Sree Krishna Jayanthi/Janmashtami Greetings !

[Guest guest]

The birth of Lord Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu is

celebrated as Janmashtami on the eighth day of the dark half of the

month of Shravana.

 

Legend

The legend of the birth of Lord Krishna is very interesting. He was

the youngest of the eight children born to Vasudev and Devaki. Devaki

was the daughter of King Ugrasena, Vasudev was the son of King

Surasena. After their wedding Kansa, Devaki's brother was taking the

couple to their home when a celestial voice said that Devaki's eighth

child would kill Kansa. Kansa was so terrified that he imprisoned

both Vasudev and Devaki. After that he kept a close watch on them.

Every time a child was born Kansa came and killed the child. In this

manner he killed six of Devaki's children.

 

Then Devaki conceived for the seventh time. At that time Mahavishnu

instructed Mayadevi to transfer the foetus from Devaki's womb to that

of Rohini, vasudev's second wife. And news spread that the foetus in

Devaki's womb was aborted. Kansa naturally was very happy.

 

Later Devaki conceived for the eighth time. On Ashtami i.e. the

eighth day in the dark half of the month of Shravana (Shravana Vadya

Ashtami) Devaki gave birth to a boy-child at mid-night. Vasudeva was

naturally worried about the safety of the little new-born, but

providence willed otherwise. The ball and chains tying him fell

apart. He was instructed to pickup the child, put him in a basket and

walk out of the prison door, he did all this in a daze. As he came to

the door it opened on its own accord. The guards were dozing. The

night was one of thunder, lightening and heavy rain. Vasudev was once

again instructed by a divine voice to take the child across the river

Yamuna to the house of Nanda, the leader of the cowherds in Gokul.

 

Meanwhile a daughter had been born to Yashoda, Nanda's wife. Vasudev

reached Gokul replaced the new-born daughter with his son and came

back to the prison. Soon word reached Kansa that a daughter had been

born to Devaki. Kansa rushed to the prison cell to check out the

truth. When he saw the girl-child he was convinced that definitely

that girl would not kill him. But his deep-rooted fear would not

allow him to let the child be alive. So he picked up the child and

was about to bang her head on the stone when she escaped from his

hands and before vanishing away told him the bitter truth that his

annihilator was already in Gokul.

 

Krishna's next phase of life begins at Mathura where he went as a

teenager Prince and finally killed his mama, the demonic Kansa and

later on many others like him during the course of his Avatar. Here

he gave back to Ugrasena, his grandfather, the kingdom which Kansa

had snatched from his own father.

 

In his third phase he is the King of Dwarka, which was supposed to be

so prosperous that it came to known as the Golden Dwarka. The fourth

phase of his life was the great war of Kurukshetra. Here he played

the role of the mediator to end the strife between the Pandavas and

their cousins the Kauravas.

 

Tradition

The child Krishna was very fond of butter and curds, which the

cowherds sold in the market at Mathura. Krishna felt it was unjust

that children in the house are not allowed to eat any of it. So he

would with his various friends made it a point to steal the butter

and curds and partake it as it was his birthright. So one of the

features of Janmashtami is the ritual breaking of the curd pot or

dahi-handi tied high up in the air, children and youths climb up in

pyramid formation to reach the pot and break it. This event takes

place on the next day after Krishna's birth. The birth celebrations

are held at mid-night because that is time of Krishna's birth.

 

The youthful Krishna was always teasing the gopis and playing the

Raas Leela with them. Later he became Arjuna's charioteer during the

great war of Kurukshtra. He revealed the Bhagwad Gita to Arjuna and

also showed him his 'Vishwarupa' i. e. He is in all the things on

this earth. It is because of Him that the life on the earth exists.

Indeed Krishna is the epitome of life itself.

 

 

Sree Krishna Jayanthi Greetings to all !

 

Om Namo Narayanaya !

 

Sunil.