Sri Krishna Madbhagavatam
9. Mother Yaśodā Binding Lord Kṛṣṇa
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Once upon a time, seeing that her
maidservant was engaged in different household duties, mother Yaśodā
personally took charge of churning butter. And while she churned butter, she
sang the childhood pastimes of Kṛṣṇa
and enjoyed thinking of her son.
The end of her sari was tightly
wrapped while she churned, and on account of her intense love for her son,
milk automatically dripped from her breasts which moved as she labored very
hard, churning with two hands. The bangles and bracelets on her hands tinkled
as they touched each other, and her earrings and breasts shook. There were
drops of perspiration on her face, and the flower garland which was on her
head scattered here and there. Before this picturesque sight, Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared as a child. He felt hungry, and out of
love for His mother, He wanted her to stop churning. He indicated that her
first business was to let Him suck her breast and then churn butter later.
Mother Yaśodā took her son on her lap
and pushed the nipples of her breasts into His mouth. And while Kṛṣṇa was sucking the milk, she was smiling, enjoying
the beauty of her child's face. Suddenly, the milk which was on the oven
began to boil over. Just to stop the milk from spilling, mother Yaśodā at
once put Kṛṣṇa aside and went to the oven. Left in that state
by His mother, Kṛṣṇa became very angry, and His lips and eyes became
red in rage. He pressed His teeth and lips, and taking up a piece of stone,
He immediately broke the butter pot. He took butter out of it, and with false
tears in His eyes, He began to eat the butter in a secluded place.
In the meantime, mother Yaśodā
returned to the churning place after setting the overflowing milk pan in
order. She saw the broken pot in which the churning yogurt was kept. Since
she could not find her boy, she concluded that the broken pot was His work.
She began to smile as she thought, "The child is very clever. After
breaking the pot He has left this place, fearing punishment." After she
sought all over, she found a big wooden grinding mortar which was kept upside
down, and she found her son sitting on it. He was taking butter which was
hanging from the ceiling on a swing, and He was feeding it to the monkeys.
She saw Kṛṣṇa looking this way and that way in fear of her
because He was conscious of His naughty behavior. After seeing her son so
engaged, she very silently approached Him from behind. Kṛṣṇa, however, quikly saw her coming at Him with a
stick in her hand, and immediately He got down from the grinding mortar and
began to flee in fear.
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Mother Yaśodā chased Him to all
corners, trying to capture the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is never
approached even by the meditations of great yogīs. In other words, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who is never caught by the yogīs and
speculators, was playing just like a little child for a great devotee like
mother Yaśodā. Mother Yaśodā, however, could not easily catch the fast-running
child because of her thin waist and heavy body. Still she tried to follow Him
as fast as possible. Her hair loosened, and the flower in her hair fell to the
ground. Although she was tired, she somehow reached her naughty child and
captured Him. When He was caught, Kṛṣṇa
was almost on the point of crying. He smeared His hands over His eyes, which
were anointed with black eye cosmetics. The child saw His mother’s face while
she stood over Him, and His eyes became restless from fear. Mother Yaśodā could
understand that Kṛṣṇa was unnecessarily afraid, and for His benefit she
wanted to allay His fears.
Being the topmost well-wisher of her child,
mother Yaśodā began to think, "If the child is too fearful of me, I don't
know what will happen to Him." Mother Yaśodā then threw away her stick. In
order to punish Him, she thought to bind His hands with some ropes. She did not
know it, but it was actually impossible for her to bind the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. Mother Yaśodā was thinking that Kṛṣṇa was her tiny child; she did not know that the
child had no limitation. There is no inside or outside of Him, nor beginning or
end. He is unlimited and all-pervading. Indeed, He is Himself the whole cosmic
manifestation. Still, mother Yaśodā was thinking of Kṛṣṇa as her child.
Although He is beyond the reach of all senses, she endeavored to bind Him up to
a wooden grinding mortar. But when she tried to bind Him, she found that the
rope she was using was too short--by two inches. She gathered more ropes from
the house and added to it, but at the end she found the same shortage. In this
way, she connected all the ropes available at home, but when the final knot was
added, she saw that it was still two inches too short. Mother Yaśodā was
smiling, but she was astonished. How was it happening?
