Krsna is God, the eternal and unborn. However, He is born as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. How can the Supreme Unborn be born? As mentioned by Queen Kunti in her prayers, that’s certainly bewildering.

In our case, it’s easy to understand why we are born. Although we are eternal souls, we accept temporary material bodies, and such bodies have a beginning and an end. We are born as small babies and eventually grow up as adults, later dwindling as old persons until we face death. After death, we go to a new body and the cycle repeats. Krsna also appears to take birth and later “die” when hit by the arrow of the hunter, and such appearance and disappearance repeat as He goes from one universe to the other. However, there is something fundamentally different in Krsna’s “birth”.

Krsna never accepts a material body. Although He appears to be born, He always comes in His original spiritual body. We change our body because our body is different from our real identity as soul, the body is just some kind of covering or vehicle that deteriorates over time, but in the case of Krsna, there is no difference between his body and soul. He always appears in His original form.

But still, Krsna is born. How is that? The reason is that he wants to enjoy the affection of his father and mother. We are born of necessity because we are forced by material nature to accept a material body, but Krsna appears in his original spiritual body out of His own free will, “born” as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. He is then transferred to Gokula, where he enjoys his childhood pastimes.

Although the appearance of Krsna is supremely auspicious, He is born in conditions that appear to be inauspicious: in the prison of Kamsa.

Due to the omen from the sky, the Demoniac Kamsa put Krsna’s parents in prison, waiting for the birth of their 8th child in order to kill Him. Kamsa is a very powerful person, but still, he is afraid that this small boy may one day kill him. In this way, he kept Vasudeva and Devaki in prison and killed their babies one after the other.

It’s described that Krsna originally appeared inside the heart of Vasudeva, and was transmitted to the heart of Devaki through initiation, and not by sexual intercourse. Because of the presence of Krsna, Devaki became extraordinarily beautiful and effulgent. Kamsa knew that the eighth son of Devaki was going to kill him, therefore this effulgence made Kamsa fearful since He could understand that an extraordinarily powerful personality was inside her womb.

He eventually appeared in His four-armed Vishnu form, but after receiving the prayers of Vasudeva, he agreed to become a small baby, with two arms. It’s interesting to note that when Krsna appeared as Lord Vishnu, Vasudeva didn’t pray for Him to release him from prison, but instead prayed to the Lord to assume the form of a regular baby, so he could hide Him from Kamsa. In his eternal rasa as a parent, Vasudeva desired to protect Krsna, and not be protected by Him.

By the arrangement of Yoga-Maya, everyone fell asleep after the birth of Krsna, including all the guards in the prison. Not only did all the guards fall asleep, but all the doors opened. Vasudeva took then the opportunity to take Krsna to the house of Nanda Maharaja in Gokula, with the idea of hiding Him there.

Even today, it’s not so easy to walk from Mathura to Gokula, especially carrying a small baby, and to make things more complicated it was raining very strongly. At this point, another miracle happened: Ananta Sesa appeared and followed Vasudeva all the way, protecting him and Krsna from the rain. Vasudeva however was so absorbed in protecting Krsna that he did not even notice it.

After walking for a long time, he came to the banks of the Yamuna. The problem was then how to cross the river since the rain increased the volume of water and made the current extremely strong. There was no bridge or boat. Instead, another miracle happened: the river split in the middle, and Vasudeva could just walk to the other side, followed by Ananta Sesa.

Finally, Vasudeva arrived at the house of Nanda Maharaja. Everyone was sleeping, including mother Yashoda, who had just given birth to a baby girl. This girl was no one less than Yoga-Maya, Krsna’s internal potency who later appeared as Subadra. Everyone was sleeping in the house, including mother Yashoda, who fell asleep immediately after giving birth, without understanding if she had given birth to a boy or a girl.

