HISTORICAL STORIES OF KRISHNA
Lord Krishna is one of the most
revered and widely-worshipped deities among the Hindu populace (as is Lord
Rama). This article recounts some of
the historical highlights and pastimes of the life of Krishna.
I. KRISHNA DESTROYS THE EVIL OGRESS
PUTANA
II. KRISHNA SEDUCES THE GOPIS
III. KRISHNA'S 16,000 WIVES &
DESTRUCTION OF HIS OWN DESCENDANTS
IV. KRISHNA'S DRUNKEN WIVES BEHAVE
FOOLISHLY
I. KRISHNA DESTROYS THE EVIL OGRESS
PUTANA
Krishna's great battles begin in infancy; in the Srimad Bhagavatam, he
destroys the raksasi Putana:
"The ogress Putana, a devourer of children, was sent to kill the infant
Krsna; she assumed a charming form and let him suck her breast, which she had
smeared with a virulent poison. But Krsna, pressing her breast hard with his
hands, angrily drank out her life's breaths with the milk and killed her,
having cut off her breasts." -- Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata
Purana) 10:6:1-44; Agni Purana 12; Brahma Purana 184; Harivamsa 50:22; Padma
Purana 6:245; Visnu Purana 5:5. [O'Flaherty, Wendy D. The Origins of Evil in Hindu
Mythology. Pub.: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04098-8. p.338].
II. KRISHNA SEDUCES
THE GOPIS
gopis: cow-herd girls; milk-maids;
village girls; or better known as Lord Krishna's girlfriends.
Krishna steals the clothes of the gopis and seduces them as recorded in the
Srimad Bhagavatam:
"In the first month of winter, the girls of Nanda's village performed
a certain vow to the goddess Katyayani (Durga). They ate rice cooked with
clarified butter; they bathed in the water of the Kalindi (Yamuna) river at
sunrise; they made an image of the goddess out of sand and worshipped it with
fragrant perfumes and garlands, with offerings and incense and lamps, and with
bouquets of flowers, fresh sprigs of leaves, fruits, and rice. And they prayed:
'Goddess Katyayani, great mistress of yoga, empress of great deluding magic,
make the son of the cow-herd Nanda my husband. I bow to you.' Saying this
prayer, the girls would worship her, and having set their hearts on Krsna, the
girls performed this vow for a month; they worshipped Bhadrakali (Durga) so
that the son of Nanda (Krsna) would be their husband. Arising at dawn, calling
one another by name, they would join hands and go to bathe in the Kalindi every
day, singing loudly about Krsna as they went. One day, when they had gone to
the river and taken off their clothes on the bank as usual, they were playing
joyfully in the water, singing about Krsna. The lord Krsna, lord of all masters
of yoga, came there with his friends of the same age in order to grant them the
object of their rites. He took their clothes and quickly climbed a Nipa tree,
and laughing with the laughing boys he told what the joke was: 'Girls, let each
one of you come here and take her own clothes as she wishes. I promise you,
this is no jest, for you have been exhausted by your vows. I have never before
told an untruth, and these boys know this. Slender-waisted ones, come one by
one or all together and take your clothes.' When the cow-herd girls saw what
his game was, they were overwhelmed with love, but they looked at one another
in shame, and they smiled, but they did not come out. Flustered and embarrassed
by Govinda's (Krsna's) words and by his jest, they sank down up to their necks
in the icy water, and, shivering, they said to him, 'You should not have played
such a wicked trick. We know you as our beloved, son of the cow-herd Nanda, the
pride of the village. Give us our clothes, for we are trembling. O darkly
handsome one, we are your slaves and will do as you command, but you know dharma:
give us our clothes or we will tell your father, the chieftain.' The lord said
to them, 'If you are my slaves and will do as I command, then come here and
take back your clothes, O brightly smiling ones.' Then all the girls, shivering
and smarting with cold, came out of the water, covering their crotches with
their hands. The lord was pleased and gratified by their chaste actions, and he
looked at them and placed their clothes on his shoulder and smiled and said,
'Since you swam in the water without clothes while you were under a vow, this
was an insult to the divinity (to Varuna, god of the waters). Therefore you
must fold your hands and place them on your heads and bow low in expiation of
your sin, and then you may take your clothes.' When the village girls heard
what the infallible one said, they thought that bathing naked had been a
violation of their vows, and they bowed down to Krsna, the very embodiment of
all their rituals, who had thus fulfilled their desires and wiped out their
disgrace and sin. Then the lord, the son of Devaki, gave their clothes to them,
for he felt pity when he saw them bowed down in this way and he was satisfied
with them. Though they were greatly deceived and robbed of their modesty,
though they were mocked and treated like toys and stripped of their clothes,
yet they held no grudge against him, for they were happy to be together with
their beloved. Rejoicing in the closeness of their lover, they put on their
clothes; their bashful glances, in the thrall of their hearts, did not move
from him. Knowing that the girls had taken a vow because they desired to touch
his feet, the lord with a rope around his waist said to the girls, 'Good ladies,
I know that your desire is to worship me. I rejoice in this vow, which deserves
to be fulfilled. The desire of those whose hearts have been placed in me does
not give rise to further desire, just as seed corn that has been boiled or
fried does not give rise to seed. You have achieved your aim. Now, girls, go
back to the village and you will enjoy your nights with me, for it was for this
that you fine ladies undertook your vow and worship.' When the girls heard this
from Krsna, they had obtained what they desired; and, meditating upon his lotus
feet, they forced themselves to go away from him to the village." --
Srimad Bhagavatam 10:22:1-28. Compare: Brahmavaivarta Purana 1:27; Brhaddharma
Purana 3:17. [O'Flaherty, Wendy D. Hindu Myths: a sourcebook translated
from the Sanskrit. Pub.: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044306-1. pp.229-231].
