An Incident from the Bhagavatam-Part I... Contd.

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Comments: Here is a lesson for the devotees: learn to depend on God. Our love towards the Lord should be so complete that nothing in the world should come in our way. If a small thing like spilling milk is enough to draw our attention away from the Lord (as seen in the above episode), all our spiritual wealth will be wasted like the spilt curds. Like the person who, in Sri Ramakrishna"s parable, tries to save his child"s life by completely depending on God is blessed with all the propitious circumstances that enable him to get the medicine, so should we depend completely on God for every action that we do. If we live our life in this way, then God will take care of everything in our lives. As Jesus says, 'He is our own Father. Would he give us stones, if we need bread?"

Narrative: Now, to continue our narrative, what was Krishna doing meanwhile? He had climbed up through the help of a mortar and reached out for some more butter stored in the loft. He brought the butter down and began to share it with his monkey friend. Yashoda wanted to catch Krishna red-handed. She quietly came from behind to catch him. When she came very near, he acted as though he had just noticed her and started running with his little feet patting the ground. Yashoda chased him with a stick to catch him. He, the God incarnate, whom Yogis find it hard to catch and concentrate on in their minds, can He be caught so easily? One minute He seemed close, so easy to catch, the next minute He was far away. When this went on for some time, Yashoda began to sweat profusely. The flowers decking her hair fell on the ground. Playfully observing her pathetic condition, Krishna at last allowed himself to be caught by her.

Yashoda held Krishna tight and started to scold him. Krishna was crying, with his eyes filled with tears. He rubbed his eyes with his little fists and rubbed the collyrium all over his face, making it look even more beautiful. He looked very scared and clung to Yashoda. Yashoda loved her son dearly. Thinking that her child was truly frightened, she threw the stick away. She, however, decided to chasten him so that he would not repeat it. She said, 'All right, I will not beat you, but I am going to tie you to this mortar. Let me see how you will do any mischief behind my back." Saying this, she went inside to get a rope for tying him.

Comments: If one looks at it, one can derive another important spiritual lesson. He (Krishna, the God incarnate) whom, even with years of intense austerities, the Yogis find it hard to obtain, how did an ordinary woman catch him? This is the difference between the rest of the seekers of the Lord and Yashoda: she had a strong feeling that He was hers (atmajam matva), whereas we think of God as 'another" and not ours. This is the reason why we do not catch Him into our hearts. Yashoda never bothered whether her child Krishna was God Himself, with or without form. All she knew was that Krishna was her very own, a child enjoying stealing butter. The Lord, pleased by her bhakti, allowed Himself to be caught.

Now, whom was Yashoda trying to bind? Sri Krishna was incarnation of God, a human expression of the Absolute Truth. Though God has no beginning or end, no inside or outside, He is all-pervading, He assumes a human form for the sake of devotees. She tried to tie Him who is the Lord of the universe. She was no monk, or a sage or a god, but just a mother. Yet she succeeded, as it were, in 'catching" him. And then, what did she try to tie the Lord with? A silk cloth or a golden chain? None of these. She was looking for an ordinary piece of rope used to tie calves! Perhaps the Lord wanted to be called as damodara and so He decided to play this game. 'Dama" means rope and 'udara" stands for belly. This is why devotees worship Him as 'Damodara", the one who was tied with his belly.

About The Author
The author is the President, Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum, Karnataka. His books include many pictorial volumes on Indian epics and stories for children, published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai

To Be Continued