Reading Diary A: Krishna's Story from Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita

For this week, I am reading Krishna’s story from Cradle Tales of Hinduism by Sister Nivedita.  One of my favorite stories from the reading was the story of Krishna and the snake Kaliya.  One of the reasons that I liked the story was that this was one of the first times that Krishna openly showed his power to others.  In most of the previous encounters, no one was there to witness his power.  I found it interesting that Krishna even though he was a baby was able to comprehend what was going on around him and even defeat asaras.  Most likely if King Kansa had attacked Krishna in his early childhood he would have been defeated even then because Krishna seemed to have all the power of Vishnu at an early age.  In the story of Krishna and Kaliya it was interesting that even though Krishna possessed the body of a human he did not seem to be affected by the poison of the lake.  Also it was interesting that Krishna’s companions did not believe that Krishna was alive when he threw up his flute because it was his most prized possession.  But then Krishna appeared and stomped on the heads of Kaliya.  It was odd that Krishna who first attacked Kaliya would then spare the life of Kaliya and force him to go to the ocean.  After the battle, it was interesting to see that Yasoda looked and saw Krishna swallow the flames when she was told not to.  It will be interesting to see were that leads.

Krishna lifting a mountain (source: wikimedia)