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This is perhaps the most loved Gods of Hinduism. Lord
Krishna is not just looked upon as a protector, he is a savior, friend,
philosopher, fighter, romantic and everything you want from the One and lot
more than you can ever dream of. Few of the Life facts of Lord Krishna are
listed as follows.:-
Death
After the great war, Gandhari anathematized Lord Krishna
that his kingdom will perish by flood with his people killing them. Gandhari
was ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu ( and Krishna as he is an Avatar of Lord
Vishnu ) and hence the curse was pre-destined, part of bigger picture. After 36
years of war, the wheels of time turned and true to the curse chain of events
led to Yadavs killing themselves. This was again put into place by lord
himself, for he prayed for a son like Lord Shiva, God of destruction. His son
started the chain of events which eventually destroyed Dwarka. Seeing the
destruction Lord Krishna went away with his brother and the river consumed
Dwarka, as per the curse. Balaram vexed from the disaster sat in mediation and
was taken away by Adisesha( Balaram was incarnation of Adisesha )
This lead Lord Krishna to move towards his end as human form. Krishna was
killed by a simple hunter’s arrow. This arrow was part of the mysticism which
destroyed Dwarka. The hunter was destined to be the one who ends Krishna’s
human form. It was Lord Vishnu himself in his earlier incarnation, Lord Rama,
had granted Angada the boon to kill his father’s killer which happened to be
Lord Vishnu himself. The Equality in life and death is mesmerizing for the law
is followed to the dot in multiple aspects, the more you think the more sense
it makes.
Mahabharata
The King of Dwarka was a deadly and powerful ruler whom one
would not want as a war opponent. In battle of Kurukshetra both kauravas and
pandavas came to seek his help in war. Arjuna sat at lord Krishna s feet while
He was asleep, Duryodhana sat beside him. When Lord woke up, he noticed Arjuna
first and as Arjuna was younger Krishna gave him the option to choose first,
either Narayan himself sans any weapons and vow to not fight or the narayani
Army of over 10 Lakh Soldiers who could rival Krishna himself, with all their
weapons. Arjuna chooses his friend philosopher and guide over the army. Krishna
later became charioteer for Arjuna. Krishna guided Arjuna through his painful
dilemma of fighting his teacher, Bhishma Pitamah, Uncles and cousins cousins.
The Bhagavad Gita was this guidance and has been a powerful and all consuming
answer for any question anyone may come across. Krishna helped Arjuna keep his
vow of killing the killer of his son Abhimanyu, Jayadratha. Arjuna vowed to
kill Jayadratha within one day of Jayadratha killing Abhimanyu and in case he
failed Arjuna promised to kill himself. As the protective layers around
Jayadratha were multiplied, Arjuna couldn’t reach him. Seeing this Lord Krishna
used Sudarshana Chakra to create solar eclipse and assuming it to be after
sunset Jayadratha came out and taunted Arjuna at this defeat. Krishna then
cleared the sky and in presence of sun Arjuna came true on his words. The
warrior Karna could rival Arjuna on field and Krishna, with help of Indra had
Karna handover his amour. As Arjuna s charioteer he sunk the chariot down so that
Karna s bharamastra could not reach its aim, i.e. Arjuna’s neck. The
Mahabharata would have been different without Krishna is an understatement .
The King of Dwarka was a deadly and powerful ruler whom one
would not want as a war opponent. In battle of Kurukshetra both kauravas and
pandavas came to seek his help in war. Arjuna sat at lord Krishna s feet while
He was asleep, Duryodhana sat beside him. When Lord woke up, he noticed Arjuna
first and as Arjuna was younger Krishna gave him the option to choose first,
either Narayan himself sans any weapons and vow to not fight or the narayani
Army of over 10 Lakh Soldiers who could rival Krishna himself, with all their
weapons. Arjuna chooses his friend philosopher and guide over the army. Krishna
later became charioteer for Arjuna. Krishna guided Arjuna through his painful
dilemma of fighting his teacher, Bhishma Pitamah, Uncles and cousins cousins.
The Bhagavad Gita was this guidance and has been a powerful and all consuming
answer for any question anyone may come across. Krishna helped Arjuna keep his
vow of killing the killer of his son Abhimanyu, Jayadratha. Arjuna vowed to
kill Jayadratha within one day of Jayadratha killing Abhimanyu and in case he
failed Arjuna promised to kill himself. As the protective layers around
Jayadratha were multiplied, Arjuna couldn’t reach him. Seeing this Lord Krishna
used Sudarshana Chakra to create solar eclipse and assuming it to be after
sunset Jayadratha came out and taunted Arjuna at this defeat. Krishna then
cleared the sky and in presence of sun Arjuna came true on his words. The
warrior Karna could rival Arjuna on field and Krishna, with help of Indra had
Karna handover his amour. As Arjuna s charioteer he sunk the chariot down so that
Karna s bharamastra could not reach its aim, i.e. Arjuna’s neck. The
Mahabharata would have been different without Krishna is an understatement .
Wives and Gopikas
With 8 queens, Ashta-Bharyas or Patt-Rani, and over 16100
Gopikas, Lord Krishna has over 16108 wives in all. We have many different
branches of thought here. The base remains that the 16100 were in fact
prisoners of Narakasura. When Krishna defeated Narakasura the princesses were
free. Having been ostracized from society the free prisoners sought Krishna’s
help and He being the generous and righteous King gave them the title of his
Queen. The branches are as follows, some people believe that Krishna never
married the 16000 princes, they were his Gopikas. As nuns wear the ring as
symbol of their commitment to their Lord, they marry the lord in a sense. The
people of this thought believe that the 16000 brides are similar to the above
ideology. Another set believes that as Vishnu-ji in His previous birth as Lord
Rama were believer and practitioner of monogamy, Lord Vishnu blessed the women
wishing to be Rama s wife with a boon that the wish would be fulfilled in their
later birth with Lord Vishnu next avatar. Many sages thus prayed to be Lords
companion and hence Lord Krishna had 16000 wives. The Belief in every thought
is the same, it is that Lord Krishna is ideal example of giving women a stand
in the society, as the evil they face are not their fault and doesn’t licence
the social ban.
