KarmaVaani
Vaishnava tradition
कृष्णKrishna
Govinda · Gopala · Vasudeva · Banke Bihari
The beloved eighth avatar of Vishnu and speaker of the Bhagavad Gita.
- Abode
- Goloka; on earth, Vrindavan and Dwarka
- Consort
- Radha
- Vahana
- None; often shown with cows
- Colour
- Dark blue-black
- Arms
- 2
Krishna is the eighth avatar of Vishnu and, for many, the complete descent of the divine. He is the playful cowherd of Vrindavan, the beloved of the gopis, and the charioteer who reveals the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna on the field of Kurukshetra. His life weaves together joy, love, and the deepest teaching on duty and surrender.
Mantra
हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
The maha-mantra: a calling of the names of Krishna and Hari, chanted in kirtan and japa.
How Krishna is shown
A youthful cowherd standing cross-legged in the tribhanga pose, playing the flute, in yellow silk with a peacock feather in his crown.
- Bansuri (bamboo flute)
- The call of the divine that draws every soul home.
- Peacock feather
- Beauty and the many colours of his play in the world.
- Vaijayanti garland
- Victory, and the five elements strung together.
- Yellow pitambara cloth
- The earth-coloured garment of the divine that walks among people.
Stories
Lifting Govardhan
When Indra flooded Vraja with seven days of rain, the child Krishna lifted Govardhan hill on one finger and sheltered every family and cow beneath it. Govardhan Puja, the day after Diwali, remembers it.
The song on the battlefield
At Kurukshetra Arjuna dropped his bow, unable to fight his own kin. Krishna, his charioteer, answered with the Bhagavad Gita: act without clinging to the fruit, see the one Self in all, and surrender to the divine.
