The Bhagavata contains lot of stories about incarnations of God. One of them, namely that of incarnation as Krishna is what I am going to narrate in this series.
Bhagavata depicts quite a dramatic prelude to the ‘God coming to earth’.
Apparently, the earth was overburdened by wicked people who were tormenting the innocent and the gullible. Righteousness was at the brink of extinction. There were tears in the eyes of earth, as if, at the sorry state of its inhabitants.
The story goes that the earth took the form of a meek cow and rushed to the heavens seeking for help. With tears in her eyes she pleaded the divine beings in the heaven, to somehow rescue the innocent people on earth by getting rid of wicked people. The divine beings were very much for helping her. But they by themselves could not do it. So, they went to God praying for help.
The omniscient God knew why they had come to him even before they explained anything to him. With a smiling face, God told them that he would take an Avatar on earth in human form and rescue the earthlings. He advised the divine beings to also take human forms and wait for him there to watch the divine drama.
That was the dramatic beginning, preparing the stage for the God coming to earth in the form of Krishna.
The place was Mathura, a small Kingdom in Northern India, ruled by a King by name Ugrasena. The time was roughly 5000+ years ago.
Ugrasena had a brother Devaka. Devaka had several daughters and one of his daughters, namely Devaki was slated to be the would be mother of Krishna. Devaki got married to Vasudeva. The marriage took place in a grand manner with all royal pomp and show.
Ugrasena had a son Kamsa who loved his cousin sister Devaki very much. To show his love for his sister, Kamsa himself drove the golden chariot carrying the marriage procession of Devaki and Vasudeva. Everything was going so smooth and nice. But all of a sudden…
There was a voice from the skies which laughed at Kamsa. The voice said
“You stupid fellow, you are driving the chariot of your death! Better be aware that the 8th child of Devaki is going to kill you!”
Kamsa was shocked. He could not believe that his own sister can be a cause for his end. Being a wicked man, he did not waste anymore time. He pulled down Devaki from the chariot gripping her hair. He pulled out his sword and was about to sever her head.
Vasudeva, Devaki’s newly married husband, was watching with shock. But he could do very little in front of a tyrant like Kamsa. But he had to do something. So, he pleaded to Kamsa, not to take such a hasty action.
Vasudeva reminded Kamsa that Devaki was his beloved sister who was so young that she was almost like his own daughter. Besides, killing a woman is considered to be the most heinous sin. Afterall what is her fault? She never did anything to harm Kamsa. So, it does not make sense to take such a stern action against her.
But Kamsa did not relent. For him, his life was more precious than any right or wrong. He thought that if he got rid of Devaki, there was no way she could give birth to his death.
Vasudev, tried other ways to pacify Kamsa. Vasudeva tried to convince Kamsa that if the destiny had decided to end Kamsa, none could save him. If whatever the voice declared was going to be true, it would very well happen no matter what Kamsa did. What if the Voice made a false prediction? Kamsa would not only incur sin by killing his own sister as well as a helpless girl, but also would be condemned by his own subjects for the dastardly thing he has done. Nobody was going to pardon him. Even if he survived, he would fall in the eyes of everyone. So, it was foolish to take such a hasty step.
But Kamsa was not prepared to listen to any sane advice. The fear of death had brought out his real colors. He was a very wicked man by nature.
As a last resort, Vasudeva promised Kamsa that he would handover all the children born to Devaki as soon as they were born. That way, Kamsa could kill those children before they could ever pose a threat to his life.
That sounded sensible to Kamsa. He agreed, and let go trembling Devaki.
Vasudeva and Devaki reached their palace, unhurt. In due course of time, Devaki gave birth to 6 boys one after the other. As promised, Vasudeva took the newborns to Kamsa to do whatever he wished to do. But strangely, the arrogant Kamsa did not harm the kids. He felt that only the 8th kid could harm him. Why then kill these innocent kids? Better wait for the eighth. He spared their lives.
But these 6 kids were actually cursed demigods in their previous life. They were cursed to take human birth, but with a promise that they can comeback once they take birth. So, they had to go back. It was again our divine sage Narada, about whom I talked about in the beginning, who intervened to help these cursed demigods.
Narada went to Kamsa and convinced him that even though the voice from sky had predicted death from 8th child, any child could be eighth depending on where you count from – beginning or from last! If Devaki finally gave birth to 8 children, her first child would be the eight, counting from the last 😉 Stupid Kamsa was fooled. He at once summoned Vasudeva and got back all the six children and beheaded them mercilessly. The demigods got liberated from their human birth and Narada had done his clever job!
After Narada left the place, Kamsa started getting more suspicious. He suspected everyone. He started torturing all relatives of Vasudeva’s as well as his own. He even imprisoned his own father Ugrasena. Many from Vasudeva’s clan fled the place and took shelter in various places and started living in disguise.
Vasudeva had other wives among whom Rohini was the most prominent. Vasudeva sent her stealthily to Gokul, a tiny hamlet of cowherds headed by Vasudeva’s friend Nandagopa. NandaGopa and his people were basically supplying milk to the palace. Vasudeva feared threat from Kamsa anytime. But he himself and Devaki could not escape from Kamsa who was keeping a close watch on them.
Devaki became pregnant again – for the seventh time. There was no reason why that child should die. So, God sent his feminine power namely Yoga Maya with a secret mission. Yoga Maya is supposed to extract the fetus from Devaki’s womb and implant it Rohini’s womb. As I said earlier, Rohini was another wife of Vasudeva who was secretly residing in Gokul.
Yoga Maya did exactly the way she was instructed. The fetus was transferred to Rohini’s womb. Rohini became the surrogate mother to Devaki’s 7th child who later on came to be called Sankarshana – meaning one who was extracted. He was also called Rama since he had a pleasing personality. Since he became very strong, people also called him Balarama – powerful Rama.
What happed to Devaki?
The news spread that Devaki had a miscarriage! Kamsa believed it without suspecting.
Days passed. It was time for the coming of God as Devaki’s 8th child.
God entering an earthly woman’s womb is not an ordinary event. There was palpable jubilation everywhere – as if the entire earth was rejoicing in anticipation. There was divine glow on Devaki’s face. She was ecstatically blissful. She was all smiles, totally forgetting whatever wrong that has gone on with her. She was going to be a divine mother. She probably had an inkling of that.
Kamsa could not miss this change that was going on in Devaki. He was alerted. He immediately imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva and kept strong vigil around them. None could even visit them.
But who could stop the divine beings? They stealthily came one after the other to wish Devaki. They also thanked God for finally having decided to come to earth in human form. At last, earth’s troubles are going to end. The wicked are going to be rooted out. The divine beings praised God’s glory.
Sree Krishna Govinda HarE Muraari
Sree Natha NaraayaNa VaasudEva
What happened next? Wait for the next episode 😉
Very interesting and wonderful pre- birth stories of Krishna - some things i had missed for which i got the answer from this very nicely knit story - readers like me will wait eagerly fir the next episode of Krishnas birth - it is amazing write up.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Comments like this strengthen me to give more. I will try to make them more interesting and also entertaining. Don't miss the next episode which will be very important.
DeleteGot to know many interesting facts that I was not aware of.The echo-effect of Ashariravani is very nice!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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