CONTENTS:
- Mother Yashoda tied Krishna up with her love;
- Srila Prabhupada's Appreciation;
- Guru Maharaja’s Instructions;
1. MOTHER YASHODA TIED KRISHNA UP WITH HER LOVE
Mother Yashoda tied Krishna up with a rope. Now, if mother Yashoda knew that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, she could never do that. Here, by the arrangement of Yogamaya, Mother Yashoda forgot that Krishna is God. Therefore, she could treat Krishna in that way. She treated Krishna just like her own little child and Krishna also acted just like a little child. Krishna also acted in such a way that Mother Yashoda became angry with Krishna. Krishna wanted to actually have this kind of reciprocation with the residents of Vrindavan; therefore, Krishna acts in such a unique way. What did Krishna do? Krishna broke the pots of butter.
Actually, it takes a lot of time and endeavour to make butter. Mother Yashoda boiled the milk, made it into yoghurt and then she had to churn the yoghurt, then the butter came floating on the surface. Then she collected the butter. It’s a lot of hard work. The butter was kept in a pot, but what did Krishna do? Krishna broke the pots and why He broke the pots? It is because Krishna became upset. He became very angry. Why did Krishna become very upset? It is because he was drinking his mother’s breast milk. At that time Krishna was about five years old. In the Vedic society, the child drinks the mothers’ milk even when the child is five years/ six years old. Nowadays what to speak of five years/ six years, mothers do not even give their milk to the children even when they are five/ six days old. That’s the unfortunate state of affairs and that’s way the relationship doesn’t grow between the mother and the children. The mothers do not take care of the children. This is what is happening in the human society. But in the Vedic culture, we see a perfect human behaviour. It is a perfect human society and everybody deals in that society in the most perfect way. Mother Yashoda was breast feeding Krishna when He was about five years old. She was deriving great joy just looking at Krishna’s beautiful face. Mother Yashoda saw that the milk was just spilling over from the pot. But Krishna was on her lap, so she just quickly put Krishna down and she just ran to take care of the milk. Just this gesture of mother Yashoda made Krishna very upset. In the meantime, mother Yashoda came back but Krishna ran away and He was hiding. Mother Yashoda saw Krishna running away, she became very angry.
See, mother Yashoda although she was dealing with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, she became angry with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, just like the mother becomes angry when the child becomes naughty. Out of anger what mother Yashoda did? She picked up a stick and she ran after Krishna and He also ran. “rudantam muhur netra-yugmam måjantam, karambhoja-yugmena satamka-netram” “rudantam muhur netra”- Krishna started to cry and tears started to flow from His eyes and “karambhoja-yugmena satanka-netram” - He started to wipe the tears of His eyes with both of His hands. He was very afraid, with fearful eyes he started to look at mother Yashoda. Then when she saw that Krishna was afraid, she like a natural mother felt, “Oh, the child is afraid. If he becomes too afraid, it’ll be bad for him.” Therefore, she dropped the stick. She thought that it’s not good for a child to be too afraid. It affects the mentality of the child. Mother Yashoda then dropped the stick to let Krishna overcome his fear.
Mother Yashoda at the same time thought, “He has done something wrong so he must be punished.” Thinking that, she decided to tie the child up. She then went and got some rope and tried to tie up Krishna. But she found to her great amazement that the rope was two inches short. The rope was not enough to tie. It was a little short. Then she went and got some more ropes and tied those ropes together to tie Krishna, that also was short and this way she got all the ropes in the house. You can well imagine how much rope she had at her house. Nanda Maharaja was a cowherd man; who had cows in the house. When you have cows in the house, you need ropes to tie the cows. How many cows Nanda Maharaja, had? Nine Lakh cows. Yashoda didn’t have any shortage of ropes, she got so much ropes. Finally, she was completely exhausted. She was sweating and she was completely tired. So, Krishna then thought, “Okay, my mother became quite exhausted.” Then Krishna allowed mother Yashoda to tie him back and then mother Yashoda tied Krishna up to the mortar, udukhal. “Yashoda bhiyolukhalad dhavamanam” Udukhal means ‘from the mortar’. So, mother Yashoda tied Krishna to the udukhal. Krishna actually climbed on top of that to get the butter so as punishment mother Yashoda tied him up to the mortar. Kunti Devi is saying that it is so wonderful that you treated Krishna like your little child and tied him up with ropes. The personality in whose belly, the entire creation is situated, that belly was tried to be tied up by mother Yashoda. Mother Yashoda was trying to tie up that belly “namas te 'stu damne sphurad-dipti-dhamne tvaiyodarayatha visvasya dhamne”; udara means belly; “Visvasya dhamne” - visvasya means entire creation and dhamne means the abode. Krishna’s belly is the abode of entire creation and mother Yashoda tied up that belly up. How did she do that? Not with the ropes, she tied Krishna up with her love. It is with her love that mother Yashoda tied Krishna up. It is with her love that she could deal with Krishna in this way and Krishna is very fond of this loving exchange. Krishna wants his mother to love him like that. It is an expression of love that she chased after Krishna, she picked a stick and chastised Him and then she thought, “Oh, He should not become afraid. It is because of love. What is that line? “ bhakti baddham” Mother Yashoda - bhakti baddham; with her bhakti she tied up Krishna, not with the ropes. Who can tie the Supreme Personality of Godhead?
That’s why, the Vrindavan pastimes of Krishna are so wonderful and Srila Prabhupada is pointing that out in the purport. Yashoda’s position was even more exalted because Yashoda treated Krishna just like her little child, even Devaki did not have. Even Devaki could not treat Krishna as a child. Krishna was taken away from Mother Devaki just after He was born. So, Devaki did not get this good fortune of treating Krishna like a child, her own little child. Devaki could not breast feed Krishna. Devaki could not hold Krishna on her lap like her own baby. But mother Yashoda did and that is why the fortune of mother Yashoda is far greater than the fortune of mother Devaki and ultimately Krishna’s Vrindavan pastimes are far superior to Krishna’s Mathura and Dwarka pastimes. In those pastimes, Krishna is the Supreme child, Supreme friend and Supreme lover. The three mellows sakhya, vatsalya and madhurya are three unique relationship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is available only in Vrindavan and nowhere else. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
After the Bhagavatam class that day, Bhavananda Maharaja told me, “Srila Prabhupada is going to Kumbha-mela tonight.” “Yes,” I replied, “I heard.”. Nut I was shocked by what he said next: “A small group of devotees will be travelling with him, and you have been included in the team.” I could not believe my ears. I was so excited and happy. I practically started to dance. The thought that I would be travelling in the same train with Srila Prabhupada made me feel like the most fortunate person in the world.
(Excerpt from Ocean of Mercy page 75, a book written by HH Bhakti Charu Swami)
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
Devotees are the friends of everyone. As devotees we broaden our heart, our heart becomes bigger. Then everybody has a space there.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 13th September 2013 at ISKCON Ujjain.)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Dasi)