Krishna
- This article is about the Hindu deity. For other meanings, see Krishna (disambiguation).
Krishna (IAST kṛṣṇa, the Sanskrit for "dark" or "black") (see below), is according to common Hindu tradition the eighth avatar of Vishnu. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism he is seen as the Supreme God.
Major aspects
Krishna appears under many names, in a multiplicity of stories, among different cultures, and in different traditions. Sometimes these contradict each other, though there is a common core story that is central to most people's knowledge of Krishna.
Among his important or celebrated aspects are:
- Govinda Krishna, the lord of the cow-herders. He is contrasted in this to his brother Balarama representing the cultivators, who is sometimes called Halayudha - 'armed with a plough'.
- Krishna the focus of devotion (the lover, the attractive one, the flute player). He is frequently shown playing the flute, attracting and bewildering the gopis of Vrindavana.
- Krishna the child (Bala Krishna). Stories of his upbringing in Gokula and Vrindavan are a staple of children's tales in India.
- The incarnation of the Supreme Being, and the divine Guru, who teaches Arjuna how to take the right action in the Bhagavad Gita.
Texts, stories, and literature
Bhaktivedanta Manor, Watford, England
A number of local traditions and regional deities may have been subsumed into the stories and person of Krishna. Accounts of or ballads about Krishna occur in a large number of works. These include the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Gita Govinda. Roughly one quarter of the Bhagavata Purana (mostly in the tenth book) is spent extolling his life and philosophy.
The best known, or the most important stories of Krishna, include these:
- Krishna the butter-thief (Maakhanchor). One of the most popular children's stories is that of the butter-thief, the child stealing freshly made butter from his mother.
- The killer of Putana. She was a demoness who was sent to kill him by getting him to suckle her poisoned breasts.
- Krishna Giridhari. As a boy, he raised Govardhana hill to protect villagers from rain and flood sent by Indra.
- Govinda Krishna, the beloved of the gopis. The original stories of Krishna as a boy included his adolescent play with the Gopis or cowgirls of the village of Vrindavana. These were developed to form the basis of the Gita Govinda, and numerous other later works.
- Krishna Vaasudeva the prince, of the Yadavas at Mathura and later at Dwaraka. As a prince he was also the husband of Rukmini.
- Krishna, together with Arjuna, was responsible for the burning of the Khandava forest.
- He plays a major role in the events leading up to the Kurukshetra war in the Mahabharata, helping the Pandavas who accept him as their counsel and guide. He protects the dignity of Draupadi when Dushasana tries to strip her in the court.
- Paartha-sarathi – the charioteer of Arjuna (Paartha) during the great battle where, he instructs Arjuna in dharma and yoga in the Bhagavad Gita.
Summary of the story of Krishna
This summary is derived from the Mahabharata, and the Harivamsaparva, an addendum to it.
Birth and childhood
Krishna was of the royal family of Mathura, and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva, a noble of the court. He was born in a prison cell in Mathura, and the place of his birth is now known as Krishnajanmabhoomi, where a temple is raised in his memory. As his life was in danger from his uncle Kamsa the king, he was smuggled out to be raised by his foster parents Yashoda and Nanda in the forest at Vrindavana. Two of his siblings also survived, Balarama and Subhadra.
Boyhood and youth
He reached adulthood at Vrindavana. The original corpus of stories of his youth here include that of his life with, and his protection of, the local people. They included those of his play with the gopis of the village, including Radha, which later became known as the rasa lila.
Krishna the prince
Krishna as a young man returned to Mathura, overthrew his uncle Kamsa, and became ruler of the Yadavas at Mathura. In this period he became a friend of Arjuna and the other Pandava princes of the Kuru kingdom on the other side of the Yamuna. Later, he takes his Yadava subjects to Dwaraka (in modern Gujarat). He married Rukmini, daughter of King Bhishmaka of Vidarbha.
The Kurukshetra War
In the Mahabharata, Krishna is cousin to both sides in the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas. He asks the sides to choose between his army and himself. The Kauravas pick his army and he sides with the Pandavas. He agrees to be the chariot driver for Arjuna in the great battle. The Bhagavad Gita is the advice given to Arjuna by Krishna before the start of the battle.
Dwarka Lila
Krishna rules the Yadavas at Dwaraka with his wife Rukmini. Later, the Yadavas kill themselves in infighting. Krishna dwells for a time in the forest, is shot in the foot when asleep by a hunter, and dies there.
The Bhakti traditions
Obv: Indian god Balarama-Samkarshana, wearing an ornate headress, earrings, sword in sheath, holding a mace in his right hand and a plow-symbol in the left. Greek legend: BASILEOS AGATOKLEOUS "King Agathocles".
