Divine love, dharma, liberation, and yogic wisdom; the supreme protector who upholds righteousness across the ages.
Who Krishna is
Kṛṣṇa is the eighth avatāra of Viṣṇu and, for Vaiṣṇavas of the Bhāgavata and Gauḍīya traditions, Svayaṃ Bhagavān - the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself, the source of all other avatāras (kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.28). He is the cowherd of Vṛndāvana whose flute draws all beings, the prince of Dvārakā, and the charioteer who delivered the Bhagavad Gītā to Arjuna on the field of Kurukṣetra. Born of Vasudeva and Devakī yet raised by Nanda and Yaśodā, he unites in one person the intimacy of human love and the majesty of the Absolute.
What Krishna embodies
Kṛṣṇa embodies pūrṇa-avatāra, the complete descent of the Divine, and is identified with Para-Brahman, the imperishable ground of being beyond the manifest and unmanifest (Gītā 7.7, 15.18 puruṣottama). He is the tattva of ānanda and līlā - reality as conscious, self-delighting play - in whom transcendence (aiśvarya) and sweetness (mādhurya) are perfectly joined. As the speaker of the Gītā he is the personal form of the impersonal Brahman, the goal of bhakti, jñāna, and karma alike, the indweller (antaryāmin) seated in the heart of all.
Kṛṣṇa is born as the eighth child of Devakī and Vasudeva of the Yadu clan in Mathurā, to destroy the tyrant Kaṃsa, who had imprisoned them after a prophecy that Devakī's eighth son would slay him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10; Viṣṇu Purāṇa; Harivaṃśa). On the night of his birth (Kṛṣṇa-janmāṣṭamī) the prison locks open, the guards sleep, and Vasudeva carries the infant across the flooding Yamunā - its waters parting, Śeṣa shielding him with his hoods - to Gokula, exchanging him for the newborn daughter of Nanda and Yaśodā. A widely told tradition holds that this infant girl is Yogamāyā, who slips from Kaṃsa's grasp as he tries to dash her down and announces his doom. Variant emphases differ: the Bhāgavata stresses his self-manifestation before his parents as four-armed Viṣṇu (with conch, discus, mace, lotus) before assuming infant form, whereas the Harivaṃśa and Viṣṇu Purāṇa frame the descent more as Viṣṇu placing two hairs, one black (Kṛṣṇa) and one white (Balarāma), into the wombs of Devakī and Rohiṇī.
When: Dvāpara-yuga, at its junction with Kali-yuga; traditionally placed at the close of the Dvāpara age. As an aṃśa-pūrṇa of Viṣṇu he is also anādi - beginningless and eternal.
Parents
Devakī and Vasudeva (birth parents); Yaśodā and Nanda (foster parents of Gokula)
Consort
Rādhā (in Vṛndāvana, the supreme beloved of Gauḍīya theology); Rukmiṇī and Satyabhāmā chief among the aṣṭa-bhāryā (eight principal queens) at Dvārakā, with 16,108 wives in all
Children
Pradyumna (by Rukmiṇī, an aṃśa of Kāmadeva), Sāmba (by Jāmbavatī), and many sons; grandson Aniruddha
Siblings
Balarāma (Baladeva, elder brother, aṃśa of Śeṣa), Subhadrā (sister), and Yogamāyā
Vahana (mount)
Garuḍa (as Viṣṇu); his chariot at Kurukṣetra bore the banner of Hanumān (Kapidhvaja)
Kṛṣṇa is depicted with a dark blue-black or rain-cloud (megha-śyāma) complexion, signifying the infinite, clad in golden-yellow silk (pītāmbara) with a peacock-feather crown (mayūra-mukuṭa) and a vaijayantī garland of forest flowers. His most beloved form is the Tribhaṅga (thrice-bent) pose, standing with legs crossed, playing the bāṃsurī (flute) at his lips. He bears the Kaustubha gem and Śrīvatsa mark on his chest; in his fuller Viṣṇu aspect he holds the Pāñcajanya conch, Sudarśana cakra, Kaumodakī mace, and lotus. As Pārtha-sārathi he holds the reins and a whip, and as the child Bāla-Kṛṣṇa he crawls holding a ball of butter (navanīta).
