why is he blue?

That's like asking why anything is anything. It's a pointless question.

That's like asking why anything is anything. It's a pointless question.

Not true. The blue represents something. I remember going over it in my world religions class last year. I forgot what it meant though. Perhaps something to do with the sky...

Blue represents chaos in certian mystic traditions...out of chaos order, out of order chaos returns.

In Western tradition Blue represents purity, similar to how white is viewed today.

Below is from Wikipedia:

Blue in Hinduism: Many of the gods are depicted as having blue-coloured skin, particularly those associated with Vishnu, who is said to be the Preserver of the world and thus intimately connected to water. Krishna and Ram, Vishnu's avatars, are always blue. Shiva, the Destroyer, is also depicted in light blue tones and is called neela kantha, or blue-throated, for having swallowed poison in an attempt to turn the tide of a battle between the gods and demons in the gods' favour.
Blue in Judaism: In the Torah[7], the Israelites were commanded to put fringes, tzitzit, on the corners of their garments, and to weave within these fringes a "twisted thread of blue (tekhelet)".[8] In ancient days, this blue thread was made from a dye extracted from a Mediterranean snail called the hilazon. Maimonides claimed that this blue was the colour of "the clear noonday sky"; Rashi, the colour of the evening sky.[9] According to several rabbinic sages, blue is the colour of God's Glory.[10] Staring at this colour aids in mediation, bringing us a glimpse of the "pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity", which is a likeness of the Throne of God.[11] (The Hebrew word for glory.) Many items in the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness, such as the menorah, many of the vessels, and the Ark of the Covenant, were covered with blue cloth when transported from place to place.[12]

So is purity or chaos the reason he's blue?

In Sanskrit, Krishna means black or dark.



Etymology (http://www.answers.com/topic/krishna)



The term Krishna in Sanskrit has the literal meaning of "black" or "dark", and is used as a name to describe someone with dark skin. The Brahma Samhita describes Krishna's complexion as being "tinged with the hue of blue clouds",[2] and he is often depicted in paintings with blue or dark-blue skin. In murthis, Krishna is more commonly portrayed as being dark skinned or black. For instance, the Jagannatha (a name meaning: Krishna as 'Lord of the World'), deity at Puri in Orissa shows Krishna as being 'jet black' in colour alongside his brother Balarama, and sister Subhadra, the latter two having much lighter complexions.

A true mystic will never say anything definative about causality. They will just say what is and leave it to the disciple to make the connections. Religon simplifies things for its adherents, and gives solid causes.

A Hindu might say the reason for this blue color is his association with water. But taking it one step further, water can also be associated with the primordial waters inwhich life is said to have first emerged. And the primordial waters are frequently associated with the initial chaos of creation.

people can have blue skin color, but it's rare:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_color
http://www.burlingtonnews.net/bluepeople

High levels of silver in the body will turn skin coloration to blue.

So Lord Krishna had high levels of silver in his body?

Does anyone know why he was portrayed as blue?

So Lord Krishna had high levels of silver in his body?

Does anyone know why he was portrayed as blue?

He was a blue baby. What else ?

That's like asking why anything is anything. It's a pointless question.

It's like asking why is Hellboy red.

So is purity or chaos the reason he's blue?

There are many theories on this:


One of the theories is that Vishnu, because of his association with water, is depicted blue; therefore all his incarnations including Krishna, are shown as such. In Hinduism, persons who have depth of character and the capacity to fight evil are depicted as blue skinned. Another theory refers to Vishnu implanting two hairs, one black and the other white in Devaki's womb which miraculously got transferred to Rohini's and as a result, from the black hair Krishna tool birth, with a dark skin, and from the white hair his brother Balarama.

The theory of the blue coloring of Krishna goes to the fact that the Creator has given the maximum of blue to nature i.e. the sky, the oceans, the rivers and lakes. The deity who has the qualities of bravery, manliness, determination, the ability to deal with difficult situations, of stable mind and depth of character is represented as blue colored. Lord Krishna spent his life protecting humanity and destroying evil, hence he is colored blue.

http://www.webonautics.com/mythology/factsinhindu.html

Shiva is also colored blue. Is he also of deep character, defending humanity? I thought he was the destroyer....

Blue has been a sought after color, throughout human societies. It's typically associated with the color of royalty, since it was expensive to manufacture. Virgin Mary is often depicted with a blue coat, for example. That color of blue, prior to the 19th century, ironically, was itself expensive to make, requiring the crushing up of lapis lazuli. Natives decorate their leaders with cloaks of blue feathers or butterfly wings.

It's probably just a relic of blue being associated with kings and stuff.

Shiva is also colored blue. Is he also of deep character, defending humanity? I thought he was the destroyer....

