Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu, the Preserver. Vaishnavites (followers of Vishnu) believe that he is Vishnu incarnate.

For all his godliness, though, tales of his childhood make him seem very human. When he was little, he would steal butter to eat from jars around the house. When he was a bit older, he would tease the shepard girls.

And then there's the grown up Krishna, the warrior. Krishna was the eighth son of a tyrannical king's sister. Because he was a bad king, it was foretold that the eighth son of his sister would kill him. The king had each of her babies killed, but when the eighth was born, she managed to swap him with another (stillborn?); a shepard carried away the baby. As he reached the sea, it parted for him to cross (love those paralells to other divine legends). So when Krishna grew up, he wound up killing the king as the gods had foretold...

Later in life, he gave up fighting. In the Gita, Krishna advises Arjuna, who must fight in the large war described in the epic Mahabharat. Arjuna is very unsure of himself and his actions; Krishna speaks of the nature of things and Arjuna's obligation to be true to his role in life. Krishna's portrayal in "The Way" is similar to the Krishna of the Gita.

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