Krishna

It came to be that Yashoda and Nanda had finished setting up their new home and were all situated with the homecoming formalities. Poojas were performed and the village elders gave the new generation their blessings and words of wisdom to start a new beautiful village. As this was a sort of escape from being too close to Mathura, many of the villagers found it refreshing that they were not too close to Kamsa. The village leader elected a council of men to help lead and establish the foundation, he would choose four men of his choosing and six others were chosen by the village. It so happened that Nanda was one of the six chosen to represent the village interests. Nanda was overjoyed and celebrated his fortune with his family. Yashoda and Balarama were excited to see Nanda so happy, even the baby was dancing. The couple had still not decided on a name for the child and waited until a month or two before naming the baby.
Time weaned on and the village started to hustle and bustle about. Word had reached surrounding villages of the rich ghee, yoghurt, milk and other dairy products that Gokul’s villagers made and everyone wanted some. Of course the majority was kept for the villagers but the extra were sold to the surrounding villagers. Months passed and Gokul started to earn a sizable revenue in gold. The council members decided to hide away that gold in caverns scattered through the area in case dacoits were to ever pass by the village ans loot them clean, however they were not frightened as they had the Village Balavaan. They were the warriors that sought to protect the village and all the inhabitants, legends are told of these men and women and their heroic exploits.
The village had gained a good reputation and all were happy with the attention. Many outer village folk came to attend Gokul’s celebrations as they had begun to showcase their lavishness with great poojas and festivals. But not all attention was good. A notorious shapeshifting Rakshasi by the name of Putana was in attendance of one of these festivals. Rakshasi and Rakshasas are powerful humanlike creatures that were created by Brahma accidentally while he was sleeping. These creatures escaped the heavens and inhabited the lands and seas on earth. While some are kind, most are bloodlusting man-eating creatures that exhibit extraordinary strength. Some say that the might of a 100 men is that of one Rakshasa while 70 men could match a Rakshasi. However, the real threat were the individuals that obtained powers from the Gods themselves through penance and devotion. One of these Rakshasis was Putana.
Long ago Putana was a lovely and kind Rakshasi who loved the creatures around her and respected humans. She never lusted for the taste of human flesh and would rather hunt goats and other livestock. However, her life changed when Kamsa took rule of the kingdom. He encouraged the active killing of Rakshasas and would often do it for sport. One day Putana’s toddler was roaming around the jungle with great speed, as do young rakshasas, when a group of soldiers captured the child and took him to their camp. Angered by this, Putana stormed the camp and tore down hundreds of soldiers, and almost killed everyone in the camp. She called for her toddler only to find his carcass hung inside the general’s tent and his intestines gathered for consumption. Lore would have it, eating a Rakshasa granted the consumer immense strength. Putana snapped that day and vowed to kill a newborn infant in every village of the Vrishni Kingdom and one day get her revenge on Kamsa. So she prayed to the Gods to obtain powers and through powerful penance she achieved that skill.
Putana was now in Gokul, disguised as a beautiful women. She heard news of a beautiful baby boy that was born to Yashoda. Interested in this immaculate child she went in search of the infant. She found the house and asked to come in. Yashoda warmly welcomed the gorgeous lady into her house and spoke to her.
“What a lovely child you have!” Putana exclaimed and she walked over to pick him up from his crib. Yashoda was quite overprotective and rushed to the crib before Putana and caressed her son in her arms.
“Yes he is quite lovely, all the villagers are envious of him, I almost feel that there is a permanent evil eye on him.”
“If it would be no problem to you do you think I could hold him?” Yashoda smiled and handed over her child to Putana. Then with a whip of her hand she struck Yashoda on the back of her head. Yashoda immediately fell down unconscious. At that the baby woke up and stared intensely at Putana
“My, my aren’t your eyes piercing, it could almost kill with a glance.” Putana looked around to see if anyone was around the house, but she was in luck that everyone was at the festival. “I feel bad killing you with bloodshed so I won’t kill you the way they did my son.” Putana then sat down and pulled out one of her breasts. She took her hand and smeared her breasts with poison that she discharged from her mouth. She chanted a prayer and her breasts were filled with milk. “I will give you one last meal before you die, that is for those beautiful features that have been bestowed upon you.” She started to feed the baby. The baby drank and drank. Putana noticed that breast was shriveling up. She tried to pull the baby away from her, however he had latched on with quite a might. She ran out the door, but the baby still held on suckling on her breast as Putana ran.
She ran into the woods all the while trying to push the child off of her. Suddenly her legs gave way causing her to fall. Putana looked down in horror and screamed at the sight of her withered legs. She felt her arms turn small and then in an instant her spell was reversed and she was in her Rakshasi form once again. She bellowed a roar that woke up Yashoda. Yashoda ran towards the woods and found the lifeless body of the Rakshasi with her young baby sitting on top looking almost confused. Yashoda picked up her child and noticed that he had turned a strange shade of blue. The baby boy smiled and motioned to hug his mother. She hugged him tightly and cried while she ran back into the house. Nanda and Balarama came home from the festival in the evening to find their new blue family member. Yashoda told Nanda what had happened and took the two to the body of the Rakshasi. Nanda noticed that all the trees around the body had died as they changed from green leaved trees to dead dark wood. He then cut her body and cremated her. As she was burned the family felt a strange peace and felt closer to one another.
The family returned home frightened but thankful that their baby was not harmed in any way. Along the way, Balarama laughed at the color of his brother. Nanda took notice and smiled too.
“Yashoda I think I finally have a name for the baby”
“What?”
“Lets call him Krishna.”