Strong Ropes Of Affection

The all-powerful Supreme Lord shows that He can be conquered by the power of His devotees' pure love.

by Rādhā Govinda Gosvāmī

The Vedic scriptures describe how Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Lord, enjoys eternal pastimes with His devotees, both in the spiritual world and in this world when He periodically descends. Because Kṛṣṅa wants the deepest loving exchanges, in the intimacy of love for Him some of His purest devotees forget that He is God and relate to Him as superiors. During the Vedic month of Kartika (October-November), we especially honor an episode from Kṛṣṅa's life that exemplifies this principle. In one of His most endearing pastimes, He is chased and then bound by His mother, Yaśodā, for stealing butter and yogurt. The information in this article (adapted by Tattvavit Dāsa from a lecture) comes from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter 9, and from commentaries by Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thakura, and other Vaiṣṅava ācāryas.

When mother Yaśodā started getting many complaints from the gopīs (cowherd women) about Kṛṣṅa stealing their butter and breaking their butter pots, she wondered why her son was stealing from the houses of others.

Yaśodā thought, "Maybe Kṛṣṅa doesn't like the butter in my house. Maybe the yogurt that we start with is not good, or the butter is not coming out perfectly. Why else would Kṛṣṅa go to other houses for what is readily available at home? Today, I'll make the butter myself."

Yaśodā did not realize that Kṛṣṅa went to other homes because of the love the other gopīs had for Him.

So mother Yaśodā churned the yogurt herself, although, being a queen, it was inappropriate work for her. Still, Yaśodā churned, and she gave her maidservants other household duties. The maidservants actually made tasty butter, but she took it upon herself to make the butter—to stop Kṛṣṅa from stealing and to keep Him happy at home.

While churning the yogurt, Yaśodā sang the glories of Kṛṣṅa's childhood pastimes. She sang about whatever Kṛṣṅa had done. From this we can learn a lesson: If we cannot find much time to sing the glories of the Lord, then at least we can sing and chant while doing physical work.

As Yaśodā pulled the churning ropes, her gold bangles shook and made a melodious sound: jhhan jhhan jhhan jhhan. They were joined by the sounds of her earrings, ankles bells, and gold belt. The sound of her ornaments resembled the sound of expert cymbal players. As she churned, the rod in the yogurt pot went gharad gharad gharad gharad, sounding just like a drum. Thus mother Yaśodā had full musical accompaniment as she sang Kṛṣṅa's glories.

In the transcendental world, even the ornaments and household utensils are conscious, so they sounded out of joy, to congratulate Yaśodā as she performed this service. Our hands do not become beautiful simply by being adorned with gold jewelry; they are beautiful only if we engage them in the service of the Supreme. Yasodas earrings thought that they were fortunate to be on ears engaged in hearing the glories of Kṛṣṅa. Being a devotee does not mean sitting back; it means working and sweating for Kṛṣṅa. Bhakti is defined as engaging the senses in the service of the giver of all our senses. Kṛṣṅa has given us these senses, and their best engagement is His service.

Mother Yaśodā was fully prepared to perform this service, with no sign of laziness. It was very early in the morning. The sun had not yet risen when Yaśodā began working hard.

She was thinking, "Before Kṛṣṅa wakes up, let me extract butter from the yogurt, so that I can feed Him when He gets up." She became so engrossed that her forehead perspired, which made her look even more beautiful.

In this way, as she churned the yogurt, her tongue recited the glorious pastimes of Kṛṣṅa, her ears heard them, her mind meditated on how she would make the butter to feed Kṛṣṅa, and her hands and body produced the butter. This is the state of a perfect devotee: Mind, body, and intelligence fully engaged in devotional service for Kṛṣṅa.

Kṛṣṅa Wakes Up

Hearing Yasodas melodious singing and the rhythmic sounds of the churning, Kṛṣṅa woke up earlier than usual. When He woke, He wanted to drink her breast milk.

He looked for his mother and wondered, "Why is she not with Me in bed today? She's not worried about Me at all. Why has she left Me?"

Children are good at getting attention, and when they don't get it, they become mischievous. Kṛṣṅa started falsely crying and walked to the room where His mother was singing. He got close to her and looked at her intently, but Yaśodā did not notice him. There is a lesson here for us. When will Kṛṣṅa come to us? He will come when we are so absorbed in devotional service that we will not notice if He comes. Kṛṣṅa will not come to us if we are just sitting around waiting.

Kṛṣṅa caught hold of the churning rod to get His mother's attention, and He held it firmly with both hands, as if applying brakes on a moving bicycle. He was telling his mother: "Stop! I need attention. Feed me now."

