KRISHNA???
"In the first month of winter, the gopis of Nanda's village performed a certain vow to the goddess Katyayani (Durga). They ate rice cooked with ghee; they bathed in the water of the Kalindi (Yamuna) River at sunrise; they made an image of the goddess out of sand and worshipped it with fragrant perfumes and garlands, with offerings and incense and lamps, and with bouquets of flowers, fresh sprigs of leaves, fruits, and rice. And they prayed: 'Goddess Katyayani (Durga), great mistress of yoga, empress of great deluding magic, make the son of the cow-herd Nanda my husband. I bow to you.' Saying this prayer, the girls would worship her, and having set their hearts on Krishna
, the girls performed this vow for a month; they worshipped Bhadrakali (Durga) so that the son of Nanda (Krishna
) would be their husband. Arising at dawn, calling one another by name, they would join hands and go to bathe in the Kalindi (Yamuna) every day, singing loudly about Krishna
as they went. One day, when they had gone to the river and taken off their clothes on the bank as usual, they were playing joyfully in the water, singing about Krishna
. The Lord Krishna
, lord of all the masters of yoga, came there with his friends of the same age in order to grant them the object of their rites. He took their clothes and quickly climbed a Nipa tree, and laughing with the laughing boys he told what the joke was: 'Girls, let each one of you come here and take her own clothes as she wishes. I promise you, this is no jest, for you have been exhausted by your vows. I have never before told an untruth, and these boys know this. Slender-waisted ones, come one by one or all together and take your clothes.' When the gopis saw what his game was, they were overwhelmed with love, but they looked at one another in shame, and they smiled, but they did not come out. Flustered and embarrassed by Govinda's (Krishna
's) words and by his jest, they sank down up to their necks in the icy water, and, shivering, they said to him, 'You should not have played such a wicked trick. We know you as our beloved, son of the cow-herd Nanda, the pride of the village. Give us our clothes, for we are trembling. O darkly handsome one, we are your slaves and will do as you command, but you know dharma: give us our clothes or we will tell your father, the chieftain.' The lord said to them, 'If you are my slaves and will do as I command, then come here and take back your clothes, O brightly smiling ones.' Then all the girls, shivering and smarting with cold, came out of the water, covering their crotches with their hands. The lord was pleased and gratified by their chaste actions, and he looked at them and placed their clothes on his shoulder and smiled and said, 'Since you swam in the water without clothes while you were under a vow, this was an insult to the divinity (to Varuna, God of the waters). Therefore you must fold your hands and place them on your heads and bow low in expiation of your sin, and then you may take your clothes.' When the village girls (gopis) heard what the infallible one said, they thought that bathing naked had been a violation of their vows, and they bowed down to Krishna
, the very embodiment of all their rituals, who had thus fulfilled their desires and wiped out their disgrace and sin. Then the lord, the son of Devaki, gave their clothes to them, for he felt pity when he saw them bowed down in this way and he was satisfied with them. Though they were greatly deceived and robbed of their modesty, though they were mocked and treated like toys and stripped of their clothes, yet they held no grudge against him, for they were happy to be together with their beloved. Rejoicing in the closeness of their lover, they put on their clothes; their bashful glances, in the thrall of their hearts, did not move from him. Knowing that the girls had taken a vow because they desired to touch his feet, the lord with a rope around his waist said to the girls, 'Good ladies, I know that your desire is to worship me. I rejoice in this vow, which deserves to be fulfilled. The desire of those whose hearts have been placed in me does not give rise to further desire, just as seed corn that has been boiled or fried does not give rise to seed. You have achieved your aim. Now, girls, go back to the village and you will enjoy your nights with me, for it was for this that you fine ladies undertook your vow and worship.' When the gopis heard this from Krishna
, they had obtained what they desired; and, meditating upon his lotus feet, they forced themselves to go away from him to the village." --<b>Srimad Bhagavatam 10:22:1-28. Compare: Brahmavaivarta Purana 1:27; Brhaddharma Purana 3:17.
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Lord Krishna
is commemorated during Janmastami and many other festivals such as Holi. Yadus (Yadavas): A race/tribe of kings that Lord Krishna
incarnated into (as an Avatar) to save the earth; Yadus/Yadavas are descendants of Yadu, who was King Yayati's son. Krishna was Yadu's son. Cow-herd-raja Nanda was Krishna's foster-father.
"Krishna
became a householder (head of a household) in Dvaraka and married many wives, and had many sons and grandsons. In the race of the Yadus, no one was poor; everyone had many children, lived a long life, and respected Brahmins. But they were so numerous that one could not count them even in a hundred years. The terrible demons who had been slain in the battle of the gods and demons were born among men, and so at the command of Visnu the gods became incarnate in the race of Yadus to repress the demons.... When Krishna
had killed the demons, and thus relieved the burden of the earth, he thought, 'The earth is still overburdened by the unbearably burdensome race of the Yadus. No one else can overcome them, since they are under my protection.' ... Deluded by Krishna
's power of delusion, and cursed by the Brahmins, they were all destroyed, and when his entire family had been destroyed, Krishna
said, 'The burden has been removed.' " -- <b>Srimad Bhagavatam 10:90:27-44; 11:1:1-4; 11:30:1-25.
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The need to exterminate the Yadus precisely because they are born of Krishna
's seed is made explicit in the Linga Purana:
"One of Krishna
's wives asked Krishna
to give her a son equal to the lord of the gods. Krishna performed asceticism for Siva, who granted him a son, Samba. Krishna
took sixteen thousand maidens for his pleasure, and then, under the pretext of the Brahmins' curse, he destroyed his own family and lived in Prabhasa. After living for a hundred and one years in Dvaraka, where he had removed the sorrow of old age, he made the curse of the sages come true." -- Linga Purana 1:69:71, 82-84
.
There is a common misconception among some Hindus that Lord Krishna
had only one consort/wife, Radha, and these 16,000 gopis were just spiritual followers of this God. That is totally false. In fact, Lord Krishna
got so many gopis & wives pregnant that he populated much of the earth with Yadus (Yadavas) and had to annihilate them later.