Bhagavatapurana 10.9: atha navamo'dhyāyaḥ

10.9.1

/0 śrī-śuka uvāca
ekadā gṛha-dāsīṣu yaśodā nanda-gehinī /
karmāntara-niyuktāsu nirmamantha svayaṃ dadhi //

Śrī Śuka said:
One day, while the female household servants were engaged in other chores, / Yaśodā, the mistress of Nanda’s house, churned the curds herself.

Sri Suka said:—One day when her maid-servants were directed to do some other work, Yasoda, Nanda’s wife, churned the curd, herself.

10.9.2

yāni yānīha gītāni tad-bāla-caritāni ca /
dadhi-nirmanthane kāle smarantī tāny agāyata //

All the childhood deeds of Him that are sung of in this world, / she remembered and sang while churning the curds.

2. And at the time of churning the curd, she recollected and herself sang those several acts of Krishna as a child which were (popularly) sung there (at Vraja).

10.9.2.p1

kṣaumaṃ vāsaḥ pṛthu-kaṭi-taṭe bibhratī sūtra-naddhaṃ $ putra-sneha-snuta-kuca-yugaṃ jāta-kampaṃ ca subhrūḥ &

Wearing a linen garment bound by a girdle around her broad hips, / her pair of breasts flowing with milk from love for her son, trembling [with exertion], that fair-browed woman,

3. Clad in silken cloth fastened with a zone round her big waist, with her shaking bosom that overflowed from affection for her son, with her earrings set in motion as well as the bangles on her arms tired with pulling the rope to and fro, the face bedewed with drops of sweat and jassamine blossoms dropping from her braid, she went on churning.

10.9.3

rajjv-ākarṣa-śrama-bhuja-calat-kaṅkaṇau kuṇḍale ca % svinnaṃ vaktraṃ kabara-vigalan-mālatī nirmamantha //

with bracelets and earrings shaking from the strain on her arms pulling the ropes, / her face covered in sweat, and jasmine blossoms dropping from her hair, churned away.

10.9.4

tāṃ stanya-kāma āsādya mathnantīṃ jananīṃ hariḥ /
gṛhītvā dadhi-manthānaṃ nyaṣedhat prītim āvahan //

Approaching His mother as she churned, Hari, wishing to nurse, / seized the churning rod and stopped her, bringing delight.

4. To His mother engaged in churning Sri Krishna came up to be suckled and to her immense joy He took hold of the churning rod and stopped her (churning).

10.9.5

tam aṅkam ārūḍham apāyayat stanaṃ sneha-snutaṃ sa-smitam īkṣatī mukham /
atṛptam utsṛjya javena sā yayāv utsicyamāne payasi tv adhiśrite //

Taking Him up on her lap, she nursed Him from her breast flowing with milk, looking at His smiling face; / but leaving Him still unsatisfied, she rushed away because the milk boiling on the stove was spilling over.

5. With her bosom overflowing through affection, and looking into His face of joyous smiles, she suckled her darling who had climbed up to her lap; but when he was yet unsatisfied, she left Him and went away in haste, as she saw on the hearth the boiling milk overflow (from the pot).

10.9.6

sañjāta-kopaḥ sphuritāruṇādharaṃ sandaśya dadbhir dadhi-mantha-bhājanam /
bhittvā mṛṣāśrur dṛṣad-aśmanā raho jaghāsa haiyaṅgavam antaraṃ gataḥ //

Aroused with anger, biting His quivering reddish lip with His teeth, / He broke the pot of curd with a grinding stone, and with feigned tears, going into a secluded place, ate freshly churned butter.

6. In anger He bit His quivering ruddy lips with His teeth, and, with a piece of stone, broke a pot of curd and cream kept into the interior of the house, and shedding false tears secretly ate butter there.

10.9.7

uttārya gopī suśṛtaṃ payaḥ punaḥ praviśya saṃdṛśya ca dadhy-amatrakam /
bhagnaṃ vilokya sva-sutasya karma taj jahāsa taṃ cāpi na tatra paśyatī //

The cowherd woman, having taken down the well-boiled milk, returned, and seeing the curd pot / broken, recognized it as the doing of her son; she laughed, though not seeing Him there.

7. Getting down the pot of well-boiled milk she returned to find the pot of curd broken; perceiving that to be her son's act she laughed failing to find Him, too.

