SB 10.9.12 – The Pastimes of Lord Damodara

Giriraj Swami: Damodara refers to the form of Krishna bound around the belly by ropes. And it refers principally to the pastime when Mother Yasoda bound Krishna around the waist with ropes. Do you know the pastime?

Devotee: No.

Giriraj Swami: Once Mother Yasoda was churning yogurt into butter. You know about Vrindavan?

Devotee: No, not the place.

Giriraj Swami: Geographically it is a place and spiritually it is a realm. In Vrindavan the devotees love Krishna. Everyone in Vrindavan loves Krishna but they are not aware that Krishna is God. They love Him with spontaneous affection. The love of Krishna which is spontaneous, without consideration whether He is God or not, is considered most pure. And it is specifically the pure love of the residents of Vrindavan that can bring Krishna under control, not the love of other spiritual realms called Vaikuntha, where the devotees worship the Lord with awe and reverence. But in Vrindavan the devotees worship Krishna with complete intimacy because they are not thinking that He is God. They are just thinking, “He is our friend,” or in the case of Nanda Baba and Yasoda Mayi, they are thinking that, “Krishna is our son.” And in the case of Radharani and the gopīs, they are thinking, “Krishna is our boyfriend. Krishna is our lover.” Because they are not conscious of Krishna’s supreme opulences, they can reciprocate with Him with complete abandon and freedom.

The other thing is that Vrindavan is a village where the principle activities are agriculture and cow protection. Nanda Maharaja is the king of the village. Of course God is not born—He is eternal. He has no beginning and no end but for the sake of the pastimes, He plays the part of the son of Nanda and Yasoda in Vrindavan. One day Mother Yasoda was churning butter because the whole life really is based on the cows there, the whole economy is based on cows. So she was churning yogurt into butter and meanwhile baby Krishna was sleeping in the next room. When He awoke He was hungry. So He came to her and He began to tug on her sari. “Mother I am hungry, please feed Me.” She took Krishna and began to feed Him with the milk from her breast. But while she was feeding Him, the milk on the fire started to boil over. So she sat down baby Krishna to attend to the milk on the fire. Srila Prabhupada explains that everything in the household of Mother Yasoda was meant for the service of Krishna, even the milk on the fire. But to attend to the milk that was boiling over, she set aside baby Krishna before He was satisfied drinking her breast milk.

While she was away He became angry. Like we were discussing from frustration of one’s desire comes anger but this is transcendental. This is not on the same level as our material frustration. So He became angry and He broke the pot of yogurt or butter and began to eat it to comfort Himself. But then Mother Yasoda finished with the milk on the fire. In the meantime baby Krishna fled because He knew He had committed an offense. So He fled. And when Mother Yasoda came and saw the little footprints that were smeared with butter, she knew that the mischief had been done by Krishna. And because she identified completely as the mother of Krishna and understood Krishna to be her son, she wasn’t thinking that Krishna is the Supreme Lord. She thought, “I have to do something about my son.” So she followed the footprints and she found that Krishna was sitting on this big wooden grinding mortar, eating the butter and distributing it to His friends who were monkeys. So when He saw her, His eyes started to move here and there. He became nervous because He knew He was an offender and that she was going to punish Him. So He began to run away and she began to pursue Him. But because she had a big body, a heavy body, she couldn’t actually catch Him. But then Krishna, out of compassion for her efforts and out of appreciation for her love, allowed her to catch Him.

The Bhāgavatam describes that even though great jnanis and yogis try to pursue Krishna, they cannot get Him. At most they might get His effulgence but they don’t get Him. But Krishna allowed Himself to be caught by Mother Yasoda and thus He demonstrated that the bhakta’s position is much higher than the position of a jnani or a yogi because the bhakta can actually catch Krishna. So that is where we have come in the story. And now we will resume the story.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Nine

TEXT 12

tyaktvā yaṣṭiṁ sutaṁ bhītaṁ
vijñāyārbhaka-vatsalā
iyeṣa kila taṁ baddhuṁ
dāmnātad-vīrya-kovidā

TRANSLATION

Mother Yaśodā was always overwhelmed by intense love for Kṛṣṇa, not knowing who Kṛṣṇa was or how powerful He was. Because of maternal affection for Kṛṣṇa, she never even cared to know who He was. Therefore, when she saw that her son had become excessively afraid, she threw the stick away and desired to bind Him so that He would not commit any further naughty activities.

