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So obviously Krishna Bhagwan is Vishnu Bhagwan’s avatar right? I’m assuming everyone knows this. Ram Bhagwan is an avatar of Vishnu Bhagwan too. But while Ram Bhagwan was the very epitome of righteousness, morality and honour, Krishna Bhagwan was often known to be very mischievous and playful, especially as a kid.

One day, Krishna’s mother, Yashoda, was told by his friends that baby Krishna had eaten mud. Angry, she scolded him and told him to open his mouth and show her. What she saw astonished her and proved that he was indeed, God. The entire cosmos, including countless stars, planets, oceans, the entire Vrindavan and even herself looking into her child’s mouth. This showed her that her baby Krishna was actually the Supreme Lord of the Universe. This was actually Krishna Bhagwan showing her his Vishwarupa, or his Universal Form.

There are so many stories like this, and every time I read one, I find myself falling even more in love with Krishna Bhagwan. I don’t know what it is about Him. How can someone be the Supreme Lord of the Universe and still feel so wonderfully human? Maybe that’s why I’ve always been drawn to Him.

Guys - has anyone watched Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey yet? And if not, please tell me you’re planning to.

Because honestly, I get why Christopher Nolan is called the greatest director today. I mean, I’ve seen a couple of his earlier films. The Batman trilogy, Interstellar, Inception and Oppenheimer. 

My favourite amongst them is Interstellar. But even this film, I understood after watching it 5 times. And that too, my cousin, who’s really into films, explained it to me. Still, I loved Interstellar. And it’s still my favourite Nolan film.

But The Odyssey - that film, I understood it all on my own. And it was, to put it lightly, a MASTERPIECE. 

I would be a bit biased because I’ve been obsessed with Robert Pattinson since I was about 10 years old but seriously, I mean - such great acting. By the end of the movie, I found myself completely rooting against Antinous. That’s how convincing Robert Pattinson’s performance was. That’s how great of an actor he is - how great he performed as Antinous, the antagonist. 

Matt Damon as Odysseus was just brilliant - as he always is. 

But it’s not just Robert and Matt - every actor in the film performed so brilliantly that they really held Christopher Nolan’s name high.

I highly recommend everyone to go watch the movie, if not for Robert Pattinson, then to experience Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic. 

Rating - 5/5.

I’ve always loved, loved, LOVED Fridays and Saturdays. I won’t say “the weekend” cause Sundays - I loathe. When I was a kid, Sundays meant sleeping early at night because the next day was school. Now, it means sleeping early at night because the next day is gym in the morning and work. 

I mean I guess you can never really escape the schedule of normal life. You shouldn’t even want to escape it. Because even routine is calm right?

So I was in North America for 2 months for a vacation - by the end of it, I just wanted to come back home and to my routine life. But now, it’s not even been 2 weeks since I’ve been back and already I want to go somewhere and escape my life. But I guess that’s not my routine’s fault - it’s the fault of some other elements going on in my life. Some other pressure. 

But I guess that’s selfish of me - everyone has things going on in their lives that’s not according to plan. So what do we do? How do we escape the problem that’s plaguing our lives? By finding a solution to it? If only life were that easy. 

But that’s what makes us human isn’t it? All of our wins, losses, our happiness, our sadness - everything combined - makes us human. 

I just wish it wasn’t so hard. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep looking forward to Fridays. 

I don’t know exactly when I became so spiritual. Growing up, my mom, my grandmother and my aunt always believed in God. We also have a small temple in our home with Krishna Bhagwan in it. As kids, we participated in every religious function in our family. 

So really, I think I should be thanking my grandmother for my spirituality. Because just like how I turned out to be so spiritual, my cousin sister and brother (we all grew up in the same house) identify themselves as Agnostics. They attended the same functions I did while growing up, they too were a part of the poojas that I was a part of - but they don’t believe in the idea of God or a Higher Superpower. 

