The most ancient tales of Krishna involve his adventures with the Pandava princes whilst later, stories accumulated over the centuries which describe his eventful youth, when Krishna used his proficient weapons skills to good effect to defeat a host of fearsome enemies, demons and monsters. The worship of Krishna may have started as early as the 5th century BCE. The most widely observed festival is the Krishna Janmashtami which involves devotees fasting for 24 hours, offering milk sweets to the baby Krishna, and, at midnight, lighting wicks soaked in ghee in the ritual known as arati. The eighth day of the Bhadrapada month or Ashtami as per Hindu lunar calendar marks Janmashtami, and is celebrated on August 11 in 2020.
Krishna is a major Hindu god and considered the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. One day Vishnu, the great Hindu god pulled two hairs from his own head, one white and one black. The black hair was planted into the womb of Devaki, a princess of the city of Mathura, and so Krishna was born into the Pandava family, his earthly father being Vasudeva. Born in northern India, in approximately 3,228 BCE, Shri Krishna’s life is considered as a mark to pass the Dvapara age into the Kali Yuga, according to the Puranas.
Krishna was born in prison to devout parents – Devaki and Vasudeva. At the time of his birth, his life was in danger because the tyrant Kamsa was seeking to kill him. It had been foretold that Kamsa would be killed by Devaki’s eighth child. Since Sri Krishna was the eighth child, he was smuggled out of prison to be raised by his foster parents Nanda and Yasoda in Gokula. Vasudeva took the precaution of hiding Krishna in the remote village of Vrindavana where the boy was brought up as a simple cowherd.
There he spent an idyllic childhood and stirred the hearts of many gopis or herd-women with his dark good looks, playful charm, and mastery of music and dance. Krishna’s youthful dalliances with the gopis are interpreted as symbolic of the loving interplay between God and the human soul. In the early stage of his life, Sri Krishna is also often depicted playing the flute for his beloved gopis – female devotees. Of these Radha was the greatest devotee. Nanda lived a simple lifestyle and was a chief in the local Cow-herding community. The young Sri Krishna is often depicted in these days as being a mischievous child, who enjoyed playing pranks and having fun. Some worship Sri Krishna as the ideal child of innocence.
Krishna, in his adventurous youth, did some notable things amongst which are his various killings and thrashings of prominent enemies such as the ogress Putana, the giant bull danava, the giant snake Kaliya, and the king of the Hayas. Also swiftly dealt with was the scheming tyrant Kamsa – after whose beheading Krishna established himself as king of Mathura.
Krishna slew many demons: Muru and his 7,000 sons, Pralamba – who Krishna beat up using only his fists, Naraka – son of the Earth and who had accumulated a harem of 16,000 captured women, and the sea-demon Pancajana who looked like a conch shell and who lost his magic shell to Krishna which the hero carried thereafter and used as a trumpet. Krishna also found time to lift the mountain Govardhana to foil a terrible deluge sent by Indra, to conquer Saubha, the floating city of the daityas, got the better of the sea-god Varuna, and even managed to steal the divine discuss possessed by the fire-god Agni. Against mere mortals Krishna also wreaked havoc amongst the Gandharas, Bhojas, and Kalingas, amongst others.
Krishna’s foster parents at Vrindavana were Nanda and Yashoda, his sister is Subhadra, and his brother Balarama. Krishna’s favourite wife was Radha, with whom he had a son Pradyumna and daughter Carumati, but tradition has it that the god actually acquired 16,108 wives and fathered 180,000 sons. Queen Rukmini, an earthly form of the goddess Lakshmi, is considered Krishna’s second most favoured wife after Radha.
A REMARKABLE WARRIOR PRINCE
Krishna acted as the warrior-prince Arjuna’s charioteer in the Great War, the Battle of Kurukshetra, between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. It was on the eve of this battle that Krishna recounted the sacred song of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.
Lord Krishna highlights that the self is quite separate from the body and continues throughout time. It is in the Bhagavad Gita that Krishna also states that ‘All this universe has been created by me; all things exist in me’. Arjuna tells us that Krishna is ‘divine, prior to the gods, unborn, omnipresent’.
Lord Krishna gave several teachings to Arjuna not only during the Kurukshetra War, but also afterwards. One such teaching was mentioned in Bhagavad Gita and often referred to as nishkam karma, doing action without expecting reward: “You have control over doing your respective duty only, but no control or claim over the results. The fruits of work should not be your motive, and you should never be inactive”.This signified that when you realize that you have little control over the final outcome and when you don’t focus on the gains, your efforts will be filled with more meaning. What’s more you will also look at every gain as a bonus and appreciate the rewards more.
Some of the notable teachings are as follows which was given to Arjuna by Lord Krishna to help him understand the world.
“Arjuna, when inertia is predominant; ignorance, inactivity, carelessness, and delusion arise.” – Adding change and excitement to your activities helps give them a boost. Every once in a while, when you feel yourself slipping into lethargy or a state of inertia, stir yourself up, change direction, give yourself a new challenge.
One of the most remarkable teaching given by Lord Krishna was: “Thus, the knowledge that is more secret than the secret has been explained to you by Me. After fully reflecting on this, do as you wish.”
In other adventures Krishna built the great fortress city of Dwarka in Gujarat, known as the ‘City of Gates’. Seven days after Krishna was accidentally killed by a hunter’s arrow striking his heel, Dwarka was submerged beneath the ocean. Krishna had also stolen the sacred Parijata tree from Indra, defeating the god in the process. Krishna planted the tree at Dwarka, but upon his death it was returned to Indra.
HOW HE IS WITH US TODAY EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT WITH US?
Lord Krishna once said: ‘Never was there a time I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future, shall any of us cease to exist’.
His teachings not only inspired his devotees in past but also in the present, the people are living on the teachings and the ideals of Lord Krishna. In his 125 years of life, Sri Krishna made an indelible impression upon mankind’s collective consciousness—re-educating the world about devotion and dharma as well as the ultimate reality. His life was a model for people in days past, the modern world and surely for those in ages to come.
The philosophy of life will be the best which caters to this two-fold requirement. The Bhagavad Gita preached by Sri Krishna, it is widely accepted, impartially deals with both these aspects and presents a balanced philosophy of life. As a result, it is a scripture with universal acceptance. The two ways of life are the wheels on which human evolution moves and this is precisely the message of the Bhagavad Gita. This great teaching of Sri Krishna to combine the two paths, will make for overall human development and continued sustenance of the world order. By following the Gita, we will be inhabitants of a world of efficiency, productivity and good human relations.
In the transcendental world also Krishna reciprocates with His pure devotees just as the devotee wants Him. One devotee may want Krishna as his supreme master, another as his personal friend, another as his son and still another as his lover. Krishna responds to all the devotees equally, according to their different intensities of love for Him. In the material world also the same reciprocations of feelings are there, and they are equally exchanged by the Lord with the different types of worshipers.
This philosophy of Sri Krishna, whom Swami Vivekananda describes as ‘the sanest man ever born,’ is now rising to its feet. This idea will spearhead the religious movement of mankind in the coming centuries.
A friend, a philosopher, a guide, he is the reason of our existence and we are part of him.