In attempting to bind her son, she
became tired. She was perspiring, and the garland on her head fell down. Then
Lord Kṛṣṇa
appreciated the hard labor of His mother, and being compassionate upon her, He
agreed to be bound up by the ropes. Kṛṣṇa, playing as a human child in the house of mother
Yaśodā, was performing His own selected pastimes. Of course, no one can control
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The pure devotee surrenders himself unto
the lotus feet of the Lord, who may either protect or vanquish the devotee. But
for his part, the devotee never forgets his own position of surrender.
Similarly, the Lord also feels transcendental pleasure by submitting Himself to
the protection of the devotee. This was exemplified by Kṛṣṇa's surrender
unto His mother, Yaśodā.
Kṛṣṇa is the supreme bestower of all kinds of
liberation to His devotees, but the benediction which was bestowed upon mother
Yaśodā was never experienced even by Lord Brahmā or Lord Śiva or the goddess of
fortune.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who
is known as the son of Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja, is never so completely known
to the yogīs and speculators. But He is easily available to His devotees. Nor
is He appreciated as the supreme reservoir of all pleasure by the yogīs and
speculators.
There is a history behind the pair of arjuna trees. In their previous lives, the trees were born as the human sons of Kuvera, and their names were Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva. Fortunately, they came within the vision of the Lord. In their previous lives they were cursed by the great sage Nārada in order to receive the highest benediction of seeing Lord Kṛṣṇa. This benediction-curse was bestowed upon them because of their forgetfulness due to intoxication. This story will be narrated in the next chapter.
10. Deliverance of Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva
The two great demigods, Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva, were sons of the treasurer of the demigods, Kuvera, who was a great devotee of Lord Śiva. By the grace of Lord Śiva, Kuvera's material opulences had no limit. As a rich man's sons often become addicted to wine and women, so these two sons of Kuvera were also addicted to wine and sex. Once, these two demigods, desiring to enjoy, entered the garden of Lord Śiva in the province of Kailāsa on the bank of Mandākinī Ganges. There they drank much and engaged in hearing the sweet singing of beautiful women who accompanied them in that garden of fragrant flowers. In an intoxicated condition, they both entered the water of the Ganges, which was full with lotus flowers, and there they began to enjoy the company of the young girls exactly as the male elephant enjoys the female elephants within the water.
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While they were thus enjoying
themselves in the water, all of a sudden Nārada, the great sage, happened to
pass that way. He could understand that the demigods Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva were too intoxicated and could not even
see that he was passing. The young girls, however, were not so intoxicated as
the demigods, and they at once became ashamed at being naked before the great
sage Nārada. They began to cover themselves with all haste. The two
demigod-sons of Kuvera were so intoxicated that they could not appreciate the
presence of the sage Nārada and therefore did not cover their bodies. On
seeing the two demigods so degraded by intoxication, Nārada desired their
welfare, and therefore he exhibited his causeless mercy upon them by cursing
them.
Because the great sage was
compassionate upon them, he wanted to finish their false enjoyment of
intoxication and association with young girls and wanted them to see Lord Kṛṣṇa eye to eye. He conceived of cursing them as
follows. He said that the attraction for material enjoyment is due to an
increase of the mode of passion. A person in the material world, when favored
by the material opulence of riches, generally becomes addicted to three
things--intoxication, sex and gambling. Materially opulent men, being puffed
up with the accumulation of wealth, also become so merciless that they
indulge in killing animals by opening slaughterhouses. And they think that
they themselves will never die. Such foolish persons, forgetting the laws of
nature, become overly infatuated with the body. They forget that the material
body, even though very much advanced in civilization, up to the position of
the demigods, will finally be burned to ashes. And while one is living,
whatever the external condition of the body may be, within there is only
stool, urine and various kinds of worms. Thus being engaged in jealousy and
violence to other bodies, materialists cannot understand the ultimate goal of
life, and without knowing this goal of life, they generally glide down to a
hellish condition. In their next birth, such foolish persons commit all kinds
of sinful activities on account of this temporary body, and they are even
unable to consider whether this body actually belongs to them. Generally it
is said that the body belongs to the persons who feed the body. One might
therefore consider whether this body belongs to one personally or to the
master to whom one renders service. The master of slaves claims full right to
the bodies of the slaves because the master feeds the slaves. It may be
questioned then whether the body belongs to the father, who is the
seed-giving master of this body, or to the mother, who develops the child's
body in her womb.
