Krishna (Karmathep in Thailand), the Hindu god of love, is represented as a young and handsome man who wields a bow and arrows. His bow is made of sugarcane with honeybees on it and his arrows are decorated with five kinds of fragrant flowers. Its string is made of a chain of honeybees. Krishna plays the flute - particularly at night - exuding sweet fragrances of sandlewood and jasmine and glowing in divine splendor. This symbolizes Krishna calling out to all free souls who are lost and are attached to sensory objects. So this god assumes a form that captivates and attracts the senses of all beings. The result is a sacred love and ardent devotion that purifies and illumines. Krishna is the ninth and the most complete incarnation ("avatar") of Lord Vishnu and another one of the most commonly worshipped deities in the Hindu faith. Of all avatars he is the most popular and perhaps the one closest to the heart of the masses. This blue-skinned deity has influenced the Indian thought, life and culture in myriad ways - not only its religion and philosophy, but also into its mysticism and literature, painting and sculpture, dance and music, and all aspects of Indian folklore.

Krishna and Radha

"The RADHA-KRISHNA amour is a love legend for all times. It's hard to miss the many legends and paintings illustrating Krishna's love affairs, but the Radha-Krishna affair is the most memorable. Krishna's relationship with Radha, his favorite among the cow-herding maidens ("gopis"), has prominently served as a model for male and female love in North Indian paintings. Radha was Krishna's lover during that period of his life when he lived among the cowherds of Vrindavan. Since childhood they were close to each other - they played, they danced, they fought, they grew up together and wanted to be together forever, but the world pulled them apart. He departed to safeguard the virtues of truth, and she waited for him. He vanquished his enemies, became the king, and came to be worshipped as a Lord of the universe. Still she waited for him. He married, raised a family, fought the great war of Ayodhya, and she continued to wait. One day the two most talked about lovers come together for a final single meeting and were married in front of five hundred and sixty million people and all the gods and goddesses of heaven. So great was Radha's love for Krishna that even today her name is uttered whenever Krishna is refered to, and Krishna worship is thought to be incomplete without the deification of Radha. Krishna's youthful dalliances with the 'gopis' are interpreted as symbolic of the loving interplay between God and the human soul. Radha's utterly rapturous love for Krishna and their relationship is often interpreted as the quest for union with the divine. This kind of love is of the highest form of devotion in Vaishnavism, and is symbolically represented as the bond between the wife and husband or beloved and lover.

Tormented by TARAKA, the demon, all the gods under the leadership of Indra, went to the Creator, Lord Brahma, to rid them of this monster. The Creator advised them that only a child of Shiva could produce a fighter, who can defeat the demon. Shiva was at that time lost in deep meditation over the death of Sati. The god of love, named Kirshna, identified with sexual desire, was asked to break Shiva's penance.

Kirshna was approached by all the gods and highly flattered at the request and he boasted that he could conquer the mind of Shiva within no time. Kirshna pulled an arrow and shot at Shiva. The great Lord awoke from meditation and shouted "Who has dared to interrupt my meditation!" Looking towards the south he spotted Kirshna. In anger Shiva opened his third eye in the center of his forehead and thus reduced Kirshna to ashes. The fire which came out from Shiva destroyed LOVE and was so intolerable that Agni, the fire god even could not even bear this fire. He transported the fire into the Saravana forest into a pool Saravana Poigai. From the sparks of the fire was born six children. The children were taken care of by six Krittika, the stars that make up the Pleiades. From these children the god Kartikeya was created.

Meanwhile Kirshna lay dead and love and sexual desire disappeared from everywhere and the entire universe turned into a desert. The gods, fearing extinction, petitioned Shiva, the hot-headed but normally benign god, to have Kirshna reborn. Thus desire returned to the universe and it flowered again to its former state. But, when Lord Shiva restored Kirshna it was only as a mental image, representing true love and affection and not just physical lust. [Shucks!]

(Editor's note, March 22, 2010: This page is now being construction so come back again.)

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