10.9.8

ulūkhalāṅghrer upari vyavasthitaṃ markāya kāmaṃ dadataṃ śici sthitam /
haiyaṅgavaṃ caurya-viśaṅkitekṣaṇaṃ nirīkṣya paścāt sutam āgamac chanaiḥ //

Seeing her son standing on top of a mortar, generously feeding a monkey butter / that had been placed in a hanging pot, while glancing around in fear of theft, she approached Him softly from behind.

8. Beholding Him firmly standing on the feet of a mortar (overturned) and freely feeding the cat (monkey) with the butter placed on the swing and yet looking as if afraid of (detection in) theft, she gently (noiselessly) approached Him from behind.

10.9.8.p1

tām ātta-yaṣṭiṃ prasamīkṣya satvaras $ tato 'varuhyāpasasāra bhītavat &

Seeing her holding a stick, He quickly / climbed down from there and ran away as if terrified,

9. Seeing her with a cane in the hand, He got down in haste from the mortar and ran as if in fear; the Gopi pursued Him whom even the mind of yogins urged by the force of tapas cannot reach, (she pursued Him; but did not overtake Him).

10.9.9

gopy anvadhāvan na yam āpa yogināṃ % kṣamaṃ praveṣṭuṃ tapaseritaṃ manaḥ //

and the cowherd woman ran after Him whom even the mind of yogins, / driven by asceticism, is unable to reach.

10.9.10

anvañcamānā jananī bṛhac-calac- chroṇī-bharākrānta-gatiḥ sumadhyamā /
javena visraṃsita-keśa-bandhana- cyuta-prasūnānugatiḥ parāmṛśat //

Following Him, the slender-waisted mother, whose pace was slowed by the weight of her large, swinging hips, / following the trail of blossoms that had fallen from her loosened hair through her speed, caught Him.

10. Going after Him, impeded in her gait by the weight of her spacious and full hips and followed as it were by the flower dropping from her braid loosened on account of her hasty steps, the mother of beautiful waist overtook Him at last.

10.9.11

kṛtāgasaṃ taṃ prarudantam akṣiṇī kaṣantam añjan-maṣiṇī sva-pāṇinā /
udvīkṣamāṇaṃ bhaya-vihvalekṣaṇaṃ haste gṛhītvā bhiṣayanty avāgurat //

Taking hold of His hand as He cried, guilty of offense, / rubbing His eyes blackened with collyrium with His own hand, / looking up with frightened, bewildered eyes, she threatened Him to frighten Him.

11. She threatened and took hold of Him by the hand who for having committed a fault, was crying and with His hand rubbing His eyes all over which the collyrium became spread and who was looking up with fearful and bewildered eyes.

10.9.12

tyaktvā yaṣṭiṃ sutaṃ bhītaṃ vijñāyārbhaka-vatsalā /
iyeṣa kila taṃ baddhuṃ dāmnātad-vīrya-kovidā //

Casting away the stick upon seeing her son terrified, she who loved her child, / not knowing His true power, desired to bind Him with a rope.

12. Seeing her child affrighted, the loving mother threw down the cane and, not knowing His power, thought of tying Him with a rope.

10.9.13

na cāntar na bahir yasya na pūrvaṃ nāpi cāparam /
pūrvāparaṃ bahiś cāntar jagato yo jagac ca yaḥ //

He who has neither inside nor outside, neither beginning nor end, / who is before and after, inside and outside the universe, and who is the universe itself—

13. In relation to Him nothing is inside or outside, in the front or at the back, but He is the front and back, the outside and inside of the Universe and He is the Universe itself;

10.9.14

taṃ matvātmajam avyaktaṃ martya-liṅgam adhokṣajam /
gopikolūkhale dāmnā babandha prākṛtaṃ yathā //

regarding Him, the unmanifest Adhokṣaja appearing in mortal form, as her son, / the cowherd woman bound Him to the mortar with a rope, as if He were an ordinary child.

14. Taking *that* unmanifest Lord, Adhokshaja in the human form, to be her son (child) Yasoda tied (tried to tie) Him like a common (human) child to a mortar with a piece of rope.

