Mother Yasoda Binds Lord Krishna

Waking up in the morning, leaving the room, Krsna began crying from hunger. He thus approached Yasoda (asadya), and held the churning rod, indicating to her that she should stop churning and give him attention. Yasoda understood his cleverness, and this increased her bliss.

5 “Oh how intelligent the child is!” Saying this, she stopped churning and put the boy on her lap and then gave him milk. Then she got up and quickly left. Why? Because milk on the stove was boiling over.

But how could Yasoda show so much concern for the milk boiling over that she would leave Krsna unsatisfied and hungry? She had such concern for what Krsna would eat and drink that she could temporarily ignore Krsna. Only those in the sway of prema can understand or talk about such remarkable actions in prema. It is difficult for others to understand.

6Though it was useless (mrsasru), he shed tears as this is the nature of a small child. He used a stone (drsad asmana) in order to make a hole in the pot without making any sound. He went into another room and ate butter made from the previous day’s milk (haiyangavam)

Taking the cooked milk (suska payah) from the stove, she entered the room where she was churning the yogurt, and saw the strong shiny pot broken (dadhy amakrakam) . The suffix ka is added to amakram out of sympathy for its sorry state. Understanding that this was the work of her son, she put her forefinger to her nose and began laughing.

8From the footprints smeared with yogurt, the sound of his jingling bells, and the noises in the other room, Yasoda could guess that Krsna was in the room eating butter. Surmising that, her face broke into a smile. A few second later, she decided to go into the room. But by that time Krsna had left by the back door and gone into the yard. He sat with crossed legs on top of an overturned mortar for fear of crows and other animals.

The verse describes from this point. Having stolen the pot hanging from the ceiling, he had brought it there. He was afraid of being beaten by his mother for having stolen the butter, and therefore he was looking around in fear (caurya visankiteksanam niriksya) looking for a path of escape. Seeing him from inside the room by craning her neck, she then very softly approached from the back so that he could not see here, without making noise from her footsteps, in order to catch him in her hands.

Yasoda held a stick in her hand to instill fear in Krsna. He is described as bhita matah, as if having fear, because knowing the great affection of his mother, internally he had no fear. Or it can mean, he stood up and fled in a fearful manner. For Kunti has said, “bhita bhavanaya sthito” he was in a state of fear. Yasoda (gopi) chased her son whom minds absorbed in samadhi (yoginam manah), though capable (ksamam) of merging into Brahman ( prevestum) inspired by jnana (iritam tapasa), cannot attain (na apa). This is made clear by verse 21 “nayam sukhapi.”

One should not think that just as the yogis cannot catch Krsna, neither could Mother Yasoda. This verse explains. Her hair came undone, and the flowers fell from it behind her as if following her. From behind (para) she caught him (amrsat).

11 Not only did Yasoda catch Krsna who cannot be obtained by the yogis. She also scolded him---who is constantly praised by even Brahma and Siva. With a stick she instilled fear in him---who instills fear in time and death personified. With that intent the verse is spoken. He was rubbing (kasantam) his eyes (aksini) smeared with black ointment (anjamasini) with the back of his left hand (sva panina). Mother Yasoda was holding his right hand. She frightened him (bhisayanti) by holding a stick. She began scolding him (avagurat). “You have such a restless nature! Friend of the monkeys! Pot breaker! Where are you going to get butter today? Today I will bind you up so that you cannot go and steal and eat butter with your friends. Are you afraid of being beaten with this stick? ” Scolding him, she lifted the stick as if to beat him, though she would never do such a thing.

12 “Don’t beat me!” Yasoda answered, “If you don’t like getting beaten, why did you break the yogurt pot today?” “ I won’t do that anymore! But throw the stick down.” Mother Yasoda then began to worry. “Maybe in distress, fear, or anger, he will run away to the forest.” Deciding on a way to prevent this, she acted. She threw away the stick and decided to tie him up. She was ignorant of her son’s power to spread himself everywhere (a tad virya kovida), because she was completely absorbed in his sweetness.

