Oct 03, 2024
Oct 03, 2024
by Renu Verma
Long long ago, King Ugrasen of Mathura, an Indian Kingdom was very benevolent and good to his subjects. His son, Kansa was very cruel. Kansa declared himself, the king and jailed his father. Kansa’s sister Devki was married to prince Vasudeva. There was a forecast that Devki’s eighth son would kill Kansa, and so Kansa put Devki and Vasudeva in jail. One after the other, he killed first six sons of Devki , the seventh son, Balrama was secretly transferred to Gokul in the house of his friend Nand. The eight son, Krishna, was born in the mid of a dark rainy night, Vasudeva escaped the jail with child Krishna in a basket and crossed the flooded Jamuna to reach Gokul. Leaving Krishna in Nand’s house, Vasudeva came back to jail. Krishna was brought up by Yashoda, Nand’s wife like her own son.
Kansa came to know that Devki’s eighth son is in Gokul. He sent many demons one after the other to kill Krishna ; even as a child Krishna was very clever, he killed the demons by tricks. Krishna was very naughty; he used to steal curd and butter from different houses. He played with cowherd boys and girls. He was an expert in playing flute music. Enchanted by his flute music people used to run after him, he danced with cowherd girls and ladies. Many a time he protected people of Gokul. Balram was rather serious but very mighty.
After Krishna became eleven years old, Kansa invited Balram and Krishna to Mathura. He organized a festival and planned to kill Krishna . However Krishna killed Kansa. King Ugrasen was enthroned by Krishna. Vasudeva and Devki were freed from jail. King Ugrasen sent Balram and Krishna to Ujjaini. , both were well educated in scriptures by Guru Sandeepani, Krishna perfected Kriya Yoga under a Yogi Guru Ghora Angiras. Both came back to Mathura.
Kansa’s father-in-law, Jarashandh, the king of Magadh attacked Mathura seventeen times to take revenge from Balram and Krishna. To save the people of Mathura, Krishna shifted the whole kingdom to Dwarika, a newly built island capital in the western sea.
Krishna was a very mighty warrior. His special personal weapon, “Sudarshan Chakra” was a disc. It always killed its target and come back to Krishna like a boomerang, Krishna knew all the war craft well. He had killed many cruel fighters like Shishupal, Narkasura etc. Krishna used his cousin Bhima to kill Jarashandh.
Krishna’s cousins Pandavas were very virtuous. The eldest Pandava Yudhishthir was a very just, righteous and truthful prince. His cousins Duryodhana always troubled Yudhishthir. Duryodhana was cruel and arrogant. He had sent Pandavas to jungle and occupied their kingdom by trick of dice game. Krishna counselled Duryodhana to return back the kingdom to Yudhishthir. The arrogant Duryodhana forced war on Pandavas. Even though Krishna did not fight the war, he became a Charioteer to the third Pandava, Arjuna. Krishna encouraged Arjuna by giving discourse of Geeta to him in the middle of the battlefield.
Krishna guided Pandavas to win the war of Mahabharata. Yudhishthir became the emperor of India ruling from his capital Hashtinapur. In his thirty-six years of rule of Yudhishthir was full of justice, peace and love. This was the greatest achievement of Krishna. Krishna was busy to establish a just rule in India; his sons, grandsons and nephews became very arrogant. They did not listen to Krishna; finally they fought among themselves and killed each other. Shocked by this, Balram himself left his mortal body. Krishna was left alone resting under a tree. He was killed by a hunter who mistook him to be a deer.
Krishna’s personality was multidimensional. He was an expert in music, dance, war craft, stateman ship, philosophy and yoga. Krishna was thorough in Vedas and the Vedantas. He utilized the Vedantas texts Upanishads as cows and milked them as a milk of Bhagwad Geeta. He gave this Geeta to Arjuna in the war field. He also gave it to Uddhava at the end of his life. Krishna had also taught Kriya yoga to Arjuna and Uddhava. Even though Krishna faced threat to his life right from his mother’s womb to the end of his life, he never lost his peace of mind. He was always a man of action. No aspect of Indian culture, music, dance, drama, painting, literature, philosophy, statesman ship can exist without Krishna.
06-Jul-2019
More by : Renu Verma