Chapter 14: It was Nanda’s turn now

Illustrated by Khushboo

It was a usual day in Gokul. The reddish hue before the sunrise was warming the hearts of birds and animals, which had begun to make morning calls. The gopas were goading the cows with familiar “ho ho” sounds. The queen of Braj, Srimati Yashoda, was singing to her lad to wake him up.

जागिये ब्रजराज कुंवर ! कमल-कुसुम फूले |
कुमुद-बृंद सकुचित भये, भृंग लता भूले ||

- Surdas

For some reason, Nanda had not paid his usual visit to the cowshed yet. Usually, he is found there at this hour, tending to the cows, getting them ready to take them to the pastures. He had decided on a special pooja for his Shaligram that day. His mind, though, was filled with thoughts of his blue-hued son, and in this preoccupation entered the bed chamber of Yashoda rather than his pooja room. Yashoda removed the white covers from her son’s face at the exact moment enriching the entire room with a divine glow. Nanda stared at his son’s face and felt the same rush of ecstasy as felt before. Ksrna opened his eyes after many entreaties from the mother. Yashoda picked him up, washed his face, and offered him breakfast.

Krsna jumped up from Yashoda’s lap as soon as he heard his friends calling. He ran and joined his gang of Sridama, Subal, Ansh, and the others. Blissfully unaware of the passage of time, Nanda realized that he was delayed in the execution of his plans to offer a special pooja to the Lord. Pacing fast, he reached his pooja room.

He took a few flowers and, meditating upon the Lord; he prayed, “O Lord, I can observe myself becoming more and more attached to my son. Gone are the days when I would only think of you and see you in my heart. Now I am forgetting about you, and my son’s image has replaced yours in my heart. I am helpless, my Lord. Even if I ever think of you, it’s only to pray for my son’s welfare. What’s happened to my devotion towards you? I feel I am only devoted to my son now. I cannot lay any claims to your benedictions anymore and cannot urge you to accept my offerings, but kindly accept them as you are the most merciful of all.”

Nanda offered the flowers to Shaligram and started chanting the vedic sutras from Purashsooktam. Krnsa entered the pooja room and observed his father performing the ‘shodashopchar’ service to his Lord. He keenly watched his father and, upon the completion of the pooja, asked him, “Father, why doesn’t your Lord partake of the many dishes you have offered to him? Can he not eat?”

“Narayan, Narayan”, uttered Nanda at his son’s comment. Yashoda, for whom it was also discomfiting, put a finger on her lips as a gesture for Krsna to remain silent. Krsna had earlier ambled towards the pooja room with his friends. The friends did not dare to enter, but his mother, who was quite wary of what Krsna might do inside, entered the room and stood watching over him. Krsna didn’t understand the reason for his father’s glare and his mother’s indications to keep quiet. He innocently looked at them both, awaiting a response to his question. Nanda and Yashoda had their eyes closed and, with folded hands, beseeched the Lord for forgiveness for their son’s audacious statement.

Krsna, at this time, stepping forward, took hold of the Shaligram and popped him into his mouth, and stepped back into his position. Opening his eyes, Nanda felt a shiver down his spine as he saw his Shaligram missing. Did the Lord really become angry and desert him? He looked at Yashoda, who was equally perplexed. Krsna, stood smiling, sporting a big bump on his left cheek. With roving eyes, they looked around and saw the unusually puffed-up cheek of their son. It struck them simultaneously on what had happened. Krsna had done the unspeakable.

Nanda immediately approached Krsna and asked him to open his mouth. Krsna kept mum and refused to open his mouth. Nanda who was now trembling in fear of what would happen to his son, begged the Supreme Lord for forgiveness. He said, “ Lord, I shall atone for my son’s ignorant behaviour. I swear to always think about you from now on. Please keep my son safe.” He was thus praying when Krsna laughed. Nanda could see the Shaligram in his mouth. Krsna took out the Shaligram and put it on his father’s hands, but Nanda who had peered into his mouth lost all sense of time and place as he witnessed the entire universe inside his son’s mouth. The fourteen lokas, the innumerable stars, the planets and everything else. He stood motionless for a long time as Krsna’s yogmaya revealed to him the grandeur of his son.

Unaware of what leela Krsna was playing with his father, Yashoda could only see that her husband seemed lost and was starting unblinking into his mouth. She assumed he was shocked to see the Shaligram inside Krsna’a mouth and was unable to recollect his bearings. To bring him back to his senses she said, “Please wash the Shaligram with Gangajal and put him back on the altar.” Nanda saw the Shaligram in his hands and realized he must do what Yashoda said. He lost memory of what had just transpired. The Supreme Deity that he offered all his sewa to was none other than his Krsna was now a fact lost upon him.

Originally published at https://nitin-srivastava.net on July 13, 2023.