Stories From The Bhagawatham - Krishna Avatar - Damodar Leela

 

It was another day in Gokul, and like always, Krishna had frustrated Yashoda with his mischief. This time, he had broken vessels of curd and butter and had eaten the butter. Yashoda went after him with a stick. When she approached him, he started running. Yashoda ran after him, wanting to capture him. 

But who has managed to capture the Divine without His will!?

Krishna kept running until he saw Yashoda looking tired. He felt sorry for her and slowed down finally, allowing her to capture him.

“Your mischief has become too much now! Breaking vessels, eating butter… Wait, I am going to punish you.” Yashoda said angrily.

She brought a rope and placed Krishna beside the mortar. “Let me see how you do any mischief while tied securely!” She tried to tie him but the rope was too short. She added some more rope to the first one and tried to tie Krishna with the bigger rope but that too proved to be short. The ends didn’t meet. No matter how many times she lengthened the rope by adding more strings to it, the ends just didn’t meet. A crowd had started gathering there. The Gopis working at Yashoda’s home started laughing.

Feeling bad for Yashoda, Krishna finally allowed the rope to tie him to the mortar. “I will have some peace now!” Yashoda said with a tired sigh and went back to her kitchen.

Krishna stayed still for a while but soon started feeling restless. He started crawling around the yard, the mortar still attached to his back. He kept moving until he saw two majestic Arjuna trees standing at a distance. He crawled towards the trees and tried to move in the gap between them. The mortar got stuck between the trees. Krishna tugged at the mortar with all his might, trying to move ahead.

There came a huge noise. The trees had been uprooted! They fell on the ground with a crash. Out of each tree, the glowing form of a celestial being arose. The two beings fell at Krishna’s feet. “Now that your gracious feet have touched us, we are finally free from Narada’s curse. We can now go back to our father, Kubera.” The beings vanished from the earth.

These two beings named Nalakubera and Manigriva were Kubera’s sons. They were blessed with youth, good looks and wealth. This had made them very arrogant. Once they had been whiling away their time at the banks of the Ganga river at the foot of Kailash mountains when Rishi Narada passed by. Drunk and semi-conscious, they did not pay any heed to him. It did not occur to them that their behavior was extremely improper and disrespectful, especially in front of a revered saint like Narada.

To teach them humility and to destroy their arrogance, Narada cursed them. “You will stay on earth in the form of twin trees and will remember this incident always. There will come a time when an avatar of Lord Narayana will descend on the earth. He will be the one to liberate you and to relieve you of your arrogance and ego.”

Thus Krishna had fulfilled Narada’s prophecy and had liberated Nalakubera and Manigriva.

Meanwhile, the villagers at Gokul, hearing the noise of uprooted trees, came running to the spot. When Yashoda saw Krishna amidst the fallen trees, still tied to the mortar, she felt remorseful for having tied him up. She rushed to him and freed him from the mortar.

“It was Krishna who uprooted the trees!” Few children who had seen the spectacle said. “He crawled between the trees and brought them down. Then two glowing beings came out of the trees, bowed to Krishna and vanished!”

The simple villagers of Gokul thought that the children were spinning imaginary tales and laughed them off.

Blessed is Yashoda, for she tied Him who cannot be tied by anyone or anything.

Blessed is Shri Hari, the one without any ties, who voluntarily allowed His mother to bond Him.

Om Namo Narayana! Om Namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaaya!