Bhagavatam tenth canto study 51 – 10.9.7.12 Yashoda catches the Lord whom the yogis can’t catch

Bhagavatam 1097.
So, mother Yashoda binds Krishna. uttarya gopi stampaya punah pravishya samdrushyatadya matrakam bhagnam vilokya sasutasya karmataj jahastam cha pinata trapasyati uttarya to take it off. So, here, the pastime of how, when Krishna was drinking milk, mother Yashoda, to get the milk off the pot that was on the stove, that was on the, she went, she put Krishna aside and went away and Krishna got angry and broke some, broke the pot of freshly churned butter and then eating butter went to another room, that is the background over here.
So, now, mother Yashoda, she took off the pot, uttarya gopi shrutam. The pot was hot. So, she had to, that is why, because it was hot, only the milk was overflowing from it.
So, she took the pot and took it off the, off the fire by her, punah. And after that, she just, after taking care of the milk in this way, punah, she again came back, pravishya samdrushya. As soon as she came back, what did she see? Dadyamatrakam.
She saw that the matrakam, the container of curd which was being churned into butter, bhagnam. She saw it was broken. And as soon as she saw this, vilokya svasutasya karmataj, she saw this and she understood, this must be the work of my child.
Jahasatam. She smiled, jahasam, a smile came on her face. Chapinatatrapashyati, she couldn’t find him.
Now, she was, she understood that her child is restless and mischievous. And when she saw the pot broken, she understood this is her child’s mischief. So, she smiled.
Now, mother, mothers are very sensitized to the feelings of their children. And when the milk she had to put aside, and milk she had to get off the fire, she rushed away. But as soon as she had done that, she realized that Krishna would be upset because she had interrupted his drinking of the milk from her breast.
And she knew that Krishna would be doing something, something, Krishna would be angry and would do something out of that anger. So, when she saw, in a sense, that he had broken the pot, she smiled because she could understand her child’s emotions. Oh, this karma, it is his work that he has done it.
Now, where is this rascal? Where is this child who is so naughty? She started looking for him, but she could not find him there. There were a few moments because the store was in a nearby, was in a different room, the churning pot was one room, the heating, the heating was happening in another room. But when milk starts overflowing, it starts making a certain sound.
And that sound may not mean anything to somebody who is not aware of it. But mother Yashoda was especially aware of it because she’s a housewife, she takes care of such things and also because she knew she had put the pot over there. So, when we are expecting something to happen, say, we have put some food in the oven and we have put an alarm.
As soon as the alarm goes off, that might just be the ringing of a bell, ringing some sound coming up. But for one who is expecting that sound, they know what that sound means and thus they are ready. So, she had immediately gone off, but now she was concerned about Krishna.
So, seeing the mischief, she smiled. Text 8. Ullukhalangre rupari vyavasthitam, markayakamam dadatam shichistitam, hayangavam chauryavisham kitekshanam, nirikshapashyat sutamagamachanai. Ullukhangre.
Ullukhal refers to the grinding mortar which is used on which spices are ground and which had been uparya vyavasthitam, which had been turned upside down and on which vyavasthitam, was Krishna. Markaya. Now, kamam dadatam shichistitam, markaya.
Unto a monkey, he was satisfied, he was eating butter, he was satisfied by eating butter and he was also sharing the butter with the monkeys. Dadatam shichistitam. So, there was a butter pot hanging from the swing.
So, he was on a grinding mortar, the butter pot was high up and he was reaching that hayangavam and from that butter and other milk ingredients that were there, chauryavisham kitekshanam, chaurya, he was actually stealing that all and eating it and sharing it with the monkeys. Visham kitekshanam. So, he was having some doubts, some fear.
Oh, I might be caught. So, he is looking here and there. Is my mother going to come and catch me? Nirikshapashyat.
Now, when mother Yashoda came from behind, she saw that her child was doing all this and she saw that the child was also looking to see if he is going to get caught. Mother Yashoda is coming. So, suttam agamachanai.
