Krishna is shown as a very mischievous child during his lifetime. Radha, his childhood friend who can basically understand him and was attracted to him had given him a flute. He used to blow the flute every night and every night used to be a celebration of flute and a clap dance. His friends used to steal maakhan with his friends and they used to throw stones at the water pots that women used to carry just for fun. These memories helped them when he went to get education with his brother Balram to his guru, Sandipani for gaining education. There, he befriended Sudama. Sudama and Krishna were the ideal kind of friends. Their stories of pure friendship are famous till today.

One day, Krishna and Sudama went on an outing. Sandipani's wife had packed them some eatables. Sudama ate the eatables by himself because Krishna had assured him that he was not hungry. When guru's wife came to know about this, she cursed Sudama that Sudama will always remain poor.

There is another story where it is said that Krishna had picked four fruits from a tree when they had gone for an outing. Sudama ate three of them. As soon as he was about to bite the fourth one, Krishna snatched the fruit from him and said, "I picked these fruits. At least let me eat this one." And bit on it but winced when he tasted the bitter taste. He looked at Sudama and asked, "How could you eat such a bitter fruit with so much interest?"

Sudama simply answered, "So that you don't ask for it and don't suffer the bitterness." In the same way, two best friends are compared to Krishna and Sudama and there are many stories of their friendship. Krishna's sadhana or training was different than that of Sudama and Balram. Sudama's education was only bookish. He knew all the scriptures as a Brahmin. Balram's education was fully based on warfare but Krishna's education was fully mental and spiritual.

After their education completed, it is said that Balram mocked him on how Krishna was still 'thin as a stick' and looked soft and delicate like women but when he was on the wrestling arena, no one could defeat him, not even Balram. He could look through people and tell how they're going to react to a particular situation. In short, he could predict the future with the help of psychology. He had such a strong mind that everyone recognised him as soon as he entered the scene or a room. He was playful all through his life. His playful deeds are mentioned in the bhagwad puran.

Later on, Krishna and Balram were invited to Mathura by Kans. Kans somehow had come to know who was the eighth son of Devki and Vasudev because of the way all the demons were getting killed first at Gokul and then at Vrindavan. So, Kans sent got a chariot but the charioteer was a servant of Ugrasen, Krishna's maternal grandfather. Ugrasen was imprisoned by Kans too so that Kans could get Mathura. So, in short, he had imprisoned his father, his sister, his brother-in-law and had done full planning to kill his nephew. Some people argue that how can Krishna kill his own maternal uncle. I advice them to study how as a ruler, Kans used to get so much grains in the form of taxes and how his subjects used to fear his army of demons.

The charioteer confessed that Kans had invited him so that he could kill Krishna with the help of his wrestlers. Krishna and Balram just smiled and told him to continue with the journey. Krishna and Balram had defeated every wrestler there when Kans got angry and challenged Krishna. Krishna killed Kans and became the king of Mathura.

Krishna went back to Vrindavan to find that Radha was married to Ayaan. Her father wanted her to marry Ayaan and she couldn't refuse her father. Krishna felt heartbroken. He took his flute, which was gifted to him by Radha, the flute which entertained number of gopis in Vrindavan and left Vrindavan forever.

Vasudev and Devki had one more daughter named Subhadra. So, Krishna and Balram started to live with their real parents, the Yadavas and Ugrasen was declared as the king of Mathura once again.

However, Magadh's king Jarasandh constantly challenged Krishna for wars. However, Krishna couldn't kill him because Jarasandh's death should happen with the hands of Bheem, the second Pandava. So, he avoided killing Jarasandh. In one such wars, Krishna had killed Eklavya, the disciple who cut his thumb for Guru Dronacharya. When Krishna saw the number of soldiers getting killed with their every battle, he fled to Dwarka with his brother, his family, and army while leaving Ugrasen to continue ruling over Mathura. Dwarka used to remain on the surface on the daylight and used to submerge in the night. This was arranged by Krishna to avoid Jarasandh attacking them at night. Since Krishna fled, he was also called Ranchhoddas.

Krishna had married Rukmini, an incarnation of Goddess Laxmi. Rukmini's brother Rukmin wanted to marry her off to his friend Shishupal. She was a princess of Vidarbh, Maharashtra and wrote a letter to Krishna, telling him that she would either marry Krishna or kill herself. Krishna swept right in when she was out of the palace for bathing and stole her from Rukmin. Shishupal held a grudge against Krishna because of this.

Satyabhama, known as an incarnation of Goddess earth had married Krishna too. Krishna came to know about a demon and went there with Satyabhama on his Garud (eagle), his divine vehicle. There, he acted like he fainted while fighting and Satyabhama came to her real form and slayed the demon, freeing sixteen thousand Queens that the demon had abducted, making Satyabhama realise her real identity.

The Queens felt sad that they had been in the company of a demon for so many years. The society had even questioned the character of mother Seeta. Why will it leave them? Krishna married them and made them their Queens to save their respect. Some say that he satisfied them. Others say that he didn't touch them sexually. I don't know what the truth is but there is this story that Narad once came to Dwarka to see how Krishna was treating his 16,008 wives. Yes, eight more along with 16000. I only know the story behind Rukmini, Satyabhama and Jambhvati. So, in Dwarka, Narad Muni (sage) found out that 16,008 Krishnas were taking care of his wives' sexual needs every night and that he treated every wife equally but yet, his favourite wife was Rukmini and those eight wives are considered as his main wives.

