Hindu

Krishna

HinduMathura, India736 quotes· 10 sources

Lord Krishna is a beloved deity of Hinduism, revered as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and, in many traditions, as the Supreme God himself. Adored as the divine teacher of the Bhagavad Gita, he embodies love, compassion, and the joyful play of the divine.

Lord Krishna is one of the most cherished and widely worshipped deities of Hinduism, revered across the world as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and, within the Vaishnava traditions, honoured as Svayam Bhagavan, God in his own complete and supreme form. Known by many loving names such as Govinda, Madhava, and Gopala, he is celebrated as the God of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love. His life, woven through the great epics and sacred scriptures of India, continues to inspire countless devotees through its rare blend of cosmic majesty and intimate human warmth. According to tradition, Krishna was born in Mathura to Devaki and Vasudeva of the Vrishni lineage. His birth is remembered as a moment of divine grace: carried across the Yamuna River on the night of his arrival, the infant Krishna was lovingly raised by his foster parents Yashoda and Nanda in the pastoral villages of Gokul and Vrindavan. There, amid cowherds, milkmaids, and the gentle rhythms of village life, the stories of his childhood blossomed. Affectionately called Makhan Chor, the butter thief, the young Krishna delighted all around him with his playful charm. A beloved episode tells of how he lifted the great Govardhana Hill to shelter the villagers from a fierce storm, a vivid expression of his protective grace. These tales embody the Hindu concept of lila, the divine play undertaken not for gain but for sheer joy. In Vrindavan, Krishna became the heart of one of the world's most tender devotional traditions through his enchanting bond with the gopis, the milkmaids, and especially with his beloved Radha. Their love, expressed in the poetic Rasa Lila, came to symbolise the soul's longing for union with the divine and inspired enduring works such as Jayadeva's Gita Govinda. As an adult, Krishna returned to Mathura and later established the radiant coastal city of Dwarka, where he reigned as a wise and beloved prince. The Bhagavata Purana names his principal consorts, including Rukmini and Satyabhama, all understood in tradition as manifestations of the goddess Lakshmi. Krishna's most consequential role unfolds in the great epic Mahabharata, where he serves as charioteer and counsellor to the prince Arjuna. On the eve of a great trial of duty, when Arjuna is overcome by sorrow and uncertainty, Krishna's response becomes one of humanity's most treasured spiritual dialogues: the Bhagavad Gita. In this luminous discourse, Krishna addresses the deepest questions of duty, action, and liberation. He teaches that one should fulfil one's responsibilities according to one's nature, performing right action without attachment to its fruits. He reveals the immortality of the soul, the unity of the individual self with ultimate reality, and the loving accessibility of the divine to all who approach with sincere hearts. The Gita harmonises several paths to the divine that flow through Krishna's teachings: dharma, the path of righteous duty; karma yoga, the path of selfless action; bhakti yoga, the path of loving devotion; and jnana yoga, the path of wisdom. Across the centuries, great philosophers interpreted his message through varied frameworks of devotion and metaphysics, yet a single radiant theme unites them all, that Krishna is divine love itself, and that human longing reflects the eternal play between the soul and the supreme. Krishna's sacred image is among the most recognisable in the world: depicted with serene blue or dark complexion, playing the bamboo flute, crowned with a peacock feather, and standing in the graceful three-bend Tribhanga pose, often surrounded by cows or dancing joyfully with the gopis. After fulfilling his earthly mission, tradition holds that he departed his mortal form in peace, returning to his transcendent abode, his life remembered with reverence and devotion. Krishna's legacy is vast and living. His birth is joyfully celebrated each year as Krishna Janmashtami, observed especially in the sacred cities of Mathura and Vrindavan with fasting, devotional singing, night vigils, and festive reenactments. From the seventh century onward, beginning with the South Indian Alvar saints, devotion to Krishna helped shape the great Bhakti movement, which made heartfelt, personal love of the divine accessible to people of every background. Beloved poet-saints such as Meera poured their longing for Krishna into songs still sung today. In the modern era, movements such as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness have carried his devotion to communities across the globe. Enduring as the heart of Vaishnavism, Hinduism's largest devotional tradition, Lord Krishna remains a timeless presence, bridging the cosmic and the intimate, and offering to all who seek him a vision of the divine as supremely personal, loving, and near.

Wisdom

Krishna told Arjuna that having even one occult power would prevent him from realizing God.

The Blessed Lord said: You grieve for those who are not worthy of grief, and yet you speak words that sound like wisdom. The truly learned mourn neither for the living nor for the dead.

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

Just as the embodied soul in this body passes through childhood, youth, and old age, so too it passes into another body. The wise person is not deluded by this.

O son of Kunti, the contacts of the senses with their objects give rise to cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go; they are impermanent. Bear with them, O Bharata.

The person whom these do not trouble, O best among men — the one who remains steady in both pain and pleasure, who is resolute — that person is fit for immortality.

What is unreal has no existence; what is real never ceases to be. Those who see the truth have seen the nature of both.

Know that to be indestructible by which all this universe is pervaded. No one is able to bring about the destruction of the imperishable.

These bodies of the eternal, indestructible, immeasurable embodied soul are said to have an end. Therefore, O Bharata, fight.

One who thinks this is a slayer and one who thinks this is slain — both of them fail to perceive the truth. This neither slays nor is it slain.

It is never born and it never dies. It has not come into being, nor will it ever come to be again. It is unborn, eternal, ever-lasting, and ancient. It is not slain when the body is slain.

O Partha, one who knows this to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and imperishable — how does that person cause another to be slain, and whom does that person slay?

Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on others that are new, even so the embodied soul sheds worn-out bodies and takes on other new ones.

Weapons do not cut this, fire does not burn it, water does not wet it, and wind does not dry it.

This cannot be cut, cannot be burned, cannot be wetted, cannot be dried. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable, and everlasting.

It is said to be unmanifest, inconceivable, and immutable. Therefore, having understood it thus, you ought not to grieve.

For one who is born, death is certain; and for one who has died, birth is certain. Therefore you should not grieve over what is unavoidable.

O Bharata, all beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their middle state, and unmanifest again at their end. What is there to lament in this?

Someone perceives it as wondrous; another speaks of it as wondrous; yet another hears of it as wondrous — and yet, even having heard, no one truly knows it.

O Bharata, the dweller in the body is eternally indestructible in every being. Therefore you ought not to mourn for any creature.