Legends Surrounding Lord Krishna

It was midnight, and in the grim fortress on the outskirts of Mathura, Devaki, the sister of Kamsa the ruler, gave birth to a son. Devaki looked proudly at her baby son, but her mind was filled with anguish, for she knew only too well that as soon as her brother heard the news, he would have the baby put to death.

It all started on the day that Devaki married Vasudav. After the wedding ceremony, there had been great rejoicing and feasting, for both Devaki and Vasudav were loved by all the people. When the celebrations were nearing an end, there was a sudden deathly silence, as though everyone had been struck dumb, and an unearthly voice echoed through the palace. “Beware Kamsa, for Devaki will have a son who will bring death to you.” Everyone stood petrified at the sound of this ghostly warning.

Kamsa, with a bellow of rage, drew his sword and took a threatening step towards Devaki, but Vasudav quickly caught hold of Kamsa’s sword arm and shouted, “What nonsense is this? Would you dare slay your own sister just because you have been taunted by some evil spirit?”

Kamsa, a towering brute, thrust Vasudav aside and, pointing his finger at Devaki, said in a savage voice, “You shall live, but woe betide any children you have.” Brushing aside Devaki’s tearful entreaties, the tyrant ordered that Devaki and Vasudav be taken to the fortress and closely guarded for the rest of their days.

For years, Devaki and Vasudav had lived in this terrible place, never allowed outside its massive gates. And during this time, Devaki had given birth to several children, all girls, but each one had been torn from the mother’s arms and foully murdered by her brother, the monster who feared death.

Now as Devaki gazed at her newborn son, she knew that within hours her brother would kill the innocent baby. Quietly, the door of her room opened, and Vasudav came in. “Don’t make a sound,” he whispered. “Give the baby to me, and I will try to escape so that our son can live.”

Devaki, realising that this was their only hope, wrapped the baby in a shawl, and Vasudav, clutching his precious burden, hastened to the main gates hoping that he could somehow elude, or perhaps bribe the guards to let him out.

When he reached the massive gates, Vasudav was surprised to find that the guards seemed to have fallen asleep, and as he stood there wondering where the keys were kept, the bolts of the locks slid noiselessly back and the gates pushed by unseen hands, slowly opened. Outside in the pitch darkness, Vasudav was at a loss as to which direction he should take. Then suddenly, a soft blue light illuminated the way he should go. At first, he thought his escape had been discovered, but to his surprise, this light was coming from the baby.

Hurrying along the lighted pathway, Vasudav meant to get as far away from Mathura as he could before Kamsa discovered his escape with the baby. Just as dawn was breaking, Vasudav came to the outskirts of the village of Brindavan, where his friend Nandagop lived. When he reached Nandagop’s house, he found his friend sitting outside the door, his head bowed in sorrow, with a bundle at his feet.

“What ails you, my friend?” said Vasudav. Nandagop looked up, and Vasudav could see that his face was streaked with tears. “This is a sorry meeting after all these years, Vasudav,” he replied with a sigh. “Last night my wife gave birth to a baby girl, but it is dead and I am seeking the courage to throw the body into the river.”

Vasudav sat down beside his friend and told him his own sorrowful tale of the unjust imprisonment and the murder of Devaki’s babies and his resolve to save his newly born son from being done to death. Nandagop looked at his friend in amazement. “This is terrible,” he cried. “Let me take your son and I promise to bring him up as my own.” Then he went on, “Take the dead body of my daughter and that fiend Kamsa will think it is Devaki’s child.”

Vasudav was only too glad to grasp this opportunity to outwit Kamsa, and taking the dead child, he hurried back to Mathura. Again, to his surprise, the gates to the fortress opened at his approach, and no one barred his way to Devaki’s room. Quickly he told his wife that their son was safe and she should pretend the dead child was her own.

When Vasudav unwrapped the body, he was amazed to find that the baby was alive and soon started to cry lustily.

Meanwhile, at the palace, Kamsa rose from his bed, bathed in perspiration. He had had many bad dreams, but nothing as dreadful as the garish nightmare that had plagued him all night. He could still visualise those abominable demons of his dreams and their predictions that all his palaces would come tumbling down and that he would die a fiendish death.

Stumbling into his audience chamber, Kamsa shouted for his astrologers, and when at last they came, Kamsa demanded to know why he had to have bad dreams and what did these dreams foretell.

The poor astrologers, knowing full well that saying the wrong thing could result in at least a flogging, hastily tried to reassure Kamsa that all the signs showed that he would live many years and conquer many empires. Luckily for the astrologers, the captain of the guard entered just then and announced that Devaki had given birth to a daughter during the night.

“That’s the cause of all my misery,” roared Kamsa, and rushing out of the chamber, bellowed for his chariot and was soon galloping to the fortress. Cursing everyone who got in his way, Kamsa stormed into Devaki’s room and, snatching up the baby, snarled, “I will soon settle the destiny of this brat.”

Going into the courtyard, Kamsa threw the baby high in the air and got ready to catch the baby on the point of his sword. But the baby never came down. Instead, the baby turned into the shining figure of the Goddess Katyana. Looking down at Kamsa, the goddess intoned, “The child is born who will one day slay you and rule the hearts of all mankind.”

Kamsa fell to his knees and in a cringing voice begged for mercy, but when he looked up, the goddess had vanished.

Devaki’s baby son was brought up by the tribe of cowherders, who inhabited the village of Brindavan. From the day the baby arrived, an aura of love and prosperity descended on the village, and the villagers decided to name the child Krishna.

Many are the legends that surround the early years of Krishna’s life. It was said that at the age of five he slew the Demon of the Cart-wheel. Another time, a demon in the guise of a donkey came to the village, but Krishna recognized the spurious animal for what it was, and catching it by one of its hind legs, whirled the donkey round and round, then dashed its brains out against a wall. Then there is the legend of the five-headed dragon living in the depths of the river Yamuna. This fearsome beast would rise out of the water and pounce on unsuspecting villagers who went to the river to bathe and wash clothes. When Krishna heard of this, he went to the river, and telling the villagers not to worry, jumped in the river and dragged the monster to the surface and killed it with his bare hands.

The fame of Krishna spread throughout the land, and people trekked hundreds of miles merely to see this godlike youth whom everyone referred to as Sri Krishna. When the tyrant ruler Kamsa heard the stories of Sri Krishna, he began to worry. The prophecy of the Goddess Katyana still troubled his sleep at nights, and perhaps this Krishna was a menace that should be got rid of. So Kamsa sent an envoy to Brindavan with an invitation for Sri Krishna to be a welcome guest at the ruler’s palace.

Kamsa rubbed his hands with delight when Sri Krishna accepted the invitation and made devious plans to kill this person who was beginning to become so powerful in the kingdom.

When Krishna arrived at the palace, Kamsa, all smiles, hurried forward to greet his guest, only to be met with a piercing look from the youth-like figure which stopped Kamsa in his tracks. After a while, Krishna spoke. “I am the son of Devaki,” he said coldly. “It was destined that I should slay you.”

Snatching a sword from one of the guards, Krishna slew the tyrant with one blow, and as Kamsa toppled to his death, a new life of love and understanding dawned over the kingdom.

Krishna ordered that Devaki and Vasudav be released from their imprisonment, and the grim fortress be razed to the ground. Soon afterwards, Vasudav acceded to the throne, and when the crowning ceremony ended, Sri Krishna quietly left the palace and returned to Brindavan.