KRISHNA: BIOGRAPHY, CHILDHOOD, ADULTHOOD, DEATH, INFLUENCES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Krishna is a god of the Hindu pantheon, known as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. Others, besides a simple avatar, consider it as the highest or main form of Vishnu. It has become one of the most appreciated gods within the culture of India and other Hindu countries.

It represents compassion and love, which is why many Hindus sympathize with this deity. Most of the data of his life are taken from the Mahabharata, one of the texts in which the mythology of India is collected.

Krishna playing the flute. By The San Diego Museum of Art Collection, via Wikimedia Commons

According to his legend, Krishna was the son of Devakī with Vasudeva, who were part of the Iadava and Vrisni dynasties. It is said that his father was an incarnation of the sage Kashiapa and his mother of Áditi, parents of the devás, or benevolent gods.

He was raised by Yashodá, Nanda's wife. He was threatened by King Kamsa, his mother's cousin, who had been prophesied that he would be killed by one of his nephews.

He has also been historically identified with the lover of the gopis, thus representing the embodiment of love and enjoyment. He is shown as a young man with dark or bluish skin, approximately 13 years old.

At the age of 16, Krishna arrived in the city of Mathura and, after eliminating the gladiators who were in a tournament, killed King Kamsa.

It is thought that his cult took relevance from the second century BC. C., when their stories began to be a central part of certain Hindu religious texts. However, Krishnaism as it is known today emerged after the 5th century.

History

Sources

One of the main texts that contains information about Krishna is the Mahabharata, from the 3rd century BC. It also appears in the extension of this, which was made years later, called Jari-vamsa; and in the Taitiríia-araniaka he is mentioned as "son of Vasudeva."

Krishna, by Daderot via Wikimedia Commons

His early years, which happened among the shepherds, are discussed there, and he is described as a god who likes fun and who created lilás. Thanks to these stories, in some regions he is still worshiped in the form of a young shepherd known as Gopala.

Development

In the Divia prabandham several of the texts that made reference to Krishna were gathered, but it is from the 11th century, with the Bhágavata-purana, that the protagonism of this god becomes indisputable, since in that work he is described as an entity superior from which the rest of the gods arise.

It was thought that even though he had come into the world as a man, he remained parallel on his spiritual plane. This is a consequence of being the supreme god, he could not really be born or die.

In the Gita govinda, a 12th century text, there is talk about the gopi Radha, with whom Krishna would have had a special relationship, but who until then had only been mentioned without delving into her account.

Prophecy

It is believed that, tired of the mistreatment of the Iadava clan, Mother Earth appeared before Vishnu to request his help along with other gods. Vishnu promised that he himself would be born into the clan to put an end to their excesses.

When King Kamsa was at the wedding of his cousin Devakī to Vasudeva, a sage named Nárada Muni visited him and made a prophecy in which he claimed that a son of the newly married couple would murder him.

The king decided to lock the spouses in a cell and every year he murdered the children they conceived. This happened until, while Devakī was pregnant for the seventh time, the child was transferred to the womb of Rójini, another wife of Vasudeva.

Krishna birth

After that Vishnu announced that he would reincarnate into his next son, who would be Krishna. The child was not conceived normally, but passed from his father's heart to his mother's womb and was immediately born.

Birth of Krishna, by Raja Ravi Varma, via Wikimedia Commons

Thanks to a magical effect that lulled the guards to sleep, Vasudeva managed to get the boy out of prison and install him in Vrindavan, in the home of Nanda and his wife Yashodá, who had had a daughter that Vasudeva took with him to the prison.

When Kamsa tried to murder the girl, she transformed into Durga and told the king that her death had already been born.

Childhood

Although King Kamsa ordered the death of all the infants of Mathura, little Krishna and his brother were saved because they were far from the area.

Then, each year Kamsa sent a demon or monster to end the boy's life, who one by one defeated and eliminated them.

One of the legends about Krishna's childhood indicates that as a baby he managed to kill a giant demon named Putaná, who took the form of a nurse to poison the child with her breast, but he sucked the poison and the soul of the giant..

In another story, Krishna liked to steal fresh butter from his adoptive mother, Yashodá, who on one occasion opened the baby's mouth to see if he was eating and inside he was able to observe the universe.

Lilás

Krishna was a fun lover, so during his childhood he was always in charge of spending time with lilás, since he did not like to play for victory over others, but for the simple fact of entertaining himself.

That is why Krishna celebrations are always permeated with his happy spirit with various games such as gymnastics, breaking vessels and spilling butter on the participants in the festivals.

Young Krishna

In the Hindu stories of the Rasa lila, Krishna is shown as a lover of the gopis, who were young married shepherds from the Vrindavan region. That is why it is called Gópinath. One of Krishna's dearest gopis was Radha.

Krishna and Radha, by Birmingham Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Commons

He is also shown in his representations playing a flute with which he attracts the gopis, thus giving an account of his carefree personality. Also, he looks like a 13 year old forever, so he always kept a beautiful look.

The prince

At the age of 16 he went to Mathura, the land of King Kamsa. There he participated in a tournament against the tyrant's gladiators. After killing all his opponents, he went against Kamsa himself and fulfilled the prophecy by beating him to death.

