Lord Krishna Birth Story: The Divine Story of Krishna Janm

This Lord Krishna birth story is the divine tale of how He was born in a prison cell of Mathura and carried safely to Gokul.

Once upon a time, there was a King named Ugrasen, who ruled the holy city of Mathura. He had a son named Kamsa, whom he crowned as the prince. Kamsa was very cruel, and everyone in the town feared him. He hated everyone, but loved his sister Devaki very much, who was very kind and generous.

One day, her marriage was fixed with a wise and noble man, Vasudeva. Kamsa was very happy on the day, but while Kamsa was driving the couple's chariot towards the Kingdom, a celestial voice from the sky announced that Devaki’s eighth child would kill Kamsa. Soon after hearing this, in fear, the tyrant King Kamsa tried to kill Devaki on the spot, but her husband, Vasudeva, pleaded, promising to hand over every child born to Devaki to Kamsa.

King Kamsa agreed to this promise, but only on one condition: that he would imprison both Devaki and Vasudeva so they could not run away or hide any of their children from him. Over the years, six children were born to the couple, and they were killed by Kamsa one by one.

But as the eighth pregnancy approached, Kamsa tightened the security around the prison, as he wanted to ensure that the eighth-born child should not be smuggled or left through his hands by any chance.

On the eighth day of Ashtami of the dark fortnight in the month of Bhadrapada, Lord Krishna appeared in His fierce Char Bhuja form, offering a merciful appearance in front of Devaki and Vasudeva.

Seeing the divine form, Devaki asked the Lord to transform His body into that of a newborn baby, as she was scared that if her brother Kamsa saw the child like this, he would get to know that this was not a normal child and would kill Him.

Soon, the Lord took the form of a newborn child, as requested by the mother, after which several miraculous events occurred that helped Vasudeva Maharaja move the newborn out of Kamsa’s reach.

The prison doors opened automatically, the prison guards fell into a deep sleep, and the heavy shackles binding Vasudeva Maharaja broke on their own.

Then, Vasudeva carried Krishna to protect Him, placed Him in a basket, and set out for Gokula.

The Yamuna was flooded that night, yet Vasudeva stepped forward; the river itself parted the way to let him cross safely, a moment said to be nature offering its service to the Lord.

On reaching Gokul, Vasudeva entered the home of Nanda Maharaja and Devi Yashoda, who had given birth to a baby girl that same night, believed to be the incarnation of Yogamaya, Krishna’s divine energy.

Vasudeva exchanged the two infants; he left baby Krishna with the sleeping Devi Yashoda, and took the girl child with him back to the Mathura prison, reshackling himself with the chains like before, so that no one could suspect that anything had happened.

When Kamsa saw the girl child and tried to kill her, she revealed herself in her divine form and declared, "Your slayer has already been born somewhere else, and He will come one day to punish you for all your cruel deeds."

Krishna grew up safely in Gokul, and after spending 11 years of His childhood there, He returned to Mathura to kill the cruel ruler Kamsa and free His mother, Devaki, and His father, Vasudeva.

This marks the divine birth story of Lord Krishna, celebrated as a vibrant festival of Janmashtami every year.