8 Fascinating Stories of Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna is revered by and is very dear to Hindus. He is a central figure of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna is one of the many incarnations of Lord Vishnu. He is often portrayed as a young boy playing the flute or a baby eating butter. He was born in prison to Vasudeva and Devaki. He was their eighth child and was without the knowledge of anyone smuggled out of the prison because his uncle, Kansa would have killed him at birth. He was raised by Nanda and Yashoda in Gokula. There are many tales associated with him. Here are a few fascinating stories of Lord Krishna –

Krishna lifting Govardhan Hill

The people of Vrindavana were preparing for a great puja for Lord Indra to please him for giving them abundant rainfall when required. When Krishna (a young boy at that time) came to know of this, he went to his father Nanda who was the leader of that village and said that Govardhan Hill deserved their worship and thanks more than Indra. He argued that Govardhan was the one to provide them with clean water and air as well as herbs that had healing properties. He was able to convince Nanda and the village elders. So they offered their worship to Govardhan instead. Lord Indra saw everything that had happened and got angry by the fact that the people of Vrindavana had listened to a mere child and believed in what he had said. So in order to teach the people a lesson, he sent a huge storm to destroy the village. Krishna protected all the animals and the people from this storm by lifting the Govardhan Hill with one finger. Everyone remained safe there till the rain stopped. Indra realized who the boy was and apologized for what he had done.

Krishan kills the witch Putana

Kansa called upon Putana a demoness who could change her form. He told her to kill all the infants born in Gokul. She took the form of a beautiful woman and filled her breasts with poison. She started killing the babies in Gokul one by one. Then she reached Nandaraja’s place and saw baby Krishna there and took him for feeding. Krishna sucked the life out of her and killed her. Upon dying she went back to her original huge form of a demoness. The other people found her huge body with baby Krishna on top. Putana’s soul attained liberation because of her act of providing Lord Krishna with her breast milk.

Krishna kills Snake demon Aghasura

One day Krishna and the other boys were playing when they encountered a huge cave. This cave was Putana’s demon brother Aghasura who was waiting there in the form of a huge snake. His mouth was the cave entrance. Hot air and fish like smell was coming from the cave. The boys became curious and went in. Krishna knew who it really was but after sometime he followed them in. The demon was waiting for this moment and as soon as Krishna entered he snapped his jaws shut. When that happened Krishna expanded his body and choked the demon to death. He showed his grace by saving his friends and providing liberation to the demon.

Lord Krishna Breaks Duryodhana’s Yagna

Before the great Mahabharata war, Duryodhana wanted to do a yagna to ensure his victory in the war. So he asked Sahdev to give him the best date. Sahdev was a great astrologer and did his profession with great dedication. So even though Duryodhana was an enemy he helped him. He told him to conduct the Yagna on New moon day. This upset the Pandavas and Krishna because a yagna on the new moon day would guarantee Duryodhana’s victory. In order to stop this Krishna started doing Pitru tarpana a day before the new moon. When the sun and the moon heard of this, they came to Lord Krishna for an explanation as to why he was doing the tarpana today instead of the next day. To this Krishna said that the new moon day was the day the sun and the moon came together and they were together now in front of him. So this was the new moon day. Due to this Duryodhana was unable to perform the yagna on the right day and Krishna ensured that he wouldn’t win.

Lord Krishna and his 16,108 wives

Kirshna had eight principal queen consorts often called the Ashtabharya(s). The most popular list, found in the Bhagavata Purana, includes: Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Kalindi, Mitravinda, Nagnajiti, Bhadra and Lakshmana. Besides the Ashtabharya, Krishna had 16,000 or 16,100 junior wives. The story goes like this – Narakasura was a demon and the son of mother earth. He kidnapped 16100 women and held them in his captivity. Krishna and his wife Sathyabhama went to the demon and fought a fierce battle. Many demons were killed in this battle. In the end Narakasura was killed by Sathyabhama (He had a curse that he could only be killed by his mother. Sathyabhama was considered the reincarnation of mother earth). After the battle Krishna asked the 16100 women to return back to their homes. But they refused saying that they won’t be accepted their as they had been in the captivity of a man. When he asked them what they wanted to do, they expressed their desire to marry Krishna. So he fulfilled their wish by expanding himself into many bodies and marrying the 16100 women at the same auspicious time. He built a beautiful home for each one of them and created 16100 forms of himself to live with each one of them.

