1. Shri Krishna was born in Rohini Nakshatra as the eighth son of Devki and Vasudeva.
2. He brought back the son of his guru (teacher), Sandipani, who was dead. Thus he paid his Gurudakshina to Sage Sandipani.
3. Many of us do not know that he also brought back the six sons of Devki (seventh and eighth being Balrama and himself) for a brief reunion.
Names of these six sons are Smara, Udgitha, Parishvanga, Patanga, Kshudrabhrit and Ghrini.
These six sons were earlier grand sons of Hiranyakashyap and they were living under a curse.
Kansa or Kamsa was Kalanemi in his earlier birth. Kalanemi was killed by Lord Vishnu. The six sons of Devki were Kalanemi sons in his previous birth and they were cursed by Hiranykashyap that they would be killed by their father. Hence Kansa, duly kills six sons of Devki in their next birth. The six sons of Kalanemi were known by the names of Hamsa, Suvikrama, Kratha, Damana, Ripurmardana and Krodhahanta.
4. Gandhari’s curse to Shri Krishna served two purposes. In his earlier avatar as Lord Rama(incarnation), he killed Bali. He assured Tara (Bali’s widow) that Bali would be able to exact his revenge in his next birth. The hunter Jara was Bali reborn, and in this life, he ended Shri Krishna’s stay on earth with a simple arrow. Thus Gandhari’ s curse and his assurance has been fulfilled.
5. Krishna had a total of 16,108 wives, of which only eight were his princely wives,also known as Ashtabharya,or patrani (Rukmini,Satyabhama, Jambavati, Nagnajiti, Kalindi,Mitravinda, Bhadra, Lakshmana).
Rukmini is also considered to be an avatar of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. Shri Krishna married her after she sent him a letter to come and abduct her and save her relatives from a fight. When Krishna was eloping with Rukmini, Rukmini’s brother Rukmi came and fought, before being defeated by Shri Krishna. His other 16,100 wives were rescued from Narakasura. They had been forcibly kept in his palace and after Krishna had killed Narakasura he rescued these 16,100 women and freed them.
6. Out of his wives, Satyabhama had some ego while Rukmini was fully devoted to Lord Krishna. There is a famous incident of Tulabharam, which has established the simplcity of Rukmini was better than the wealth of Satyabhama.
7. Shri Krishna had eighty sons from his eight queens (Ashtapatrani’s). From each of his queen, he had ten sons. Pradyumna was the son of Rukmini. Samba was the son from Jambavati, who was cursed by the sages which later became the reason of destruction of Yadu clan. Shri Krishna himself done penance of Lord Shiva to obtain a son like him. Incidentally, Shri Krishna also cursed Samba to be affected by leprosy. Courtesy of Sage Narada.
8. Shri Krishna’s sister Subhadra was born to Vasudev and Rohini. She was born after Vasudeva was freed from the prison. Balrama wanted her to be married to Duryodhana, who was his favourite disciple. But Rohini and other did not want this. To overcome this situation, Shri Krishna advised Arjuna to abduct Subhadra. He also asked Subhadra to hold the rains of the chariot, so it was technically not an abduction. Balrama was pacified later on, and the marriage was performed at Indraprastha.
9. There is no mention of Radha in scriptures. Neither Mahabharata, Nor Shrimad Bhagwat mention this. This fact is too important to missed by greats like Ved Vyasa. Probably, this was included by Jayadev and became famous from there.
10. Ekalavya was actually Krishna’s cousin. He was the son of Devashrava (brother of Vasudeva) who got lost in the forest and was found by a Nishada Hiranyadhanu. Ekalavya died protecting his father during Rukmini Swayamvar. He was killed by Krishna. For his great sacrifice of Gurudakshina Krishna blessed Ekalavya that he would be soon reincarnated and take revenge on Drona. This person was Dhristadyumna (who kiled Drona).
11. Krishna is arguably the most difficult character to understand. Once, he even started fighting with Arjuna. Lord Shiva got so perturbed that he descended to stop the fight. He asked what Krishna was doing. Krishna’s simple reply was that Arjuna needed to fight in battle and hence Krishna was testing Arjuna.
12. The narration of the Bhagvad Gita by Krishna was heard firsthand not only by Arjuna but also Hanuman and Sanjaya. Hanuman was perched on top of Arjuna’s chariot throughout the battle of Kurukshetra and Sanjaya was blessed by Ved Vyasa with divine vision in order to narrate the events of the battle to Dhritharashtra.
13. The narration of the Bhagvad Gita by Krishna was heard firsthand not only by Arjuna but also Hanuman and Sanjaya. Hanuman was perched on top of Arjuna’s chariot throughout the battle of Kurukshetra and Sanjaya was blessed by Veda Vyasa with divine vision in order to narrate the events of the battle to Dhritharashtra.
14. Pradyumna, the son of Shri Krishna, was Kamadev, who was turned to ashes by Lord Shiva in the earlier life. In this life, he was abducted by Sambarasura and drowned in the ocean, but somehow survived and appeared in his kitchen. He was looked after by Mayavati, who was an incarnation of Rati. She told him that how Sambarasura has tried to kill him when he was ten days old, and asked him to kill Sambarasura.
Pradyumna immediately went before Sambara and challenged him to fight. Pradyumna began to address him in very strong language, so that his temper might be agitated and he would be moved to fight. Soon, a fight started and Pradyumna beat and killed Sambarasura.
15. Pandavas were related to Shri Krishna from mother’s side. Their mother, Kunti, was the sister of Vasudev, father of Shri Krishna.
16. Shri Krishna’s favourite weapon was Sudarshan Chakra. Its notable uses were in killing of Shishupala and more importantly, it was used to create the illusion of sunset which led to the killing of Jayadratha.
17. Killing of Kaalyavan: There was demon named Kaalyavan, who was summoned by Jarasandha to fight Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna realized that beating him would take some time, so he used a boon on Muchkund to neutralize Kaalyavan. Muchkund was sleeping in a cave and he had a boon that the first person he sees after waking up, will be turned to ashes. Shri Krishna entered the cave and hid behind a rock while Kaalyavan happened to wake up Muchkund, and soon, was left to ashes.
18. Krishna was the first person who told Karna about the secret of his birth. He was trying to persuade Karna while he was in Hastinapur, desperately trying to avert the war. Karna has politely refused his offer and asked Shri Krishna to not to divulge this secret to Pandavas.
19. During Raas Leela, Shri Krishna danced with gopikas. While dancing, all gopis thought that the Lord was dancing with them.
20. Durvasa did not spare Krishna also from his curse. One day, Durvasa was eating kheer (a swee tdish made of rice and milk),Krishna was also there.Durvasa ordered Krishna to apply the left overkheer on his body. Krishna applied it on the fullbody but did not apply on his feet thinking of thekheer to be consecrated. Durvasa got angry at thisand cursed Krishna that since you did not obey myorders and did not apply the kheer on your legs,your legs will not remain impenetrable andunbroken. It is the famous story that Krishna diedbecause an arrow by a hunter hurt his toe.
21. Duryodhana foolishly tried to imprison Shri Krishna when he came for negotiations. Shri Krishna shows all the kings his great form. Knowing this Dhritrashtra, also pleaded to allow him to see him once in this form which was granted. The poorer souls shut their eyes while the pious ones were benefited.