Week 12 Reading: Epified Krishna Part A

     Watching this playlist, I learned things that I realized I missed out on in my previous readings about Krishna.  For instance, in the very first episode about Krishna it mentions that Arjuna and Krishna were born at the same time.  I never knew these two heroes were the same age! I always thought Krishna was older and more experienced than the Pandavas, as he always seemed to be guiding them or assisting them.  I also missed out on the idea that King Kansa was Krishna's uncle! Not that killing babies wasn't bad enough, but it made me realize that King Kansa was killing his nephews and nieces prior to the arrival of Krishna. What a jerk! I also feel like it would be a weird predicament if Devaki continued to have children while her brother was killing them...she didn't NEED to have eight children! I also didn't recall that the child before Krishna, the seventh one, was transported to a new mother's womb.  I figured before now that they all had suffered the same cruel fate.  I never understood that Vasudeva played a huge role in saving Krishna's life early on...leaving the kingdom prison and crossing a raging river--dad of the year! I suppose after watching six of your children perish, you would do ANYTHING for the safety of that child.  It's awfully sad when you put it that way.  The story talks about the voice in Vasudeva's head that was guiding him through these obstacles and eventually guided him to Krishna's future home.  I wonder if this was the voice of gods, or paternal instinct? The story talks about how Kamsa was happy and frightened when he found out his sister had her eighth child.  I wonder if Kamsa was so obsessed by her children that it became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy?  He was clearly obsessed and consumed by the potential of losing his kingdom to his nephew.  It was kind of sad realizing that Vasudeva had swapped children knowing that the other child would probably be killed.  I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out not to be the case.  It would be VERY confusing for Vrindavana to wake up one morning and have a son instead of the daughter she had birthed.  She was a great mother though--taking in Krishna and his non-biological brother as though they were her own. 

Bibliography: Krishna by Epified TV (India) in 2015

Krishna meets his biological mother Devaki.

source: commons