Krishna ExperienceThe prophecy
Kansa, prince of Mathura, was driving the chariot at his cousin Devaki's wedding to Vasudeva when a voice from the sky warned him that Devaki's eighth child would kill him. Kansa drew his sword on his own cousin. Vasudeva saved her by promising to hand over every child she bore.
Kansa threw the couple into prison and killed their children one after another as they were born. The seventh pregnancy was moved, by divine arrangement, into the womb of Rohini, Vasudeva's other wife, in Gokul. That child was Balaram.
Midnight
The eighth child was born at midnight on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada, under the star Rohini. The Bhagavata Purana describes him appearing first in a four-armed form, holding conch, disc, club and lotus, before taking the form of an ordinary baby at his parents' request.
At once the guards fell asleep. Vasudeva's chains came loose and the prison doors swung open. He placed the child in a basket, lifted it onto his head and walked out into the rain. The serpent Shesha spread his hoods over them like an umbrella. At the Yamuna, swollen with the monsoon, the river gave way.
The exchange
In Gokul, across the river, Yashoda, wife of the cowherd chief Nanda, had just given birth to a daughter and lay asleep. Vasudeva set Krishna beside her, took the baby girl and walked back to the prison, where the doors closed and the chains locked behind him.
When Kansa came for the eighth child and dashed the girl against a stone, she slipped from his hands and rose into the sky as the goddess Yogamaya, telling him that his killer had already been born elsewhere.
Janmashtami 2027: 25 AugustHow Mathura and Vrindavan celebrate, and how to keep the fast at home.How it is remembered
Janmashtami falls on that same lunar date. Devotees fast through the day and break the fast at midnight, when the deity is bathed in milk, curd, honey and ghee and laid in a decorated cradle. In Mathura, the celebration centres on the Krishna Janmabhoomi; in Vrindavan, Banke Bihari holds its only mangala aarti of the year. The next morning, Nandotsav celebrates Nanda's joy in Gokul.
Questions people ask
Where was Krishna born?
In Kansa’s prison in Mathura. The site is marked today by the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi complex.
Why was Krishna taken to Gokul?
To save him from Kansa, who had killed Devaki’s earlier children. Vasudeva exchanged him with Yashoda’s newborn daughter.
Sources
- Bhagavata Purana, Canto 10, chapter 3
- Bhagavata Purana, Canto 10, chapter 4
- Bhagavata Purana, Canto 10, chapter 1