Kṛshṇa’s Earthly Līlā

This is the whole earthly life of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as Nārāyaṇa Maharshi told it to Nārada Muni. It comes from Chapter 54 of the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa. It begins with Kṛshṇa leaving Gokula and goes through the death of Kaṃsa, his schooling, the founding of Dvārakā, his marriages, his wars with Narakāsura and Bāṇāsura, the meeting with Rādhā after one hundred years, fourteen more years of rāsa līlā in Vṛndāvana, and his return to Goloka. The Purāṇa gives his time on earth as one hundred and twenty-five years.

The account ends with the teaching of Nārāyaṇa Maharshi: everything made, from Brahmā down to a grass root, is perishable, and only the eternal, blissful pair Rādhā and Kṛshṇa is to be worshipped.

How the account is told

Nārada Muni speaks to Nārāyaṇa Maharshi and asks the questions that begin this account. He asks them with deep feeling. How did Nanda, the gopīs and Yaśodā keep their lives after Kṛshṇa left for Mathurā? How did Rādhādevī, who could not bear even one kshaṇa (moment) away from Kṛshṇa, keep her life breath (prāṇa) in her body? What great deeds did Kṛshṇa do in Mathurā? What happened from there until the moment he put down his earthly body and went back to Goloka? Nārāyaṇa Maharshi then tells the whole course of it, in short but complete form.

Leaving Gokula for Mathurā

Kaṃsa planned the Dhanuryajña (the bow yajña) as a pretext to bring Kṛshṇa within reach of his killers. He sent Akrūra, who was dear to Kṛshṇa, to Nanda’s village Gokula to bring Kṛshṇa and Balarāma to Mathurā. Akrūra did as he was told, and the two brothers went with him to Mathurā. They left behind all the people of Gokula, whose hearts were torn by the parting. Nanda, Yaśodā, the gopas and the gopīs, for whom Kṛshṇa was the very breath of life, somehow went on living. Only their constant thought of the form and the name of Kṛshṇa kept them alive.

The deeds in Mathurā

Kṛshṇa’s arrival in Mathurā made the city holy again. It had been blessed by his birth, and now it was honoured by his steps as a young man. A washerman treated him with disrespect and refused him clothes, and Kṛshṇa dealt with him at once. Then came the events that broke the power of Kaṃsa:

• Cāṇūra and Mushṭika were Kaṃsa’s two great champion wrestlers. Kṛshṇa killed them both in the arena of the Dhanuryajña, in front of the whole court and the people.
• Kuvalayāpīḍa was the great war elephant placed at the gate of the arena to crush Kṛshṇa. Kṛshṇa killed him.
• Kaṃsa, the king of Mathurā who had taken the throne, was seized and killed by Kṛshṇa himself.

Bhagavān Śrī Hari, the eternal refuge of those in distress, then freed his own parents Devakī and Vasudeva from their long prison and gave them back the honour they had lost. He put the rightful king Ugrasena back on his throne. He freed all who had suffered under the harsh rule of Kaṃsa.

Kubja and the garland-maker

Two of Kṛshṇa’s acts of grace in Mathurā are named in particular. He met Kubja, a hunchbacked woman who had been offering sweet-smelling perfumes. By his touch and a kind embrace he freed her from the bent body that had marked her whole life and gave her shining beauty. Then he sent her ātmā to Goloka and gave her the highest moksha. In the same way the mālākāra (garland-maker), who had offered his best flower garlands to Kṛshṇa with true devotion, received moksha as his reward.

The teaching for the gopīs through Uddhava

Kṛshṇa knew that the gopīs of Gokula were burning with the fire of parting from him. He sent his dear friend and trusted companion Uddhava to Gokula. Uddhava was one of Kṛshṇa’s deepest disciples and was full of jñāna (knowledge). Through Uddhava, Kṛshṇa gave the jñāna-upadeśa (teaching of knowledge) as his message of comfort to the gopīs, who were sick with longing. The teaching was about the nature of the Self, the unreal nature of the body, and the ever-present reality of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The gopīs answered Uddhava with their firm love for the personal form of Kṛshṇa.

Education: the upanayana and the āśrama of Sāndīpani

Kṛshṇa is himself the source of all knowledge and the guru of all, yet he received the upanayana saṃskāra (the sacred thread rite) through Garga Muni. He took up the holy rules of the brahmacarya initiation as an example for the world. Then he went to the city of Avantī (today’s Ujjain) and came before Sāndīpani Muni as a humble student at his āśrama. He studied the whole range of knowledge under that great teacher. Kṛshṇa was already jñāna-śaktyādi-shaḍ-aiśvarya-sampanna, which means endowed with the six divine powers, including perfect knowledge and perfect power. Still he took the place of a student, as part of showing human dharma in full, which is the purpose of an avatāra.