13-14Yasoda tied up with her cords of strong prema the all pervading Lord of all, who binds up with the ropes of maya everyone from Brahma to the blade of grass. With this intention the verse is spoken. It is possible to bind up limited objects by surrounded them on the outside. But for he who has great powers, and who does not have an outside, or even an inside, where can one place the rope? After establishing his pervasion of all space, the verse speaks of his pervasion of time. Time has no limit. It has no before and after. The unlimited can bind the limited, but in this case it was the opposite. The limited cannot bind the unlimited. He is also the universe, as it is a result of his sakti. The universe cannot bind him, what to speak of a rope inside the universe. One cannot say that a little boy cannot bind up the universe, because Yasoda saw the universe within his belly. How then can he be bound up?

The answer is given: he is bound by uncommon parental love (atmajam matva-thinking him as her son). Though he is all powerful, by his quality of being controlled by love, by his inconceivable energy, he is bound up. He is called avyaktam because being controlled by love, he covers his powers and appears as a human ( martya lingam), even though he is beyond the material senses (adhoksajam). The strength of Yasoda’s love bound up the Lord who is the aggregate of all consciousness, just as one binds an ordinary child (prakrtam).

15 Though by love Yasoda could bind her child, and though the span of her lap was small, the small form of the boy was still all powerful. That is shown in three verses. The boy was thinking, “I cannot be bound up because I must do my daily duties of stealing yogurt and playing with my friends.” His vibhuta sakti (power of showing his opulence) inspired by the satya sankalpa sakti ( the lord’s every desires should be fulfilled) , suddenly entered into his body at that time. Thus, the rope became two fingers short. She got more rope and tied it together with the other rope. But it was still two fingers short.

16 Bandhanam means the cord by which he was to be bound. Whatever cord she made was two fingers short.

17 All the neighboring cowherd women were laughing (gopinam susmayantinam). Yasoda was astonished (vismita). “A rope of one hundred hastas does not fit around the waist of my son which measures only one fist. And that small waist is not getting any bigger. The rope is certainly not getting any shorter. But still the rope cannot go around him. That is the first amazing thing. When I tie the ropes together, each time, it is two fingers short, not three or four fingers. That is the second amazing thing.”

“As you cannot tie up his waist even with all the ropes of the house, then it must be concluded that it is his good fortune that it should not be. Listen Yasoda, give up this attempt!” Though the village women advised in this way, Yasoda was insistent. “Even if evening comes, and I tie together the rope of the whole village, I must find out just once the extent of my son’s waist.” If Yasoda, with desire to do good to her son, and being stubborn, would not give up her attempt to bind the Lord, then between the Lord and the devotee, the devotee’s stubbornness prevails. Thus, seeing his mother becoming tired, the Lord gave up his own stubbornness, and by his mercy allowed himself to be tied. His mercy is the king of all saktis, illuminating all else. It melts the heart of the Lord as if it were butter. Mercy’s appearance made the satya sankalpa and vibhuta saktis suddenly disappear. The shortage of two fingers was filled by effort (parisrama) and mercy (krpa). The effort and fatigue due to service and worship ( the steady faith of the devotee --bhakta nistha), and the mercy of the Lord arising from seeing that effort and fatigue ( the steady quality in the Lord--sva nistha)--these two caused the Lord to be bound. As long as these are not there, the rope remains two fingers too short. When these two are there, the Lord is bound. The Lord himself showed to his mother how only love can bind him. This is what the pastime illustrates.

19 Though he possess all possible powers, the Lord, being controlled by prema, is bound up. This bondage, however, being the most astonishing aspect of the Lord, becomes his ornament, not his fault. The lord, by his very nature, though self-contented (atma rama), suffers from hunger. Though he is full in his desires, he becomes dissatisfied. Though he is the form of pure goodness, he becomes angry. Though he is the master of Laksmi in Vaikuntha, he steals. Though he instills fear through time and death, he flees in fear. Though he travels quickly on the vehicle of the mind, he is caught by the strong grasp of his mother. Though he is condensed bliss, he cries in sorrow. Though he is all pervading, without limit, he is limited by being tied up. In all these incidents, Krsna was revealing directly to Yasoda his innate quality of being controlled by the devotee. All of this cannot be explained as simply an act or imitation performed by Krsna. Such explanations have no proof to support them and arise from ignorance. Brahma, Siva and Sanat Kumara realized this and were truly astonished. In Bhagavatam 10.11.9 it is said, “Krsna in this universe shows his nature of dependence on the devotee to the devotees tainted with jnana, such as Lord Brahma.” Though the lord is independent (sva vasena), where do we see his independence? In his control of the universe and the devas (yasya idam sesvaram vase) . It is through prema, the essence of the cit sakti, that being controlled by the devotee arises, and this gives rise to the Lord’s highest bliss. That has been explained previously.

