Bits of life

S-1 Words-2000

Krishna’s story-

After the birth of the eighth child, Kamsa was informed and the asura thundered that he would surely kill it. He hurried to Devaki and Vasudeva’s prison cell, snatched the child from his sister’s arms and raised his arm to dash it against the prison wall. The child disappeared into the wide blue sky and assumed a human voice and spoke thus to Kamsa.

“You fool! The person who will kill you was born already. Beware and fear his arrival at your palace gates. He will definitely defeat you in the war and kill you, you sinner!”

Kamsa was beside himself with anger. His asura nature started manifesting itself. His every deed and every thought indicated his demonic features. Now he concentrated his efforts on trying to catch that baby boy who was born to kill him. He sent his spies to various corners of Mathura in order to find Devaki’s real son. Soon his efforts were rewarded. His spies found several newborn babies in the villages.

The birth of the baby boy to Yashoda and Nanda was celebrated in a big way. There were songs and dances and decorations all over the village. Everybody loved the little boy. He was named “Krishna”. He had several other names like Nandalala, which means the son of Nanda, Govinda which means the care giver of cows, Mukunda, which means the flute player and many others besides.

In Repally the baby boy who replaced the girl by Yashoda’s side was growing to the delight of both the parents and the people of the village. The main job of the village population was to look after the cows they own besides those who grew crops, the farmers. During the day, most of the men folk and a number of women worked in the fields. They were agricultural laborers.

One day a woman entered the village of Repally. She was young and beautiful. She carried a basket of odd things like those that the milk maids carry. She was not paid much attention because women like her were a common sight around Repally. By and by the infants started dying, the cause of which was unknown to the people. The parents of the dead kids were beyond consolation.

The strange woman entered the compound of Nanda on a certain day. She threw furtive looks around and watched for the people who might be observing her. Then entered the room in which little Krishna slept in a cradle. She lifted the infant into her arms and stealthily crept out of the house of Nanda. She took the child into the fields and then to the deserted parts of the outskirts of the village. What she had done afterwards came as a shock to the people who were working in the fields around cite. She shed her beautiful form and assumed what looked like her real appearance. She was an asura woman or demoness.

She sat down on the ground and started to breast feed the baby Krishna. After a while she fell on the ground and died. People realized that she was a demoness and ran from there in fear. In the meanwhile Yashoda and Nanda went home. To their alarm and anxiety they found that the cradle was empty. They ran to every corner of the house searching and calling his name. but the baby was not be found. As ran out of the house still calling for him, some villagers confronted them and took them to where Krishna was found by them. By the time they reached the place where the horrible woman lay lifeless, little Krishna was playing on top of her. Yashoda and Nanda felt as though their heart and soul were put together again. They ran to him, lifted him off the huge body of the demoness and kissed him and took him back to their home. The whole village heaved a sigh of relief that the boy was now safe and sound.

Since they seemed unsafe in Repally, the family of Nanda decided to move to Brindavan, another village away from Repally. The residents of Brindavan were as simple and good natured as the folks in Repally. They welcomed Nanda and Yashoda and Krishna happily and with all their heart. Life in Brindavan was as pleasant as it was in Repally. Infant Krishna grew like a young sapling. He was loved by all, more so by his mother, Yashoda.

Once as a young lad, Krishna started eating mud. The woman who saw him doing it went straight to his mother and Yashoda went forth and caught him eating mud. When she asked him why he was doing that, Krishna turned his head as if saying he did not eating mud. Then his mother asked him to open his mouth. When he opened his mouth, she saw the universe in it. She fell into a faint and when she woke up all she saw was the little boy’s mouth was a little mud.

Young Krishna turned out to be a lover of eating butter and cream. He would go into houses around and get their pots of butter and eat it up sharing with friends. While some did not bother about his acts, there are a few who went to Yashoda and complained against him. Complaints multiplied and Yashoda would have a showdown with him. Krishna would argue with her and somehow convince her that he was innocent and not a liar.

