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SRI KRISHNA JANMASHTAMI   Rituals The Legend

The Legend :

Legend has it that Lord Krishna is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, who has descended on to this earth to subdue the demons and save the mankind from all evils. The birth of Lord Krishna, the epitome of transcendental qualities, has also happened under the most extraordinary circumstances. The legend goes thus -

There once lived a demon king, Kamsa who was troubling the mankind with his torturous deeds and atrocities. An unseen divine voice once happens to forewarn Kamsa of his death in the hands of the eighth child of his sister Devaki. Kamsa imprisons the couple of Devaki and Vasudeva with immediate effect. Every time a baby was born, Kamsa would ruthlessly kill the child and it continues like this till the seventh child id born.

Just before the birth of the eighth child does a divine voice from above instruct Vasudeva to exchange the baby with that of Yashoda & Nanda in Repalle, immediately after its birth. Finally, the hour arrives and Lord Krishna is born on a dark stormy midnight. As is instructed to him, Vasudeva sets off for Repalle carrying the child in a basket. Just then do all the miracles happen – the guards fall into deep slumber, gates of the prison open all by themselves and the raging waters of River Yamuna part themselves making way for the carrier of divine Krishna. Vasudeva carries the child across the river as instructed and the huge thousand-hooded Adishesha is seen protecting the child from the storm all through. He then gets baby Krishna exchanged for the baby girl born to Yashoda in Repalle and returns back to the prison.

At the crack of the dawn does the entire prison echo with the shrill cries of the new-born and there arrives Kamsa to ruthlessly kill the eighth child too. But, just as he lifts the baby and throws her against the ceiling, the baby, who in actual happens to be the Adishakti, flies out of sight and warns in a thunderous tone that his destroyer is safe & sound at Repalle and would sure put him to death one day.

Thus, born on the Ashtami day, Lord Krishna exhibited extreme qualities like being strong and handsome. He had fulfilled the objective of his birth by bringing about the victory of good over evil at every stage of his life - by slaying Kamsa, rendering incredible feats to safeguard the mankind and delivering the holy preachings of Bhagavad-Gita.