The Birth of Lord Krishna

Once upon a time, many years ago there was a prince named Kans who lived in the Mathura Kingdom. He was very greedy and sly and wanted to be the King of Mathura even though his father, Ugrasena, was the real King. So Kans imprisoned his own Father just so he could be King. The people of Mathura now had a new, unfair and evil King.

Kans also had a sister named Devaki who was about to get married to King Vasudev. Kans was happy as King Vasudev’s kingdom would become his Kingdom too. Once Devaki and King Vasudev got married, Kans wanted to drive both of them home himself. As Kans sat down at the front of the Chariot to drive them a mysterious and divine voice spoke to him and said “Evil Kans, your end is near. You don’t know about it , but by marrying Devaki to King Vasudev, you have brought your death near. The Eighth son that will be born to Devaki and Vasudev will kill you.”

Hearing the mysterious voice and what it said, Kans became very scared. But then his fear turned into anger. He decided to kill Devaki because if there was no mother, how could she give birth to a baby? Kans then took out his sword to then kill her.

King Vasudev was terrified when he saw what Kans was about to do. Vasudev fell to his knees and begged Kans to not kill Devaki. “Kans, please do not kill your sister. I will give you all the babies.” Kans thought for a while and replied to Vasudev. “In that case, you will have to become my prisoners and live in my palace.”

Soon Kans captured Vasudav and Devaki and put them into the cells in the dungeons of his palace prison. Every time Devaki gave birth to a child in the prison, Kans would immediately kill it. He then killed seven babies and did not think once on how he was torturing his sister by killing her children. Nine years have passed and Devaki has not given birth to any babies. But then she was about to give birth again. This made Kans very scared.

Throughout the whole day there was a terrible storm in Mathura. Then, at midnight, the son was born and everything went quiet. Devaki was so happy and confused at the same time that she fainted, Vasudev could not stop looking at what had happened

Then the mysterious and divine voice that had once spoken to Kans now was speaking to Vasudev. “Take your baby to Gokul, headed by your friend Nanda. Yasodha, his wife, has given birth to a baby girl. Exchange the babies and come back immediately with the girl. No one will know about the birth of your eighth son.”

Vasudev followed the instruction of the divine voice. He was surprised to see that the guards at the gates seemed asleep, and the prison gates opened on their own. When he reached the river, he saw that there were massive waves caused by the storm. But the moment he stepped into the river, it became calm.

When he got into the river, a huge black snake with five heads rose up from behind him. Vasudev was extremely scared and thought that he was going to die with his baby. But instead the snake spread itself over Vasudev like a hood to shield the baby from the rain. Vasudev had reached Gokul and exchanged babies with his friend Nanda Maharaj and went back to the prison.

As soon as Vasudev placed the baby next to Devaki, it let out a cry. Kans came rushing in, ready to kill Devaki’s eighth son. Devaki was still lying on the floor unconscious all this time, and it was now that she came to her senses. Kans was ready to kill the baby. He loved himself more than anything else in the world.

He snatched the baby from the floor and threw her against the wall, but the baby did not die. Instead it flew up to the prison ceiling, and a bright light filled the prison. Once the light faded, Kans realised that the baby had taken the ‘Avatar’(form) of the Goddess Durga. “Foolish Kans,” she said to him, “you cannot kill me , and the one who will kill you is already born and alive. One day he will find you and kill you no matter what you do.”

Meanwhile, there was a lot of celebration and cheering in Gokul about the birth of the new baby. ‘Sarpanch’(Head of Village) Nanda named the baby Krishna, and soon everyone in the village came to offer gifts and blessings to their new baby.