Krishna Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Mahabharata ==== {{See also|Krishna in the Mahabharata|Bhagavad Gita}} [[File:Krishna advising Pandavas.jpg|thumb|Krishna advising Pandavas]] The earliest text containing detailed descriptions of Krishna as a personality is the epic ''[[Mahabharata]]'', which depicts Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url= https://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-357806/Mahabharata|title= Britannica: Mahabharata|access-date=2008-10-13 |encyclopedia = encyclopedia|publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica Online |year= 2008|author = Wendy Doniger}}</ref> Krishna is central to many of the main stories of the epic. The eighteen chapters of the sixth book (''Bhishma Parva'') of the epic that constitute the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' contain the advice of Krishna to [[Arjuna]] on the battlefield. During the ancient times that the ''Bhagavad Gita'' was composed in, Krishna was widely seen as an avatar of Vishnu rather than an individual [[deity]], yet he was immensely powerful and almost everything in the universe other than Vishnu was "somehow present in the body of Krishna".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Karen |title=A History of God: The 4000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf Inc]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-679-42600-4 |location=New York |pages=85–86 |author-link=Karen Armstrong}}</ref> Krishna had "no beginning or end", "fill[ed] space", and every god but Vishnu was seen as ultimately him, including [[Brahma]], "storm gods, sun gods, bright gods", light gods, "and gods of ritual."<ref name=":0" /> Other forces also existed in his body, such as "hordes of varied creatures" that included "celestial serpents."<ref name=":0" /> He is also "the essence of humanity."<ref name=":0" /> The ''[[Harivamsa]]'', a later appendix to the ''Mahabharata,'' contains a detailed version of Krishna's childhood and youth.<ref>Maurice Winternitz (1981), ''History of Indian Literature'', Vol. 1, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-0836408010}}, pp. 426–431</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page