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Unlike us, Lord Krishna arrives in this world by His own sweet will.

As infants, we enter this world in a delivery room because we need to be delivered from the confines of our mother’s womb. Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, comes here as an infant, too. But He has no need for a delivery. He arrives by His own sweet will, and His purpose is to deliver us. He plays the role of an endearing and dependent newborn, but He is complete with all of the powers of the Godhead.

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7),

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srijamy aham

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise in irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.” Srila Prabhupada writes that the word srijami in this verse is significant. He has translated it as “manifest” and explains that it cannot be translated to say that Krishna creates His form. Neither is He a soul who acquires a temporary material body as we do. Krishna’s forms or bodies are not created or acquired. They are forever existent. Whether He appears as four-armed Vishnu or as a smiling, effulgent little baby, He has the self-same perfect body throughout all time and circumstances. As He likes, He manifests Himself in His own particular way to deliver the suffering people in the material world.

According to a mystical prophecy, the eighth child born to Krishna’s parents, Vasudeva and Devaki, would defeat Kamsa, the cruel king of Mathura. This eighth child was none other than Lord Krishna. When King Kamsa heard the prophecy, he became determined to destroy Krishna. Kamsa locked up Krishna’s parents in a prison, and there Krishna’s mother gave birth to seven children, six of whom died by Kamsa’s cruel hand.