Krishna

Krishna (कृष्ण, Sanskrit for "black". Also said to mean "All Attractive"), is, according to common Hindu tradition, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. He is one of the most important of the deities of the religions that comprise Hinduism.

Major aspects of Lord Krishna

The place of Krishna in Hinduism is complex. He 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 well-known and predominant common core story that is central to most Indians' knowledge of Krishna.

According to most Hindu traditions he is one of the major incarnations of Vishnu. However in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, he is considered to be the only true God, or the source of all incarnations.

Among his important aspects in Hindu culture are:

Texts, stories, and literature

Krishna (left) with Radha
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 philosophical, religious and poetic works. These include the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Gita Govinda. In the Shrimad Bhagavata Purana there are thousands of lines that are dedicated solely to extolling His life and philosophy.

The best known, or the most important stories of Krishna, include these;

Summary of the story of Krishna

This summary is derived from the Mahabharata, and the Harivamsaparva, an addendum to it.

 

The Infant Krishna

Birth and childhood of Krishna

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 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 of Krishna

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.

Krishna the prince

Krishna as a young man returned to Mathura, overthrew his uncle Kansa, 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. But he effectively takes the Pandava side. 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.

The last days

Krishna rules the Yadavas at Dwaraka with his wife Rukmini. In the end, the Yadavas kill themselves in infighting, and Krishna is killed by accident by a hunter. His death marked the end of Dvapara yuga. One calculation puts the year of his death at 3102 BC.

The Bhakti traditions

 

 

 

 

Indian-standard silver drachm of the Greco-Bactrian king Agathocles (190-180 BCE)
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".

Earlier traditions

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. Those bhakti movements devoted to Krishna first developed in southern India in the late 1st millennium AD. Earlier works included those of the Alvar saints of the Tamil country. A major collection of their works is the Divya Prabandham.

Gita Govinda - the song of the cowherd

Certain literary works were important to later development of the bhakti traditions, including especially the Gita Govinda. This work was composed by Jayadeva Goswami in eastern India, in the 12th century AD. It elaborated part of the story of Krishna, and of one particular Gopi, called Radha who had been a minor character in the Mahabharata. According to one interpretation of this work, Radha represented humanity, and Krishna represented divinity. The desire of Radha for Krishna can be seen as allegory of the desire of humanity for union with the godhead.

Recent Krishna bhakti movements

Later derivatives of the earlier bhakti traditions include those promoted by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (16th century in Bengal). Chaitanya has sometimes himself been raised to the status of an avatar of Vishnu or of Krishna. A number of modern movements belong in this tradition, and include ISKCON, sometimes called the Hare Krishna movement. While ISKCON is specifically targeted at a western audience, related movements are also active in India today.

The name Krishna

The name and word in Devanagari is written कृष्ण (Kròsònòa in IAST transliteration.

Krishna the Dark One

Icon of Lord Krishna in Udupi.

The term Krishna in Sanskrit means "black" according to standard dictionaries. 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 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 name has also been said to mean all-attractive, though this may be from a related Sanskrit word.

According to the Vishnu sahasranama, Krishna is the 57th name of Vishnu, and also means the Existence of Knowledge and Bliss.

Other names of Krishna

He is known by numerous other names or titles. The most commonly used of these include;

Chronology

A paper presented recently at a convention in Prabhas Patan near Somnath, concludes 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.