One of them is Jambhvati. Her story is interesting too. A noble Yadav named Satrajit was gifted with Syamantak, a dazzling jewel by Suryadev, the sun God. When he came back to Mathura, everyone thought that he was Surya because of his now bright appearance. Krishna told him to gift that jewel to Ugrasen, Krishna's maternal grandfather but Satrajit didn't listen to him and gave it to his brother Prasen instead, who was a counselor in Krishna's court.

Later, Prasen goes to hunt but is killed by a lion. The lion takes the dazzling jewel in its mouth but is killed by Jambhvant, a creature of a bear like species but they were similar to humans too. He was an advisor to Sugriv, the vanar (ape like creatures with lots of strength. You can imagine them as Yeti) king who helped Ram (the sixth incarnation) in getting mother Seeta from Ravan. Well, confusing? Ram took help of Sugriv, the king of the vaanars (yeti like creatures) and Jambhvant was Sugriv's advisor. I hope that's clear. Okay, so Jambhvant gave this jewel to his young son to play with.

Later, people accused Krishna of killing Prasen because he wanted that jewel. So, Krishna came to Jambhvant's cave while searching for the jewel and when he got to Jambhvant's cave, Jambhvant gave Jambhvati to him because apparently, Jambhvant wanted Ram to marry Jambhvati but since Ram had promised mother Seeta to only marry her and besides, he had incarnated as purushottam, the ideal man, he couldn't marry Jambhvati. So, he had promised that he would marry Jambhvati in his next life, which is Krishna.

So, Krishna came back to Dwarka with Jambhvati but didn't accept the jewel. It is said that Jambhvant was one of the last animals of his species after which his species got extinct but one thing was sure, they could breed with humans because Jambhvati and Krishna had many children, including Sambh. So, their species must be quite similar to that of the humans, even the genetic material must be quite similar. Besides this, Rukmini and Krishna had an ideal son called Pradyumna and there were other children too.

Meanwhile, Ayaan died. So, Radha came to Krishna to see him for the last time but his wives made fun of her and questioned her character. So, she drowned herself in river Yamuna. When Krishna came to know about her death, he felt horrible and broke the flute which was gifted to him by Radha.

Also, on the other hand, Sudama was still a poor Brahmin. He went with one of his friends to the king's palace to look for work but the entire palace was full of prostitutes and liquor. He felt disgusted with the scene and came back. His children were by now, used to going to bed with an empty stomach. His wife then convinced him to approach Krishna for help.

He was at first reluctant, thinking of what to take as a gift. His wife then brought rice which a woman had given to her as donations. She gave the rice to Sudama and Sudama couldn't reject her because that rice consisted of the last grains in his hut and was his last hope. He travelled all the way to Dwarka on foot and when he got there, Krishna welcomed him warmly with a garland, washed his feet like a guest's feet are supposed to be washed, ate the stale rice while enjoying it and Sudama was shocked to his bone. He had thought that Krishna had forgotten him but instead, he got such a warm welcome that his eyes watered.

Krishna helped him, I don't know in what form. Anyways, that's all for the private life of Krishna. Let's move to Balram now. Balram is always depicted with a plough on his shoulder. There was once a king in Satyug named Kakudmi. He had a beautiful daughter named Revati. He was finding trouble with finding a suitable groom for her. So, he took her with himself and went to the Brahmalok, the abode of Lord Brahma.

Brahma was listening to the musical performance of the Gandharvas then. Think of Gandharvas as the male form of apsaras or the nymphs in heaven. Nymphs entertain people with dancing while the Gandharvas entertained people with their singing.

So, both father and daughter waited patiently for the song to end. After it ended, Kakudmi asked Brahma which candidate was suitable for his daughter. Brahma laughed and said, "Sheshnag will be the best person to be her husband. All the candidates that you had chosen for her are long dead and so is your mahajanapad." Kakudmi was happy but he was also worried. Sheshnag was a naag, a cobra. How could his daughter marry a cobra?

Brahma assured him to be relaxed and told him to return to earth. He would find an incarnation of Sheshnag there. Kakudmi returned to earth with his daughter to find that he and his daughter were taller than that of the humans of that time. 27 chatur Yugas had been over since they came on the earth! When Balram saw Revati, he instantly recognised her as his wife but Kakudmi didn't want him to marry her because his daughter was taller than Balram.

So, Balram tapped his plough on her head and pulled her down. Now, Revati was shorter than Balram. Kakudmi was finally satisfied with his son-in-law's capabilities and strengths. This is one of the many stories in the Mahabharat which talks about the theory of relativity of time. Revati and Balram had a daughter named Sasirekha or Surekha. There is a folk tale about Surekha in Andhra Pradesh but it is not mentioned in the Mahabharat. I will tell you about it when the time comes.

Phew, that was a lot of information and a lot of research. Sorry for such a late update but I didn't really know a lot about Krishna, no one does. Everyone only knows the stories but then again, this culture is a culture where the Vedas were passed on from generation to generation in the form is stories. The only problem is that these stories are greatly exaggerated nowadays...