Who is Krishna? Guide to the Beloved Hindu Deity
Krishna is one of the most beloved figures in Hindu tradition, worshipped by hundreds of millions of Hindus today across the world. He is the eighth avatar of Vishnu in mainstream Vaishnava theology, and in some Hindu traditions (particularly Gaudiya Vaishnavism) he is not an avatar of Vishnu but the supreme deity himself, of whom Vishnu is one aspect. His stories fill more Hindu narrative than any other figure. He steals butter as a child. He kills demons sent by his uncle. He plays flute music that draws the gopis out of their homes at night. He counsels his friend Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra in one of the world’s most influential religious dialogues. This guide describes Krishna as he is preserved in the Hindu tradition and continues to be actively worshipped today.
A note on sensitivity. Krishna is a central deity of living Hindu religion, worshipped daily by hundreds of millions of people. This guide describes him respectfully as he appears in Hindu tradition. It does not offer specific mantras, ritual instructions, or devotional practices that belong to initiated worship.
Key Takeaways
- Krishna (Krsna in Sanskrit) is one of the most beloved deities in Hindu tradition, worshipped by hundreds of millions of Hindus worldwide.
- In mainstream Vaishnava theology, he is the eighth avatar of Vishnu. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism and some other traditions, he is the supreme deity himself.
- His name means “dark” or “black” in Sanskrit, referring to his traditional dark blue skin.
- His life is preserved most fully in the Bhagavata Purana (the Srimad Bhagavatam), the Mahabharata, and various other Puranas.
- His childhood in Vrindavan (butter-stealing, killing of demons, dancing with the gopis) and his adult life in Dwaraka (as king), and his role at Kurukshetra (as divine charioteer to Arjuna), are the three great arcs of his tradition.
- The Bhagavad Gita - his discourse to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra - is one of the most influential religious texts in world history.
- His worship is active and central to contemporary Hinduism. Major festivals dedicated to him include Janmashtami (celebrating his birth) and Holi (celebrating his play with the gopis and Radha).
Who is Krishna?
Krishna is a major deity in Hinduism, one of the most widely worshipped divine figures in the world today. In mainstream Vaishnava (Vishnu-focused) theology, he is the eighth of the ten avatars (divine descents) of Vishnu, who takes physical form to restore dharma (cosmic and moral order) when it has become severely imbalanced.
Definition - Krishna
A major deity in Hindu tradition, the eighth avatar of Vishnu in mainstream Vaishnavism, and in some traditions the supreme deity himself. Krishna is central to the Bhagavata Purana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad Gita. His worship is active and central to contemporary Hinduism, particularly in the Vaishnava traditions.
In some Hindu theological traditions - particularly Gaudiya Vaishnavism, founded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the sixteenth century CE - the relationship is inverted. Krishna is not one of Vishnu’s avatars; he is the original supreme deity, of whom Vishnu is one aspect. The philosophical position that Krishna is svayam bhagavan, “the personal supreme,” is a significant strand of Hindu theology, followed by many millions.
His name in Sanskrit is Krishna (Krsna), meaning “dark” or “black” - referring to his traditional dark blue skin. His childhood name is Gopala (“cowherd”). His many other names and titles include Govinda, Madhava, Vasudeva, Keshava, and hundreds more, each emphasising a specific aspect of his character or story.
Krishna’s birth and childhood
Krishna was born to Devaki, sister of the evil king Kansa of Mathura, and her husband Vasudeva. Kansa had received a prophecy that his sister’s eighth son would kill him. He had killed each of Devaki’s first seven children as they were born. When Krishna was born - on the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Bhadrapada - his father Vasudeva miraculously escaped the guarded prison and carried the newborn across the flooded Yamuna River to the village of Gokul, where he exchanged Krishna for the newborn daughter of Nanda and Yashoda. Krishna was thus raised in secret in the cowherd village. Read Kansa and Devaki, the birth of Krishna, and Krishna in Vrindavan.
