Krishna (कृष्ण in Devanagari, kṛṣṇa in IAST, pronounced [ˈkr̩ʂɳə] in classical Sanskrit) is a deity worshiped across many traditions of Hinduism.
Krishna is often shown as a dark-skinned man during his earthly descent,often depicted as a baby, as a young boy playing a flute as in the Bhagavata Purana or as a youthful prince giving philosophical direction and guidance as in the Bhagavad Gita.
The stories of Krishna appear across a broad spectrum of Hindu philosophical and theological traditions.Though they sometimes differ in details reflecting the concerns of a particular tradition, some core features are shared by allThese include a divine incarnation, a pastoral childhood and youth, and life as a heroic warrior and teacher.
The worship of Krishna is part of Vaishnavism, which regards Vishnu as the supreme god and venerates his associated avatars, their consorts, and related saints and teachers. Krishna is a full manifestation of Vishnu, and sometimes as one with Vishnu himselfHowever the exact relationship between Krishna and Vishnu is complex and diverse,where Krishna is considered an independent deity, supreme in its own right.All Vaishnava traditions recognize Krishna as an avatar of Vishnu; others identify Krishna with Vishnu; while traditions, such as Gaudiya VaishnavismVallabha Sampradaya and the Nimbarka Sampradaya, regard Krishna as the svayam bhagavan, original form of God, or the Lord himself.[In the list of the epithets attributed to Krishna, he is described as the 'source of all incarnations' by Rupa Goswami.
Since 1966, the Krishna bhakti movement has also spread outside India.This is largely due to the evangelistic Hare Krishna movement, the largest part of which is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).The movement was founded by Prabhupada, who was instructed by his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, to write about Krishna in English and to share the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy with people in the Western world.