Krishna Bhagwān

Avatars

Shri Krishna is the eighth of the ten major avatārs of Vishnu. In terms of the five eternal entities, Krishna is of the ishwar entity, which is capable of incarnation when Parabrahma Purushottam Narayan enters the ishwar. Krishna was born to Vasudev and Devki on Shravan vad 8 in Mathura in a prison cell, where Kansa had imprisoned them. Krishna is one of the lilā avatārs, born to slay many sinful people, including Kansa, Jarasandh, Kal-yavan, and the Kauravs.

Krishna spent his childhood in Gokul and Vrundavan, where he killed many demons. He killed the evil Kansa in Mathura and restored Ugrasen as the king. He then established the city of Dwarika. He married 16,108 maidens. In the Mahabharat war, he became Arjun’s charioteer and gave him the knowledge found in the Gita - which became one of the fundamental scriptures of the Hindu faith. Krishna helped the Pandavs reclaim the rule of their kingdom Hastinapur. He also entrusted Uddhavji with his knowledge and made him his successor. In Prabhas-Kshetra, he ended his life by being killed by a hunter’s arrow.

The major scripture that captures Krishna’s life is Mahabharat, written by Ved Vyas. His divine incidents are also found in the Shrimad Bhagwan.

Krishna’s other names are: Ranchhodrai, Gopal, Kanaiyo, Kan, Jashoda Nandan, Dwarikanath, etc.

In the Vachanamrut, Bhagwan Swaminarayan uses Krishna’s name to refer to God in general, i.e. refer to himself. Therefore, Vachanamruts listed below are the ones that specifically refers to Krishna as the avatār mentioned above. For example, in Vachanamrut Vartal 2, Maharaj mentions that “In his own Akshardhām, Shri Krishna Purushottam Bhagwān eternally possesses a divine form...” Here, he used the name of Krishna to refer to himself, because later in this same Vachanamrut, Maharaj uses the words “Ram, Krishna, and other avatārs”, meaning that here Krishna refers to the avatār as a separate entity.