Krishṇa is a divine personage who is worshipped in temples in the Hindu world. His life and deeds were first narrated in classical Sanskrit literature. He is regarded as one of the earthly manifestations or descents (avataras) of the Divine on earth.
His life and deeds are narrated in the epic Mahabhārata, in one of the the most influential purāṇa called Shrimad Bhāgavatam, and in a work entitled Harivamsha. In the lore King Ugrasena of Mathura had a son by the name of Kamsa and a daughter called Devaki. Kamsa became a tyrant who imprisoned his father and usurped the throne. Devaki married Vasudeva. A sage predicted that Kamsa would be killed by Devaki’s son. So the tyrant imprisoned Devaki and her husband, and killed every new-born child of theirs. The seventh child Balarāma was miraculously transferred elsewhere. When the eighth child Krishṇa was born at midnight, he was secretly taken away across the river Yamuna and left with Yashoda, the wife of a cowherd named Nanda.
Nanda and Yashoda fled to a place called Gudula with the child and it was there on the meadows of the herd-forest Vrindāvana, that the boy was reared in the company of cowherds and gopis (milkmaids).
When Krishṇa played his magic flute, the gopis would throng around him and dance with joy. Each one of them wanted to hold his hand. To satisfy them all, Krishṇa transformed himself into a thousand Krishṇas. Sometimes he would steal their garments when they were still wading in water, and hide them up on the tree whence he would watch them. It is also said that Krishṇa had 16,000 wives. The symbolism in all this is that the gopis are the individual souls, the cowherds are their physical bodies, and Krishṇa is the Supreme Soul who is beckoning them.
Spurts of Thought 