COMMENT

I forgot to mention that when she was pursuing Him, she picked up a stick and then when He allowed her to catch him, He appeared excessively afraid of the stick. She didn’t want to traumatize Him so she threw the stick away.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Mother Yaśodā wanted to bind Kṛṣṇa not in order to chastise Him but because she thought that the child was so restless that He might leave the house in fear. That would be another disturbance. Therefore, because of full affection, to stop Kṛṣṇa from leaving the house, she wanted to bind Him with rope. Mother Yaśodā wanted to impress upon Kṛṣṇa that since He was afraid merely to see her stick, He should not perform such disturbing activities as breaking the container of yogurt and butter and distributing its contents to the monkeys. Mother Yaśodā did not care to understand who Kṛṣṇa was and how His power spreads everywhere. This is an example of pure love for Kṛṣṇa.

COMMENT

In Caitanya-Caritāmṛta such pure love for Krishna is described as “kevala” which means pure love, only love as opposed to love which is “aiśvarya-jñāna-miśrā “ or mixed with knowledge of Krishna’s supreme opulences and majesty. So this is the highest standard of pure love.

TEXT 13–14

na cāntar na bahir yasya
na pūrvaṁ nāpi cāparam
pūrvāparaṁ bahiś cāntar
jagato yo jagac ca yaḥ

taṁ matvātmajam avyaktam
martya-liṅgam adhokṣajam
gopikolūkhale dāmnā
babandha prākṛtaṁ yathā

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no beginning and no end, no exterior and no interior, no front and no rear. In other words, He is all-pervading. Because He is not under the influence of the element of time, for Him there is no difference between past, present and future; He exists in His own transcendental form at all times. Being absolute, beyond relativity, He is free from distinctions between cause and effect, although He is the cause and effect of everything. That unmanifested person, who is beyond the perception of the senses, had now appeared as a human child, and mother Yaśodā, considering Him her own ordinary child, bound Him to the wooden mortar with a rope.

PURPORT

In Bhagavad-gītā (10.12), Kṛṣṇa is described as the Supreme Brahman (paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma). The word brahma means “the greatest.” Kṛṣṇa is greater than the greatest, being unlimited and all-pervading. How can it be possible for the all-pervading to be measured or bound? Then again, Kṛṣṇa is the time factor. Therefore, He is all-pervading not only in space but also in time. We have measurements of time, but although we are limited by past, present and future, for Kṛṣṇa these do not exist. Every individual person can be measured, but Kṛṣṇa has already shown that although He also is an individual, the entire cosmic manifestation is within His mouth.

COMMENT

Now this refers to an earlier pastime where Krishna and His friends were playing. Right when their play was reaching its climax Mother Yasoda came to call Krishna home for lunch. So when she came to call Krishna home for lunch the other cowherd boys informed Mother Yasoda that Krishna had eaten some dirt. Mother Yasoda was ready to chastise Krishna for eating dirt and Krishna said, “No mother, I didn’t eat any dirt. They are lying. They are mad at Me because I was winning in the play and so they are telling you lies to get Me in trouble.” And Mother Yasoda said, “No, even Your older brother Balarama says that You have eaten dirt. “He has taken their side but he is also lying. If you want to see you can look into My mouth and see for yourself.” So she looked into little Krishna’s mouth and she saw within His mouth the entire cosmic manifestation. She saw the higher [break]I person can be measured. We go to the doctor. They measure us, what is your height, what is your weight.

PURPORT (continued)

Every individual person can be measured, but Kṛṣṇa has already shown that although He also is an individual, the entire cosmic manifestation is within His mouth. All these points considered, Kṛṣṇa cannot be measured. How then did Yaśodā want to measure Him and bind Him? We must conclude that this took place simply on the platform of pure transcendental love. This was the only cause.

advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

(Brahma-saṁhitā 5.33)

Everything is one because Kṛṣṇa is the supreme cause of everything. Kṛṣṇa cannot be measured or calculated by Vedic knowledge (vedeṣu durlabham). He is available only to devotees (adurlabham ātma-bhaktau). Devotees can handle Him because they act on the basis of loving service (bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ). Thus mother Yaśodā wanted to bind Him.

COMMENT

We have come to a very dramatic point in the story so I am tempted to say that if you want to hear the rest of the story, you should come back tomorrow morning. We will continue and I will say that some will come and the others (Ananta Rupa Prabhu), you can continue the story.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ki jaya!