Krishna’s fight with Kaliya-
Once, Krishna and his cowherd friends were playing on the shores of the Kaliya stream. The name Kaliya was attained because a thousand hooded snake named Kaliya took residence in the stream along with his family of two wives and hoards of other snakes. As a result the stream was out of reach for the villagers. Even if someone dared to use the stream they would be dead within no time as the snake and its clan members would harm them with poison spewing out of their fangs. So no one would go near to it for fear of being bitten. Under such circumstances, when the the cowherds and little Krishna aged around five or six years were playing, their ball fell into the Kaliya lake. The ball belonged to one of the boys named Sreerama. He grumbled that because of Krishna he lost the ball and it went and fell at such a place where no one could go and fetch it. Krishna took it as a challenge and went straight to the lake and jumped into it without much thinking. The moment he did it, the boys panicked and went to Yashoda and Nanda’s house to tell them about it. Soon the crowd gathered around the lake and kept crying the name of Krishna. Yashoda was inconsolable and so was Nanda. They kept their eyes fixed on the lake. They crossed their fingers and continued to wait for the little Krishna to emerge from the lake.

Hours passed and still there was no sight of Krishna.
What had happened to Krishna?

When he jumped into the water and went few lengths below, he saw a hooded snake lounging on the riverbed. Krishna stamped on the tail of the snake and immediately it started flushing venom. The boy smiled and stamped again on the snake. It awoke completely and wrapped him in the coils of its tail. Unafraid, Krishna had once again stamped on the coils and soon he started using more strength and got the snake raise all its hoods. It squirted venom on to the body of Krishna and the venom had enveloped the body of the child like a veil. Yet nothing had happened to him. But with both of his feet he started pounding on the snake and soon blood flowed out of the opening of each of its hoods. Kaliya and his wives appeared in submission to the Lord Krishna. They realized that it was not a mere child whom they could kill and continue with their command of the human domain. They recognized that it was Narayana incarnated as yet another avatar, the famous Krishna avatar. Krishna had also come to be known as “Jagadguru” which means world teacher. Buddha and Jesus Christ also are known as the world teachers.

About Yugas and Avatars-

The vedic measure of time is basically, a yuga which means an eon.
While Sree Rama was the avatar of the previous eon named Treta Yuga(eon), Krishna was the avatar that came into being during the eon called Dwapara Yuga. The eon before the Treta Yuga, was called Kruta Yuga when creation was still in progress. During that period Dharma or righteousness was walking on all four legs. There was complete happiness and ethical behavior among the creatures of the universe. In the Treta Yuga when Sree Rama was born and ruled, dharma was supposed to have walked on three legs. The shadow of evil started emerging despite the fact that it was annihilated by the morally and spiritually strong people. It was also the age when demons and devils were a powerful entity.

During the Dwapara Yuga, dharma had taken further beating and slid to walk on two legs. Selfishness and fraud increased. Jealousy and envy were dominant among the human beings. There was thirst for power and wealth. Corruption too was seen as among the characters of the Maha Bharata.

And the last of eons, that is Kali Yuga, the time of our own societies, dharma is all but dead. It limped on one leg. I am sure the citizens of the world had enough encounters with adharma or lack of morals to believe in the image of the limping figure of dharma. Today it is still kept on one leg due to that rare section of humanity who still practice principles of morality and ethics and walk straight in the paths of much beleaguered societies.

In the Vedas and in Manu smriti, one can read of the span of each of the above yugas. It records the code of Manu.

To continue with the story of Krishna-
When child Krishna came out of the Kaliya lake standing and dancing on the hoods of the serpent Kaliya, the people of Brindavan were thrilled. They heaved a huge sigh of relief at the awe inspiring sight. For Yashoda it was a life saving sight.
As Krishna grew into adolescence, his popularity as a melodious flute player too grew. He thrilled the people of Brindavan to a point beyond the conscious world. They, in particular the women knew what a pure spiritual experience was by listening and absorbing each note that Krishna played on his flute. He was a lover of playing flute. From this quality he was called “Mukunda” by the people of Bridavan and later by his devotees through the ages.
Among his lovers of music and pure devotees was a girl named Radha. Whenever she heard the flute being played by Krishna she would leave whatever work she was doing and go running in the direction from which the music flowed. She submerged her soul and body in the enveloping waves of music created by Krishna.

Krishna refused to let butter to be taken to Mathura, the capital of Kamsa’s domain-
Kamsa levied taxes on the people who included the people of Brindavan. Since they had no wealth to pay the tax, Kamsa asked them to bring fresh butter from their village to his palace.
Krishna instigated them to rebel against this unlawful act of Kamsa. So they stopped taking butter to Kamsa’s palace. He argued with the heads of his village that the king who never took care of the village during disaster and drought had no right to get butter from them, no right for charging taxes. Villagers paid heed to Krishna’s words, which to them sounded wise and appropriate. So they took no butter to Kamsa’s place.
The reaction of Kamsa was as expected. He was