So, when she saw her child, she started approaching him, pashyat, from behind. She approached him, agamachanai, gently, gradually. She came so that her foot would not make any sound and thus Krishna would not see that he is coming.
Krishna had run away after doing some mischief. All the mother Yashoda understood that he was upset, but still this kind of behavior was excessive. So, she wanted to catch him now.
She wanted to put an end to what he was doing and thus, she, at this point, was eager to catch Krishna. So, she was coming stealthily, seeing from behind what is happening. She was coming stealthily and thus, what she was doing was she was trying to catch Krishna.
So, it’s interesting that in Vrindavan, their monkeys would freely mix with the babies. The monkeys of Vrindavan were sweet and harmless and the children would play with them. The children especially require some pets to play with.
They just bring some spice into their lives. Nowadays, if children have some pets, they may have some small dog, a poodle or some small cat and they love the pet. And even small children, they may be very careless and irresponsible, throwing things here and there.
But when it comes to a pet, if they are promised, you will have a pet, but you have to take care of it, then they will actually become very responsible and they will take care of the pet very nicely. So, they need someone to reciprocate affection with. And just as a dog can be harmful, if it bites or if it scratches with its sharp claws, the sharp parts of its body, but the dog can also be a very affectionate partner to a child.
So, in Vrindavan, it is monkeys. They were small, gentle, friendly and Krishna would play with them. And in that, Krishna, it is earlier described that he would play with the cows also.
He would go behind the cows and catch their tail and they would in fear run. He would be dragged around that way. So, Krishna here was playing with the monkeys who were like his pets.
And one way he was playing with them was by feeding them. Now, feeding them is good, but breaking pots, stealing butter and then feeding them, that is not good. So, he knew that he was in the wrong and thus he was, he was observing with fear, trying to see if he is going to be caught, on the ready to run if he was about to be caught.
So, Mother Yashoda came stealthily from behind, text 9, ताम आत्त यश्टिम् पसमीक्ष सत्वरस् ततो अवरूहि आप ससारभीतवत् गोप्य अन्वधावन्नयमाप योघिनाम् क्षमं प्रवेष्टुम् तपसेरितम्मनः So, ताम आत्त यश्टिम्, so Mother Yashoda came to him with a stick in her hand. On one side, she was, she understood why Krishna had done what she had done, what he had done. At the same time, she felt that what Krishna had done was not acceptable and she wanted to discipline Krishna.
Now, she brought a stick with her, not so much to punish Krishna as to scare Krishna. Sometimes even the fear of punishment is enough for deterring children and deterrence is a vital part of any kind of management. Deterrence means that if you do this, this will be the result.
Therefore, don’t do this. So, Mother Yashoda had brought that stick with her आत्त यश्टिम्, she was carrying the stick so that she could scare, intimidate and deter Krishna from repeating such mischief again. पसमीच सत्वरस। Now, as Krishna was feeding the monkey, Krishna was looking at the monkey, but the monkey was at Krishna and behind Krishna was Mother Yashoda.
That monkey became alarmed. The faces of monkeys are quite expressive and the monkey’s mouth fell open in alarm. His eyes became wide and seeing that, Krishna turned around and as soon as Krishna saw that, oh, Mother Yashoda is there behind me and he saw the stick in her hand, he understood her attitude.
पसमीच, he saw and he understood quickly. सत्वरस। He was quite swift. तो, thereafter, what happened on seeing her attitude? अवरुया अपससार। अवरुया.
So, आरुया means to get up, अवरुया means to get down. He got down from the mortar and started running. अपससार भी तवति, ran quickly in fear.
Fear, he didn’t want to be punished by his mother. His mother was angry and she had a stick. So, he ran in fear from there.
And then, गोप्यन्वधावन, the mother, Yashoda, she started running after him. नयं आप योगिनाम। And she was running to catch that person whom even the yogis cannot catch. What to speak of the speed of their bodies, even the speed of their minds, they cannot catch.
क्षमं प्रवेष्टुम। They who are trying to enter in प्रवेष्टुम, they are entering into the ब्रह्मन or the परमात्म. They want to attain that Lord. तपसे रितम्मनः.
