Krishna and Durga. And the prison. Ah, yes, I was told.
There are many "versions". Now let me tell one I heard a long time ago.
Krishna appeared a long, long time ago in Mathura, in India, as the divine child of Devaki and Vasudeva. I have been to that place.
"Krishna was born in a prison," said the young man who drove me all the way to Mathura. He was my hired driver. All along the way he played a cassette tape which played a song, the vocalist in a deep low voice would chant Kali Maa, Kali Maa over and over in the song. Then Durga song. Devi was on my mind as I looked out the window as the sun rose. Further East, Calcutta rising as it does with a sound of metal to metal, the crows, people calling chai, but here only birds. Strange. I am going to Mathura, both Krishna and the Goddess who destroys demons both on my mind.
When I reached Mathura, the first place I was dropped was a fantastic temple, white, probably a lot of marble. Inside there were large, beautiful paintings of Krishna leela.
There were a lot of young girls for some reason in the temple. They were so nice to me!
"He was in the jail cell of the Demon named Kamsa," one of the Indian girls told me. The grandmother smiled at me.
"Devaki was Krishna's Mother," said a man with a beard to me. "And She was the Sister of Kamsa," he said.
So Krishna's Mother was the Sister of a Demon, I asked?
"Devaki was the Sister of the Demon Kamsa and was Krishna's Mother. Here He was born in prison," said a very beautiful girl that I tried not to look at her directly in eyes or I would faint.
Hmmm... yes. Krishna's Mother was from a Family of the Demon. Yes?
More details came, but now from an ISKCON devotee, an American boy. He told me that the Demon Kamsa was the King. When Devaki married Vasudeva, after the grand wedding Kamsa the Demon took his sister Devaki and her husband by chariot, but ...
... He heard a voice from the sky.
"The eighth child of Devaki will kill you," said the voice. Who would let Kansa know that ahead pf time, I thought? Whose voice?
But the Americano continued.
"Kamsa wanted to kill Devaki then and there," said the ISKCON devotee.
I was in Mathura at the time of celebrating Krishna's birth. So that was a topic. And what a topic. I listened to evedything. I pretended not to know some parts. Let me remember the rest they told me.
I will not forget what those girls told me. Impossible to forget that. Or them. But the Americano really liked me, he wanted someone like me to listen. And I loved to listen. Listening is a wonderful thing. If it is Hinduism, I am listening.
So Vasudeva requested Kamsa the Demon not to cut off the head of Devaki the sister of the Demon.
"Vasudeva promised to give Kamsa the first child of Devaki to him," said the same beauty.
And the next, and next, said the ISKCON boy.
"All of them, not just the Eighth?" I asked.
All of them.
Kamsa agreed. But to make sure no child escaped so that he woild be cheated he locked both Devaki and Vasudeva in prison.
"Here. You are where the prison was," I was told.
I thought, my teacher said I might be happy. That I laugh a lot. I like to have fun. It is true. But he said, I am in a prison.
So we do not need to go very far to meet a fellow prisoner.
There are different versions. Now I suppose I will get yelled at.
On the first child born, Kamsa snatched it up right away and holding the baby by the ankles he smashed the baby's head against a rock. This child was "Matsya", so he destroyed all the Temples of Matsya.
The second was "Kurma". He chopped the baby's head off, and destroyed all the Temples of Kurma.
The thrid was "Varaha", he burned the baby and burned all the Temples to Varaha.
And so on and so forth, the fourth "Narasimha", then the fifth "Vamana", the sixth "Parashurama", the seventh "Rama". We will skip the details.
Krishna appeared as the Eighth, a newborn in a prison cell.
Vasudeva and Devaki looked with delight in their newborn.
Then something magical happened.
The guards outside the prison fell asleep.
The heavy prison doors opened.
Vasudeva picked up the baby Krishna and carried Him across the Yamuna, from Mathura to Gokula Vrindavan.
Entering his stepbrother Nanda Maharaja’s house, he saw that Nanda's wife Yashoda had just given birth to a baby girl, named Subhadra.
In Jagannath Puri there are the three famous murtis, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra.
Yashoda and everyone else were asleep. Vasudeva switched the babies, leaving Krishna and taking Subhadra.
The he went back to the prison in Mathura, with the female child, and closed the prison door.
When Kamsa learned that Devaki had given birth of the Eighth, he came to snatch the baby to smash the head onto the stone floor.
That is when it happened.
The baby Subhadra which many call "the Sister of Krishna" became the Eight Armed Durga!
Her light and power put fear in the heart of the Demon.
“Fool!” she screamed.
“You can’t kill me!" ...
"Know this, Kamsa!
... The child who will be your undoing is already born."
So something was told to me, but it is well known. Durga manifested in that prison. The rest you can read about. But Krishna and Durga had a very close relationship even from the very day Krishna was born.
Back in the car for a long drive home, I asked my driver, "So, you like Kali and Durga. The music."
"So you must be a Shakta Hindu," I said.
He gave me a funny look.
"Hindu? I am a Muslim," he said.