Guided by the Supersoul, Vasudeva exchanged the babies. He took the girl with him and left Krsna to be raised as the son of Devaki and Nanda Maharaja. He considered that this was the best way to protect Krsna, hiding Him in a way that Kamsa would not be able to find him. This act that may appear censurable according to mundane morality was done out of unconditional love for Krsna and thus was completely spiritual and pure.

Taking the girl, he went back to prison and closed the door of his cell. At this moment, the mystical potency waned and all the guards woke up. Hearing the cries of the baby they immediately alerted Kamsa that the 8th son of Vasudeva and Devaki was born. Alarmed, Kamsa immediately got down and snatched the baby. Despite the pitful pleas of Devaki, and without even considering that it was a girl and not a boy, he tried to smash the baby against a stone.

However, it’s not possible for anyone to kill Yoga-Maya. She slipped out of Kamsa’s hand and immediately revealed her form as Dhurga, with eight arms holding weapons. Yoga-Maya and Durga are actually the same person. The energy of Krsna is just one, but we see her as material or spiritual according to our own consciousness. Devotees see Yoga-Maya, while demons and impersonalists see Maha-Maya, the material energy. When seemingly material elements are connected with the service of Krsna, they become spiritual, just like ordinary food when offered to Krsna becomes prasadam.

In the form of Durga, she told Kamsa: “You rascal, how can you kill me? The child who will kill you is already born before me somewhere within this world. Don’t be so cruel to your poor sister.”

In this way, the secret of Krsna being hidden was revealed. Rebuked by Goddess Durga, Kamsa at first had a change of heart and apologized to Devaki for killing his sons. It’s described that tears flowed from his eyes, and he fell down at their feet. However, later he fell under the bad association of his ministers he started his persecution, killing not only many small babies but also persecuting Brahmanas and Vaishnavas in a vain attempt to kill Lord Vishnu. In the meantime, Krsna was in Gokula, enjoying his childhood pastimes with Nanda Maharaja and mother Yashoda.

Nanda Maharaja called Brahmanas to do all the Vedic ceremonies for the birth of Krsna. He organized a great festival and profusely gave charity to all who came. Secretly, he made Gargamuni perform the purificatory rites, as well as the name-giving ceremony. He also calculated Krsna’s birth chart.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krsna reveals that he comes for three purposes: to give assotiation to His devotees, to kill the demons, and to reestablish the principles of Dharma.

Before Krsna took his birth from Devaki, He arranged that all the powerful demons of the universe would take their births on Earth. Kamsa was the most powerful among them, and he quickly subjugated the others and made them work for him.

These demons were naturally very envious of Krsna’s devotees and started attacking them even before Krsna took His birth. Kamsa imprisoned Vasudeva and Devaki and started killing their sons, and the members of the Yadhu and Vrsni dynasties were forced to flee in different directions. Similarly, the other demons created so many tribulations for the Brahmanas and cows. There were also many other powerful kings, like Jarasanda, who were also very powerful and were inimical to Krsna’s devotees, like the Pandavas.

The reason Krsna put them all together on this planet was to be able to easily kill all of them. For some time they could freely perform their demoniac activities, but ultimately their days were numbered. Krsna killed many powerful demons during his childhood and later killed Kamsa and others. He destroyed the numerous armies of demoniac soldiers Jarasandha was conveniently bringing to attack Mathura, and eventually engaged Bhima in killing Jarasandha himself. Similarly, all the remaining demoniac kings and soldiers were put together in the battle of Kuruksetra, just so that they could be killed by Arjuna and others.

This killing of demons by Krsna is His mercy to them. Krsna comes to this universe once on each day of Brahma. Every time He comes, he takes His pure devotees with Him to the spiritual world. Demons are always envious of devotees, and therefore is very rare to see a demon becoming a devotee. However, Krsna is so compassionate that he doesn’t want to save only His devotees, but also the demons. That’s why He organizes so many pastimes so the demons can be killed by Him, or in His presence, so they can also be liberated. In this way, Krsna is merciful not only to His devotees but also to His enemies. Anyone who approaches Krsna, even as an enemy, receives His mercy.