The infant and child form of Gokula - the butter-thief (Mākhana-cora) whose mischief (līlā) and the vision of the cosmos in his mouth reveal divinity in the guise of a child. Worshipped intimately in vātsalya (parental love).
The cowherd flute-player of Vṛndāvana whose music summons the gopīs to the Rāsa-līlā. The supreme form of mādhurya-bhāva, the sweetness of divine love, central to Gauḍīya and Vallabha devotion.
Arjuna's charioteer at Kurukṣetra and speaker of the Bhagavad Gītā; the friend (sakhā) and guide who reveals the path of dharma, yoga, and surrender.
The cosmic universal form shown to Arjuna in Gītā chapter 11 - all worlds, gods, and time itself contained in the body of the Lord, terrifying and all-consuming (kāla).
The majestic king of Dvārakā, lord of the Yādavas, embodying aiśvarya (sovereign power); worshipped as Raṇchoḍ and as Jagannātha at Purī.
When Kṛṣṇa persuaded the cowherds of Vraja to honour Mount Govardhana and the land rather than perform the customary sacrifice to Indra, the offended Indra loosed torrential storms to drown them. Kṛṣṇa lifted the entire mountain on the little finger of his left hand and held it aloft for seven days as an umbrella, sheltering all the people and cattle. Indra, humbled, bowed before him, and Kṛṣṇa took the name Govinda and Giridhārī (Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.24–27).
On a full-moon autumn night the sound of Kṛṣṇa's flute drew the gopīs of Vṛndāvana to the forest by the Yamunā, where he multiplied himself so that each gopī danced with him alone. The circular Rāsa dance is read by the tradition not as mortal romance but as the soul's supreme longing for and union with God, the highest expression of bhakti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.29–33).
As the great Mahābhārata war begins, Arjuna is paralysed by grief at the sight of kinsmen arrayed against him and lays down his bow. Kṛṣṇa, his charioteer, counsels him through eighteen chapters on the eternal soul, selfless action (niṣkāma-karma), devotion (bhakti), and ultimate surrender - sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṃ śaraṇaṃ vraja - and reveals his cosmic form, restoring Arjuna to his duty.
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
oṃ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
The Dvādaśākṣara (twelve-syllable) mūla-mantra of Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva, drawn from the Bhāgavata tradition; the foremost Vaiṣṇava mantra of surrender to the Lord, used in japa and worship.
हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे । हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे ॥
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare / hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare
The Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra of sixteen names, recorded in the Kali-Santaraṇa Upaniṣad and central to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism; held to be the great means of deliverance in Kali-yuga.
Kṛṣṇa is worshipped through bhakti above all - nāma-saṃkīrtana (congregational chanting of his names), japa of his mantras, reading of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Bhagavad Gītā, and seva to his mūrti as a beloved person dressed, fed, and serenaded daily. Favourite offerings include butter and mākhana-miśrī, tulasī leaves (without which no offering to him is complete), pañcāmṛta, and sweets such as the chappan-bhoga; the basil plant Tulasī is sacred to him. Devotion ranges across the bhāvas - servitude (dāsya), friendship (sakhya), parental love (vātsalya), and conjugal love (mādhurya).
The teaching
Kṛṣṇa teaches that the eternal self (ātman) is never born and never dies, and that liberation comes through performing one's dharma without attachment to results (niṣkāma-karma), offering all action to God. Above jñāna and disciplined yoga he sets bhakti - loving surrender to the personal Lord - as the surest and most accessible path, culminating in his promise that whoever takes refuge in him is freed from all sin and fear (Gītā 18.66). His life unites the highest metaphysics with the sweetness of love, showing that the Absolute is not only to be known but to be adored and intimately loved.