Jarāsandha and Kālayavana: the defence of Mathurā

Jarāsandha, the father-in-law of Kaṃsa, was the most powerful king of the age. Again and again he attacked Mathurā to take revenge for the death of Kaṃsa. Kṛshṇa defeated Jarāsandha many times, by clever war plans and by divine power. The threat from Jarāsandha and the great pressure on Mathurā led to an important decision. Kṛshṇa gathered the Yādavas under the rule of Ugrasena in Mathurā and made Ugrasena the lawful king as the śāstra says.

Separately, the foreign king Kālayavana, another attacker, was drawn toward Mathurā. Kṛshṇa used a very clever plan to kill Kālayavana. He led him toward the cave where the ancient king Mucukunda lay in divine sleep. So it was the gaze of Mucukunda, and not the hand of Kṛshṇa, that destroyed this enemy.

The founding of Dvārakā

Mathurā stood where Jarāsandha and other enemies of the Yādavas could always reach it. So Kṛshṇa did one of the great acts of his rule on earth. He told Viśvakarmā, the divine architect, to build a completely new city that no enemy could break into. It was built on the western coast of Bhāratavarsha, on the shore of the western sea (the Arabian Sea). Dvārakā rose as a wonder, the most beautiful and best planned city of the age. It is described as having come down from a prototype in the divine world. Kṛshṇa made it the capital of the Yādava kingdom. He then defeated the evil kings who threatened the lands around it and set up righteous order.

The great marriages

The marriages of Kṛshṇa are one of the great chapters of his earthly life. The main account gives the following.

Rukmiṇī was the first of all his queens, and she was a manifestation of Bhūdevī, Earth herself as devī. She was the daughter of Bhīshmaka, king of Vidarbha. Her family planned to marry her to Śiśupāla against her wish. Rukmiṇī sent a letter to Kṛshṇa saying that she loved him and asking him to carry her away. Kṛshṇa came to Vidarbha and carried her off in his chariot on the very day of the planned wedding. She became his agra-mahishī, his chief queen.

The seven other queens were Kālindī, Lakshaṇā, Śaibhyā (Bhadrā), Satyabhāmā, Jāmbavatī, Mitravindā and Nāgnajitī. All were royal daughters whom Kṛshṇa married in due time, and each has her own account. Satyabhāmā was the daughter of Satrājita and is linked to the account of the Syamantaka jewel. Jāmbavatī was the daughter of Jāmbavān, the great bear king who was the ally of Rāma in the Tretā Yuga. Her marriage to Kṛshṇa joins a holy relationship across the yugas.

The sixteen thousand. Narakāsura, the king of Prāgjyotishapura, had taken sixteen thousand royal daughters and kept them in prison. Kṛshṇa went to war against Narakāsura, killed him in a terrible fight, and freed all sixteen thousand captive princesses. As they themselves wished, and to give them back their honour, Kṛshṇa married all of them. He appeared in all their homes at the same moment and in the same form, so that each queen saw her husband in her own house. One Kṛshṇa in sixteen thousand homes at once is one of the most praised shows of the aiśvarya (divine power) of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. It was shown for the comfort of all his queens and for the wonder of all the worlds.

Indra defeated and the Pārijāta tree

Kṛshṇa went to svarga and defeated Indra there without effort. This is the same Indra who rules the three worlds. Kṛshṇa took the Pārijāta tree from the divine gardens. He did this to fulfil the wish of his dear queen Satyabhāmā, who wanted that tree of svarga. Indra is the king of all the devas and commands the whole army of the devas. Kṛshṇa defeated him in a single fight.

Bāṇāsura: Kṛshṇa defeats Śiva for the sake of a devotee

One of the most important of Kṛshṇa’s later deeds was the war with Bāṇāsura. Bāṇāsura was a mighty asura king with one thousand arms and a great bhakta (devotee) of Bhagavān Śiva. His daughter Ushā fell in love in a dream with Aniruddha, the grandson of Kṛshṇa. By the power of Māyā, Aniruddha was brought secretly to the palace of Bāṇāsura. When Bāṇāsura found out about the secret love, he bound Aniruddha with nāga-pāśa (snake ropes). Kṛshṇa came to save his grandson.

In the battle that followed, Bhagavān Śaṅkara himself took the field against Kṛshṇa to protect the asura king, his own devotee. Then Bhagavān Kṛshṇa did what no being in the three worlds could do: he defeated Śaṅkara in battle. Then, in an act of mercy that protected two devotees at once, Aniruddha who belonged to him and Bāṇāsura who belonged to Śiva, Kṛshṇa cut off nine hundred and ninety-six of the thousand arms of Bāṇāsura and left him four. Bāṇāsura lived on, humbled but alive. Aniruddha was freed and married Ushā.

The meeting with Rādhā after a hundred years

One of the most touching moments in the earthly life of Kṛshṇa was his parting from Rādhādevī during the one hundred years he spent in Mathurā and Dvārakā. This parting came from the śāpa (curse) that Sudāmā had put on Rādhā. Sudāmā was one of the cowherd friends of Kṛshṇa and a powerful being from Goloka. The Purāṇa says that the śāpa lasted exactly one hundred years.

