Chapter 9: Krsna’s Childhood Leelas
Illustrated by Khushboo and Ritu
Girding around Krsna, the womenfolk of Braj would motivate Krsna to dance to the beat of ‘Thaiya, Thaiya, Tat, Tat, Thaiya Thaiya.’ Krsna would smile and joyfully move his arms and legs, delighting them. One day, Yashoda, unaware of her son’s newly sprouted talent, watched him dance from behind a peepal tree. She stood transfixed and forgot all about offering water to the tree. She disclosed this to Nanda, who became equally eager to watch his son dance and sing. He didn’t know that Krsna danced for the few ounces of butter that the cowherd girls had promised him. The cowherd girls, of course, were also blissfully unaware of Krsna’s real identity. Krsna, the Prema Avatar, wished it so.
As the famed Vrindavan poet Raskhan writes
सेष, गनेस, महेस, दिनेस, सुरेसहु जाहि निरंतर गावैं।
जाहि अनादि अनंत अखंड अछेद अभेद सुबेद बतावैं।
नारद से सुक ब्यास रहैं पचि हारे तऊ पुनि पार न पावैं।
ताहि अहीर की छोहरियाँ छछिया भरि छाछ पै नाच नचावैं।।- रसखान
Whose praises Shankara, Ganesh, Sun, Sheshnag, and Indra themselves all constantly sing. Who is referred to with such appellations as The Infinite, beyond time, immutable, indivisible, supreme etc. Who is indescribable even for great poets like Narada, Shukdev, Vyaas, etc. That same Lord, the Cowherd girls, make him dance for a few driblets of buttermilk.
Nanda one day asked Krsna to show him his dance moves, but Krsna sheepishly looked at his mother. Yashoda gently coaxed him. Gradually losing his bashfulness Krsna started swaying his body to the familiar, ‘Thaiya, Thaiya’. Nanda was in rapture; so was Yashoda.
The gopikas would often ask Krsna to perform chores like handing over a pot of milk or bringing over Nanda’s footwear which Krsna would gladly do. At times they would incite him by praising Balarama’s strength, which would make Krsna flex his little arms and lock horns with his elder brother. The two brothers would delight the gopikas by wrestling each other as the gopikas divided themselves into two groups and lauded their chosen wrestler. The Lord, to show the world how he is under the sway of the unalloyed love of his devotees, performed such leelas.
It was the night of Kojagaar (Aswin Poornima). Gopikas turned up at Nanda’s palace for a night of keertan and pooja. Krsna was still awake as he planned on doing another adorable leela to captivate the already enamored gopikas. He was playing in the courtyard when suddenly he got attracted to something effulgent in the urn placed nearby. He asked his mother, “What is that white, shining, round object in the urn?”. Yashoda smiled and said, “That is the moon”. Krsna said, “I want to play with it, please give it to me”. Yashoda smiled and ignored him, but Krsna again implored Yashoda to take it out of the urn and place it in his hands. Yashoda tried to cajole him with other toys, but Krsna was adamant. He started wailing.
A gopika made a big ball of white butter and surreptitiously dropped it into the urn. Wiping off Krsna’s tears, Yasoda said, “Come, I will give it to you”. Dipping into the urn, she took it out and handed it over to him. Krsna looked into the urn, but the gopikas scheming in unison stood around the urn blocking the moon’s reflection. Krsna was delighted, thinking he had the moon in his hands.
Krsna ran around the palace showing everyone what he had got. Seeing him distracted, Yashoda and the cowherd girls started their preparations for the pooja. Krsna came to deposit the moon back into the urn for safekeeping and saw the moon’s reflection. Realizing he was fooled, he threw away the ball, stretched on the ground, and started stomping his hands and feet in anger, accompanied by loud wails. Yashoda picked him up and showed him the moon in the sky. A befuddled Krsna assumed there were two moons. One in the sky, another in the urn. Who can resist being attracted by such a charming leela? Yashoda explained to him. “There is only one moon, and he comes every night to catch a glimpse of you. It descends into the urn when you look into the urn and goes back into the sky when you look upwards”. This satisfied Krsna that there was only one moon, but he still wanted it. This left Yashoda in a lurch, and she thought. “Maybe I shouldn’t have shown him the moon in the sky. How can I give it to him now”.
Yashoda finally devised a plan to satisfy her son. She placed a bowl of water, covered it with her saree, and acted like she was trying to invoke the moon to come into the bowl. Mumbling a made-up mantra, she looked at the moon. Krsna deciding he had harassed his mother enough for the day, ordered his yogmaya to do the needful. Yasoda lifting the cover off the bowl, showed Krsna the moon in it. Still acting as if he wanted it, he rushed to the bowl and dipped his little hands into it. Just then, yogmaya covered the moon with a dark cloud. There was no moon in the bowl or the sky. The orator of Geeta looked confused. Yashoda explained that the moon got scared of him and ran away into patala loka.
What is patala loka? asks Krsna. Finally finding him distracted, a relieved Yashoda said, “It’s a nice story. Let’s go to sleep, and I will tell you all about it.” Saying this, she picked up her son and walked towards her bed-chamber.
PS: A comment for the previous blog says, “Reading this, I got more tensed about Yashoda Maiya than little Krsna.” The author wonders, “Who feels inclined to do Yashoda Sadhana now.:-)”
Originally published at https://nitin-srivastava.net on May 17, 2023.
