Shri Krishna

“Resigning all your duties, take refuge in Me alone. I shall liberate you from all evils. Do not worry.”
- Bhagavad Gita 18:66

Shri Krishna was the eighth incarnation (or avatara – a Sanskrit word meaning "descent") of Lord Vishnu, the god of preservation and restorer of righteousness in the universe. He came at least 5,000 years ago. His previous incarnation was as Shri Rama, and his following one, Lord Buddha.

He was born in prison, as his father king Vasudeva and mother queen Devaki had been chained in a dungeon for years by Devaki's evil brother Kamsa, because of a prophecy that a child of Vasudeva would kill Kamsa. On the night of his birth, he was miraculously substituted for   Nanda and Yashodas' newborn baby in a nearby village, where he grew up a mischievous young lad under their loving care. As a young teenager, he returned to Mathura where he slayed king Kamsa, and freed his father and mother.

In later years he became a king and king-maker, an advisor to both the Kaurava brothers and Pandava brothers (to whom he was related as an uncle), and the intimate friend of Arjuna, to whom he revealed the mystical teachings of yoga in the middle of a battlefield, in a book revered by all Hindus as the Bhagavad Gita.

His name means literally "dark" or "black" in Sanskrit. According to Paramahamsa Hariharananda, His name means the "Divine Cultivator" (na) of the "body-field" (krish), i.e. the soul.