Janmashtami

This year, Janmashtami fell on 6th-7th September, one of the many important festivals in Hinduism. This holiday is important because it is the birthday of Lord Krishna (Krsna); one can say it’s the Hindu equivalent of Xmas. It happens at midnight, which is why it always falls on two days. Krishna is worshipped as the God of protection, compassion and love, while being from a clan of warriors, and the 8th incarnation of Vishnu, the God of Preservation.

His tale begins in the city of Mathura, during a tyrannical rule by none other than his maternal uncle, Kamsa. Even though his uncle was an evil ruler, he loved his sister, Devaki, the only person he cherished the most. That was until a voice from the sky prophesied that Devaki’s 8th child would slay him and bring order into Mathura. As a result, he was about to kill his sister and husband; however, Devaki’s husband, Vasudeva, pleaded for her life. Kamsa took mercy on them and imprisoned them to keep an eye on all her children. Each time Devaki gave birth, her brother would kill her child. During Devaki’s pregnancy with her 7th child, on the other side of Mathura in a village named Gokul, the wife of a cow herder, Yashoda, was also pregnant. With his divine powers, Vishnu took this opportunity to let his snake (Shesha) incarnate as his own incarnation’s elder brother and protector. Therefore, Vishnu switched both children from Devaki’s womb to Yashoda’s, which resulted in Kamsa killing Yashoda’s son instead.

A few years passed, then Devaki was again pregnant with the 8th child, Krishna. The word Krsna is Sanskrit for dark skin; unlike his siblings, he was black with slightly nappy hair. He was born between 11:59 pm and 00:00 am during a ravaging rainstorm, which made the people of Mathura, including Kamsa and his army, stay in. During this time, Lord Vishnu appeared before Vasudeva, Krishna’s biological father. He then instructed Vasudeva to use this storm and time as an advantage to bring the child to Gokul and trade it again with Yashoda’s newborn. After giving this message to Vasudeva, the prison gates opened on their own, and the guards were asleep. Leaving Mathura and crossing the Yamuna River, with the help of Shesha as an umbrella, Vasudeva made his way to Gokul and exchanged the child.

This is the legend of the birth of Krishna; his life in Gokul as the son of a villager was about innocence, yet mischief. Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg; his tale continues, all the way to the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, during which he dictated the famous Bhagavad Gita to his cousin Arjuna.