And they try to discipline the power of their mind by meditation, by performing austerities and penances for that purpose. The speed of the mind is very great. And the mind can go here, there and everywhere at a phenomenal speed.
So, if that speed of the mind can be channeled, if you consider a fan, there is a tremendous amount of kinetic energy that is involved in the fan’s continuous rotation. If that kinetic energy were put in the wheel of a vehicle, then that vehicle could move very fast. So, the mind moves very fast, but the mind moves in cycles, in circles, quite often.
This, this, this, this, this and again this, this, this, this. But by meditation, we learn to channel and direct the power of the mind. So, that speedy movement which keeps moving in circles, if that speedy movement can be made in a particular line, in a straight line, in a particular direction, then the mind can cover a great distance.
So, that, but even yogis who discipline their mind so that the mind stops moving in circles and starts moving in a straight line towards the absolute truth. So, they try to pursue the absolute truth by the disciplined direction of their mind to pursue spiritual reality. And still, the mind moving at its fullest speed cannot catch the absolute truth.
And yet Yashoda moving with her body, her body has been described earlier that she had, she had a body which was quite filled, she had breasts which were filled with milk. And she was not an extremely thin lady, who could run very fast. But she was running with her, running physically to catch Krishna.
And Krishna was that absolute truth, who cannot be caught by anyone, even by the yogis who have channeled the power of their mind, so that the mind which keeps moving constantly in various directions, like a fan moving circularly, can start moving linearly towards spiritual reality. So, the Bhagavatam actually repeatedly gives us context between which we can understand its extraordinary past times. So, yogis who channel the mind circular, cyclic fan-like motion in the linear vehicular way, even they cannot reach Krishna with their mind.
And yet Yashoda was trying to reach her, reach that absolute truth with her body. Such is the extraordinary position of Yashoda. Text 10.
अन्वञ्चमाना जननी भुहच्चलच् शुरोणी भरक् क्रांत गति ही सुमध्यमा जवेन विष्रम् सिद्केश बंधना चुतप् प्रसुनानु गतही प्रसापराम् दुशयत् So, अन्वञ्चमाना, as Yashoda was following him, chasing him, जननी, here time and time the word is used for Yashoda by जननी, she is the mother of Krishna, she has given birth to Krishna, भुहच्चलच्, now she was overburdened by her heavy breasts, the breasts were heavy because filled with milk she was giving Krishna, शुरोणी भराक् क्रांत गति ही, so, शुरोणी भराक् क्रांत गति ही, so because of the भर, which was there, the heaviness, burden that was there, so her pace decreased. Sometimes if we are carrying a heavy weight and we are running, we may start off very fast but our body’s energy gets split in both running and carrying the weight and then either we have to cast off the weight so that you can keep running faster or you have to slow down our speed, our body’s energy is limited, now in this case obviously the weight could not be cast off, so the limited energy of the body meant that she had to slow down her speed, गति सुमध्यमा, so now her breasts were heavy with milk, at the same time her waist was thin, सुमध्यमा, the middle part of it was attractive, thin, जवेन विष्रंशित, so, now as she was running, her hair had been tied together, earlier also it was a some the gentle rhythmic motion of her body as she was churning butter, at that time it described the flowers fell off her head but now this was much more aggressive motion, she was running, chasing and not only the flowers fell off but even her head arrangement that started getting disheveled, विष्रंशित केश बन्धन, she had tied her hair nicely but it started coming off, चुत प्रसुन अनुगति, परम्रिषात, so, चुत प्रसुन अनुगति, so as the hair arrangement came off, she had become loose and the flowers she had decorated, earlier the flowers were falling in one place, now they started falling there after her, wherever she was going, she was running and she left a trail of flowers behind them and परम्रिषात, finally she caught Krishna. So, now actually this Damodar Leela has been expanded by the Vaishnavacharyas to great degrees.