Kans Mama
Perhaps the most known and celebrated act of Lord Krishna
was Battle with his maternal uncle. Kansa was Prince of Mathura and
brother of Krishna’s birth Mother Devaki. Kansa overthrew his father’s reign
and settled on the throne of Mathura, arranged his own coronation and thus
became the King. The father Ugrasena was thrown in prison. The Divine prophecy
said that Kans would meet his end at the hands of his sisters eight child.
Fearing the worst, Kansa imprisoned his sister and killed all her six children
as soon as they were born. The seventh was Balaram and was shifted to Rohini’s
womb. The eight child was Krishna and was saved and shipped off to Gokul to be
raised by Nanda and Yashodha. As predicted, Krishna returned to Mathura,
defeated the Kansa and reinstated King Ugrasena. Thus the kingdom of Mathura
was safeguarded and destiny fulfilled.
Childhood victories
The fight with Kansa was ante-ceded by many other fights
which are fondly looked upon as the Lords greatness. Few well known are as
follows. The demon Putna was sent to kill Krishna as a baby. Dressed as a
wet-nurse she approached Yashodha and asked permission to feed infant Krishna.
The little boy then sucked the life out of her and hence Putna meet her end.
The maternal act of feeding by Putna was rewarded by Lord Krishna and hence
Putna achieved salvation. Snake Demon Aghasura was Putna’s brother . To avenge
the death of Putna, Aghasura opened his mouth wide as cave mouth and lured the
kids inside him. When Krishna came to know about this, he liberated both the
kids and the serpent. Another victory was with multi-headed serpent Kaliya.
Kaliya poisoned waters of Yamuna and when Krishna decided to end the terror the
inhabitants of Vrindaban were apprehensive about losing the beloved Child.
However Krishna being himself, tamed the serpent and rid the river of its
poison. This is among few of the childhood victories of Lord Krishna.
Spells of Innocence and Mysticism
Lord Krishna was a mischievous child to say the least!
Makhan-chor, as we fondly call him, the churned butter was tied high up to save
it from the little tyke, nonetheless Krishna found a way around with
sling-shots and continued antics to rile-up gopis. To save the village from the
havoc that rain caused, courtesy of Lord Indra, Krishna picked up the mighty
Goverdhan mountain on his pinkie finger. As a kid once Yashodha-maiya tried to
tie him with a piece of rope to keep him from running away and getting into
troubles. The rope wouldn’t fit him and fell short. This kept happening with
every size of rope. Mesmerized Yashodha-maiya saw into Krishna’s open mouth to
see the whole universe in baby Krishna’s mouth . No one escaped the innocent
smile, disarming charm and beauty of the dusky child. Songs are written
today to celebrate the playfulness with the gopis, love with Radha and maternal
bliss of Yashodha and Devki. Everyone smiles at the thought of Lord Krishna and
that says everything about the lovable Lord.
Love struck Ladies.
Radha is well known to be the childhood love of Krishna.
Every romantic artist worth his dime creates a testimony to Krishna with
Radha. However they were never married. Krishna left Vrindaban for his
education and destiny and Radhe-Krishna became the backdrop of literature. Many
women were infatuated with Krishna and fell in love with Him. History remembers
Radha and later Meera. Meerabai was a princess of Rajasthan who became so
en-captured by the statue that she never let it away from her sight till her
last breath. Devotional songs and movies have portrayed these stories since
then and till date.
The way we see Krishna
Picture Lord Krishna. Handsome posture, blue skinned,
peacock feather on head, yellow dhoti, one feet firmly on ground and other
slightly pointed towards the sky and of course the flute. Now let’s break it
all down. Blue color symbolizes the endless and infinite sky. Our Lord is
powerful beyond our comprehension in every aspect be it love or strength or
compassion. The King has crowns decorated by jewels, the crown is
responsibility and in itself is work of art and heavy because of the precious stones.
Lord Krishna shoulders the responsibility of universe and the peacock feather
represents the point of view of Krishna towards this responsibilities, feather
light! The Flute is epitome of melody and calmness which is again seen by the
tiny smile on the face. The posture is symbolic of being grounded and high
flying at the same time. Its balance between dream and reality, the way of life
taught by the Krishna.
Friendship
Famous tale of Sudama and boiled rice. In the learning phase
Krishna and Sudama were fast friends. Once when they were in the forest
together, having spent the whole day there, both children were hungry. Sudama
however requested to finish off Krishna’s food as well. For his friend Krishna
gave it up. In later phase of life when Sudama was ridden with poverty he
approached his childhood friend on insistence of his family. Sudama took boiled
rice for the King of Dwarka and as Krishna ate individual grains of rice,
Sudama’s house is said to transform and fill with wealth. However Sudama felt
guilty of approaching Krishna for monetary reasons and hence he spent his life
outside the mansion, away from the wealth and sticking to the olden way of
life.
Companion
The flute is always there when we picture Krishna. The flute
is said to awaken the birds a melody so surreal that people stopped mid-way to
just listen to the music. It is said that Radha herself didn’t like Krishna’s
love for flute. The jealousy was well known and chuckled at. The different view
of flute is that it always has seven holes. Krishna flows through the flute and
they are an entity in them-self. Human is laced with seven deadly sins and when
we fight the seven sins, Krishna flows through us and we get the sweet release
after death. The flute is more than forest reed, it’s our way to ‘moksha’
