the Kaliya snake
surrendered to him, realizing that he was the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.
Krishna also carried out many pastimes with the
cowherd boys, cows, and gopis (cowherd girls). There are many paintings of
Krishna dancing with the cowherd girls. This dance is called the Rasa
dance. Krishna expanded himself into many forms and it appeared to each
girl that he was dancing only with her. One day Krishna told his father, Nanda Maharaja, to stop worshiping Indra, the god of rain, and instead to
worship Govardhan Hill, a sacred hill in Vrindavan. Nanda Maharaja did
this and Indra became so angry that he sent torrential rains. Krishna
lifted Govardhan Hill and held it over the residents of Vrindavan like an
umbrella, thus protecting them. This pastime has been depicted in many
paintings and sculptures. Krishna then went to Mathura to kill Kamsa. He
stayed in Mathura until he was 28. At the age of 28 he moved to Dwarka. In
Dwarka he married 16,108 wives. His chief wife was Rukmini. He became
Arjuna’s charioteer during the battle of Kurukshetra, and this is when he
spoke the famous Bhagavad Gita.
DEITIES
Krishna