Mother Yashoda, she tried to catch Krishna, the Damodar Ashtakam is just one example of how the Damodar Leela has been expanded and described expansively. But the theme, the mood is that Mother Yashoda is given the opportunity to, Mother Yashoda, she is able to catch Krishna because of her endeavour. Now, how can that yogi, that supreme God, who cannot be caught by the yogis, gets caught by Krishna’s mother? Because Krishna is performing a Leela over here and in this Leela, she is the mother, she has longer legs and Krishna eventually, although he runs, he’s fleet-footed, he’s running, but still eventually he gets caught.
So, as will be described in future verses, she’s able to catch Krishna and she tries to tie Krishna eventually and she succeeds in all this, not because of just the physical prowess, but because of her devotional power. Krishna is caught by the devotion of the heart of a devotee. The yogis cannot catch Krishna, but Mother Yashoda catches Krishna because she has such devotion for Krishna.
So, now, what did she do? So, one was done a wrong thing, one was committed an offence. Now, unto that, Krishna who knew he had been offender, Krishna knew that he shouldn’t have broken that pot. So, he had now tears in his eyes.
Rudantam, rudantam is to cry, with crying eyes. So, as he was rubbing his eyes, tears were coming out, he was trying to stop the tears from flowing. So, the anjan, the ointment that was applied in the eyes, so that the child would look more beautiful, that anjan was streaming down his face.
And generally, if somebody has put on makeup and the makeup comes off, the person no longer looks attractive. But if the makeup comes off in a way that actually disturbs the appearance of the person, then the makeup can become a mess. But here, Krishna even in the anjan was smeared across his face, that only enhanced his beauty.
So, with his hand, as he was moving, rubbing it, it was smearing across his face. So, when he saw that Mother Yashoda was angry that she had a stick, that she had caught him now, Bhaya vivala ek shanam, bhaya vivala, he was filled with fear. Ek shanam, his eyes were looking up, looking down.
Haste gruhitva bhisayanti avagurat. So, haste gruhitva, she had caught Krishna and now she was holding Krishna with the hand. Bhisayanti avagurat, bhisayanti.
Now, he was fearful and Mother Yashoda’s actions were making him even more fearful. She also wanted to create fear within the child that this is not the way you can behave. Avagurat, she was chastising him gently, mildly, not fiercely.
She was chastising the child because she wanted to discipline Krishna and Krishna was fearful. Oh, my mother has caught me now. What is she going to do? Is she going to punish me? Is she going to beat me? Is she going to yell at me? Oh, no.
So, Krishna was fearful. So, even in fear, even with the anjana smeared across his face, Krishna still looked endearingly beautiful. Such is the extraordinary nature of Krishna’s beauty.
Text 12. When she saw that Krishna is fearful, the purpose of discipline is not to scare but to correct. The purpose of disciplining is not to cause pain but to bring about reformation.
So, when she saw that already Krishna is fearful, sometimes some people do wrong and they are brazen about it. Some people do wrong and they are apologetic about it. So, when Mother Yashoda saw that Krishna is already fearful, he is not being brazen.
So, she said that she felt that the stick would be too extreme a measure. So, text 12. She put aside the stick.
She is considering that, oh, my son is becoming fearful. Now, she as a mother does not want her child to become very scared. Understand the child has become very fearful.
She loved her child. So, she desired, she decided, okay, I will not punish him but I will bind him now. She decided with a rope, she decided to bind him.
She did not know the power, the virya, the strength of Kovida. She was not aware of the strength. Krishna is the Supreme Lord.
Nobody can bind him and yet he was being bound here by Mother Yashoda. So, she was astounded to see this. So, actually, it is an astonishing sight.
She was not astounded but that the Supreme Lord whom nobody can bound, under whose supervision material nature binds people under the laws of karma, that Lord Mother Yashoda is trying to bind. So, normally, here we have the Bhagavatam having integration of narration with exposition. It narrates the incidents but to remind us of the significance of the incident that this is not just any ordinary child-mother interaction.
Bhagavatam repeatedly and intermittently brings in reference points that remind us that how the sheer extraordinariness of what is happening. So, now, did Mother Yashoda succeed in binding Krishna or not? That we will discuss in a future session. Thank you.