This summary is based on details from the Mahābhārata, the Harivamsa, the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana. The scenes from the narrative are set in north India, mostly in the present states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat.
Birth
According to Bhagavata Purana,
Krishna was born without a sexual union, but by divine "mental
transmission" from the mind of Vasudeva into the womb of Devaki. Based
on scriptural details and astrological calculations the date of Krishna's birth, known as Janmashtami,[59] is 18 July 3228 BCE and departed on 3102 BCE. Krishna belonged to the Vrishni clan of Yadavas from Mathura,[60] and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva.
Mathura (in present day Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh) was the capital of the Yadavas, to which Krishna's parents Vasudeva and Devaki belonged. King Kansa, Devaki's brother,[61] had ascended the throne by imprisoning his father, King Ugrasena. Afraid of a prophecy from a divine voice from the heavens that predicted his death at the hands of Devaki's
eighth "garbha", Kansa had the couple locked into a prison cell. After
Kansa killed the first six children, Devaki apparently had a miscarriage
of the seventh. However in reality, the womb was actually transferred
to Rohini secretly. This was how Balarama,
Krishna's elder brother was born. Once again Devaki became pregnant.
Now due to the miscarriage, Kansa was in a puzzle regarding 'The Eighth
One' but his ministers advised that the divine voice from the heavens
emphasised "the eight garbha" and so this is the one. That night Krishna
was born in the Rohini nakshatra and simultaneously Goddess Durga was born as Yogamaya in Gokulam to Nanda and Yashoda.
Since Vasudeva knew Krishna's life was in danger, Krishna was
secretly taken out of the prison cell to be raised by his foster
parents, Yasoda [62] and Nanda, in Gokula (in present day Mathura district). Two of his other siblings also survived, Balarama (Devaki's seventh child, transferred to the womb of Rohini, Vasudeva's first wife) and Subhadra (daughter of Vasudeva and Rohini, born much later than Balarama and Krishna).[63]
Childhood and youth
Nanda was the head of a community of cow-herders, and he settled in Vrindavana. The stories of Krishna's childhood and youth tell how he became a cow herder,[64] his mischievous pranks as Makhan Chor (butter thief), his foiling of attempts to take his life, and his role as a protector of the people of Brindavana.
Krishna killed the demoness like Putana, disguised as a wet nurse, sent by Kansa for Krishna's life. He tamed the serpent Kāliyā, who previously poisoned the waters of Yamuna river, thus leading to the death of the cowherds. In Hindu art, Krishna is often depicted dancing on the multi-hooded Kāliyā.
Krishna lifted the Govardhana hill and taught Indra, the king of the devas
and rain, a lesson to protect native people of Brindavana from
persecution by Indra and prevent the devastation of the pasture land of
Govardhan. Indra had too much pride and was angry when Krishna advised
the people of Brindavana to take care of their animals and their
environment that provide them with all their necessities, instead of
worshipping Indra annually by spending their resources.[65][66]
In the view of some, the spiritual movement started by Krishna had
something in it which went against the orthodox forms of worship of the Vedic gods such as Indra.[67]
In Bhagavat Purana, Krishna says that the rain came from the nearby
hill Govardhana, and advised that the people worshiped the hill instead
of Indra. This made Indra furious, so he punished them by sending out a
great storm. Krishna then lifted Govardhan and held it over the people
like an umbrella.
The stories of his play with the gopis
(milkmaids) of Brindavana, especially Radha (daughter of Vrishbhanu,
one of the original residents of Brindavan) became known as the Rasa lila and were romanticised in the poetry of Jayadeva, author of the Gita Govinda. These became important as part of the development of the Krishna bhakti traditions worshiping Radha Krishna.[68]
The prince
On his return to Mathura as a young man, Krishna overthrew and killed
his maternal uncle, Kansa, after avoiding several assassination
attempts from Kansa's followers. He reinstated Kansa's father, Ugrasena, as the king of the Yadavas and became a leading prince at the court.[69] During this period, he became a friend of Arjuna and the other Pandava princes of the Kuru kingdom, who were his cousins. Later, he took his Yadava subjects to the city of Dwaraka (in modern Gujarat) and established his own kingdom there.[70]
Krishna married Rukmini, the Vidarbha princess, by abducting her, at her request, from her proposed wedding with Shishupala. Krishna subsequently married 16,100 maidens who were held captive by demon Narakasura, to save their honour.[71][72] of which eight were chief—collectively called the Ashta Bharya—including Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Kalindi, Mitravrinda, Nagnajiti, Bhadra and Lakshana.[73][74]
Krishna killed the demon and released them all. According to social
custom of the time, all of the captive women were degraded, and would be
unable to marry, as they had been under the Narakasura's control.