Blue has been a sought after color, throughout human societies. It's typically associated with the color of royalty, since it was expensive to manufacture. Virgin Mary is often depicted with a blue coat, for example. That color of blue, prior to the 19th century, ironically, was itself expensive to make, requiring the crushing up of lapis lazuli. Natives decorate their leaders with cloaks of blue feathers or butterfly wings.

It's probably just a relic of blue being associated with kings and stuff.

Shiva is a different story. He's not always blue. He is also known as Nilakantha [Blue Throat] due his consumption of a poison which turned up during the churning of the oceans for amrit [manna]. The poison turned his throat blue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halahala

So when he's all blue, does that mean he's porking something, and when he's not blue, he's breaking something?

I would say that the reason that Krishna is painted BLUE is because Krishna actually had Blue skin color.

With most depictions of skin pigment in religion, tribal or formal religon the depiction of a change in skin color is because that is the actuall skin pigmnet of the divinty.

You will also find that in the dermitologic record there have been people of odd skin color that is not of the normal spectrum of the population.
Some people have been born Black, White, Red, Purple,Green and Yellow. it is not much different from the colors that we see on animals, lizards ect... very rich in color. So you should not be to surprised. some people have multiple skin colors.

Some are actualy born quite regular, blueish green is one of them, red is another frequent one, as well blank white.

I would say that bluish green was the actual skin color of Lord Krishna as based of frequency this occurs in southasia and in india people.


DwayneD.L.Rabon

people can have blue skin color, but it's rare:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_color
http://www.burlingtonnews.net/bluepeople

Man, you are an original lol

I would say that the reason that Krishna is painted BLUE is because Krishna actually had Blue skin color.

With most depictions of skin pigment in religion, tribal or formal religon the depiction of a change in skin color is because that is the actuall skin pigmnet of the divinty.

You will also find that in the dermitologic record there have been people of odd skin color that is not of the normal spectrum of the population.
Some people have been born Black, White, Red, Purple,Green and Yellow. it is not much different from the colors that we see on animals, lizards ect... very rich in color. So you should not be to surprised. some people have multiple skin colors.

Some are actualy born quite regular, blueish green is one of them, red is another frequent one, as well blank white.

I would say that bluish green was the actual skin color of Lord Krishna as based of frequency this occurs in southasia and in india people.


DwayneD.L.Rabon

Link ?

Well a link i would have to case down, but i have seen several of these people in my life time, i know that there are records one can look at. I will look to see if i can find one listed on the internet.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

here are a couple with reference to the development of yellow skin coloration, appearantly it is a over development of caroten?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigment,_biology


http://www.brettlee.com/prof/anp/integume

http://www.mc.edu/campus/users/jpaige/jjackson.htm

I did not find much mention on the bluish green skin but i assure you it exist, even on the walls in eygpt.

I did not find much mention on the bluish green skin but i assure you it exist, even on the walls in eygpt.

And that was precisely the one I wanted some evidence for.
An Egyptian wall painting isn't going to cut it.

Also, I don't see how that first link has got anything at all to do with it.

Well Enmos, it seems that their is no reference on the internet, would I would advise if you have a interest is to find a book on dermitology and skin disorders, the most comprehensive ones are at Universities.

Bluishgreen skin is occurs most frequently in asia, south asia and india as well the yellow pigmentation of the skin. There may be less documentation with western skin experts so you may have to look at a more exstenive book. As i vaguely remember their are more than one cause for the bluishgreen skin complextion.

Extremely black skin occurs in almost every group of humans, but you find seriously black people in africa.
Extremely White(blanc) skin pigmentaion is found more common that the others and as well in all groups of humans. you can quite frequent documentation on this occurance in Western Documentation, its common name is vitiligo ( Printed in even old books).

Red skin pigmentaion is also another well known, it called Port wine, this condition when prominate makes the skin look purple (purple skin).

Any one of the various skin pigment conditions could cover the whole body to part of the body, or exist as a birth mark.

I agree that it would be nice to have documentation on the occurance of bluishgreen skin on the internet to show as a example and gain insight. But i guess you really have to know what words to type in the search engine to get a list you want. International access would be nice as well.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

Well Enmos, it seems that their is no reference on the internet, would I would advise if you have a interest is to find a book on dermitology and skin disorders, the most comprehensive ones are at Universities.

Bluishgreen skin is occurs most frequently in asia, south asia and india as well the yellow pigmentation of the skin. There may be less documentation with western skin experts so you may have to look at a more exstenive book. As i vaguely remember their are more than one cause for the bluishgreen skin complextion.

Extremely black skin occurs in almost every group of humans, but you find seriously black people in africa.
Extremely White(blanc) skin pigmentaion is found more common that the others and as well in all groups of humans. you can quite frequent documentation on this occurance in Western Documentation, its common name is vitiligo ( Printed in even old books).