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Foolish persons are engaged in
committing all sorts of sins due to the misconception of identifying the
material body with the self. But one should be intelligent enough to understand
to whom this body belongs. A foolish person indulges in killing other animals
to maintain the body, but he does not consider whether this body belongs to him
or to his father or mother or grandfather. Sometimes a grandfather or a father
gives his daughter in charity to a person with a view of getting back the
daughter's child as a son. The body may also belong to a stronger man who
forces it to work for him. Sometimes the slave's body is sold to the master on
the basis that the body will belong to the master. And at the end of life, the
body belongs to the fire, because the body is given to the fire and burned to
ashes. Or the body is thrown into the street to be eaten by the dogs and
vultures.
Before committing all kinds of sins to
maintain the body, one should understand to whom the body belongs. Ultimately
it is concluded that the body is a product of material nature, and at the end
it merges into material nature; therefore, the conclusion should be that the
body belongs to material nature. One should not wrongly think that the body
belongs to him. To maintain a false possession, why should one indulge in
killing? Why should one kill innocent animals to maintain the body?
When a man is infatuated with the false
prestige of opulence, he does not care for any moral instruction but indulges
in wine, women and animal killing. In such circumstances, a poverty-stricken
man is often better situated because a poor man thinks of himself in relation
to other bodies. A poor man often does not wish to inflict injuries to other
bodies because he can understand more readily that when he himself is injured
he feels pain. As such, the great sage Nārada considered that because the
demigods Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva were so
infatuated by false prestige, they should be put into a condition of life
devoid of opulence.
A person who has a pinprick in his body
does not wish others to be pricked by pins; a considerate man in the life of
poverty does not wish others to be also put into that condition. Generally it
is seen that one who has risen from a poverty-stricken life and becomes wealthy
creates some charitable institution at the end of his life so that other
poverty-stricken men might be benefited. In short, a compassionate poor man may
consider others' pains and pleasures with empathy. A poor man may be seldom
puffed with false pride, and he may be freed from all kinds of infatuation. He
may remain satisfied by whatever he gets for his maintenance by the grace of
the Lord.
To remain in the poverty-stricken
condition is a kind of austerity. According to Vedic culture, therefore, the
brāhmaṇas, as a matter of routine, keep themselves in a
poverty-stricken condition to save themselves from the false prestige of
material opulence. False prestige due to advancement of material prosperity is
a great impediment for spiritual emancipation. A poverty-stricken man cannot
become unnaturally fat by eating more and more. And on account of not being
able to eat more than he requires, his senses are not very turbulent. When the
senses are not very turbulent, he cannot become violent.
Another advantage of poverty is that a
saintly person can easily enter a poor man's house, and thus the poor man can
take advantage of the saintly person's association. A very opulent man does not
allow anyone to enter his house; therefore, the saintly person cannot enter.
According to the Vedic system, a saintly person takes the position of a
mendicant so that on the plea of begging something from the householder, he can
enter any house. The householder, who has usually forgotten everything about
spiritual advancement because he is busy maintaining family affairs, can be
benefited by the association of a saintly person. There is a great chance for
the poor man to become liberated through association with a saint. Of what use
are persons who are puffed up with material opulence and prestige if they are
bereft of the association of saintly persons and devotees of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead?
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The great sage Nārada thereafter
thought that it was his duty to put those demigods into a condition where
they could not be falsely proud of their material opulence and prestige.
Nārada was compassionate and wanted to save them from their fallen life. They
were in the mode of darkness, and being therefore unable to control their
senses, they were addicted to sex life. It was the duty of a saintly person
like Nārada to save them from their abominable condition. In animal life, the
animal has no sense to understand that he is naked. But Kuvera was the
treasurer of the demigods, a very responsible man, and Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva were two of his sons. And yet they became
so animalistic and irresponsible that they could not understand, due to
intoxication, that they were naked. To cover the lower part of the body is a
principle of human civilization, and when a man or woman forgets this
principle, they become degraded. Nārada therefore thought that the best
punishment for them was to make them immovable living entities, or trees.