However Krishna married them to reinstate their status in the society.
This symbolic wedding with 16,100 abandoned daughters was more of a mass
women rehabilitation.[75] In Vaishnava traditions, Krishna's wives are forms of the goddess Lakshmi— consort of Vishnu, or special souls who attained this qualification after many lifetimes of austerity, while his queen Satyabhama, is an expansion of Lakshmi.[76]
When Yudhisthira was assuming the title of emperor, he had invited
all the great kings to the ceremony and while paying his respects to
them, he started with Krishna because he considered Krishna to be the
greatest of them all. While it was a unanimous feeling amongst most
present at the ceremony that Krishna should get the first honours, his
cousin Shishupala
felt otherwise and started berating Krishna. Due to a vow given to
Shishupal's mother, Krishna forgave a hundred verbal abuses by
Shishupal, and upon the one hundred and first, he assumed his Virat
(universal) form and killed Shishupal with his Chakra. The blind king Dhritarashtra also obtained divine vision during this time to be able to see this form of Krishna. Essentially, Shishupal and Dantavakra were both re-incarnations of Vishnu's gate-keepers Jaya and Vijaya, who were cursed to be born on Earth, to be delivered by the Vishnu back to Heaven.[77]
Kurukshetra War and Bhagavad Gita
Main articles: Kurukshetra War and Bhagavad Gita
Once battle seemed inevitable, Krishna offered both sides the opportunity to choose between having either his army called narayani sena
or himself alone, but on the condition that he personally would not
raise any weapon. Arjuna, on behalf of the Pandavas, chose to have
Krishna on their side, and Duryodhana,
Kaurava prince, chose Krishna's army. At the time of the great battle,
Krishna acted as Arjuna's charioteer, since this position did not
require the wielding of weapons.
Upon arrival at the battlefield, and seeing that the enemies are his
family, his grandfather, his cousins and loved ones, Arjuna is moved and
says his heart does not allow him to fight and he would rather prefer
to renounce the kingdom. and put down his Gandiv
(Arjuna's bow). Krishna then advises him about the battle, with the
conversation soon extending into a discourse which was later compiled as
the Bhagavad Gita.[78]
Krishna asked Arjuna, "Have you within no time, forgotten the
Kauravas' evil deeds such as not accepting the eldest brother
Yudhishtira as King, usurping the entire Kingdom without yielding any
portion to the Pandavas, meting out insults and difficulties to
Pandavas, attempt to murder the Pandavas in the Barnava
lac guest house, publicly disrobing and disgracing Draupadi. Krishna
further exhorted in his famous Bhagavad Gita, "Arjuna, do not engage in
philosophical analyses at this point of time like a Pundit. You are
aware that Duryodhana and Karna particularly have long harboured
jealousy and hatred for you Pandavas and badly want to prove their
hegemony. You are aware that Bhishmacharya and your Teachers are tied
down to their dharma of protecting the unitarian power of the Kuru
throne. Moreover, you Arjuna, are only a mortal appointee to carry out
my divine will, since the Kauravas are destined to die either way, due
to their heap of sins. Open your eyes O Bhaarata and know that I
encompass the Karta, Karma and Kriya, all in myself. There is no scope
for contemplation now or remorse later, it is indeed time for war and
the world will remember your might and immense powers for time to come.
So rise O Arjuna!, tighten up your Gandiva and let all directions shiver
till their farthest horizons, by the reverbration of its string.