I guess the reason that I believe in God is because it’s a comfort to me. Whenever something is not going right in my life, I have the belief that Krishna Bhagwan will fix it - maybe not at that very minute, but he will fix it. Whenever life becomes difficult, believing in Krishna gives me hope that things won’t stay this way forever.

Maybe that’s another reason I believe. I grew up listening to stories of Krishna Bhagwan, Ram Bhagwan, Ganpati Bhagwan, Hanuman Bhagwan and Shiv Bhagwan. Those stories weren’t just mythology to me - they became part of how I understood courage, hope, duty and kindness. 

Maybe I’ll never be able to prove that God exists. Maybe I don’t need to. For me, faith has never been about proof. It’s about the peace I feel when I fold my hands in front of Krishna Bhagwan. That’s reason enough for me to believe.

Another thing that I absolutely adore about Krishna Bhagwan is his ability to have friendships. He had so many friends while here on Earth - Sudama, Arjuna, Uddhava, his Gopis and Gopas and Draupadi. Today, I want to talk about his relationship with Draupadi. 

Draupadi was the wife of the Pandava Brothers and an integral reason for the war of Mahabharata. I’ll talk about all that some other day. She was also a great and revered friend of Krishna Bhagwan. They referred to each other as “Sakha” and “Sakhi”. 

Draupadi was also called “Krishnaa” - because of her complexion. There was also an instance wherein Krishna Bhagwan had once cut his finger due to handling his Sudarshan Chakra - Draupadi had immediately torn off a piece of her silk saree to bandage it. Touched by this, Krishna Bhagwan had promised her that his protection would be with her whenever she needed it. Fast forward some time later, when Duryodhan and Dushasan and the rest of the Kauravas try to disrobe her in a full court - Krishna Bhagwan protected her by miraculously providing her with an endless supply of garments.

Also, Krishna Bhagwan had already told Draupadi, in an indirect way, that they, The Pandavas, would win the Mahabharat war, but would lose all their children. 

The kind of devotion, love and friendship that Krishna Bhagwan had with Draupadi is the kind many of us today hope and wish we get. And some of us are lucky in that department that we get a group of friends for life - but some of us, especially in today’s day and age - are unfortunate in that department.

Another thing that I absolutely adore about Krishna Bhagwan is his ability to have friendships. He had so many friends while here on Earth - Sudama, Arjuna, Uddhava, his Gopis and Gopas and Draupadi. Today, I want to talk about his relationship with Draupadi. 

Draupadi was the wife of the Pandava Brothers and an integral reason for the war of Mahabharata. I’ll talk about all that some other day. She was also a great and revered friend of Krishna Bhagwan. They referred to each other as “Sakha” and “Sakhi”. 

Draupadi was also called “Krishnaa” - because of her complexion. There was also an instance wherein Krishna Bhagwan had once cut his finger due to handling his Sudarshan Chakra - Draupadi had immediately torn off a piece of her silk saree to bandage it. Touched by this, Krishna Bhagwan had promised her that his protection would be with her whenever she needed it. Fast forward some time later, when Duryodhan and Dushasan and the rest of the Kauravas try to disrobe her in a full court - Krishna Bhagwan protected her by miraculously providing her with an endless supply of garments.

Also, Krishna Bhagwan had already told Draupadi, in an indirect way, that they, The Pandavas, would win the Mahabharat war, but would lose all their children. 

The kind of devotion, love and friendship that Krishna Bhagwan had with Draupadi is the kind many of us today hope and wish we get. And some of us are lucky in that department that we get a group of friends for life - but some of us, especially in today’s day and age - are unfortunate in that department.

So I remember always being fascinated and quite frankly, confused, by the relationship Krishna Bhagwan had with Radha. So even today, when we go to Vrindavan, Mathura or even Barsana, the people there always greet you with a “Radhe Radhe” - not “Jai Shree Krishna” even though these cities are all significant places in Krishna Bhagwan’s life. I think they greet people with “Radhe Radhe” is because they all know the importance of Radha in Krishna’s life. There is no Krishna without Radha, and vice versa. 