At that time he freed his parents, who were still in captivity by his mother's cousin, and restored Kamsa's father, Ugrasena, as king, while also becoming prince of the iadavas.

Krishna assassinates Kamsa, by Los Angeles County Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Commons

He also struck up a friendship with his cousin Aryuna, to whom many of his teachings were directed.

Adulthood

He initially married eight women. The first was Rukmini, princess of Vidarbha. Then with Jambavati, daughter of Jambavan, the king of bears. His third wife was Princess Satyabhama, daughter of the King of Yadava.

Later he married Mitravinda, princess of Avanti, despite the refusal of the young woman's family.

Nagnajiti, princess of Kosala was Krishna's fifth wife. She was followed by Kalindi daughter of Surya then Lakshmana, princess of Madra. Later she married Bhadra, princess of Kekeya.

Kurukshetra

Krishna was a relative of the two enemy sides in the Kurukshetra war. He favored the Pandavas, while Balaram, his brother, allied himself with the Kurus. The god joined the battle as coachman for Aryuna, his cousin and friend.

As a final result, the Pandavas won and the territory of the Kurus was unified to Jastinapura. It has been calculated that Krishna could be around 89 years old at the time of the battle.

When Krishna became king of the iadus, he transferred his court to Dwáraka.

There he lived together with his eight main wives and 16,100 others, whom he rescued from the captivity of Narakasura and whom he dignified by giving them the rank of wives and with whom he is presumed to have had thousands of descendants.

Krishna's death

According to Hindu sacred texts, Krishna died in Prabhas Patan, near the Hirán River, after being attacked by a hunter named Jara, who mistook him for a deer while the god was sleeping.

Then Krishna was 125 years old. He did not blame the hunter, but calmed him down and blessed him.

It is considered that after his death he transcended the earthly plane and the rest of the gods could not find him again.

Etymology

Its name comes from a word that means dark, black or dark blue. That is why in representations of Krishna, he is generally shown with dark or blue skin.

Other meanings found in Hindu texts relate the word "Krishna" to demons or the name of a hell, among many other meanings related to the dark seen as evil.

Krishna steals the gopis' clothes, Anonymous, Metropolitan Museum of Art NY, via Wikimedia Commons

Other names

However, Krishna was not the only name given over the years to this incarnation of Vishnu.

He was also called Vāsudeva, which translates to son of Vasudeva, or Gopala, meaning cow keeper.

Influence

After a fusion of various religious traditions, such as that of Vāsudeva with Gopala, and the baby Krishna, the Krishna that is known today emerged.

Since then this god has been both a secondary and main figure in different branches of Hinduism.

In Vaisnavism

In this current, also called Visnuism, Krishna is considered one of the supreme divinities. In some cases he is seen as Vishnu himself, in others as his most perfect incarnation, and sometimes as an independent being.

Krishna is the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, but in other cults he is even seen as a higher entity from which the latter emerges, known as Svayam Bhagavan.

The importance of the figure of Krishna spread throughout the Hindu area of ​​influence, although it was not limited to Asia, but also moved to the Western world, in which large groups have formed who follow his teachings.

Bhakti movement

In medieval times this cult spread rapidly throughout India. Everywhere they selected different gods as the center of their faith: some followed Shiva, others the Shakti and also Vishnu.

What is really remarkable about this movement is that thanks to it the Indians were able to detach themselves from the castes and guide people in the search for a spiritual path regardless of their origins.

In the case of Krishna's followers, they considered fun to be the meaning of existence, taking lila as an example.

As the fervor for Krishna and Vishnu developed and grew, more bibliography was created that recounted their legends. These texts had their peak between the 10th and 12th centuries, when, among others, the Bhagavata-purana was written.

Internationalization: Hare-Krishna

The Krishna-Bhakti movement began to consolidate outside of India from the 20th century. In the mid-1960s, one of its spiritual leaders moved to New York City.

At that time there was a significant increase in followers of Krishna and that is when the International Association for Krishna Consciousness, popularly known as the Hare Krishna, was established.

Krishna Gopala, by Nandikolla Gopala Rao (1880–1945)

The new religious group was then led by Swami Prabhupada. They are centered on the Bengali cult, which takes Krishna as the most perfect form of Vishnu.

They have 400 temples around the world and are believed to be followed by approximately 1 million people.

Controversial

In the 1990s the Hare Krishna movement was embroiled in great controversy.

The education centers they owned, called gurukulas, were spaces in which cases of sexual abuse against minors occurred during the 1970s, which were omitted by the leaders of the movement.

Slope

Not only did this scandal reduce the number of followers of the Hare Krishna movement, but the lawsuits filed by the victims left the movement's coffers almost empty.

They have also been singled out for behaving like a cult and brainwashing young people, but the latest accusation in this regard was dismissed in a court in the United States of North America.

References

1. Vemsani, L. (2016). Krishna in history, thought, and culture. California: ABC-CLIO.
2. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Krishna. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
3. Pascual, E. (2007). Little Larousse illustrated. Barcelona: Larousse, p.1451.
4. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
5. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Krishna - Hindu deity. Available at: britannica.com.
6. Krishna.com. (2019). Krishna.com - All About Krishna. Available at: krishna.com.