Alright! I’ve decided that for today’s Worldly Wednesday, I’ll actually do 2 posts to make up for missing last week’s!!

Topics:
-Krishna Janmashtami (Krishna’s birth & childhood + holiday)
-The 4 Yugas, of which my 1 influenced my TTRPG (another post)

So buckle up!

To start, let's talk about Lord Krishna, his birth, and his antics growing up before his role in the Mahabharata.

As mentioned in my Avatars post, Krishna is the 8th Avatar of Vishnu, one of the 3 primary Trinities of Hinduism. https://twitter.com/KP11Studios/status/1288533979839098880?s=20

Also mentioned in that post is how Vishnu takes up these Avatars to come down to Earth to uphold Dharma (balance/order/righteousness/etc).

So why did he come down as Lord Krishna?

Before his birth, there was a demon-like king, called Kamsa who ruled the kingdom of Mathura.

Kamsa became too powerful, & people on earth as well as Devas (the celestial beings) suffered under his tyrannical rule. Moved by the earnest prayers of the sufferers, Lord Vishnu decided to take birth in human form & annihilate the evil forces headed by Kamsa.

On top of that, there was a problem of excessive population at that period (particularly accentuated by higher proportions of the wicked & evil over the righteous) & the Bhudevi (Mother Earth) suffered on account of it.

One of Lord Krishna roles was to initiate large scale destruction of human race, in order to bring a manageable balance to the earthly resources and establish dharma. This takes place in the form of the Mahabharata, or the Great War (sorry WWI).

Now, King Kamsa was warned of this thread to his life by a prophesy. It stated that he would be killed by the 8th son of his sister, Devaki, and her husband Yasudeva.

Though he loved his sister, fearing for his life he imprisoned them both...

On top of that, he would then consecutively confiscate and kill each one of her children that are born in jail, up to the 7th child.

When the 8th child was born, Lord Krishna, to prevent the death of this avatar, the other gods intervened and released Yasudeva, who...

....then carried Krishna across the river surrounding the kingdom to a simple farming village, Gokula, and placed him in the foster care of the village head and King of the Yadavas (farmers), Nanda, and his wife Yasoda.

To fool Kamsa, the goddess Maya (illusion) was born to...

Yasoda and Nanda, who was then taken by Yasudeva back to prison as his own child.

Kamsa, then proceeds to kill this child, (though as goddess of illusions, she was able to get out of this), and was convinced that he had circumvented the prophesy.

Unbeknownst to him, Krishna was still alive and was now growing up in Gokula, under the care of Yasoda and Nanda.

Kamsa would eventually later find out he was duped and would send many henchmen/demons to kill Krishna at a young age, such as....

Putana, who disguises herself as a wet nurse and tries to poison Krishna as a baby by feeding him her poisoned milk. Krishna, knowing her plot, is said to have grabbed hold of her with his godly strength and bites down hard on her teat, killing her in the process.

Krishna would later grows up and goes on to fight his uncle Kamsa to reclaim his rightful throne in Mathura.

It this miraculous birth, as well as the overall playful nature of Krishna, that is celebrated by Indians on Janmashtami.

Celebrations range from fasting all day and then feasting in the evening after a pooja (ritual)...

to community festivals which culminate in the breaking of a clay pot with yogurt (called a Dahi Hundi) hung WAY up high through the use of a human pyramid!

You can find out more on how Krishna Janmasthami is celebrated in various parts of India through here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Janmashtami#Celebrations