Yadus (Yadavas): the descendants of Lord Krishna (also
descendants of King Yayati's son Yadu, who was Krishna's ancestor). Krishna belonged to the Yadava clan, a race
of kings. Cow-herd-raja Nanda was
Krishna's foster-father.
III. KRISHNA'S 16,000
WIVES & DESTRUCTION OF HIS OWN DESCENDANTS
Krishna married and had sex with 16,000
wives in Dvaraka, and with so many descendants from so many wives, the earth as
a result had become severely overpopulated.
Krishna then had no choice but to annihilate his own family for weighing
down the earth, as shown below in the quote from the Srimad Bhagavatam:
"Krsna became a householder (head of a household) in Dvaraka and
married many wives, and had many sons and grandsons. In the race of the Yadus,
no one was poor; everyone had many children, lived a long life, and respected
Brahmins. But they were so numerous that one could not count them even in a
hundred years. The terrible demons who had been slain in the battle of the gods
and demons were born among men, and so at the command of Visnu the gods became
incarnate in the race of Yadus to repress the demons.... When Krsna had killed
the demons, and thus relieved the burden of the earth, he thought, 'The earth
is still overburdened by the unbearably burdensome race of the Yadus. No one
else can overcome them, since they are under my protection.' ... Deluded by
Krsna's power of delusion, and cursed by the Brahmins, they were all destroyed,
and when his entire family had been destroyed, Krsna said, 'The burden has been
removed.' " -- Srimad Bhagavatam 10:90:27-44; 11:1:1-4; 11:30:1-25. [O'Flaherty,
Wendy D. The Origins of Evil in
Hindu Mythology. Pub.: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04098-8. p.267].
Krishna's marriage to 16,000 wives and the destruction of his descendants (the
Yadavas) is also recorded in the Linga Purana:
"One of Krsna's wives asked Krsna to give her a son equal to the lord of
the gods. Krsna performed asceticism for Siva, who granted him a son, Samba.
Krsna took sixteen thousand maidens for his pleasure, and then, under the
pretext of the Brahmins' curse, he destroyed his own family and lived in
Prabhasa. After living for a hundred and one years in Dvaraka, where he had
removed the sorrow of old age, he made the curse of the sages come true." --
Linga Purana 1:69:71, 82-84. [O'Flaherty, Wendy D. The Origins of Evil in Hindu
Mythology. Pub.: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04098-8. p.268].
IV. KRISHNA'S DRUNKEN WIVES
BEHAVE FOOLISHLY
In the Samba Purana, it is recorded that Krishna's 16,000 wives become
intoxicated and misbehave towards his son Samba (who is also one of their own
sons). As a result, Krishna curses them
and annihilates the Yadavas:
"One day Narada came to Dvaraka to see Krsna. All the Yadu boys received
him with respect, but Samba, proud of his young beauty and deluded by the
fated, inevitable force of the curse, disregarded Narada. To teach Samba a
lesson, Narada told Krsna that all of Krsna's sixteen thousand wives were in
love with Samba. Samba was summoned, and the women, whose minds were blurred by
wine, showed unmistakable signs of passion when Samba appeared. Furious, Krsna
cursed them to be carried off by barbarians after his death, and he cursed
Samba to be afflicted by leprosy. Therefore the women were carried away under
the very eyes of Arjuna. Later, Samba remembered what had happened before, and
as he was impelled by inevitable fate, he enraged the sage Durvasas and
prompted the curse that destroyed his whole family." -- Samba
Purana 3:6-55; Bhavisya Purana 1:72-73. [O'Flaherty, Wendy D. The Origins of Evil in Hindu
Mythology. Pub.: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04098-8. p.268].
This concludes the exciting historical tales of Lord Krishna presented in this
article.