Lord Krishna and the birth of Parikshit

After the great Kurukshetra war, Aswatthama was grieved to find his father, Drona, lying dead on the war field. In his rage, he went and killed all the Pandava sons ( Draupadi and Her Five Children – the Upapandavas). When Arjuna came to know of this, he went to kill Aswatthama. When he saw Arjuna coming he became scared and sought the Brahmashirsha Astra and released it saying the words- let there be no Pandava. Lord Krishna saw this and saved Arjuna. Aswatthama re-aimed the Astra at Arjuna’s pregnant daughter-in-law Uttara. When she heard this she ran to Krishna and begged him to save her child’s life. Lord Krishna agreed and protected the unborn child by entering the womb and warding off the Astra. He remained there, looking over the infant, till it was born. He named the child Parikshit when he was born and he went on to inherit the kingdom.

Lord Krishna and Bhishma Pitamah

In the initial days of the Mahabharata war, Bhishma Pitamah was in charge of the Kauravas. Duryodhana was angry that the Pandavas where not dead even under the leadership of Bhishma. Duryodhana accused him of being biased towards the Pandavas. This hurt Bhishma Pitamah and he made a vow that by the next evening the Pandavas will be dead or he will resign his post as their leader. Krishna overheard this and he knew the strength of Pitamah’s words. He knew that if nothing was done the Pandavas would die tomorrow. So he went to Draupadi and told her that she would become a widow tomorrow. Upon hearing this she asked Krishna to help. So Krishna took the form of a farmer and asked her to come with him to the tent of Bhishma Pitamah. He told her to say certain things to him. She agreed and they went. There was heavy security around the tent. Only Sanyasis and married women were allowed to enter (it is said that a sanyasi or a married women never spy hence they were not a danger). So Draupadi entered and Bhishma Pitamah was meditating that time and his eyes were closed. She asked him for his blessings and he told her ‘Saubhagyawati Bhava’. Then he opened his eyes to see who it was and realized what he had done. So in this way, using his cleverness Krishna ensured that the Pandavas did not die.

Curses and death of Lord Krishna

Lord Krishna died due to the culmination of several curses in his life. The first one was Lord Ram killing Bali from a hidden spot in the tree even though Bali had not committed any deceitful act against Lord Rama. Lord Rama accepted his mistake and granted him the right to kill him in their next life. Sage Durvasa also cursed Krishna. He had asked him to apply kheer all over his body. Krishna did not apply it on his feet. So in anger Durvasa cursed him that he will always have weak, unprotected legs. Also, after the battle at Kurukshetra, Gandhari saw the dead bodies of her sons and called upon Krishna. She blamed him for their deaths saying that he could have stopped it if he had wanted to. Krishna laughed upon hearing this. This angered Gandhari and she cursed him that he and his entire Yadava clan will die after a period of 36 years. Krishna smiled and said ‘Tathastu’. He knew that a time will come when the Yadava clan will have to die as they will become undisciplined and manner less. The curse came true eventually. In the end after the death of the entire Yadava clan including Krishna’s brother Balarama, Krishna was sitting in the forest consumed with grief. He was killed by the arrow from hunter Jara, who mistook his leg for a dear. Jara was the reincarnation of Bali from previous birth. Krishna died due to the arrow in his leg because of the curse from Durvasa that his legs will always be weak and unprotected. This tells us an important thing- No one escapes Karma.