Draw me to the love that inverts all hierarchy

yaśodābhiyolūkhalād dhāvamānam

From the mortar he fled in fear,
As mother Yaśodā drew near.
Her call of love still filled the air,
As he ran—here, there, everywhere.

(Damodarashtakam — Verse 1, Line 3)

My dear Lord, please bless me to appreciate the wondrous nature of your love, as demonstrated in the pastime where you run in fear from your mother.

O beloved Lord, in this world I sometimes glimpse love’s power to invert normal hierarchies—where an extremely wealthy, powerful, or popular person, under the spell of love, risks it all or even renounces it all to be with someone they love, who may possess none of those attributes. While such worldly love often turns out to be mere infatuation, it still contains a grain of truth—it points to the heart’s innate conviction that love is the truth that transcends all other truths.

That conviction is realized, O all-attractive Lord, in your own love, revealed in your astonishingly affectionate pastimes. In them, the normal hierarchy of you being the supreme, feared by all creation, is wondrously inverted—when you, O ultimate creator, appear to fear one of your own creations. Of course, it is not just any creation—it is your intimate devotee, who manifests the pinnacle of maternal love for you.

O supreme lover, please bless me with ever-deepening conviction in the supreme reality of your love, and thus guide me on the path that leads into that world of divine affection with you—in this life and forever beyond.