Birth & Gokula · Mathura and Gokula
Hope · 5 min read
Krishna’s appearance
Janma-lilaOn a storm-filled night in Mathura, Krishna appears to Devaki and Vasudeva and is carried across the Yamuna to safety in Gokula.
King Kamsa had imprisoned his sister Devaki and her husband Vasudeva after hearing that her eighth child would end his rule. Yet when the promised child appeared, the prison could not contain the moment.
Vasudeva found the doors open and the guards asleep. Carrying the infant Krishna, he crossed the flooded Yamuna toward the pastoral village of Gokula. There, he exchanged the child with the newborn daughter of Yashoda and Nanda.
Krishna’s arrival is celebrated as Janmashtami: a passage from fear toward hope, and from confinement toward divine protection.