Krishna Slays Aghasura

2 thoughts on “Krishna Slays Aghasura”

1. Thank you, biblioklept for giving a focal point to my Sunday indoors hiding from climate warming, which our elders tell us does not exist.

   My take on the painting and the story that it illustrates is this. Krishna was a descendant of an ancient royal Indian lineage whose brothers had been killed by a megalomaniac king (greed) who was trying to slay the child Krishna in order to avoid the prophesy that he would be killed by Krishna. At the time of the story, Krishna was a young adventuresome boy (innocence) who had been given sanctuary by a cowherd couple.

   As an aside, further along in the Vedic tales, Krishna is revealed to be a human incarnate manifestation of the Lord. Back then and in more exotic lands, the membrane between the dimensions was much more permeable and gods could pass between the other realms and the earthly plane, as could some mere mortals. Like in a Fellini movie.

   Krishna was out playing with some boy friends doing those things that young boys of all cultures like to do. They came upon an 8 mile long snake with its mouth open wide. The boys wanted to adventure in, even though Krishna was reluctant. After he went along with them, the snake closed its mouth to crush the children in order to get Krishna. Krishna expanded his body so that he blew the snake apart.

   The snake in the story is a general in the evil king’s army and had transformed himself into a serpent in order to lure the boys inside. The snake, Aghasura, represents to me, Mammon, or lust for power, as depicted in the mythology of the Hebrew’s telling of the One true tale of the Generation, Operation and Destruction (GOD) of all existence.

   I wonder who did this painting, as it is so different from the usual overly lush decadent depictions of the Veda’s in today’s India.

   I am unsure of the details of this story, and like all religious and philosophical stories, is subject to much debate, of which I am unwilling to partake.

   Thanks be to John Coltrane whose music helped to elicit the words from my mind.

   LikeLike

   1. Cheers for this.

      LikeLike

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.