Janmashtami is an annual festival in India that celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna was the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu. The purpose of his birth was to defeat his evil uncle Kansa who had ruled tyrannically over the land of Mathura. His other purpose was to guide and counsel the Pandavas to victory over the Kauravas in the war of Kurukshetra.

When Kansa dethroned his father Ugrasena (by imprisoning him) to take the reins at Mathura, the people were discontent. He was a cruel king who treated his subjects harshly. He then came to know through a prophecy that his sister Devaki’s eighth child would bring his demise upon the world. He imprisoned his sister and her husband Vasudeva and instructed his guards to notify him when a child was born.

After a child would be born, Kansa would kill that child. As the day of the birth of Devaki’s eighth son drew nearer, Kansa waited impatiently. But on the day of the birth, all the guards magically fell asleep and the doors to the prison cell opened. That was when a godly voice told Vasudeva to take the baby and keep him somewhere far away from Mathura.

Vasudeva carried the little child and ran. He went through the streets of Mathura and crossed the Yamuna river on a rainy night (aided by Sheshnag) and reached Gokul. There a woman named Yashoda had given birth to a daughter so Vasudeva switched the babies there and returned home. When Kansa came to kill the girl, it turned out that the child was Maya (goddess of illusion) in disguise and she vanished in thin air. Kansa had realised that the prophecy had started to work it’s way. Krishna had been born.

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