Sri Krishna and Kansa

When we think of celebrating Janmashtami, at once we remember the tyranny of King Kansa. From childhood, kids are told stories of the interesting episodes of Shri Kansa?the way he took birth on this earth to put an end to the tyranny of his maternal uncle, King Kansa. Legends have it that the story of Shri Krishna and Kansa dates back thousand of years. And the story ended with the death of Kansa. Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva. However, on the day of his birth, he was taken to Gokul where Mother Yashoda and Baba Nand brought him up. Actually, in Mathura, King Kansa had dethroned his father Ugrasen and declared himself to be the King of Mathura. One day there was akashvani that said that the child of his sister Devaki would kill him. Kansa was really worried and wanted to kill both Devaki and her husband Vasudeva. However, Vasudeva convinced him that he would hand over every child to him. As soon as a baby child was born, Kansa killed it. The saga of brutally killing the children continued until Lord Vishnu himself decided to come on earth and end this. Hence, the eighth child of Devaki was Shri Krishna who was stealthily taken to Gokul to safeguard him. Everything was conspired by the Gods that the girl child of Yashoda and Nand would replace the divine child?Lord Krishna. According to legends, exactly this happened. However, when King Kansa was about to the kill the girl child, she flew to the sky and told him that his destroyer had already taken birth and that he was in safe hands. Thus, the episode of Shri Krishna and Kansa continued. Kansa planned many attempts of killing the God. But all was in vain. He sent demon Putana and Trinivarta to kill the baby child in Gokul. Besides, Kansa invited Shri Krishna and Balrama to a wrestling match and ordered the powerful men to kill them. However, the Lord succeeded in killing his demonic uncle Kansa. Then, he established King Ugrasena to throne once again.