krsna pictures images stories

A long time ago, there was a King named Ugrasen, who had two children – a son named Kansa and a daughter named Devaki. Devaki was a gentle person, but Kansa was evil. When he grew up, he put his father in jail and took over the king’s throne, while his sister got married to King Vasudev.

One fine day, Kansa heard a warning from the skies (akashvaani) – “The eighth son of your sister will one day grow up to kill you.” This shook the evil Kansa to the core, and he wanted to kill his sister., But Vasudev begged for her life and agreed to let Kansa kill their eighth child. Kansa imprisoned his own sister and her husband. The eighth child of the couple was Lord Krishna, who survived all the attempts Kansa made to kill him, and eventually vanquished his evil Uncle.

Devaki and Vasudev were imprisoned by her brother Kansa. Every time she would give birth to a child, Kansa would himself come and kill the baby with his bare hands. Devaki miscarried her seventh son, but he was mystically transferred to the womb of Queen Rohini in Vrindavan, who came to the world as Krishna’s brother – Balarama.

Their eighth child came to the world at midnight and was born in jail. This was Lord Krishna and that special day is celebrated as Janmashtami.

Krishna was born in the form of Vishnu, and his parents prayed that he would turn into an ordinary baby so they could hide him from Kansa. The Lord advised his father to take him to Vrindavan and exchange him with a new-born baby girl. Then, magically, the guards at the prison fell into a slumber and all the locks and chains opened by themselves.
Vasudev took little Krishna and left for Vrindavan. When he came across the Yamuna River, it was flooded. As Vasudev still attempted to cross the river, carrying little Krishna over his head, the waters receded almost mystically, as soon as they touched Krishna’s toe, allowing him to carry on his journey. He then reached Yashoda’s house, exchanged the babies and returned to the prison with the baby girl. Devaki and Vasudev hoped that Kansa would spare the girl as the prophecy had predicted a boy would kill Kansa, but he did not care. He snatched the baby from their hands and hit her against a stone to kill her. But the girl transformed into Goddess Durga and told Kansa that Krishna was alive and would punish him for his bad deeds

One day when Krishna was playing with his friends, they reached a cave in a mountain. What they did not know was that the cave was the home of the witch Putana’s brother, demon Aghasura. Aghasura took the form of a giant snake to kill Krishna and his friends. They did not realise that Aghasura opened his mouth as wide as the cave’s opening so that they would walk right in and he would eat them.

Krishna realised something was wrong and decided to enter the cave himself. All the demons became happy while the Gods became upset, thinking Krishna had met his end. But the demigods pleaded to Krishna, who then understood what was happening. He grew larger and larger in size till he choked the snake demon to death. He was just, as he then gave liberation to the demon’s soul.