Trees are, by nature's laws, immovable. Although trees are covered by the
mode of ignorance, they cannot do harm. The great sage Nārada thought it
fitting that, although the brothers, by his mercy, would be punished to
become trees, they continue to keep their memory to be able to know why they
were being punished. After changing the body, a living entity generally
forgets his previous life, but in special cases, by the grace of the Lord, as
with Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva, one can remember.
Sage Nārada therefore contemplated
that the two demigods should remain for one hundred years, in the time of the
demigods, in the form of trees, and after that they would be fortunate enough
to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, face to face, by His causeless
mercy. And thus they would be again promoted to the life of the demigods and
great devotees of the Lord.
After this, the great sage Nārada
returned to his abode known as Nārāyaṇa
Āśrama, and the two demigods turned into trees, known as twin arjuna trees.
The two demigods were favored by the causeless mercy of Nārada and given a
chance to grow in Nanda's courtyard and see Lord Kṛṣṇa face to face. Although the child Kṛṣṇa was bound up to the wooden mortar, He began to
proceed towards the growing trees in order to fulfill the prophecy of His
great devotee Nārada. Lord Kṛṣṇa
knew that Nārada was His great devotee and that the trees standing before Him
as twin arjuna trees were actually the sons of Kuvera. "I must now
fulfill the words of My great devotee Nārada," He thought. Then He began
to proceed through the passage between the two trees. Although He was able to
pass through the passage, the large wooden mortar stuck horizontally between
the trees. Taking advantage of this, Lord Kṛṣṇa
began to pull the rope which was tied to the mortar. As soon as He pulled,
with great strength, the two trees, with all branches and limbs, fell down
immediately with a great sound. Out of the broken, fallen trees came two
great personalities, shining like blazing fire. All sides became illuminated
and beautiful by their presence. The two purified bodies immediately came before
child Kṛṣṇa and bowed down to offer their respects and
prayers in the following words.
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"Dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, You are the original Personality of Godhead,
master of all mystic powers. Learned brāhmaṇas
know very well that this cosmic manifestation is an expansion of Your potencies
which are sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest. You are the original
provider of the life, body and senses of all living entities. You are the
eternal God, Lord Viṣṇu, who is all-pervading, the principal controller
of everything. You are the original source of the cosmic manifestation which is
acting under the spell of the three modes of material nature--goodness, passion
and ignorance. You are living as the Supersoul in all the multi-forms of living
entities, and You know very well what is going on within their bodies and
minds. Therefore You are the supreme director of all activities of all living
entities. But although You are in the midst of everything which is under the
spell of the material modes of nature, You are not affected by such
contaminated qualities. No one under the jurisdiction of the material modes can
understand Your transcendental qualities, which existed before the creation;
therefore You are called the Supreme Brahman who is always glorified by His
personal internal potencies. In this material world You can be known only by
Your different incarnations. Although You assume different types of bodies,
these bodies are not part of the material creation. They are always full of
transcendental potencies of unlimited opulence, strength, beauty, fame, wisdom
and renunciation. In the material existence, there is a difference between the
body and the owner of the body, but because You appear in Your original
spiritual body, there is no such difference for You. When You appear, Your
uncommon activities indicate that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Such uncommon activities are not possible for anyone in material existence. You
are that Supreme Personality of Godhead, now appearing to cause the birth and
death as well as liberation of the living entities, and You are full with all
Your plenary expansions. You can bestow on everyone all kinds of benediction. O
Lord! O source of all fortune and goodness, we offer our respectful obeisances
unto You. You are the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source
of peace and the supreme person in the dynasty of King Yadu. O Lord, our father
known as Kuvera, the demigod, is Your servant. Similarly, the great sage Nārada
is also Your servitor, and by their grace only we have been able to see You
personally. We therefore pray that we may always be engaged in Your
transcendental loving service by speaking only about Your glories and hearing
about Your transcendental activities. May our hands and other limbs be engaged
in Your service and our minds always be concentrated at Your lotus feet and our
heads always bowed down before the all-pervading universal form of Your
Lordship."
After this, the demigods circumambulated the Lord many times and bowed down before Him again and again, and thus they left. The Lord remained bound up with ropes to the grinding mortar.
Om
Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations H H Swami Sri Prabhupada ji, Sri Krishnalilas
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