His childhood in Vrindavan is one of the tradition’s most beloved bodies of story. He stole butter from the pots his mother hung high to keep it safe from him. He killed a series of demons sent by Kansa to destroy him - the demoness Putana, the whirlwind demon Trinavarta, the serpent Kaliya (whom he did not kill but subdued), and many others. He lifted Mount Govardhan on his little finger to shelter the villagers from the storm sent by Indra. He danced the raas lila with the gopis (the cowherd women) in the moonlit forest. And he played his flute - music so beautiful that the gopis would leave their homes at night to follow it. Read Krishna the naughty boy, Krishna and the humbling of Indra, the Govardhan hill, and Putana the demoness.
Krishna and Radha
The love between Krishna and Radha, chief of the gopis, is one of the tradition’s most theologically significant relationships. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism and related Vaishnava traditions, Radha is not merely Krishna’s lover but the personified hladini shakti (bliss-power) of the divine - the feminine aspect through which the supreme deity experiences love.
The love between them, in this theological reading, is not a mortal romance but the eternal exchange between the divine and its own capacity for devotion. Their playful union, jealous separation, and blissful reunion in the forests of Vrindavan are treated as the archetypal pattern of the soul’s relationship with God.
Their story is not preserved directly in the oldest Krishna sources (the Bhagavata Purana barely mentions Radha) but was developed extensively in later Vaishnava tradition, particularly through the twelfth-century poet Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda and through the Gaudiya Vaishnava theologians.
Krishna as prince and king
Krishna eventually left Vrindavan and returned to Mathura, where he killed his uncle Kansa in the tradition’s account and freed his imprisoned parents. He installed his grandfather as king and became a prince himself. Read Krishna in Mathura.
Later, after conflicts with the powerful king Jarasandha, Krishna moved his people to the newly built city of Dwaraka on the western coast of India. He ruled there as king. He married Rukmini (his principal wife) and, by tradition, 16,108 other queens - a number that expresses his divine multiplicity rather than a literal harem. Read Krishna in Dwarka.
Krishna at Kurukshetra
Krishna’s most consequential adult role is his participation in the great war of the Mahabharata, the epic conflict between the Pandava brothers and their cousins the Kauravas.
Krishna was a friend and relative of both sides but especially of the Pandavas. When the war became inevitable, he offered a choice: either side could have him personally (unarmed, as a counsellor) or his enormous army (without him). The Kauravas chose the army. The Pandavas chose Krishna. This turned out to be the decisive choice.
Krishna served as charioteer to Arjuna, the greatest of the Pandava warriors. At the moment when battle was about to begin - with Arjuna’s chariot drawn up between the two armies - Arjuna was overcome by grief at the prospect of killing his cousins, teachers, and elders. He refused to fight. Krishna’s response is the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most influential religious texts in world history: eighteen chapters of dialogue in which Krishna explains the nature of duty (dharma), the immortality of the soul, the paths of action (karma yoga), knowledge (jnana yoga), and devotion (bhakti yoga), and reveals his own true nature as the supreme deity in a cosmic vision Arjuna cannot bear to look at directly. Read Krishna comes to the Pandavas’ side, Krishna Avatar, and preparation for the battle.
The Gita’s message - that action performed without attachment to its fruits is the path to liberation - has been foundational for Hindu religious life for over two thousand years.
Krishna’s death
Krishna’s death, in the tradition, was accidental. Long after the Mahabharata war, when he was old and his Yadava kinsmen had destroyed themselves in a quarrel, Krishna was resting under a tree in the forest. A hunter named Jara, mistaking Krishna’s foot for a deer, shot him with an arrow. The arrow struck Krishna’s heel - his one vulnerable point (a detail sometimes compared to the Achilles motif). Krishna died. The tradition holds his death marks the end of the Dvapara Yuga (the third of the four cosmic ages) and the beginning of the current Kali Yuga (the age of decline).