Kṛshṇa went on a holy journey to the tīrthas. At the very time when Vasudeva was absorbed in yoga and the hundred years of the śāpa of Sudāmā had ended, Kṛshṇa met Rādhādevī. Their meeting after a hundred years apart on earth is told as a moment of deep joy. Kṛshṇa then took Rādhā with him, and together they went back to the holy forest of Vṛndāvana. This was the holy ground where their first meetings on earth had taken place, and where the great Rāsa Maṇḍala of his youth had been held.

The last rāsa līlā and the later years

When he was joined again with Rādhā in Vṛndāvana, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa took part in fourteen more years of rāsa līlā in the holy Rāsa Maṇḍala of Vṛndāvana. This blessed grove is where the eternal rāsa of Goloka has its earthly likeness. These fourteen years were given wholly to the divine play of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa, in the company of the gopīs, who are themselves portions of the divine Śakti come down to earth.

After these fourteen years in Vṛndāvana, Kṛshṇa came to the home of Nanda and spent eleven more years there. He came back as a dear son to the parents who had raised him, and honoured that holy bond with a last time of closeness. Then Bhagavān Kṛshṇa lived one hundred full years in Mathurā and Dvārakā together. These two great cities were the centres of his rule over the Yādavas and the world.

The years of his stay on earth, as Nārāyaṇa Maharshi gives them, are these:

• Years of youth in Gokula, Mathurā and Dvārakā before the meeting with Rādhā: about one hundred years.
• Fourteen years of rāsa līlā in Vṛndāvana with Rādhā.
• Eleven years at the home of Nanda.
• One hundred years in Mathurā and Dvārakā together.

The Purāṇa gives the total as one hundred and twenty-five years on earth (pañcaviṃśaty-adhika-śata).

The return to Goloka

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa had done all that his avatāra was for. This is described as taking away the burden of the earth (bhū-bhāra-haraṇa), the weight of adharma and of the power of the asuras that had piled up. He got ready to leave the earth. He is ancient beyond all counting, yet always new and shining in appearance. He left Bhāratavarsha and rose to Goloka, his highest eternal home above all the worlds.

Before he left, Kṛshṇa gave the grace of sāmīpya-moksha, the moksha of nearness, in which the freed ātmā lives close to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in Goloka. He gave it to these dear ones:

• Yaśodā and Nanda, his earthly mother and father in Gokula, who had given him the tender love of parents.
• Vṛshabhānu and Kālāvatī, the earthly parents of Rādhādevī.

These four received the closest kind of moksha, an eternal home in the presence of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa in Goloka itself. Their love for Kṛshṇa, shown through their parts in his earthly life, was honoured for ever.

The teaching: Rādhā and Kṛshṇa as the eternal refuge

When he had finished telling the earthly life of Kṛshṇa, Nārāyaṇa Maharshi spoke to Nārada with the highest conclusion of the whole Purāṇa.

The sacred account of the life of Śrī Kṛshṇa gives all four purushārthas (aims of life), which are dharma, artha, kāma and moksha, to those who hear it, recite it or read it with devotion.

And he said more: “O Nārada! In all this creation, from four-faced Brahmā down to the smallest root of a blade of grass, everything without exception is subject to dissolution and destruction. So worship the Ānandadātā, the giver of the highest bliss. Worship the Ānandamaya, the one whose nature is bliss. Worship Śrī Kṛshṇa, the Ānandanandana, in the form of the pair Rādhā and Kṛshṇa (the yugala). He is Parabrahman, who takes forms by his own free will (svecchayā). He is the innermost ātmā of all beings. He is the lord of all. He is beyond Prakṛti entirely. He is avyaya, without loss or gain. No being knows his nature clearly, yet he takes a form to give grace to his bhaktas. He is satya, nitya and svatantra, which is true, eternal and fully free. He is Sarveśvara. He is beyond Prakṛti and the three guṇas. He is sarva-kāmī, which means that all his desires are fulfilled in himself, and so he wants nothing outside himself. He is beyond any one form, for he has all forms. He is above all the Ānanda-rūpa, the very form of bliss. Worship that Rādhā-Kṛshṇa.”

With this the teaching of Nārāyaṇa Maharshi to Nārada ends, and with it the great account in the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa.

The avatāra that returns in every yuga

Nārāyaṇa Maharshi also tells Nārada the great pattern that governs all the descents of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa. In every yuga, Kṛshṇa the Goloka-Īśvara and Rādhādevī the Gopī-nāyikā come down together to Bhāratavarsha, with great eagerness and the highest joy. They come to set up again the dharma-setu, the bridge of dharma that holds up all life in each age. When dharma begins to crumble under the weight of adharma, and the suffering of living beings grows, Rādhā and Kṛshṇa come down. They play their divine līlā, put the balance right and go back. This coming in every yuga (yugayuge) is the very shape of divine grace working through time.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 54 (the whole account, from the questions of Nārada to the teaching of Nārāyaṇa Maharshi and the pattern of the avatāra in every yuga)