The Lonesome Road

Today’s topic : Hindu Mythology

Legend has it that Lord Vishnu has ten avatars. Nine of them have come down to earth so far. The tenth avatar (Kalki) is the one who, when he comes, will rid the world of sinners.

Of the ten avatars, Krishna is supposed to be the most complete avatar. This was a form of Vishnu who interacted with his devotees more as a friend than as a God.

According to myth, Lord Krishna appeared over five thousand years ago in Mathura, India to Devaki and Vasudeva in the jail cell of the tyrant Kamsa. Devaki was Kamsa’s sister. After her marriage to Vasudeva, as Kamsa was driving the couple in his chariot, a voice predicted that Devaki’s eigth son would be the cause of his death. Kamsa was about to kill both of them, but refrained when Vasudeva promised to hand over every child born to them to Kamsa.

The first six children of the couple were killed by Kamsa. The seventh child, Balarama, also widely believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu, was smuggled to Vrindavan. On the night the eighth child, Krishna, was born, it was a stormy night. When the baby was delivered, the chains holding the couple came unfettered, the gates opened and the guards fell asleep. Vasudeva was told to take his child to Vrindavan. As he walked through the rain to reach Vrindavan, the baby was protected by an umbrella formed by the divine snake Adisesha. When he reached the flooded waters of the Yamuna, the river parted to give him way. He placed the child in the house of Nanda and Yasoda. the baby born to them was taken back by him to hus cell. When Kamsa awoke and found that the baby had been born - he tried to kill it. His efforts proved in vain as the baby disappeared and a voice told him that the one who would kill him still lived. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Krishna eventually came back to Mathura and killed Kamsa. He reinstated Kamsa’s father (who had been deposed by Kamsa) and freed his parents.

As a child, Krishna loved to steal butter. Today, in celebration, a rope is strung between two buildings and a pot is attached to it. A human pyramid is formed and the group tries to break the pot.

Somehow, it seems very fitting that’s is a stormy evening today and it’s been pouring rain.

A few final words - well actually a quotation from the Srimad Bhagvat-Gita : Lord Krishna promises: “Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion–at that time I descend Myself. To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear milleniumm after millenium.”

Hare Krishna!