Krishna compared to other divine figures
Krishna occupies a unique position in world religion.
| Tradition | Figure | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindu | Krishna | Avatar of Vishnu (or supreme deity) | Central to Vaishnavism |
| Hindu | Rama | Seventh avatar of Vishnu | Central to Ramayana |
| Christian | Jesus | Incarnation of God | Central to Christianity |
| Buddhist | Buddha | Enlightened teacher | Not divine in most traditions |
| Zoroastrian | Ahura Mazda | Supreme deity | No incarnation |
| Norse | Baldur | Beloved god | Killed; returns after Ragnarok |
The parallel with Jesus - both are divine figures who take human form, teach, love, and die - has been noted for centuries and remains a subject of comparative religious scholarship. The two traditions are otherwise very different, but the specific pattern of the incarnate deity is one they share.
Read the stories
Krishna appears throughout the Indian tradition. Some entry points:
- The Birth of Krishna
- Krishna in Vrindavan
- Krishna the Naughty Boy
- The Govardhan Hill
- Krishna and the Humbling of Indra
- Krishna Comes to the Pandavas’ Side
- Krishna in Dwarka
Krishna is what Hindu tradition kept as its most fully-developed image of the divine in human life - flute-playing cowherd, mischievous butter-thief, teacher of Arjuna, king of Dwaraka. His worship is not distant literature. Millions of his devotees speak to him each day in the same way they might speak to a beloved friend. What the tradition preserves in him is a specific answer to what the divine can be: intimate, playful, wise, present.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Krishna?
Krishna is one of the most beloved deities in Hindu tradition, worshipped by hundreds of millions of Hindus today. In mainstream Vaishnava theology he is the eighth avatar of Vishnu. In some traditions - particularly Gaudiya Vaishnavism - he is not an avatar but the supreme deity himself, of whom Vishnu is one aspect. His life is preserved most fully in the Bhagavata Purana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad Gita.
What is the Bhagavad Gita?
The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue between Krishna and the warrior-prince Arjuna, set on the battlefield of Kurukshetra just before the great war of the Mahabharata. Arjuna, overcome with grief at the prospect of killing his kinsmen, refuses to fight. Krishna responds with eighteen chapters of teaching on duty (dharma), the nature of the soul, the paths of action, knowledge, and devotion, and eventually reveals his own true nature as the supreme deity. The Gita is one of the most influential religious texts in world history and central to Hindu religious life.
What is Janmashtami?
Janmashtami is the annual festival celebrating Krishna’s birth, held on the eighth day of the dark half of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada (usually falling in August or September in the Gregorian calendar). Devotees fast until midnight (the traditional time of Krishna’s birth), stay up through the night with devotional singing and reading, and celebrate with elaborate rituals in temples and homes. It is one of the most important festivals in the Vaishnava calendar.
Who is Radha?
Radha is chief of the gopis (the cowherd women of Vrindavan) and Krishna’s beloved. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism and related traditions, she is the personified hladini shakti (bliss-power) of the divine - not merely Krishna’s lover but the feminine aspect through which the supreme deity experiences love. Their relationship, in this theological reading, is the archetypal pattern of the soul’s relationship with God. Radha is not prominent in the oldest Krishna sources but became central in later Vaishnava tradition.
Is Krishna the same as Vishnu?
The answer depends on the theological tradition. In mainstream Vaishnava theology, Krishna is the eighth of the ten avatars of Vishnu - Vishnu descending to earth in Krishna’s form. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism and some related traditions, the relationship is inverted: Krishna is the original supreme deity, and Vishnu is one of his aspects. Both positions have long theological histories and many contemporary adherents.
Is Krishna worshipped today?
Yes, by hundreds of millions of Hindus worldwide. Krishna worship is one of the largest and most active branches of contemporary Hinduism. Major Vaishnava traditions - including the Gaudiya Vaishnavism popularised globally by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) since the 1960s - are centred on his worship. He is invoked in daily prayer, honoured in home shrines, celebrated at major festivals, and central to the religious life of many millions of devotees.