The first demon to attack Krsna was Putana. She was engaged by Kamsa in going from village to village, killing all the newborn babies. Putana was even able to find Krsna in Gokula and assumed the form of a beautiful celestial woman in order to gain access to Krsna’s quarters and kill him by sucking her poisoned breast, but Krsna sucked not only the milk but her vital air, killing her in the process. However, because of her attitude of service in feeding Krsna with her breast milk, she went back to Godhead, assuming the form of an assistant of Mother Yashoda in Goloka Vrindavana.

The appearance of Krsna is very mysterious. Krsna has two mothers, Yashoda and Devaki. He also has a brother and a sister, Balarama, and Subhadra. Lord Balarama is the eternal son of Rohini, another wife of Vasudeva who was living under the care of Nanda Maharaja in Gokula.

In order to make arrangements for Krsna to come as the son of Devaki, Lord Balarama first enters in her womb as Lord Sesa, making all the arrangements for Krsna. As narrated in the Srimad Bhagavatam (10.2.8) Krsna then orders Yoga-Maya to transfer Him to the womb of Rohini. Normally, no one can move Lord Sesa, He sustains all the material universes, but by taking power from Krsna, Yoga-Maya was able to do so.

The same Yoga-Maya who was born from Yashoda and whom Kamsa tried to kill appeared later as the younger daughter of Rohini, becoming Krsna’s younger sister.

There is however another interesting detail of this pastime is revealed by Srila Prabhupada in his purport to SB 10.3.47: “Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura discusses that Kṛṣṇa appeared simultaneously as the son of Devakī and as the son of Yaśodā, along with the spiritual energy Yoga-māyā. As the son of Devakī, He first appeared as Viṣṇu, and because Vasudeva was not in the position of pure affection for Kṛṣṇa, Vasudeva worshiped his son as Lord Viṣṇu. Yaśodā, however, pleased her son Kṛṣṇa without understanding His Godhood. This is the difference between Kṛṣṇa as the son of Yaśodā and as the son of Devakī. This is explained by Viśvanātha Cakravartī on the authority of Hari-vaṁśa.”

He explains further (SB 10.4.9) that: ” When Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, took birth from Devakī, He must have simultaneously taken birth from Yaśodā also. Otherwise how could Yoga-māyā have been anujā, the Lord’s younger sister?”

From this, we can understand that Krsna took birth simultaneously in Vrindavan and in Mathura. He appeared in Mathura as Vasudeva Krsna, fully grown with all ornaments and four arms, while he appeared as the original Krsna in Vraja, with two hands, along with Yoga-Maya.

Vasudeva prayed to Vasudeva Krsna to assume the form of a normal baby, with two hands and carried Him to Vraja. At the same time, the original Krsna was lying down in the bed alongside Yoga-Maya, the young girl born of mother Yashoda. However, when Vasudeva arrived there he couldn’t see him. When he left the baby and took the girl, Vasudeva Krsna merged into the original Krsna. In the end, there was just one Krsna in Vraja, and the girl Yoga-Maya returned with Vasudeva to Mathura, where she disappeared after Kamsa tried to kill her, just to reappear a little later as Subhadra, the daughter of Rohini.

We can see that during some of His pastimes in Vrindavana, Krsna manifests the form of Vasudeva Krsna to fight the demons. Since Krsna is the original, Supreme Personality of Godhead, he includes all other expansions. He can thus manifest Vasudeva Krsna to fight with demons or manifest Lord Vishnu to play a prank in the gopis, for example.

When Krsna goes to Mathura, both again separate, with the original Krsna staying in Vrindavana in an invisible form and Vasudeva Krsna going to Mathura with Akrura and playing all His pastimes there.

Lord Balarama is present in all these lilas, playing the role of Krsna’s older brother and serving Him in all possible ways. Lord Balarama is the original spiritual master, the Servitor God (as described by Srila Prabhupada), who appears in the form of the spiritual master to engage us in the service of Krsna.