Chapter 9: Mother Yas'odâ Binds Lord Krishna

(1-2) S'rî S'uka said: 'One day, when the maidservants were otherwise engaged, mother Yas'odâ, Nanda's queen, was churning and making her curd. During the time she was churning the butter she sang songs about everything she could remember her son had done. (3) Being dressed in linen that was held by a belt around her shaking hips, her breasts, which at the nipples were wet because of her affection for her son, moved as she was churning and with that movement the bangles on her wrists and her earrings moved along in harmony. The perspiration because of the labor of pulling the churning rope meanwhile ran down her face and fell down together with the jasmine flowers from her hair. (4) The Lord desirous to drink approached her as she was churning and getting affectionate with His mother, He stopped the churning rod by taking hold of it. (5) She sweetly allowed Him on her lap to drink from her overflowing, loving breasts and watched with a smile how happy He was. When she saw how a pan of milk was boiling over she had to put Him aside quickly and leave, but He was not yet satisfied. (6) Having gotten angry He, biting His full red lips and with false tears, with a stone broke the pot in which the butter was churned and, hidden from sight in an adjacent room, He began to eat from everything that was churned. (7) The gopî rescued the boiling hot milk from the stove and returned to her workplace where she discovered that the churning pot was broken. Not seeing her child she with a smile concluded that it had been His work. (8) Standing on top of a mortar He had turned over, He, anxiously looking around, from a hanging [storage] pot to His pleasure handed a share of the milk goodies out to a monkey. From behind watching these activities, she very slowly approached her son. (9) Seeing her approaching with a stick in her hand He quickly climbed down and fled away, like He was afraid, with the gopî after Him - He who could not even be reached by the greatest yogis of penance who try to get access in their meditation [see also B.G. 18: 55]. (10) Even though the quickly chasing mother with the flowers falling from her hair and with her heavy breasts to her thin waist, had to slow down, she nevertheless finally managed to capture Him. (11) Seeing the little scoundrel remorsefully crying and rubbing the collyrium of His eyes all over His face with His hands, she caught Him with His fearful eyes by the hand with a threatening pose. (12) With a good heart for her son understanding His fear she threw away the stick though and decided to bind Him with a rope. But she did not know what kind of power she was dealing with.

(13-14) He to whom there is neither an inside nor an outside, neither a beginning nor an end, is both the beginning and the end, both the inside and the outside of the universe. He constitutes the complete of the universe. And He, the One Unmanifest, the One Unseen present in the form of a mortal being, was by the gopî taken for her son and bound to a mortar like one does with a normal child. (15) When the rope she used to bind her naughty child fell short with a length of an inch, the gopî tied another rope to it. (16) When even that one fell short she tried another one that, joining and joining, would not suffice either to bind Him staying short with [again] an inch. (17) Yas'odâ proceeded with all the ropes in the household and thus failing she, being struck with wonder, had to laugh together with all the gopîs taking part in the fun. (18) Seeing His mother sweating and getting tired and all the flowers falling down from her loosened hair, Krishna was so gracious to allow her to bind Him. (19) My best one, the Lord factually thus exhibited how He, Krishna, despite of being the controller of the entire universe with all its demigods, is controlled by the servant [who is ruled] by His wishes [His devotees. Compare 7.3: 14-21]. (20) Neither Lord Brahmâ, Lord S'iva, nor the Goddess of Fortune albeit residing at His side, received from the Giver of Final Liberation the mercy the gopî obtained. (21) They who adhere to the physical concept of life [the karmis] as also the jñânis [the book people, the transcendentalists] and they who go for the soul only [the escapists, the impersonalists] cannot win as easily the Supreme Lord, the Son of the Gopî, as those can who are convinced of bhakti [of devotional service] in this world [see also B.G. 11: 54 and 18: 16].

(22) While His mother was very busily engaged in her household, the Lord observed two arjuna trees outside who had been demigods [Guhyakas]. They once were the sons of the bestower of riches [Kuvera]. (23) They were known then as the very prosperous Nalakûvara and Manigrîva, but because of their conceit they had been cursed by Nârada to become trees.'