Why the name Krishna?

JAY SHREE POOJYASHREE SHREE AMMA
JAY MAHAN BRAHMASHREE GOPALAVALLIDASAR
JAY SHREE RADHEKRISHNA SATHSANG

Dear Readers,

After knowing about the various divine manifestations of Lord Shri Krishna, now there is no doubt left that He is indeed the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How beautifully Lord Krishna mentions each and every category of living and non-living entities as also abstract qualities! And amongst those He says that the most important part of that category is He Himself. The thing worth noting though is that such an open claim has never been made by anyone else ever.

In this article lets have a look at a few other shloka’s from the Bhagwad Gita which also indicate the fact of Lord Krishna’s supremacy.

In the eighth chapter of Srimad Bhagwad Gita, Lord Shri Krishna teaches the reason for the return to Samsara of those aspirants for Aisvarya (prosperity) and for the non-return to Samsara of those who have reached the Lord i.e. Him:

AaBrahmaBhuvannaloka: punaravartinOarjuna
Mamupaetya tu kauntheya punarjanma na vidyathe

Chapter 8 verse 16

Another example glorifying the Supremacy of Lord Krishna!!

Meaning: In this verse Lord Krishna says, All the worlds, from the realm of Brahma included in the Brahmananda (cosmic sphere), are spheres in which experiences conferring Aisvarya (prosperity and power) can be obtained. But they are destructible and those who attain them are subject to return. Therefore destruction i.e. return to this world by the way of rebirth and death again is unavoidable for the aspirants of Aisvarya, as the regions where it is attained perish. On the contrary there is no rebirth to those who attain Me, the Omniscient, who has true resolves, whose sport is creation, sustentation and dissolution of the entire universe, who is supremely compassionate and who is always of the same form. For these reasons there is no destruction in the case of those who attain Me.

Here indirectly, Lord Krishna explains that apart from Him, everyone and everything is subject to destruction at His mere will. Radhekrishna!!

He now elucidates the time-period settled by the Supreme Person’s will i.e. by Him in regard to the evolution and dissolution of the worlds upto the cosmic sphere of Brahma and of those who are within them.
SahasrayugaparyantamaharyadaBrahmaNo viduhu
raatrim yugasahasraantaam te aHoratravidO janaha

Those who know the duration of the day and night understand a day of Brahma to last for a thousand Yugas, and a night of Brahma to last for another thousand Yugas.

Chapter 8 verse 17

Meaning: These men who know the order of the day and night as established by My will in regard to all beings, beginning with man and ending with Brahma-they understand that what forms Brahma’s day is a unit comprising in it a thousand periods of four Yugas (Chatur-yugas) and a night is a unit of equal duration.


Avyaktadvanyaktayaha sarvaha prabhavantyaharagame
ratryagame praleeyante tatraivavyaktasangnyake

All the manifested entities come forth from the unmanifest (Avyakta) at the coming of the day of Brahma; at the coming of the night they are dissolved into the same, which is known also as the umanifest.

Chapter 8 verse 18

Meaning: Thus, at the dawn of a day of Brahma, the manifest entities existing in the three worlds, possessing body, senses, objects and places of enjoyment appear from the non-manifest (Avyakta), which is the condition of Brahma’s body in that state, and at the beginning of the night they are dissolved into the condition of the unevolved (Avyakta) which forms the body of Brahma then.


bhutagraamaha sa evayam bhutva bhutva praleeyate
ratryagamO avashaha parth prabhavatyaharagame

The same multitude of beings comes forth again and again irresistibly, and is dissolved at the coming of the night. And again it comes forth at the coming of the day.

Chapter 8 verse 19

Meaning: The same multitude of beings, controlled by Karma, evolves again and again, undergoing dissolution at the coming of the night. Again at the coming of the day it comes forth. Similarly, at the end of the life span of Brahma which consists of a hundred years of three hundred and sixty days each, each Bramha day being a thousand Chaturyugas, all the worlds including that of Brahma and Brahma himself dissolve into Me in accordance with the order thus described in the Srutis: ‘The earth is dissolved into the waters, the waters are dissolved into light’ etc., (Su.U.,2). The process of involution ends, after passing through all the other stages of dissolution, with the Avyakta, Akasa and Tamas. Therefore, for every other entity except Myself, origination and annihilation are unavoidable. So for those who seek Aisvarya (prosperity and power) birth and dissolution according to the above-mentioned time arrangement are unavoidable. But in the case of those who attain Me, there is no return again to Samasara.

(The immense duration of time, according to ancient thinkers, is as follows:
Chatur-yuga, or a unit of four yugas of Krta, Treta, Dvapara and Kali, has a cumulative duration of 4320000 human years. A thousand such periods constitute a daytime of Brahma and a similar period his night. Periodic creation and dissolution of the universe take place in these two periods respectively. One year of Brahma consists of 360 such diurnal periods. A Brahma has a life-span of 100 such years-i.e., 311,040,000,000,000
human years. At the end of it, there is a Mahapralaya, and a new Brahma comes into being. Time thus goes on endlessly.

parastasmaatu bhavO anyO avyaktO avyaktatsanatanaha
yaha sa sarveshu bhuteshu nashyatsu na vinashyati

There is, however, another non-manifest being than this non-manifest entity, which is eternal; this is not destroyed when all entities are destroyed.

Chapter 8 verse 20

avyaktOakshara ityuktastamaahu: paramaam gatim
yam prapya na nivatante taddhaam param mama

This has been called unmainfest (Avyakta) and imperishable (Aksara). This they say, is the highest goal . This is My highest abode, reaching which the selves do not return to Samasara.

Chapter 8 verse 21

Meaning: Superior, as an object of human end, to this unamanifest (Avyakta), which is inanimate Prakriti, there is another state of being, of a kind different from this, but also called Avyakta. It has only knowledge-form and is also unmanifest. It is the self, Atman. It is unmanifested because It cannot be apprehended by any means of knowledge (Pramanas). The meaning is that Its nature is unique and that It can be known only to Itself. That is it can be understood only vaguely in the ordinary ways of knowing. It is eternal, namely, ever-enduring, because It is not subject to origination and annihilation.

In the above paragraph, the features of the soul are described briefly by Lord Krishna. It is called Brahman in Hinduism. That, Krishna says is His highest abode.

Arjuna asks Lord Krishna during ‘Geeta upadesham’ to show him His cosmic form and to which Lord Krishna oblidges. The following is one verse in which Arjuna describes that cosmic form of Lord Krishna:

Pashyaami devanstva deva dehe
Sarvanstatha bHutavisheshasanghaan
Brahmanameesham kamalasanastha
Mrushishrava sarvaanugaanshrava deeptaan

I behold, O Lord, in Your body all the gods and all the diverse host of beings, Brahma. Shiva (Isa) who is in Brahma, the seers and the lustrous snakes.

Chapter 11 verse 15

Meaning: O Lord! I behold in Your body all gods and all classes of living beings as also Brahma, the four-faced ruler of the cosmic egg. So too Shiva (Isa) who is seated in the lotus-seated Brahma, meaning that Shiva abides by the directions of Brahma. So also all the seers of whom the divine seers are the foremost; and lustrous snakes like Vasuki, Taksaka etc.

This sentence is a good evidence to know that everyone and everything is within Lord Krishna.

With this we conclude our description of Lord Krishna’s supremacy. These were just a few verses from one scripture, namely, Bhagwad Gita glorifying Lord Krishna. The fact is that Lord Krishna has been glorified in many other scriptures of Hinduism. This is just a brief description of his supremacy.

Sarvam Guruvarpanam
Sarvam Krishnarpanam