There are so many pastimes. Now I will come to my subject because time is so short. In a day we cannot express all the very good pastimes of Krsna. It will take at least one month to describe all these things. Then you can know what is love and affection, who is Krsna, who am I, everything.
One day Yasoda thought, “My boy is going to be a thief because in my home the milk and butter is not so sweet. My maidservants are not doing well.” She gave leave to them and she was churning curd herself, for sweet butter. She was thinking, “If Krsna will take this, He will never go to other neighborhood homes and steal anything anymore.”
She was churning and she was so beautiful, otherwise Krsna could not be so beautiful. Krsna was so beautiful, like His mother. She was wearing a silk sari, very lean and thin. She had some beautiful earrings and she was doing like this..(Gurudeva does churning motion). Some sweat, like pearls, were coming and she was absorbed in sweetly singing, “Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti.
ulukhale sambhrta-tandulans ca
sanghattayantyo musalaih pramugdhah
gayanti gopyo janitanuraga
govinda damodara madhaveti
- Govinda-damodara-madhaveti 4
[Their grinding-mortars full of grains, the gopis minds are overcome as they thresh with their pestles, singing, “Govinda, Damodara, Madhava!”]
Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti.” She was quite absorbed.
Her bangles were tinkling like kartals and the sounds coming from the churning pot was like the mrdanga, dhik than dhik than. Fie on them who don’t love Krsna. They never chant Krsna’s name and they never serve Krsna, so fie on them. Those who are serving Krsna, chanting and remembering, they are so lucky. But fie on them who have the body of man but never think about Krsna. Fie on them.
She was quite absorbed and Krsna was sleeping on the bed, waiting for His mother, “Where is mother?” In the morning, in brahma muhurta, about four, we should not try to sleep because this is brahma muhurta. Those who want to be happy, they should give up their beds early in the morning. Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise (Gurudeva chuckling). You should remember all this Vedic culture and knowledge. I am expressing only parts because in a day, in a moment, in an hour, we cannot express. But I am telling something.
She was singing in such a way that she was quite absorbed. Krsna was weeping. Although He was Parabrahma, still He was weeping. Why was He weeping? Because previously I said that Drona and Dhara had done so many hard austerities so that Krsna would come as their son and they could serve Him. You should know that we are part and parcels of Krsna and we have some relation to Krsna in our heart. If there is no relation, there is no service. If a woman is married to anyone, then according to marriage, this relation has come and then they can serve each other.
If you have a relation with a child, like if she is your daughter and someone is your wife, then you will not treat both like they are your wife. Towards your mother you should serve her like she is your mother. If you have a relation like a wife, then you will have to serve your wife like a wife. If she is your daughter, you’ll have to treat her like that. Everything depends on relation. If there is no relation, then there is no service. Krsna has some relation with us, by heart and soul. Whether we know it or not, we have a relationship with Him.
In Vedic culture this thing has been cultivated. They have realized these things. That is why in the Vedas, in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, it has been told like this. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, having so much opulence, more then any other incarnation of Bhagavan, has now become a little boy, the son of Mother Yasoda.
Krsna was calling, “Mother, Mother, Mother, I am hungry!” He was weeping, tears were coming, and he was rubbing His eyes. His kajal mixed with His tears and it was like the Ganga and Yamuna were flowing down His face. He was weeping louder and louder but Yasoda was not listening because she was absorbed in churning, so sound was coming.
Anyhow He came down from His bed, and still weeping, He was going towards His mother. When Krsna came near Mother Yasoda, with one hand He grabbed the churning stick and with His other hand He grabbed the veil of His mother. She looked down, “Who is doing so?” Krsna looked so beautiful, marvelous, so sweet, doing everything like a boy. Not knowing anything, no knowledge, nothing. Yet He was The Supreme Personality of Godhead.
He has forgotten His Godliness, everything, and He was acting like a little boy. When Yasoda saw Him she thought, “My boy is so hungry and He is so clever that by one hand He has taken the churning rod and with the other hand He has taken my veil.” She took Him on her lap, covered Him with her veil and put her breast to the mouth of Krsna. Krsna began to suck very sweetly. Yasoda began to caress Him with her fingers very gently. Tears were coming to her eyes and such feelings of love and affection were coming to her that her hair were standing on end. This is vatsalya-rasa.
Likewise we all have some hidden relation with Krsna. There are five kinds of relation in this world. No relation, but something, like Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana. They know that there is a Godhead, He is shapeless, but He has some shape, not worldly, but cinmaya shape. That shape cannot be seen or realized by these eyes or this body. We cannot touch Him, we cannot see Him, we cannot realize by mind also, He is above the mind.
Sridama and Madhumangala, they are His friends. We know that Lord Rama also has some friends but not of the class of friends in Vraja. I want to say more, so one kirtan should be done and after this I will tell the remaining pastimes of Krsna, in brief.
(Gurudeva starts singing Namami-Nandanandana)
Then there is vatsalya-rasa. Here there is a relation between son and mother. Krsna, being the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we can think of Him like He is my child, my son. The best thing though is to think that Krsna is my beloved, like the gopis. All gopis, young lady gopis, have the same relation that they are all the beloved of Krsna and Krsna thinks they are His beloved. This relation is marvelous. To give this relation, Caitanya Mahaprabhu has come. There are all these relations.