Krishna Bhagwan never married Radha - I’d like to believe that she started off in his life as a best friend and eventually, when Krishna left Vrindavan at 11 years old, she was his eternal divine consort but Krishna Bhagwan never married her. Now, Krishna Bhagwan is said to have had 16,108 wives but 16,100 of his wives were women who he rescued from captivity. Out of the 8 remaining wives, his main wife was Rukmini. 

Now there are many different interpretations about what Radha meant to Krishna and about what Rukmini meant to Krishna - but I’d like to believe that they’re both incarnations of Goddess Lakshmi who is the wife of Vishnu Bhagwan (Krishna Bhagwan is an incarnation of Vishnu Bhagwan by the way). 

Radha and Rukmini loved Krishna Bhagwan unconditionally - and I feel like that’s how we as his disciples should be as well - loving, not fearing, God.

So I remember watching this show back in 2013 called Mahabharata on TV with my grandmother. And I rewatched it in 2021 during a particularly tough phase in my life. The actor who portrays Krishna Bhagwan is Sourabh Raaj Jain - and he is who Krishna Bhagwan looks like when I imagine Him in my head. 

He is so charismatic, so handsome, so incredibly wise, so gentle and just so much like how I imagine Krishna Bhagwan is. 

I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for baby Krishna to be apart from his birth parents Devaki and Vasudeva. And then at just 11 years old, to leave his foster parents Yashoda and Nanda to go to Mathura and kill Kansa. 

But I guess that’s what he is trying to teach us mere humans right? Not to get attached to anyone or anything. I think that’s one of the most important things to learn from Krishna Bhagwan’s life. And it’s a very difficult thing to achieve right? Because I don’t know about you all, but I get attached to any and every thing/person that I spend considerable time with. For example, the holiday that I mentioned I just got back from? I got so attached to my sister’s dog that I lived with for a month.

And then there’s Krishna Bhagwan - who literally left the most important people, not once but twice in his life for the greater good. 

I mean I’m not preaching that we should leave our parents and go do something with our lives. Maybe that’s why Krishna Bhagwan has always fascinated me. He loved deeply, yet never let love stop him from doing what he believed was right. I’m still trying to learn how to do that.

If I had to write my first article about anything, it was always going to be about Krishna Bhagwan.

But then I found myself wondering—what could I possibly write about Krishna Bhagwan that hasn’t already been written? It’s not like I know some forgotten story from His life that no one has ever heard before.

Then I realised that isn’t the point.

This isn’t an attempt to tell His story. It’s my interpretation of it, and the lessons I’ve taken from His life.

Growing up, I heard countless stories about Krishna Bhagwan from my mother and grandmother. There was Krishna, the playful child who defeated the venomous snake Kaliya to protect the people of Vrindavan. Krishna, the young man who finally killed his evil uncle, Kansa. Krishna, the brilliant strategist who retreated from Kalayavan and came to be known as Ranchod. Krishna, the mentor and voice of reason who guided Arjuna and the Pandavas through the Mahabharata. And finally, Krishna, whose earthly life came to an end when the hunter Jara mistakenly shot an arrow that struck His heel—the only vulnerable part of His divine body.

There are countless stories about Krishna Bhagwan, and over the next few days, I’ll share the ones that have stayed with me the most—not as a scholar or a teacher, but simply as someone who has always been fascinated by Him.

Because what has always drawn me to Krishna isn’t that He was perfect. It’s that, at times, He feels wonderfully human. He makes difficult choices. He bends the rules when he believes it’s for the greater good. He laughs, loves, grieves, guides, and challenges.

I’m not afraid of Him.

I love Him.

And maybe that’s why, out of all the stories I could begin with, His felt like the only place to start.