Dāmodara Līlā

The Dāmodara Līlā is one of the best loved episodes of Kṛshṇa’s childhood. It is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 9. Yaśodā, tired from churning butter, runs after Kṛshṇa, who has been stealing the butter. When she catches him, she tries to tie him to a mortar. Every rope is two finger-widths too short. He lets himself be tied only when his mother’s love moves him. From this he gets the name Dāmodara.

The same chapter also gives the reason why two arjuna trees stood in Nanda’s courtyard. A līlā is a divine play, an act done by Bhagavān Kṛshṇa for joy.

Yaśodā churns butter

On the morning of this episode Yaśodā was churning butter. She sang songs about the birth and deeds of Kṛshṇa as she pulled the rope of the large churning vessel. Her hair was loose and her earrings swung with the rhythm of her work.

Kṛshṇa came to her, his face still sleepy and his eyes heavy. He pulled at the churning rope and asked to be nursed. Yaśodā stopped her work at once and held him to her breast.

Then she saw the pot of milk on the fire begin to boil over. She gently put the child aside and hurried to it. Kṛshṇa was cross at being left. He went to the vessel of fresh butter, broke it open with a stone and began to eat the butter. He shared it with a group of monkeys who came eagerly to join him. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 9)

The chase

Yaśodā came back from the kitchen and found the churning pot broken and Kṛshṇa gone. She looked for him and found him sitting on a large grinding mortar in the store-room. He was feeding butter to the monkeys and looked very pleased with himself.

Yaśodā took a stick and went toward him. Kṛshṇa jumped down and ran. What followed was one of the great chases in the Bhāgavata. The mother ran through the house after the small child, who fled before her and looked back over his shoulder at every step. His face was a mix of laughter and pretended fear.

The Bhāgavata describes Yaśodā running out of breath, her feet heavy, the knot of her hair coming loose and the flowers falling from her hair. Kṛshṇa was small and ran on short legs, yet he always stayed just out of her reach. At last, by the will of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, she caught him. She held him by the arm. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 9)

The binding

Kṛshṇa stood before her with trembling eyes and tears on his cheeks. Butter and the dust of the chase were smeared together on his face. Yaśodā wanted to correct him once and for all. She fetched a rope to tie him to the large wooden mortar (ulukhala), the heavy grinding mortar, far too big for a small child to drag. She would keep him tied there until she felt he had been scolded enough.

She brought the rope and tied it around his belly. It was two finger-widths too short. She fetched another rope and tied it to the end of the first. It was still two finger-widths too short. She brought more ropes, tied them all together and tried again. The gap was still there. Yaśodā was puzzled and tried again and again, while the neighbours came to watch and held back their laughter.

The Bhāgavata gives the reason. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa holds all the universes within himself, so no rope made of matter can bind him. He cannot be bound by yoga, by jñāna (knowledge), by tapas (austerity) or by yajña (fire ritual). Yet he was willing to be bound by the simple, pure love of his mother.

At last, moved by her tiredness and by the clear depth of her vātsalya bhakti (love for a child), Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself closed the gap of two finger-widths and let himself be tied. Yaśodā tied the rope firmly to the mortar, and Kṛshṇa stood tied.

From this episode he received the name Dāmodara: dāma (rope) and udara (belly). (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 9)

Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva

The same chapter tells about the two arjuna trees (maddī trees) that stood in Nanda’s courtyard. They would be the place of liberation in the next chapter. Nārada Muni had given a śāpa (a curse) to the two sons of Kubera, Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva: they would spend time as trees.

It happened at the river Mandākinī in Kailāsa. Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva were proud of their divine wealth and power, and they were drunk with it. They were playing in the river with gandharva women, with no care for good manners or modesty.

The great ṛshi Nārada passed by and saw them. In their drunkenness they did not cover themselves or show him respect. Nārada saw that they were crazed with the pride that comes from wealth (ahaṃkāra). He spoke a śāpa that was gentle but firm. They were blind to each other as living beings and to the ṛshi who passed, like trees that have eyes (knot-holes) but cannot see. So they would become trees.

This shame was also a grace. In the life of a tree they would be able to hear the divine presence of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa when he came. In the end they would be freed by the touch of Parameśvara himself.

So the two sons of Kubera had stood as twin arjuna trees (terminalia) in Nanda’s courtyard in Gokula, waiting for the set time. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 9)

The Vishṇu Purāṇa account

The Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 6, gathers in one place the early childhood episodes that the Bhāgavata spreads over several chapters.

The Śakaṭa

Before Garga’s naming, the infant Kṛshṇa overturned the Śakaṭa, a cart used in the household, with a kick of his feet.

Garga Muni names the two brothers

Garga Muni was the kulācārya (family teacher) of the Yādavas. He came to Nanda’s settlement and, in a private ceremony at night in the cowshed (gośālā), he named the two brothers.

He named Rohiṇī’s son Rāma, for his power to give joy, and also Saṃkarshaṇa, for the wonderful transfer of the child from one womb to another. He named Devakī’s son Kṛshṇa, for his dark colour.

Garga kept the full divine identity of Kṛshṇa hidden. He told Nanda only in hints that this child “in a previous yuga was white, then red, then yellow, and has now taken the dark form,” and that he would cross safely over all troubles. He feared that if the whole truth were known, the agents of Kaṃsa would hunt the child with greater force.

The Dāmodara episode

The Vishṇu Purāṇa agrees with the Bhāgavata that Yaśodā tied Kṛshṇa to the mortar and every rope was two finger-widths too short. It also tells that Kṛshṇa pulled up the twin arjuna trees, and that Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva were freed from their śāpa.

The move to Vṛndāvana

After these events Upānanda advised the community to move. The whole community of Gokula went to Vṛndāvana, with their carts, cattle, women, children and old people. The Vishṇu Purāṇa gives poetic pictures of Vṛndāvana through the year. In spring new leaves cover every branch of the forest. In the rains the dark clouds match the colour of Kṛshṇa. In autumn the Yamunā runs clear.

Becoming gopālas

The Vishṇu Purāṇa records that at the age of seven Kṛshṇa and Balarāma moved from being gopas (calf-herders) to gopālas (herders of the full herd of cattle). This was the age at which young men took on greater work with the herds. It ended the time of pure childhood and began the time of heroic work as herdsmen. (Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 6)

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 9
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 6