10.9.15

tad dāma badhyamānasya svārbhakasya kṛtāgasaḥ /
dvy-aṅgulonam abhūt tena sandadhe 'nyac ca gopikā //

That rope used to bind her own child who had committed the offense / fell short by two finger-breadths; therefore, the cowherd woman tied on another piece.

15. (But) in tying her child for his fault that rope was short by two inches; (fingers) and so she added on another piece to it.

10.9.16

yadāsīt tad api nyūnaṃ tenānyad api sandadhe /
tad api dvy-aṅgulaṃ nyūnaṃ yad yad ādatta bandhanam //

When that too proved short, she joined another rope to it; / yet whatever binding she took, that too was short by two finger-breadths.

16. When that also proved to be too short she added another piece and so on; with every other piece she added, the rope was still short by two inches.

10.9.17

evaṃ sva-geha-dāmāni yaśodā sandadhaty api /
gopīnāṃ susmayantīnāṃ smayantī vismitābhavat //

Thus, even as Yaśodā tied together all the ropes in her house, / while the cowherd women laughed sweetly, she herself smiled in astonishment.

17. When she thus put together all the pieces of ropes in her house, (other) Gopa women laughing at it, Yasoda also laughed and stood astonished.

10.9.18

sva-mātuḥ svinna-gātrāyā visrasta-kabara-srajaḥ /
dṛṣṭvā pariśramaṃ kṛṣṇaḥ kṛpayāsīt sva-bandhane //

Seeing the fatigue of His mother, whose limbs were bathed in perspiration / and whose flower garland had slipped from her braids, Kṛṣṇa, out of compassion, allowed Himself to be bound.

18. Seeing how His mother was greatly fatigued, her body bathed in sweat, and the wreaths of flowers were dropping from her loosened braid, Krishna took pity on her and allowed Himself to be tied.

10.9.19

evaṃ sandarśitā hy aṅga hariṇā bhṛtya-vaśyatā /
sva-vaśenāpi kṛṣṇena yasyedaṃ seśvaraṃ vaśe //

In this way, O dear one, was Hari's subjection to His servants revealed / by Kṛṣṇa, who though entirely self-willed, holds this universe with its rulers under His control.

19. O beloved king! thus did Krishna show how He places Himself in the hands of His votaries (devout servants), though He is the absolute Hari and has all this Universe with all its rulers under His own power.

10.9.20

nemaṃ viriñco na bhavo na śrīr apy aṅga-saṃśrayā /
prasādaṃ lebhire gopī yat tat prāpa vimuktidāt //

Neither Viriñca, nor Bhava, nor even Śrī who dwells upon His bosom, / obtained such grace from the Giver of liberation as that cowherd woman received.

20. Neither Virincha (Brahma) nor Siva, nor even Lakshmi who clings to His bosom, has realised such grace as this Gopa woman Yasoda enjoyed at the hands of the Lord that bestows Moksha.

10.9.21

nāyaṃ sukhāpo bhagavān dehināṃ gopikā-sutaḥ /
jñānināṃ cātma-bhūtānāṃ yathā bhaktimatām iha //

The Lord, the son of the cowherd woman, is not as easily attained by embodied beings, / or even by men of knowledge who realize the Self, as He is by those endowed with devotion in this world.

21. This glorious Lord who now appears as the son of a Gopika, is not so easily accessible to creatures even though full of wisdom, as He is to those who are full of devotion and identify themselves with Him [V. D. and who make Him their one raft for crossing the sea of Samsara].

10.9.22

kṛṣṇas tu gṛha-kṛtyeṣu vyagrāyāṃ mātari prabhuḥ /
adrākṣīd arjunau pūrvaṃ guhyakau dhanadātmajau //

Now, while His mother was busy with household duties, the Lord Kṛṣṇa / saw the two arjuna trees that had previously been Guhyakas, the sons of Kubera,

22. When His mother was solely attending to her household duties, the omnipotent Krishna noticed the two Arjuna trees that were in their previous life two Guhyakas, sons of Kubera.

10.9.23

purā nārada-śāpena vṛkṣatāṃ prāpitau madāt /
nalakūvara-maṇigrīvāv iti khyātau śriyānvitau //

who long ago, by the curse of Nārada, had been made into trees due to their arrogance; / endowed with fortune, they were known as Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva.

23. They were known as Nalakubara and Manigreeva endowed with great splendour; but on account of their pride, had been turned into trees by Narada’s curse.