20 This verse is spoken on seeing the exceptional devotion of the queen of Vraja among all the devotees, which brought Krsna under exceptional control. Vimukti here means visesa mukti or specialized mukti, or prema. Vimukti da is the giver of prema, Krsna. The inconceivable mercy that Yasoda obtained from the giver of prema, Krsna, was not received by Brahma (virinca). It was not received by Siva (bhava). It was not received by Laksmi (sri). As the negative statement is repeated three times, it emphasizes the exceeding (times three) absence of mercy. Or with the word api, the sentence can mean even though they received mercy, but it was not to the extent of Yasoda. Brahma is the son of bhagavan and the adi guru of the devotees (adi devo jagatam paro guru). Siva is the soul of bhagavan . He is considered superior to Brahma (vaisnavanam yatha sambhu). Laksmi, residing on the chest of Visnu, is superior to Siva and Brahma, the shelters of sakhya and dasya rasa. But Yasoda is superior to her.

Therefore it is wrong to think then that this Yasoda is the sadhana siddha, who was given a boon in a previous life time as Dhara by Brahma. The prema of Yasoda cannot be attained as a result of Brahma’s boon, for Brahma himself prays to become a blade of grass in Vraja. Brahma is indeed counted in a much, much lesser class. “O Parkisit though you know about the Nanda and Yasoda who are famous in the scriptures as nitya siddhas, in answer to your casual question about Nanda and Yasoda’s austerities in previous lives (10.8.46), I told the story of Drona and Dhara, who are their small, very small parts.”

The Bhagavatam propounds prema to bhagavan as the highest goal of all human endeavors. Among all the devotees, prema is permanently situated in those in the position of nitya siddha. Among the nitya siddhas the inhabitants of Gokula such as Krsna’s mother and father are the best. The Krsna who is controlled by their vatsalya is easily obtained by those who follow in the footsteps of the inhabitants of Gokula. He is not available to others. With this intent the verse is spoken. The son of the gopi (gopika suta), Krsna, is not easily attainable by devotees who still identify with the body (dehinam), by those devotees who no longer identify with the body (jnaninam) but are contented with the self (atmarama). Thought they are devotees of sorts, they never attain the opportunity to serve Vraja Krsna. But when they enter into Vraja bhakti through the influence of association with the inhabitants of Vraja, they attain qualification. Brahma, Siva and Laksmi mentioned in the previous verse are atma bhuta (related with the Lord). Brahma and Siva are his avataras, and laksmi is his svarupa sakti. Yet even these three cannot easily attain Krsna, the son of a gopi. However, those who are devotional (bhaktimatam) to Yasoda (indicated by “iha”), and the other inhabitants in sakhya, vatsalya and madhurya rasa, attain Vraja Krsna easily.

The svarupa of bhakti has been defined in the bhagavatam: striya urugendra bhoga bhuja danda……”How can we the srutis get bodies like the gopis, who relish Krsna’s lotus feet on their chest and are embraced by his snake like arms? One can only attain that by worshiping in the footsteps of the gopis.” The stutis and munis attained Krsna in Vraja by serving in the footsteps of the gopis, but Brahma, Siva and Laksmi did not. Acceptance of a low position in relation to the inhabitants of Vraja was impossible because of their identity with their positions on their own planets. Others do not attain obedience to the inhabitants of Vraja because of lack of such instructions or lack of taste.

21 Though bound by his devotee, Krsna is still able to liberate others. That is illustrated in the following pastime.

Out of debt to my mother, I have been bound by her. What can I do to clear this debt? Thinking in this way, he liberated the two trees situated in the yard.