..::sHiNdA::..
:.-=šHïNda=-.:™
☼Lord Krishna☼
Happy Krishna Janmashtami To All UNPians..
जनमाष्टमी की शुभकामना
Krishna Janmashtami (Devanagari कृष्ण जन्माष्टमी) , also known as "Krishnashtami","Saatam Aatham" ,"Gokulashtami", "Ashtami Rohini", "Srikrishna Jayanti", "Sree Jayanthi" or sometimes merely as "Janmashtami", is a Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna, an avatar of hindu deity Vishnu.
Krishna (कृष्ण in Devanagari, kṛṣṇa in IAST, pronounced [ˈkr̩ʂɳə] in classical Sanskrit) is a deity worshiped across many traditions in Hinduism in a variety of perspectives. While many Vaishnava groups recognize him as an avatar of Vishnu, other traditions within Krishnaism consider Krishna to be svayam bhagavan, or the Supreme Being.
Birth
Krishna is carried by his father Vasudeva across river Yamuna to Vrindavana, mid 18th century painting.
Traditional belief based on scriptural details and astrological calculations gives the date of Krishna's birth, known as Janmashtami,[ as either 18 or 21 July 3228 BC.Krishna belonged to the royal family of Mathura, and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva. Mathura was the capital of the Yadavas (also called the Surasenas), to which Krishna's parents Vasudeva and Devaki belonged. The king Kamsa, Devaki's brother,had ascended the throne by imprisoning his father, King Ugrasena. Afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of Devaki's eighth son, he had locked the couple into a prison cell. After Kamsa killed the first six children, and Devaki's apparent miscarriage of the seventh, being transferred to Rohini as Balarama, Krishna took birth.
Since Vasudeva believed Krishna's life was in danger, Krishna was secretly taken out of the prison cell to be raised by his foster parents, Yasoda and Nanda in Gokula. Two of his other siblings also survived, Balarama (Devaki's seventh child, transferred to the womb of Rohini, Vasudeva's first wife) and Subhadra (daughter of Vasudeva and Rohini, born much later than Balarama and Krishna). According to Bhagavata Purana it is believed that Krishna was born without a sexual union, by "mental transmission" from the mind of Vasudeva into the womb of Devaki. Hindus believe that in that time, this type of union was possible for achieved beings.
Since Vasudeva believed Krishna's life was in danger, Krishna was secretly taken out of the prison cell to be raised by his foster parents, Yasoda and Nanda in Gokula. Two of his other siblings also survived, Balarama (Devaki's seventh child, transferred to the womb of Rohini, Vasudeva's first wife) and Subhadra (daughter of Vasudeva and Rohini, born much later than Balarama and Krishna). According to Bhagavata Purana it is believed that Krishna was born without a sexual union, by "mental transmission" from the mind of Vasudeva into the womb of Devaki. Hindus believe that in that time, this type of union was possible for achieved beings.
Krishnology
Vaishnava theology has been a subject of study for many devotees, philosophers and scholars within India for centuries.In recent decades this study called Krishnology, has also been taken on by a number of academic institutions in Europe, such as the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Bhaktivedanta College. The Vaishnava scholars instrumental in this western discourse include Tamala Krishna Goswami, Hridayananda dasa Goswami, Graham Schweig, Kenneth R. Valpey, Ravindra Svarupa dasa, Sivarama Swami, Satyaraja Dasa, and Guy Beck, among others.
Early historical references
An 800 B.C. cave painting of a figure at Mirzapur,U.P.,North India,which could potentially be identified as Krishna, shows a charioteer with a "Sudarshana Chakra" -- the famous sharp wheel, the missile discus of Krishna). One of the earliest recorded instances of a Krishna who could potentially be identified with the deity can be found in the Chandogya Upanishad, where he is mentioned as the son of Devaki, and to whom Ghora Angirasa was a teacher.The Upanishads, namely Nārāyaṇātharvaśirsa and Ātmabodha, specifically regard Krishna as a god and associate him with Vishnu.
References to Vāsudeva also occur in early Sanskrit literature. Taittiriya Aranyaka (X,i,6) identifies him with Narayana and Vishnu. Panini, ca. 4th century BC, in his Ashtadhyayi explains the word "Vāsudevaka" as a Bhakta (devotee) of Vāsudeva. This, along with the mention of Arjuna in the same context, indicates that the Vāsudeva here is Krishna. At some stage during the Vedic period, Vasudeva and Krishna became one deity, and by the time of composition of the redaction of Mahabharata that survives till today, Krishna (Vasudeva) was generally acknowledged as an avatar of Vishnu and often as the Supreme God.
In the 4th century BC, Megasthenes the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya says that the Sourasenoi (Surasena), who lived in the region of Mathura worshipped Herakles. This Herakles is usually identified with Krishna due to the regions mentioned by Megasthenes as well as similarities between some of the herioc acts of the two. The Greco-Bactrian ruler Agathocles issued coins bearing the images of Krishna and Balarama in around 180–165 BC.
Three inscriptions from Hāthibādā and one from Ghosundi (near Nāgari, Chittorgarh district) from the 2nd century BC, record the building of a pujā-silā-prākar (stone enclosure for worship) in Nārāyana-vata (park of Nārāyana) by king Gājāyana Sarvatāta for the worship of the gods Sankarshana (Balarama) and Vasudeva (Krishna). From the same century,the Nānāghāt cave (Maharashtra) inscription of the Satavahana queen Nāyanika begins with an invocation to various gods including Sankarshana and Vasudeva.
In the 1st century BC, Heliodorus from Greece erected the Heliodorus
pillar at Besnagar near Bhilsa with the inscription:"This Garuda-column of Vasudeva the god of gods was erected here by Heliodorus, a worshipper of the Lord Bhagavata, the son of Diya Greek Dion and an inhabitant of Taxila, who came as ambassador of the Greeks from the Great King Amtalikita [Greek Antialcidas] to King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra the saviour, who was flourishing in the fourteenth year of his reign [...] three immortal steps [...] when practiced, lead to heaven—self-control, charity, and diligence."
Another inscription from Besnagar, from the same period, records the setting up of a Garuda pillar in a prasādottama (excellent temple) in the twelfth regnal year of a king called Bhāgavata, usually identified as a Sunga king. A 1st century BC inscription from Mathura records the building of a part of a sanctuary to Vasudeva by the great satrap Sodasa.
The renowned grammar scholar Patanjali, who wrote his commentary on Panini's grammar rules around 150 BC (known as the Mahabhashya), quotes a verse: "May the might of Krishna accompanied by Samkarshana increase!" Other verses are mentioned. One verse speaks of "Janardana with himself as fourth" (Krishna with three companions, the three possibly being Samkarshana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha). Another verse mentions musical instruments being played at meetings in the temples of Rama (Balarama) and Kesava (Krishna). Patanjali also describes dramatic and mimetic performances (Krishna-Kamsopacharam) representing the killing of Kamsa by Vasudeva.
Also in the 1st century BC, there seems to be evidence for a worship of five Vrishni heroes (Balarama, Krishna, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Samba) for an inscription has been found at Mora near Mathura, which apparently mentions a son of the great satrap Rajuvula, probably the satrap Sodasa, and an image of Vrishni, "probably Vasudeva, and of the "Five Warriors". Brahmi inscription on the Mora stone slab, now in the Mathura Museum. Many inscriptions and references to worship of Krishna can be found from the early centuries of the Common Era.
☼ Jai Shri Krishna ☼
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