Krishna avatar, the coming of Swayam Bhagwan to the Earth

“Whenever virtue subsides and wickedness prevails, I manifest myself. To establish virtue, to destroy evil, to save the good, I come from Yuga to Yuga.”

The notion behind an avatar rises from a belief that when innocent lives suffer at the hands of evil, God himself arrives to destroy the latter.

Lord Vishnu has appeared as ten such incarnations to save humankind from their own selves. Vishnu, the protector of the universe, came as Krishna as the eighth avatar.

Before Krishna; Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vaman, Parshurama, Rama, the seven avatars of lord Vishnu appeared to "balance" the out of order eternal values. The Krishna avatar came as an epitome of love, tenderness, kindness and compassion.

This avatar of Vishnu is known to be one of the greatest and most powerful appearances of God in human form.

The anecdotes of the mischievousness and that of justice delivered by Lord Krishna can be found under one title, the Krishna Leela.

Krishna has portrayed himself wearing different hats in different characters during his life in human form.

Sometimes he is an ordinary child of God, other times, he himself is the highest power in the universe.

He is found in different stages of life, sometimes a kid licking on his butter dipped fingers, other times, a charming young boy surrounded by female admirers, Gopis, yet another time, as the speaker of spiritual Bhagwat Gita.

The charm of lord Krishna hasn't just been contained within the boundaries of India but spread to the different parts of the world through the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, which was initiated by Swami Prabhupada.

Today people from all over the world engage in his worship and celebrate him throughout the year.

Krishna, eighth descent of the divine

In Dvapara Yuga, the "Poorna avatar" of lord Vishnu appeared as Krishna.

He performed a divine play involving childhood mischievousness and willingness to relate to his devotees in the days of his youth.

It is the greatness of Krishna that he gave this world one of the most widely read and referenced guidebook, Bhagwat Gita.

It is the pre-eminence of Gita which has helped people to detach from materialistic things in the world.

It was the knowledge and super-humanness of Krishna that helped him deliver the great speech to Arjuna, which went on for days and prepared him to start a war against evil.

Never came a time, when Krishna was not conscious about his powers. He always took a chance to demonstrate his powers by killing the evil, providing service to his devotees and restoring humanness.

He played by the rules whenever he wanted, and broke the rules when they came in his path of deliverance of justice.

Lord Krishna's avatar and intellect are full of mystery and it's not possible for ordinary minds like ourselves to understand who he is, just by listening to some anecdotes of his greatness scribbled across a few pages.

As Lord Krishna himself says, he is more understandable to those who spend their lives showing love and compassion towards him, rather than those who try to make sense of his existence.

The birth of Krishna

The history of the birth of this legend goes back to Dvapara Yuga when there lived a king named "Kamsa." He was one demon of a human being. He was the ruler of Mathura.

He was too powerful and evil in his rule that not only the people of his kingdom were scared of him, but also the Devas.

Fearing his tyrannical rule, Devas prayed to Lord Vishnu. After listening to their grave concerns, Lord Vishnu agreed to birth himself as Krishna to destroy Kamsa’s evil powers and release people of his kingdom from shackles of his cruelty.

It was also the time when the population rose excessively and the inhabitation of so many people made the mother Earth suffer.

The two reasons coupled and Lord Vishnu decided to appear on Earth and cause mass destruction of the human race to restore the balance between the consumers and the limited Earthly resources.

Krishna was born to Kamsa's sister Devaki, but was taken to Maharaja Nanda and Yashoda, for Kansa has killed seven of the former’s children. Kamsa was foretold that the eighth of Devaki's children are going to kill him.

Krishna spent his childhood in Gokul with very loving foster parents Nanda and Yashoda.

Whoever came in contact with this little child fell in love with his pranks, innocence, and mischievousness.

He, even as a child, escaped and encountered the demons who were sent by Kamsa to kill him as soon as he discovered that Devaki's eighth child was still alive.

When he grew up big enough to face Kansa, he came to Mathura with his brother, Balarama to overthrow the reign of Kansa and killed him

He relieved the entire planet from the brutality of evil Kamsa and stabilized the kingdom of Mathura.

Krishna during Mahabharata

During the war of Mahabharata, Krishna refused to take up arms, but proposed to offer his huge army to the one side and himself as a chariot to the other.

Kauravas chose his army and Pandawas happily agreed to his humble service as a chauffeur, no matter if he bore the weapons.

Not only did he carry Arjuna’s chariot around during the war, he also motivated Arjuna to fight against Kauruvas, because Arjuna came face to face with the reality and realised that the people against whom he was fighting a war were none other than his own extended family members.

This made him stood perplexed in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, just before the war

After the war of Mahabharata ended, Krishna returned to Dwarka and lived peacefully with his wife Rukmani.

One day, events took an unfortunate turn and a fight broke out among Yadavas. Krishna’s elder brother Balaram was killed in the brawl.

As the grieving Krishna sat under the tree, lamenting his brother’s demise, a hunter mistaken him for a deer and shot him in his heel, thereby killed him.

People adored Krishna because worshipping him defied the gap between a divine figure and a human being.

They feel that the supreme God, Krishna, reciprocates their love and become a friend when they offer their prayers selflessly.