2 September: Krishna

Janmashtami or Gokulashtami, is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Krishna. In 2018, it falls on 2 September. Here are 10 facts about Krishna.

1. He is often pictured with Blue skin, although one translation of his name means ‘black’ or ‘dark’, suggesting he might have actually had dark skin. The blue hue may come from the fact that blue is often associated with spiritual energy.
2. He is a form of the Hindu god Vishnu, or an avatar – the original meaning of the word. He was born to the sister of an evil king, Kamsa, who had overthrown his father. When Kamsa heard a prophecy that his sister's eighth child would kill him, he put his sister, Devaki, and her husband, Vasudeva, in prison and every time she had a baby, he'd kill it. Devaki and Vasudeva prayed to Vishnu for help, and the eighth baby was Vishnu in human form – Krishna. Vasudeva managed to smuggle the child out of prison, with some divine assistance whereby a sea parts just for him, and swapped him for a female child. Kamsa tried to kill the little girl, but she transformed into a goddess. Kamsa kept on looking and sending demons to kill the baby Krishna, but he defeated them all and survived.
3. As a child, he was nicknamed the Butter thief, because he used to steal butter.
4. In art, Krishna is often pictured with pots of butter, peacock feathers and a flute. The peacock feathers may be there simply because they are beautiful and associated with nobility. The flute is there because Krishna played the flute. As well as playing Music for all the young girls in his village, and also the cattle, and delighting them, the flute is said to play the sound of “OM”. Another possible symbolism is that the flute represents a human Heart which needs to be emptied so Krishna can fill it with his breath.
5. He also has a conch shell which, when he blows it, is said to send powerful reverberations all over the world.
6. Krishna has 108 names, one of which is 'Mohan', which means 'bewitching' and 'a charmer'. Some of this other best known names are Gopal, Govind, Devakinandan, Shyam, Ghanshyam, Hari and Girdhari.
7. His love life was interesting. He had eight principal wives, Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Nagnajiti, Kalindi, Mitravinda, Bhadra and Lakshmana, who were commonly known as 'Ashtabharya'. Each of them bore him ten sons, but his most beloved consort was a woman he wasn't married to, Radha. She was one of the girls he played the flute for as a young man. Their relationship is a common theme of Hindu poetry, and was even used in a 2010 Supreme Court decision to make pre-marital sex lawful. If living together without being married was good enough for Krishna and Radha, the court argued, then it was good enough for young Indians in the 21^st century. Krishna had 16,100 wives aside from the principal eight. These were women which he rescued from a demon Narakasura who had forcibly kept them in captivity. None of their families wanted them back, so Krishna married them all to protect their honour. It is said he never slept with any of them.
8. He is a central character in the important Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita.
9. He once brought someone back from the dead - his Guru Sandipani Muni's son to be exact. He and a companion, Balarama, asked their guru what he would like as payment for giving them knowledge. He said he wanted his son, who had disappeared during an ocean voyage, brought back from the dead. When they went to the place where he'd disappeared, they discovered that the guru's son was being held prisoner by a demon who lived in a conch shell. They took the shell to Yama, God of Death, and asked him to bring the boy back. The guru got his son back and Krishna kept the conch – the same one mentioned in fact #5.
10. Krishna died as a result of a curse by an angry queen, Gandhari, who had lost all 100 of her sons in the Kurukshetra war. Krishna went to her to offer his condolences, but that wasn't enough for her. She put a curse on him to the effect that, in 36 years, he would perish along with the Yadu dynasty. Krishna didn't like the Yadu dynasty much and was totally in agreement that they should be wiped out, and if it meant he would die too, it was a price he was willing to pay to get rid of them; so he replied, "Tathastu" (So be it).

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