Vaiṣṅava commentators have given another reason why Kṛṣṅa stopped the churning: After fully "churning" the scriptures, one gets Kṛṣṅa, because He is the conclusion of everything. But Yaśodā already had Kṛṣṅa, so what was the need for her to keep churning?

Yaśodā looked at Kṛṣṅa and waited to see what He would do next. Kṛṣṅa grabbed her arm with both hands, put one foot on the rim of the yogurt pot, pulled Himself into her lap, and started drinking her milk. Yaśodā proudly and pleasurably fed her son.

Kṛṣṅa also became proud, thinking, "How smart I am. I stopped Mother from her work and claimed My right."

Thinking this, He smiled cheekily. As He drank the milk, a competition between Yasodas milk and Kṛṣṅa began. Kṛṣṅa would not become satisfied, and Mother Yasodas milk would not stop flowing because of her intense affection. She kept feeding him for quite some time.

Then something happened to distract Yasodas attention. Some milk she had placed on the nearby stove was boiling over. Yaśodā put Kṛṣṅa down and ran to save the milk. This milk was from the special Padmagandha cows, especially for Kṛṣṅa.

This transcendental milk was thinking, "Why am I tolerating this heat if Kṛṣṅa is going to become fully satisfied by drinking mother Yasodas breast milk; it is better for me to commit suicide by jumping into the fire."

Thinking this, the milk boiled over. Mother Yaśodā took the milk off the fire, but in the mean time, what happened to Kṛṣṅa?

Angry Kṛṣṅa

Little Kṛṣṅa became angry.

"How dare she put me down while I'm still drinking, just to save a little milk! I'm still hungry."

He who is the purest of pure, untainted by any of the modes of material nature, became angry. His lips swelled and became red as He bit them with His teeth.

"Who does she think she is? I'll show her. She'll be sorry. I'll break something in the house."

He looked around and saw a small stone used for grinding spices. With this stone He hit the churning pot in a strategic spot—at the bottom—so that there would be no sound to alarm Yaśodā. Yogurt was everywhere. Kṛṣṅa started for another room. As he went out, He walked all over the spilled yogurt—chub, chub, chub—but quietly, so that His mother would not hear Him. In the form of Vāmanadeva, Kṛṣṅa had covered the whole universe with just three of His steps, and now He was walking through the yogurt. Kṛṣṅa did not think, "Perhaps I should go around the yogurt." He just walked through it, leaving pretty footprints showing exactly where He has going.

Kṛṣṅa went to another room and turned over a wooden grinding mortar. He climbed on it and then took a pot of butter from the rafters. He fed the butter to monkeys who appeared there. The monkeys ate with great pleasure.

After rescuing the milk from the stove, Yaśodā returned and saw the broken pot. If Kṛṣṅa had stayed there, then she might have thought that the pot had broken accidentally, but because Kṛṣṅa was not there, she knew He was guilty and had run away to hide.

Yaśodā was not angry about the broken pot.

She smiled and thought, "How clever my Kṛṣṅa is! He broke this pot in such a way that I didn't hear a sound."

But she decided that she had to punish Him to teach Him a lesson. So she followed His footprints. Hiding behind a wall, she looked around a corner at Him.

Kṛṣṅa Fears His Mother

Kṛṣṅa was looking all around, expecting to get caught at any minute. His eyes were fearful. He knew that Yaśodā would come after Him to punish Him. She approached very slowly from behind, sneaking up on Him. But Kṛṣṅa saw her coming. Seeing the look on her face and the stick in her hand, He quickly got down from the grinding mortar and fled.

He thought, "If I'm quick, she won't catch me, and I'll be spared a beating."

Yaśodā didn't let Him run away. She was determined to catch Him. She chased Him with the stick in her hand.

Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "Even yogis whose minds have become purified by austerities cannot catch Kṛṣṅa through meditation, but on this day mother Yaśodā was running after that same Kṛṣṅa with a stick in her hand."

At first Kṛṣṅa ran from room to room. Then He left the house and ran into the streets of Gokula.

Mother Yaśodā thought, "Today He is not going to get away from me. Where can He go? I'll catch Him."

She followed Him everywhere. All the Vrajavasis (local residents) looked in amazement at the scene.

"What has happened today? Normally there is so much affection between Kṛṣṅa and Yaśodā."

Yaśodā was not used to running and became covered with perspiration. Finally, she caught Kṛṣṅa by His right hand. With His left hand He wiped tears from His eyes.

Yaśodā addressed Kṛṣṅa: "Are the monkeys Your relatives? Is that why You feed them so freely? You broke the yogurt pot. Till this day I didn't believe the other gopīs, but now I've caught You red-handed. Today I'll punish You. I'll beat You."

