~~~HAPPY JANMASHTAMI~~~

Janmashtami Festival

Krishna Bal Leela

Lord Krishna is one of the most loved and adored Gods of Hindu religion. The foremost reason of the glorification and reverence of Bhagwan Krishna is his Bal Leela. Bal Leela depicts various episodes between the period of his birth till the age of ten. Lord Krishna right from the time of his birth displayed the signs of his divine being.

Episode of Killing of Demoness Putana
According to legend, King Kansa wanted to kill Krishna as it was predicted that he would grow up to kill the King. So Demoness Putana went about killing all the male infants in Mathura and other neighboring towns in the move to kill the new born Lord Krishna. She took the form of a beautiful woman and smeared her breast with poison. While roaming from one town to another, she reached Nand baba's house, and saw Bal Krishna lying in the cradle. She then fled with the child and fed Lord Krishna her milk in the vain hope of killing him. Lord Krishna kept smiling and drinking the milk and after a while Putana shrieked with pain. It is said that while sucking the milk, Lord Krishna sucked her life thus killing her.

Episode of Overturning the Cart by Lord Krishna
As per a folklore, during one of the birth ceremonies of Lord Krishna, Mata Yashoda kept fast asleep Krishna under a cart full of milk . Lord Krishna started crying for milk after getting up, but Mata Yashoda didn't hear his cries so Lord Krishna kicked the cart with his feet and overturned it. The pots were shattered and milk started flowing into his mouth. When the story of overturned cart was narrated to Mata Yashoda, she could not believe it.

Episode of Displaying the Cosmos to Mother Yashoda
Legend has it that one day Mata Yashoda was cuddling Lord Krishna and playing with him. The child lying on his mother's lap yawned and opened his mouth. Mata Yashoda saw the whole universe in his mouth, the sun, the moon and all the stars, the sky, mountains, rivers, islands, oceans, all the continents, all living as well as non living beings.

Episode of Killing of Demon Trinivarta
It is believed that King Kansa sent one of his loyal servant, Demon Trinivarta to kill Lord Krishna. The demon took the form of a whirlwind and carried the child away. As soon as the demon reached the sky, he found it difficult to proceed further on account of the heaviness of the child. Unable to bear his own weight as well as the weight of the child, demon Trinivarta fell on the ground and met his fate. His took his original form after the death and Mata Yashoda was astonished to see her child lying on the dead demon.

Episode with the Fruit Seller
According to another famous folklore, Lord Krishna went to a woman fruit seller and asked her to give him some fruits in exchange for a handful of grains. The woman took the handful of grains from Lord Krishna and put in her basket and left. On reaching home, the woman was astonished to see her basket full of precious stones and gems instead of grains.

Episode of Omnipresent Lord Krishna
Bal Gopal was very mischievous and found great pleasure in playing pranks on gopis. He would steal their milk, butter, break their earthen pots to get butter. One day Lord Krishna, broke all the earthen pots of a gopi in order to get butter. On being caught red handed, the gopi went to mother Yashoda to inform her of her son's mischievous deeds. She was shocked to see the Lord standing next to his mother; Feeling embarrassed she left the place.

There are many more popular Bal Leelas of God like the killing of demons Aghasura, Bakasura, brothers of demoness Putana . Mata Yashoda tying Lord Krishna with a rope but each time the rope would fall short by a few inches is another famous episode of Krishna Bal Leela.

Legend of Janmashtami

Janmashtami, one of the most popular festivals of Hindus celebrates the birth of their beloved God, Sri Krishna. Detailed story of Janmashtami or Lord Krishna's birth has been narrated in Puranas. Please read on to know more about the various fascinating aspects of the legend of Janmashtami as stated in Puranas.

Mathura, a prominent town of Northern India and the birth city of Sri Krishna was ruled by King Ugrasen, a Yaduvanshi ( Belonging to the Community of Yadavs). He was a great king loved by his subjects. He had two children, a son Kansa and a daughter Devki. Kansa was quite cruel by nature, his wickedness knew no bounds when he jailed his father and forcefully became the king of Mathura.

Love for sister Devki and Brother in law Vasudev
Though Kansa was hard hearted but he loved his sister immensely and married her off to Vasudev, one the high ranking officers in his army. However on the day of wedding, as a result of a heavenly prediction that Devki's eighth child will be born to kill him, Kansa decided to kill his sister. On Vasudev's pleading, he put both of them in dungeons and let them live but with a promise that they will handover all their children to Kansa, only to be killed by him.

Birth of Balram
Kansa succeeded in killing all the six new born babies of Devki and Vasudev, however the seventh child was saved by divine intervention as the child was transferred from Devki's womb to that of Rohini's, Vasudev's other wife. Thus Balram, the elder brother of Krishna was born but Kansa thought that Devki had a miscarriage.

Birth of Krishna
The birth of the eighth child of Devki, Lord Krishna was followed by a chain of dramatic events. Soon after the birth of the child, as if by a sheer miracle, all the soldiers guarding the couple fell asleep and the gates of the dungeon flew open themselves. Vasudev decided to smuggle the child safely in a basket to his friend Nand in Gokul. Since it was raining heavily, River Yamuna was all swollen and Vasudev feared that both he as well as his child will drown if he tried to cross it, however, as soon as the feet of the infant touched the river, the flow of water became normal and Vasudev was able to cross it easily. Sheshnag, the five headed serpent of Lord Vishnu protected the child with its fangs. Vasudev knew that his was not an ordinary child but a divine being. After handing his child, to his dear friend, Nand, Vasudev returned back safely with a girl child and no one got to know about it.

Yogmaya's prediction
On hearing the news of the eighth born child, Kansa rushed to kill the girl. He paid no heed to Devki's plead of sparing the girl. He held the child by her legs and just as he was about to bang her against the wall, the girl vanished into thin air and told Kansa that his slayer had been born and was safe in Gokul. The girl child was none other than Yogmaya (divine illusion). The eighth child grew up as Yashoda and Nand's son in Gokul and later killed his maternal uncle Kansa, freeing all the people of Mathura from his tyranny.