Really sad-guru, a realized soul, one who is very near and dear to Krsna, can give this thing. He can illuminate this mood in the jiva. We have these relations, but we need association. If we have that class of association then we will be so lucky to have all these things. Krsna will be our beloved, Krsna will be our son, friend, bosom, very bosom friend and He will be our Prabhu and then we can serve Him.
Yasoda was like so. In the meantime, Yasoda saw that the milk was boiling over in the pot. The milk is thinking, “If I cannot serve Krsna, then what is the use of this bogus life?”
A devotee thinks like this. That if he cannot serve Krsna or that he has no love and affection for Krsna, then there is no use for this bogus life. Therefore he feels like he should die, from fire or from jumping off a mountain.
Yasoda went at once and saved the milk. In the meantime Krsna broke the vessel and then entered the room and was stealing butter from the hanging rope. Yasoda Ma was searching for Him, “Where has He gone, that naughty boy?”
At that time Krsna was naked, only three and a half years of age. He stood up on the ohkhal, the grinding mortar, and He was taking butter, giving it to monkeys and crows. Why? The monkeys had served Him as Rama during His Lord Rama pastimes but at that time He could not repay them. Now he wanted to repay the monkeys, so He was giving free distribution of butter.
Also He was giving to the crows because they are in the dynasty of Kak Bhusundi, who was very obedient and a very high class of devotee to Lord Rama.
Yasoda took a stick and Krsna saw this and at once He ran away. A yogi, whose mind is fresh, clean and uncontaminated, they cannot even catch hold of Krsna’s lotus feet. They cannot even imagine or touch His lotus feet by their heart. Yasoda was running towards Him to catch Him, and at last she caught hold of Krsna. She then began to tie Krsna up, saying, “I will punish you!” Krsna began to weep, “No mother, don’t punish Me!”
All the gopis were saying, “Oh such a sweet and little boy, and you are going to punish Him and beat Him with a stick, even though He is weeping bitterly?”
Yasoda replied, “He may even be God, Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He is my son! I’ll have to look after Him and see that He will not be a wicked person.”
So she was going to chastise Him. Brahma cannot do like this, he cannot imagine. Sankara, he cannot take the lotus feet of Krsna in his heart. Yet Yasoda was chastising Him, and Krsna was weeping.
She began to tie Krsna to that mortar. She told her sakhis, “Bring ropes from your homes.” They were bringing and laughing. Brahma has not written that Krsna should be bound, but she is doing so. We will see what she is doing. So they began to bring ropes, so many ropes, ropes and ropes. But the rope was always two fingers too short in length, and therefore she could not tie Krsna. Not a single time.
The ropes were increasing by miles and miles. Krsna’s waist is only twelve fingers wide and there is a gold chain there His mother gave Him. His waist was not increasing and these ropes were increasing and increasing, but even tying another and another together, it was always two fingers too short. She could not tie Him. What is this?
Krsna is God. He at once saw and He told Himself, “If Mother Yasoda ties me up, then I cannot play with my friends.” Sridama, Subala and Madhumangala are there. “All the cows are standing, they are not giving milk. If their calves are there, even then they will not give milk.” They’re all waiting for Krsna, thinking, “When will Krsna come?” Then they will give milk.
All the little child gopis were there. Also Srimati Radhika, at the age of about two and a half. They were also waiting to play with Krsna. “How can I play?” Being the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thinking like so. Then Yogamaya at once came and it became a miracle.
She could not bind Him. It was two fingers too short each time. At last Yasoda was perspiring and her complexion became yellow. She was thinking, “Krsna came from my womb and I cannot tie Him. What will all the sakhis say? ‘You cannot even tie your Son?’ They will all laugh at me.”
She was praying, “Oh Narayana, save me! Otherwise everyone will laugh at me!”
At once Krsna saw that, “Oh, now she has taken shelter of Narayana, who is Myself.” At once He became pleased and everything was solved. Only by one rope from her hair, she bound Krsna. What is this? This is a philosophical thing. We should try to love Krsna, we should do sadhana. Like Yasoda, she promised, “For the whole day, for my whole life, I will try to bind Krsna. Certainly I will bind Him. Without doing so, I will not eat or take any water.” So she promised this.
A sadhaka should be like this. He should do all these things under the guidance of a suddha guru and he should serve Krsna. But only this is not sufficient. Krsna should also be merciful to the sadhaka. When Krsna was pleased with Yasoda, seeing that she was doing so much labor for Him, at once He was tied. He was bound by her prema, not by any rope. Rope is only an outside thing, He was only tied by Krsna-prema. If there is no prema, there is nothing.
Prema is two and half letters Pa, Ra and Ma, prema. If anyone knows this prema he is learned of all Veda, Upanisads and sastras. If he is not knowing this prema, then he is foolish like animals. We should try to realize this prema in this human life. Otherwise if you are an animal or any other thing, you cannot realize these things.