Significance of Peacock feather in Shri Krishna's crown

॥ हरि अनंत हरि कथा अनंता। कहहिं सुनहिं बहुबिधि सब संता॥ Meaning : Lord (Hari) is infinite (Ananta), and so are the stories (Katha) about his glory. All learned seers (Santa) narrate (kahahi) these and listen (sunahi) to them in many different ways (bahu vidhi). All the previous answers are wonderful and liked them a lot. There is one more way to explain the peacock feather in Shri Krishna's crown. There is 'Kaal Sarpdosha' in birth chart of Shri Krishna. The peacock is natural enemy to the snake, so the feather in His head was to lower the adverse effect of 'Kaal Sarpdosha'. It is worthwhile to highlight here that the 'Kaal Sarpdosha' is not present in our ancient literature of astrology, it has been discovered by astrologers around 100–150 years back, and this interpretation of the feather has come in to light.

A very nice incident took place between Lord Krishna and the peacocks which resulted in Supreme Lord Krishna wearing the peacock feather, as below: One day, a melodious raga emerged from Krishna’s flute that enchanted the peacocks in the forest of Vraj. The divine music mesmerised the peacocks in and around the Govardhan hills. Their hearts leapt in sheer joy, and they responded by filling the skies with their own song and dancing with happiness. On the request of the king of the peacocks Lord Krishna also joined in the dance. When the dance ended, the king of the peacocks approached Lord Krishna with great humility, bowed down his head and said, "You have created a festival of bliss for which we remain eternally indebted to You. It is our duty to offer you 'Gurudakshina'. I request You to accept our only opulence, our plumage. Wear them on your crown as a decoration."

The king of peacocks then dropped many beautiful feathers. Lord Krishna lovingly picked up the peacock's offering and to everybody's joy, placed a few on his crown. It was thus that he came to wear the peacock feathers. In ancient days, it was believed that a male peacock doesn't have intercourse with a female peacock (peahen to be precise) for progeny. Ancients observed that instead, the peacock only sits on peahen and brings its eye closer to peahen's eye, and it was believed that perhaps the peacock's eye drop lands in peahen's eyes and that is how pregnancy is conceived. Consequently, the peahen is unsullied by the peacock, and the peacock remained 'pure' since it had no intercourse. Shri Krishna always maintained a peacock feather on his hair/helmet to highlight this fact that his 16,108 wives were always unsullied by him and he is always pure and beyond the bodily pleasures of humans.

Modern science discovered that peacocks do not have a penis. Instead, their behind (called cloaca) kisses the behind of the peahen for peahen to become pregnant. Ancients observed the meeting of heads & eyes, and we now know that it was really meeting of the behinds (called a cloacal kiss), but either way, the male does not enter the female, and as such the peahen is unsullied, unlike in mammals and other species of life. The main teaching of Lord Krishna is that our whole life and the whole manifested universe is His 'Maya'. He continuously tells His great disciple Arjuna to realize His presence underlying seemingly unrelated events and various living organisms populating the universe.

Even though Lord Krishna also manifested inside His own 'Maya', He was never controlled or disturbed by its powers. The feathers of peacock exemplify Lord's Maya in a manner which human mind can try to grasp. The brilliant colors of peacock do not arise from the correspondingly colored pigments. Instead, they arise from the phenomenon called 'structural coloration'. The light waves entering the different thickness of keratin layers on peacock feathers get out of phase and undergo interference. The resulting light wave patterns give the beautiful play of colors which the human eyes see. The 'actual' color is just deep brown pigment which occurs in the background of these keratin layers.

Thus, Lord Krishna wears a brilliant example of His own Maya in His crown and stimulates our intelligence to understand the fact that the whole universe is a diverse manifestation of one single divinity. Thus, we are also supposed to understand the nature of Maya continuously during our life so that we do not get carried away and suffer due to its influence. If we also start wearing this idea in our mind, like Krishna wears its symbolically in His crown, then we can also enjoy this life in the manner Lord Krishna wants us to live. However, only the divine being Himself can fully know His intentions. Jay Shri Krishna