Krishna had a profound effect on the Mahabharata war and its
consequences. He considered the Kurukshetra war as a last resort by
voluntarily making himself as a messenger in order to establish peace
between the Pandavas and Kauravas. But, once these peace negotiations
failed and was embarked into the war, then he became a clever
strategist. During the war, upon becoming angry with Arjun for not
fighting in true spirit against his ancestors, Krishna once picked up a
carriage wheel and converted it to a Chakra (discus) to challenge Bhishma
when the latter injured him. Upon seeing this, Bhishma dropped his
weapons and asked Krishna to kill him. However, Arjuna apologized to
Krishna, promising that he would fight with full dedication here/after,
and the battle continued. Krishna had directed Yudhisthira
and Arjuna to return to Bhishma the boon of "victory" which he had
given to Yudhisthira before the war commenced, since he himself was
standing in their way to victory. Bhishma understood the message and
told them the means through which he would drop his weapons—which was if
a woman entered the battlefield. Next day, upon Krishna's directions, Shikhandi (Amba
reborn) accompanied Arjuna to the battlefield and thus, Bhishma laid
down his arms. This was a decisive moment in the war because Bhishma was
the chief commander of the Kaurava army and the most formidable warrior
on the battlefield. Krishna aided Arjuna in killing Jayadratha, who had held the other four Pandava brothers at bay while Arjuna's son Abhimanyu entered Drona's Chakravyuha
formation—an effort in which he got killed by the simultaneous attack
of eight Kaurava warriors. Krishna also caused the downfall of Drona,
when he signalled Bhima to kill an elephant called Ashwatthama,
the namesake of Drona's son. Pandavas started shouting that Ashwatthama
was dead but Drona refused to believe them saying he would believe it
only if he heard it from Yudhisthira. Krishna knew that Yudhisthira
would never tell a lie, so he devised a clever ploy so that Yudhisthira
wouldn't lie and at the same time Drona would be convinced of his son's
death. On asked by Drona, Yudhisthira proclaimed
Ashwathama Hatahath, naro va Kunjaro va
i.e. Ashwathama had died but he was nor sure whether it was a Drona's
son or an elephant. But as soon as Yudhisthira had uttered the first
line, Pandava army on Krishna's direction broke into celebration with
drums and conchs, in the din of which Drona could not hear the second
part of the Yudhisthira's declaration and assumed that his son indeed
was dead. Overcome with grief he laid down his arms, and on Krishna's
instruction Dhrishtadyumna beheaded Drona.
When Arjuna was fighting Karna,
the latter's chariot's wheels sank into the ground. While Karna was
trying to take out the chariot from the grip of the Earth, Krishna
reminded Arjuna how Karna and the other Kauravas had broken all rules of
battle while simultaneously attacking and killing Abhimanyu, and he
convinced Arjuna to do the same in revenge in order to kill Karna.
During the final stage of the war, when Duryodhana was going to meet his mother Gandhari
for taking her blessings which would convert all parts of his body on
which her sight falls to steel, Krishna tricks him to wearing banana
leaves to hide his groin. When Duryodhana meets Gandhari, her vision and
blessings fall on his entire body except his groin and thighs, and she
becomes unhappy about it because she was not able to convert his entire
body to steel. When Duryodhana was in a mace-fight with Bhima, Bhima's
blows had no effect on Duryodhana. Upon this, Krishna reminded Bhima of
his vow to kill Duryodhana by hitting him on the thigh, and Bhima did
the same to win the war despite it being against the rules of mace-fight
(since Duryodhana had himself broken Dharma
in all his past acts). Thus, Krishna's unparalleled strategy helped the
Pandavas win the Mahabharata war by bringing the downfall of all the
chief Kaurava warriors, without lifting any weapon. He also brought back
to life Arjuna's grandson Parikshit, who had been attacked by a Brahmastra weapon from Ashwatthama while he was in his mother's womb. Parikshit became the Pandavas' successor.
Family
Krishna had a total of 16,108 wives, out of which eight were his
princely wives and 16,100 were rescued from Narakasura, who had forcibly
kept them in his palace. But many do not believe that Krishna had 16000
wives. They say "Had Krishna married 16000 of them, it would have taken
him more than 10 years even at rate of 4 marriages a day as per the
prevailing rituals!" However, after Krishna killed Narkasura he rescued
these 16,100 women and freed them, but all of them returned to him
saying that they have been kept by Narkasura so now neither their family
will accept them nor will any one marry them, thus remaining
shelterless. Krishna married them and gave them shelter in his new
palace and a respectful place in the society. However apart from his
princely wives, he never had any conjugal affairs with the other women
and many Hindu scriptures describe them as dancing around Krishna,
singing songs of praise.[79][80]
The first son of Queen Rukmini was Pradyumna,
and also born of her were Charudeshna, Sudeshna and the powerful
Charudeha, along with Sucharu, Chharugupta, Bhadracaru, Charuchandra,
Vicaru and Caru, the tenth. Pradyumna fathered the greatly powerful Aniruddha in the womb of Rukmavati, the daughter of Rukmi. This took place while they were living in the city of Bhojakata.
