The Divine Krishna!
Today, Sri Krishna's birthday is being celebrated all over India and in many places in foreign countries also. On this holy day, I would like to narrate the sweet story of Krishna in a gist. Whenever people slide into error and adopt unrighteous and immoral ways, God sends his emissaries in the form of sages, saints and prophets. But the power of evil is so great, people are easily attracted to evil than good ways. To adopt righteous ways, it require lot of effort on the part of human being. It is like this. One can easily swim along with river currents. To swim against the current, it requires lot of efforts. When most of the people adopt immoral ways, a few good people find it difficult to adhere to righteous conduct. During those times, God himself descend on earth, assuming a human form. For this, He first select a noble soul to bear him. Though Krishna was always bubbling with joy, the circumstances in which his holy birth happened defies all norms. Like Jesus, Krishna too was born in a very humble circumstances. His parents were illegally imprisoned by Krishna's maternal uncle Kamsa. Though Kamsa was a evil person, he had great love towards his sister Devaki. At the appropriate age, Devaki's parents betrothed Devaki to a noble person called Vasudeva. In fact, Kamsa himself rode the chariot keeping Devaki and Vasudeva after the marriage as a mark of his love towards his sister. But fate is very cruel. At the very instant, Kamsa heard a thunder like voice from the sky which warned him, "The eighth son of Devaki will slay you". Kamsa become very furious. He halted the chariot, grabbed Devaki by her hair and made her to get down from the chariot. He was about to kill his dear sister with one stroke. At that time, Vasudeva promised to hand over all his babies as soon as they are born!. Kamsa let loose the hair of Devaki but he imprisoned them lest they escape from his clutch. As each baby is born to the couple, they were duly handed over to Kamsa who dashed the child to the ground and the children met unfortunate death as soon as they were born.
When Devaki conceived for the seventh time, the foetus was transferred to the first wife of Vasudeva who was living in a distant village called Gokulam. Again Devaki conceived for the eighth time. The guards of the prison duly informed this matter to Kamsa. He warned the guards to keep a vigilant watch over the couple! But God is mysterious. The prophesy from the sky can not become false. On the ultimate day, when Krishna was born in the midnight in the prison, all the guard fainted without any reason The iron shackles that bound Vasudeva snapped on its own and the prison door opened. Vasudeva has followed a mysterious intuition from the baby. He placed the baby (Krishna) in a basket, covered it with cloth, kept it on his head and left the prison. Devaki was blissfully unaware of all this. Vasudeva proceeded to Gokulam and entered into the palace of Nanda gopa. His wife has just delivered a female baby. Every one was asleep as though in a trance. Vasudeva silently placed the baby by the side of Yasoda, the wife of Nandagopa and took the female baby to the prison! As soon as he reached his cell, all the doors of the prison closed on its own and the guards woke up from the trance. They found that a female baby is born to Devaki. Immediately they rushed to inform the King! Kamsa hurried to the prison, took hold of the female baby and raised it high to dash on the ground. But the mysterious baby escaped from Kamsa's clutch and rose high on the sky. It warned the King, "The eighth child is already born and he is safe in a village nearby! Kamsa heard this omen and he was clutched with extreme fear!
He sent many of his guards and demons to nearby villages to kill all new born babies. They found that Krishna is living at a place called Gokulam. Kamsa sent one demon after other to kill Krishna. But, pathetically all the demons were killed by the child Krishna effortlessly. This created lot of anxiety in the mind of Kamsa. But he was relentless in his efforts. He sent many more demons. Ultimately, every one of them were killed. Krishna grew into a beautiful boy. He was playing many pranks in the houses of village maids called Gopis. They were selling milk, butter milk and butter etc. Krishna threw small stones aimed at those earthen pots kept on the heads of maids. Thus all the gopis got angry with the little mischievous Krishna and complained to his mother Yasodha. Yasodha tied him to a big roller stone unable to bear his pranks and left him in the backyard. She closed the doors behind but Krishna has started to role the roller stone behind him and started pulling it in between two huge trees. As the gap was small, the pull rooted out the trees. Immediately two angel like figures emanated from the place and prostrated at the feet of little Krishna. In fact, they were cursed by a sage for their disrespect and they were cursed to become tall trees. When they pleaded to pardon them, the sage told them, Krishna in his incarnation will release them from the curse. Thus Krishna fulfilled the prophesy of the sage.
Unable to bear the agony and fear about his death at the hands of little Krishna, Kamsa devised a plan to invite them to his Kingdom for a get together during a grand festival. Kamsa has told the elephant keeper to watch for the lads from Gokulam and infuriate the elephant to kill Krishna and his brother as soon as they reach the entrance of the Kingdom. Krishna is fully aware of the plans of Krishna and as he entered the Kingdom with his brother, the elephant was approaching them with speed. Krishna waited till it reached the vicinity, caught hold of the tusk and tried to subdue its madness. Balarama, his elder brother caught hold of its tail and suddenly started lifting it by whirling the tail, rolled it in the sky and threw it away. It fell near the fort. Kamsa was informed about the death of the giant elephant. His fear grew multi fold. Now Kamsa has other plans. He engaged many valiant boxers to engage the boys in boxing and kill them. Thus many great wrestlers surrounded the boys Krishna and Balarama. Krishna and Balarama tackled them nicely and defeated all the wrestlers. The King was watching it and he was dumbfounded. Krishna approached the throne where Kamsa was seated and pulled him with great force. Kamsa fell down rolling on the floor. His head gear got dislodged. He tried to pounce on the boys. But Krishna caught him by the neck, sat on his chest and dealt deathly blows on his chest. Immediately Kamsa was killed as per the prophesy from heaven. Krishna immediately went to the prison and released his mother and father. The entire citizens were happy since they were rescued from the demon Kamsa. Kamsa's parents were also in prison and they too were released and throned as before. Thus the advent of Krishna released many from their fears.
In later days, Krishna befriended the great brothers of Arjuna and they all enjoyed the protection of Krishna on many occasions. He accepted to be a charioteer in the great Mahabarath war at Kurukshethra and destroyed the evil Duryodhana and his 99 brothers. The story of Krishna is narrated in Bagawatam by the great sage Vyasa. Those who read those beautiful stories and contemplate on Krishna will be sanctified forever!