Red skin pigmentaion is also another well known, it called Port wine, this condition when prominate makes the skin look purple (purple skin).

Any one of the various skin pigment conditions could cover the whole body to part of the body, or exist as a birth mark.

I agree that it would be nice to have documentation on the occurance of bluishgreen skin on the internet to show as a example and gain insight. But i guess you really have to know what words to type in the search engine to get a list you want. International access would be nice as well.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

Well, one would expect that typing in "bluish green skin" or "blue green skin" would do it.
If you are right about blue-green skin color it has probably got something to do with some kind of horrible disease. There should be records of Krishna having such a disease, or at least records that he had a disease.
How old did he get ?
At what age did he first develop his skin color ? Or was he born with it ?
I would suggest he wouldn't have lived very long while showing this skin color..

Well i supposed that being born with bluishgreen skin would startle the village, much simular to a albino born in Africa ( of which i here is rather frequent in certain parts of africa). Thing is with many tribal groups such births are seen as messages from the gods ect... this seems to be the case in both east and western tribal groups. So when Krishna was born in his bluishgreen birthday suit they probally saw him as a divinty, simular to the a Dahli Lama and how buddist look at their incarnate profit (buddist are actually a branch of hindu), and like wish that rare occurance is probally the reason as well that we find bluishgreen people in eygptian hieroglyphs.

In the more advanced social groups it was probally directly related to the stars. The heavens if you will.

Even so this may not be the case human chemistry has changed over the hundreds of centuries and so chemical pigmentaion may have changed as well, the skin is the largest and second or third fastest growing organ in the human body which make it prone to gentic changes.
So appearantly Krishna lived more than 5,000 years ago according to record, in conjuction with the time dating of the hindu religon by scholars.

Another example of the extreme would be the hermophidte which was considered to be a God in some cultures.

But none the less, some people in current times have blue eye. and amoung the human race we also have people with red hair. where 85% of the people on our planet have Black hair, and at least 95% have black eyes.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

Even so this may not be the case human chemistry has changed over the hundreds of centuries and so chemical pigmentaion may have changed as well, the skin is the largest and second or third fastest growing organ in the human body which make it prone to gentic changes.
I really don't think you know how genetics work.


But none the less, some people in current times have blue eye. and amoung the human race we also have people with red hair. where 85% of the people on our planet have Black hair, and at least 95% have black eyes.
This has got nothing to do with skin color. It is very well understand how people get their different eye, hair and skin colors.

Well Enmos, just what is it that make blue eyes blue. As you must know blue eyes have a tendency to fascinate many of the blacked people.




DwayneD.L.Rabon

Well Enmos, just what is it that make blue eyes blue. As you must know blue eyes have a tendency to fascinate many of the blacked people.




DwayneD.L.Rabon

Blacked people ? lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color

Very interesting link on eye color pigmentation, great reading it.

seems like it might be simular to the occurance of bluishgreen skin.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

Very interesting link on eye color pigmentation, great reading it.

seems like it might be simular to the occurance of bluishgreen skin.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

Uh.. lack of pigmentation brings out the tissue color itself. People have pinkish/white skin without pigmentation.
Its why you can have albino's in Africa.

Well i would tend to disagree abotu albinos in africa as we find under record albinos in africa, it seems undisputable.

It would be interesting to find a red haired person that has red skin (portwine) with the addition of red eyes. it would be starling a completely red person.

Really I think what we would be talking about in most of these cases is the exsterme condition, where the condition is very prominent. But none the less the growth rate was higher in past times than in current time according to record so prominent conditions may occur more frequent.

Like with white blanc skin it is probally a lack of pigment under high growth rates. Same for extreme black skin (Coal black in color).

I will still argue that if animals can produce vibrant skin colors such as yellow, blue, and greens ect... than humans could have at any time made a simular adjustment of skin color in the histrory of the human race.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

:rolleyes:

Pictures of the Green God Osiris
(eygpt)
http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/15972/images/Osiris.JPG

http://sp1.yt-thm-a02.yimg.com/image/25/m4/2991222783


And pictures of the Bluishgreen God Krishna (India)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2007/2158215785_4a41503794.jpg?v=0



DwayneD.L.Rabon

A Women in the Philipines with Natural Dark Red Skin

http://i.pbase.com/v3/33/236733/1/45213548.124k_redskin.jpg

This one is not Natural, but this man appearamtly turned his skin blue by drinking silver water and know it is permeant.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:vMn5tNtoGZyGiM:http://blogs.mddailyrecord



DwayneD.L.Rabon

I don't think we should take the skin colour of saints literally. When dealing with such symbolic images, the skin colour itself is most likely symbolic.
For example, Osiris is the lord of the underworld, he was dead, so, to show it, you paint him green.

Well you see i do not see it that way, I actually think that Krishna and Osiris are painted those colors because they are those colors. Their colors represent a time when humans where of another skin color.