Rev: Indian god Vasudeva-Krishna, with ornate headdress, earrings, sword in sheath, holding sankha (pear-shaped vase) and chakra (wheel). Brahmi legend: RAJANE AGATHUKLAYASA "King Agathocles".
Bhakti, meaning devotion, is not confined to any one deity of Hinduism. However Krishna has become the most important and popular focus of the devotional and ecstatic aspects of Hindu religion.
Devotees of Krishna subscribe to the concept of lila, or divine play as the central principle of the universe. This is counterpoint to another avatar of Vishnu: Rama, "He of the straight and narrow path of maryada, or rules and regulations."
Earlier traditions
Those bhakti movements devoted to Krishna first became prominent in southern India in the late 1st millennium. Earlier works included those of the Alvar saints of the Tamil country. A major collection of their works is the Divya Prabandham.
Recent Krishna bhakti movements
Certain literary works were important to later development of the bhakti traditions, including especially the Gita Govinda. This work was composed by Jayadeva in the 12th century.
Later bhakti traditions include those promoted by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sripada Visnuswami, Sripada Madhvacharya, Sripada Ramanujacharya and Sripada Nimbarkacharya.
The name
The Sanskrit name and word is written kṛṣṇa in IAST transliteration (the equivalent of Devanagari कृष्ण; see Sanskrit for pronunciation.)
Lord Sri Krishna
The term Krishna in Sanskrit means "black" or "dark". It is related to similar words in other Indo-European languages meaning black. The name is often translated as 'the dark one' or as 'the black one'.
In depictions, Krishna often appears as a black or dark-skinned figure, for instance in the modern murtis (statues) and pictorial representations of Lord Jaganatha at Puri (Krishna as Lord of the World). In the same representations, his brother and sister are shown with a distinctly lighter complexion. Early pictorial representations also generally show him as dark or black-skinned. Rajasthani miniature paintings of the 16th century are often of a brown or black-skinned figure. However, by the 19th century, he is almost always shown as blue skinned.
Other meanings of the name
The name is sometimes said to mean dark blue, rather than black. This may be connected to the common modern practice of representing many Hindu deities with blue skin. The blue is meant to represent the deities' holy aura.
- Mahabharata, Udyogaparva 71.4, gives this analysis of the word 'Krishna':
- krishir bhu-vacakah sabdo nas ca nirvriti-vacakah
- tayor aikyam param brahma krishna ity abhidhiyate
- "The word 'krish' is the attractive feature of the Lord's existence, and 'na' means 'spiritual pleasure.' When the verb krish is added to na, it becomes krishna, which indicates the Absolute Truth."
- According to the Vishnu sahasranama, Krishna is the 57th name of Vishnu, and also means the "Existence of Knowledge and Bliss".
- There are 108 Names of Krishna
Other names of Krishna
He is known by numerous other names or titles. The most commonly used of these include:
- Acyutah
- Gopala - cowherd; protector of cows
- Govinda - protector of cows
- Hari - the fawn (or yellow or gold) coloured one
- Hrshikesha - master of the senses
- Jaganatha - lord of the universe (see also Juggernaut).
- Keshava – long haired; in some accounts, the killer of Kesi
- Madhava - bringer of springtime
- Panduranga
- Vaasudeva, Krishna Vaasudeva - son of Vasudeva
Chronology
A paper presented recently[citation needed] at a convention in Prabhas Patan near Somnath, speculates that Krishna "died" at the age of 125 on February 18, 3102 BC at 14:27:30 hours on the banks of river Hiran in Prabhas Patan. As the report goes, he was 125 years, 7 months and 6 days old when he left the earth for his divine abode Goloka.
The finding was based on clues in the Vedic literatures. Certain dates were fed into special software which was used to prepare a kundli (astrological horoscope charts). The Bhagavata Purana and Bhagavad Gita say that Krishna "left" Dwarka 36 years after the Battle of the Mahabharata. The Matsya Purana says that Krishna was 89 years old when the battle was fought. There after Pandavas ruled for a period of 36 years, their rule was in the beginning of Kali yuga. It further says that the Kali Yuga began on the day Duryodhana was felled to ground by Bhima. Some Hindus believe that the year 2005 is the year 5106 of the Kali Yuga (which began with a year 0).
See also
- Balarama
- Bhagavad Gita
- Vishnu
- Hindu deities
- List of Hindu deities
- International Society for Krishna Consciousness
External links
- Lord Krishna and His Teachings, by Swami Sivananda
- Gita and strong monotheism.
- Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat The homepage of the Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, which propagates Raganuga Bhakti
- Stephen Knapp's site about Krishna.
- Iconographic Perception of Krishna's Image, by Dr. P. C. Jain.
- Search for the Historical Krishna, by Prof. N.S. Rajaram
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