Waving the stick at Him, Yaśodā made Kṛṣṅa shake in fear. He wiped away tears, and the black ointment on His eyes smeared all over His face, making Him look more beautiful.

Kṛṣṅa said, "Ma, please let me go. I promise never to do this again."

Mother Yaśodā saw Kṛṣṅa's fear and threw her stick away. Kṛṣṅa sighed with relief.

He thought, "At least she won't beat Me with a stick. Maybe she'll give Me a little slap in the face and then let Me go."

Among all of Kṛṣṅa's pastimes as an avatar, this was the first time that He stood as the guilty party, awaiting His sentence and punishment. Kṛṣṅa's fate was totally in the hands of mother Yaśodā. This is the parental mood of Vraja, Kṛṣṅa's eternal abode.

Kṛṣṅa Gets Tied Up

Yaśodā decided to tie Him up. She reasoned that He was angry and if He were to run away to the bank of the Yamunā River or elsewhere, He might hurt Himself.

"Let me tie Him up for a little while," she thought. "I can churn some more, and in a little while I can appease Him."

So she started to bind Him. How did she tie Him? Without knowledge of His position as the supremely powerful Personality of Godhead. Mother Yaśodā simply thought of Kṛṣṅa as her son, so she wanted to tie Him up. But the Personality of Godhead has no beginning, no end, no inside, no outside. He is all-pervading. How can someone with this nature be tied? It is impossible.

Kṛṣṅa is not under the influence of time. For Him, there is no difference between past, present, and future. He is in His transcendental form at all times. Being absolute, beyond relativity, He is free from the distinctions between cause and effect, though He is the cause and effect of everything. That person, beyond the perception of the senses, had appeared as a humanlike child, and mother Yaśodā, considering Him her ordinary son, began binding Him to the wooden mortar with a rope.

At first she used the string from her hair. When that was too short, she sent for ropes from her house. Amazingly, whenever she tried to tie Kṛṣṅa's waist, the ropes were always two fingers short, even when joined together. All of Kṛṣṅa's energies had united and come to His defense: "We won't let Kṛṣṅa be tied." Yaśodā became perplexed, unable to understand this. But still she was determined.

Kṛṣṅa was testing Yasodas determination—will she give up or keep trying? Because her effort was incomplete, Kṛṣṅa's mercy was also incomplete. Kṛṣṅa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.11), ye yatha mam prapadyante: "As one surrenders unto Me, I reward him accordingly." Kṛṣṅa waits for us to give our all before giving us His mercy.

After using all the ropes from her house, Yaśodā sent for more rope from the other gopīs' houses. Meanwhile the gopīs who had gathered asked Yaśodā to let Kṛṣṅa go.

"He is not destined to be tied," they said. "Why are you being so stubborn?"

But Yaśodā refused to give up. The gopīs and Yaśodā were laughing, because she could not understand what was happening.

When Kṛṣṅa grew up and later went to Duryodhana's court as a messenger, Duryodhana wanted to tie up Kṛṣṅa and jail Him, so that He would not be able to assist the Pāṅḍavas in the great battle about to take place. Duryodhana ordered his guards to bind Kṛṣṅa. But at that time Kṛṣṅa showed His immense universal form, as if to say, "OK, tie me up. Do you have a rope long enough? Where will you start?" Seeing this amazing form, the guards were dumbfounded and fainted. So Duryodhana was unable to bind Kṛṣṅa, but mother Yaśodā was determined to succeeded. Why? Because she believed Him to be her son.

In the end, seeing His mother's relentless determination and total exhaustion, Kṛṣṅa showed her His mercy and agreed to be tied. Kṛṣṅa had to accept defeat.

Can Kṛṣṅa really be tied up in this way?

Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "Yes, Kṛṣṅa can be bound by His devotee, out of His mercy. Kṛṣṅa's mercy prevailed and subdued all of His other energies."

In this way Kṛṣṅa demonstrates that He is obliged to His devotees.

"The whole universe, including Brahmā and Śiva are under My control, but I can be controlled by My devotee."

This is Kṛṣṅa's eternal nature.

His Holiness Rādhā Govinda Gosvāmī met Śrīla Prabhupāda in Vārāṅasī, India, in 1971. He at once accepted Śrīla Prabhupāda as his spiritual master, and was initiated by him in 1975. Since 1974 he has been based at the Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vṛndāvana. On the order of Śrīla Prabhupāda, he teaches Kṛṣṅa consciousness all over the world. He is well-known in ISKCON for his scholarly, devotional discourses on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.