That symbolic meaning of skin colors reminds us of the time before now.

DwayneD.L.Rabon

Since god is an archetype, a personification of nature, not a factual historical figure, I don't see how you can think about their skin colour. It's the same as the invisible pink unicorn.

Well its not that i define their personality or even divinity by thier skin color, its that i think that it is a way of teaching newer generations about life and histroy before them. ( but it is actualy their skin color)

DwayneD.L.Rabon

This one is not Natural, but this man appearamtly turned his skin blue by drinking silver water and know it is permeant.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:vMn5tNtoGZyGiM:http://blogs.mddailyrecord



DwayneD.L.Rabon

Papa Smurf !? :eek:

He still takes silver. Being blue must not be an issue w/ him.

Krishna is blue, because Vishnu is blue....

Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu... The 8th return I think...

The real question is... why was Vishnu blue....

so SolarP, why is Vishnu blue? Don't know do you! :p

why is he blue?

He is blue because he was born with a silver spoon in the mouth...as most well to do families then used silver as plates/bowls/utensils. Something must have gone wrong where the little Krishna ingested silver....

OR...he could have been an Andorian (StarTrek!) kid hiding on Earth from those interstellar wars...you know, Indian stories are full of them....:D

My bet is the silver poisoning...and it is permanent....

so SolarP, why is Vishnu blue? Don't know do you! :p

:D


Well, like the previous post states... Silver deposits in skin tissues, and creates a "bluey" - Grey Colouration... I think this is possibly the most plausible reason for the Vishnu's blue skin... But in the typical Hindu way... the blue skin has been given a meaning, and a philosophy has been wrapped around it...

Something to do with the skin being the same colour of the sky and the deepest oceans... symbolising that god is the ultimate pervasive being.

But you've got to understand... with all the many hundreds of branches of Hinduism... what maybe a truth in one sect, will almost probably untrue in another.

I do not accept skin color as blue anything natural whatsoever. That is insane.

There seem to be many parallels between the birth myths of Krishna and Jesus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55u9RcO7SxE&feature=related

why is he blue?

Simply because Krishna prefers to be so. There is nothing metaphorical about it. As the Supreme Person he is completely independent, and as he is also an individual he personally prefers to have a beauty tinged with the hue of bluish clouds.

Kind of like asking why do have your hair styled the way you do.

But man created Krishna. So why did they make him blue?

But man created Krishna.
.... others beg to differ
:o

I think Krishna was black. Blue was possibly a glorification of the black... as blue in its darkest form is black.

as blue in its darkest form is black.
Which colour isn't? Black is not even a colour, it's a shade.

Btw, it's quite amusing for me to watch the oldest mistake in interpreting mythology being repeated and repeated again in this thread. Myth is not factual history.

Which colour isn't? Black is not even a colour, it's a shade.

Btw, it's quite amusing for me to watch the oldest mistake in interpreting mythology being repeated and repeated again in this thread. Myth is not factual history.
an even older and more amusing and repetitive mistake is how factual history frequently turns out to be myth
:roflmao:

an even older and more amusing and repetitive mistake is how factual history frequently turns out to be myth
:roflmao:

That's exactly the same thing.

That's exactly the same thing.

so if you can't practically distinguish between myth and factual history, what's your point?

:wtf:

Important question is - Does the color of skin matter?

Important question is - Does the color of skin matter?

yes. it shouldn't, but it does. ESPECIALLY if you are blue. ;)

Important question is - Does the color of skin matter?

Apparently it does in some cases. The Africans worship whites. :D

hmmph ... really? Enlighten me on history ... I am worried about my American Citizenship exam (I am serious!) :)


Rick

Which history? The African Continent ? Why you need that for American Citizenship?

hehe, just joking dude, relax ... :D

Rick

I am cool as cucumber....:D

Hi,
Lord Krishna is blue to represent ominipresence, or so my guru told me so.
Take care,
Jon

Krishna is a Sanskrit word meaning DARK. He should be, and in older times was, depicted as dark. Depicting him as blue is much later practice. Dunno why it started at all.




Shiva, the Destroyer, is also depicted in light blue tones and is called neela kantha, or blue-throated, for having swallowed poison in an attempt to turn the tide of a battle between the gods and demons in the gods' favour.
He is blue throated, not blue bodied, which is depicted as FAIR, gaur varna in Sanskrit.

He is blue because he was born with a silver spoon in the mouth...as most well to do families then used silver as plates/bowls/utensils. Something must have gone wrong where the little Krishna ingested silver....

OR...he could have been an Andorian (StarTrek!) kid hiding on Earth from those interstellar wars...you know, Indian stories are full of them....:D

My bet is the silver poisoning...and it is permanent....
Scions of well to do families are not born prison cells, as He was.