Reading Notes: Krishna, Part A

Statue of Krishna

When Krishna was born his father, Vasudeva, found a way to protect Krishna from his Uncle, the king Kamsa, who had killed all of Vasudeva's other children. While the rest of the kingdom slept, Vasudeva took his son to the village of Gokul, a village of gopis, or cowhearders, and switched him with the newborn daughter of a gopi couple named Yasoda and Nanda. Vasudeva then returned to the jail where he and his wife, Devaki, were being held with the newborn gopi girl. 

Krishna was raised by Yasoda and Nanda in their village. As he grew up he was loved by the villagers, but he and his friends also played pranks on them constantly. Their favorite prank was to break open the containers of butter and curd that women carried on their heads. This activity earned Krishna the nickname maakhan-chor or the butter thief.

One day Krishna's older brother, Balarama, informed Yasoda that Krishna was acting up again by eating mud. When she went outside to find out what was going on, she demanded that Krishna show her what was in his mouth. Krishna reluctantly complied and opened his mouth to show his mother what he was eating. Yasoda looked inside and instead of mud saw the entire cosmos within her son's mouth. Yasoda saw everything in the universe, how it all fit together, and the strings connecting it all. This experience made Yasoda realize that her son was the Brahman. The Brahman is everything that exists, the force causes change, and the ultimate truth of the world.

Bibliography.
Krishna by Epified. Source

Image Source.
By Vinoth Chandar from Chennai, India [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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