Amazing is what you allow to be done to you for love’s sake

tvadīyodarāyātha viśvasya dhāmne

I bow to your belly, where worlds reside,
With the whole wide creation safe inside.
Sustaining all, yet submitting to your mother’s will.
You, O Lord, are bound, while being boundless still.

(Damodarashtakam Verse 8, Line 2)

My dear Lord, you are always almighty, yet your defining glory lies not in doing everything possible, but in valuing displays of power far less than exchanges of love.

For love’s sake, O Supreme Lover, you do amazing things, such as taking on a small, childlike form; yet what is most amazing is that you allow extraordinary things to be done to you—by your devotees. Thus you allow yourself to be bound by your mother. How can that abdomen, which is the source of the universe, be tied by anything inside the universe, let alone something as tiny as a rope? It is love that ties you—or rather, it is out of your love for Mother Yashoda that you allow yourself to be bound.

O infallible Lord, bless me so that I may value love supremely as you do. If you, who are the all-powerful, accept positions of seeming powerlessness for love’s sake, then when I face difficult situations, help me remember that nothing happens outside your plan—and that whatever you do or allow to be done to me is ultimately meant to draw me into your circle of love. Guide me to respond not with the head of logic that resents life’s seeming unfairness, but with the heart of love that appreciates your unfathomable mercy.