Krishna

About Krishna

Krishna is the dark-skinned cowherd god of Vrindavan, pictured with a peacock feather in his curly hair, yellow silk wrapped at his waist, and a bamboo flute at his lips. Adi Shankara's Bala Mukundashtakam shows him as an infant floating on a banyan leaf, sucking his toe — having just swallowed the worlds. As a boy he danced on the hoods of the serpent Kaliya in the Yamuna and was tied to a mortar for stealing butter. As a youth he killed his tyrant uncle Kamsa and the wrestler Chanura. In Odisha he is worshipped as Jagannath of Puri, and devotees count the Hare Krishna mantra on 108 tulsi beads.