Some Vaishnava
traditions maintain that Krishna's children were born out of divine
mental transmission. The ten sons of Satyabhama were Bhanu, Subhanu,
Svarbhanu, Prabhanu, Bhanuman, Chandrabhanu, Brihadbhanu, Atibhanu (the
eighth), Sribhanu and Pratibhanu.
Samba, Sumitra, Purujit, Satajit, Sahasrajit, Vijaya, Citraketu, Vasuman, Dravida and Kratu were the sons of Jambavati. These ten, headed by Samba, were their father's favorites.
The sons of Nagnajiti were Vira, Candra, Asvasena, Citragu, Vegavan, Vrisha, Ama, Sanku, Vasu and the opulent Kunti.
Sruta, Kavi, Vrisha, Vira, Subahu, Bhadra, Santi, Darsa and Purnamasa were sons of Kalindi. Her youngest son was Somaka.
Madra's sons were Praghosha, Gatravan, Simha, Bala, Prabala, Urdhaga, Mahasakti, Saha, Oja and Aparajita.
Mitravinda's sons were Vrika, Harsha, Anila, Gridhra, Vardhana, Unnada, Mahamsa, Pavana, Vahni and Kshudhi.
Sangramajit, Brihatsena, Sura, Praharana, Arijith, Jaya and Subhadra
were the sons of Bhadra, together with Vama, Ayur and Satyaka.
Diptiman, Tamratapta and others were the sons of Krishna and Rohini.
Later life
Main article: Mausala Parva
According to Mahabharata, the Kurukshetra war resulted in the death
of all 100 sons of Gandhari. On the night before Duryodhana's death,
Lord Krishna visited Gandhari to offer his condolences. Gandhari felt
that Krishna knowingly did not put an end to the war, and in a fit of
rage and sorrow, Gandhari cursed that Krishna, along with everyone else
from yadu
dynasty, will perish after 36 years.Though he himself knew it and wanted
it to happen because he felt that the Yadavas has become very haughty
and arrogant(adharmi). So he ended Gandhari's speech by saying Tathastu.[81][82][83]
At a festival, a fight broke out between the Yadavas, who killed each other. His elder brother, Balarama, then gave up his body using Yoga.
Krishna retired into the forest and started meditating under a tree.
The Mahabharata also narrates the story of a hunter who kills Krishna.
The hunter Jara, mistook Krishna's partly visible left foot for that of a
deer, and shot an arrow, wounding and killing him mortally. After he
realised the mistake, Krishna told Jara, "O Jara, you were Vaali in your
previous birth, killed by myself as Rama in Tretayuga. Here you had a
chance to even it and since all acts in this world are done as desired
by me, you need not worry for this". Krishna's soul then ascended to
heaven, while his mortal body was cremated by Arjuna.[84][85][86]
According to Puranic sources,[87] Krishna's disappearance marks the end of Dvapara Yuga and the start of Kali Yuga, which is dated to February 17/18, 3102 BCE.[88] Vaishnava teachers such as Ramanujacharya and Gaudiya Vaishnavas
held the view that the body of Krishna is completely spiritual and
never decays (Achyuta) as this appears to be the perspective of the Bhagavata Purana.
The great Vaishnava Saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu exhorted, "Krishna Naama
Sankirtan" i.e. the constant chanting of the Krishna's name is the
supreme healer in Kali Yuga. It destroys sins and purifies the hearts through Bhakti ensures universal peace.
Krishna never appears to grow old or age at all in the historical depictions of the Puranas
despite passing of several decades, but there are grounds for a debate
whether this indicates that he has no material body, since battles and
other descriptions of the Mahabhārata epic show clear indications that
he seems to be subject to the limitations of nature.[89]
While battles apparently seem to indicate limitations, Mahabharata also
shows in many places where Krishna is not subject to any limitations as
through episodes Duryodhana trying to arrest Krishna where his body
burst into fire showing all creation within him.[90] Krishna is also explicitly described as without deterioration elsewhere.[91]
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