Srimad Bhagavatam – day 589
Padmanābhaya namah
Noticing the naughty deeds of Krishna, all the Gopikas would discuss among themselves, “Is he deliberately up to mischief? Or are they truly childish pranks?”
So long as Krishna and Balarama were in the crawling stage of life, the ladies did not consider their mischievous deeds as exceptional. Their focus was purely on saving the little ones from danger. Now when the boys began to walk around the hamlet, their mischievous deeds began to arouse suspicion. All of them were curious to know the reason behind this uncontrolled mischief.
Is there anything wrong if a spiritual aspirant seeks to know his spiritual progress? He should know which mantra he is chanting; there is no harm in knowing the extent of bliss being enjoyed by his mind due to his sadhana etc. While it is imperative to forget the existence of the senses and the body, there is no harm in trying to figure out the extent of bliss being enjoyed by the mind in the process of understanding Supreme Essence.
“All the women-folk assembled at a spot and when Yashoda was within hearing distance, began to speak among themselves, “Krishna comes to the cowshed and unleashes the calves at inappropriate times”.
Krishna’s activities now were throwing others into deep trouble. Previously, when he fell into thorny bushes or into fire, others were not put into trouble. They would merely save him from danger. However, the situation now was different.
“If he unleashes all the calves even before we have milked the cows, then how can we milk them? He stealthily enters the cowshed, sometimes at midnight, and simultaneously unleashes all the calves which excitedly rush to their mothers and drink milk. What is to be our fate then?”
A cowherd allows the calf to approach its mother only after he has milked the cow. Under no circumstances does a cowherd milk a cow completely. He will always ensure adequate supply of milk for its calf. The reason behind leashing a calf is that, if a calf is simply let free, all day long it sucks milk and resultantly falls sick. Cowherds need to monitor the milk intake of the calf during the day.
Here, by unleashing the calves per his whims, Krishna was allowing the calves to drink more milk than necessary. This turned into a headache for the cowherds of Gokula.
“When the inmates of that house scold him for his mischief, he laughs merrily”.
Realizing that the calves had all been unleashed, the inmates of the house, irrespective of the time, would have rush to the cowshed to tie them back. Watching this commotion and confusion in the cowshed, Krishna would laugh merrily as if ridiculing them and also enjoying their pitiable condition.
“Krishna devices many different techniques to steal milk, curd and butter from all our homes”.
As if unleashing calves was not adequate, Krishna would stealthily enter the homes of the cowherds to steal the milk, curd and butter. Despite the fact that his own home had sufficient supply of milk products, Krishna unhesitatingly stole milk products from others’ homes. By unleashing the calves at inappropriate times our regular supply of milk has been affected. To add to it he empties the milk pots stored within the house. What are we to do?’- thought the women-folk.
Krishna was not a one-man army. His brother Balarama and all other cowherd boys were party to his notorious deeds. Don’t we feel that all his associates were exceedingly fortunate? Needless to say, they were not ordinary humans but were celestials who had taken birth in the cowherd clan so as to be with Krishna.
“His mischief does not end with this. After drinking milk to his satisfaction, he divides the remaining milk among the monkeys and cats which are in the vicinity”.
Krishna would distribute the remaining milk to his friends. After they had their full he would share the remaining milk with the animals that were around. Whenever Krishna set out on this mission of stealing milk and milk-products, he was accompanied not just by other boys of his age, but also by dogs, cats and monkeys, which zealously followed him in their eagerness to drink milk. Krishna would lose his temper if at all any monkey refused to accept the food offered by him and thus, every monkey would willingly drink the milk or curd offered by Him.
“If at all the monkeys refuse to drink the milk offered by Krishna, he gets irritated and in that irritation, he smashes the pots of milk’”- said the ladies.
Krishna was adamant that if he offers anything, it has to be accepted. That’s all. The rule was equally applicable to boys, to monkeys, cats and dogs. Even if one monkey or one cat refused to drink the milk, curd or butter offered, he would get extremely angry and would show his anger by breaking the pots of milk. What could be the logic behind this action? Isn’t it strange? If a monkey refuses to drink milk, logically he should trash the monkey. What is the logic in smashing a pot for the mistake of the monkey? A deep spiritual significance is embedded within this action of Krishna! Jayalakshmi Mata composed many songs explaining this situation.
“If at all he cannot find milk, curd or butter in the home he visits, in anger he will pinch the small children of that house till they wail loudly and thereafter he will go away.”
Aware that Krishna would stealthily enter their homes to steal milk, butter and curd, the women-folk of Gokula would discreetly hide the pots. Krishna would patiently search the home and locate the pots. At other times however, he would pretend as if he was unable to locate them. Annoyed at his inability to locate the pots, Krishna would pinch the children of that home till they wailed.
I will give a small anecdote. A thief snatches a purse expecting to find it laden with money. To his dismay he does not find even a rupee. In irritation he hurls the purse back upon the person from whom he had snatched it. As if this is insufficient, he abuses the person in every possible way for his stinginess. Some thieves show their anger by returning the five rupees which they have found in the purse, saying, “What use is this pittance? Even movie ticket costs hundred rupees these days. Keep your money.”
However, Krishna’s theft could in no way be compared to the antics of the wayside robbers. Krishna knew that people hid milk or curd due to their stinginess. Although the Lord knew the location where they were stored, purposely he would pretend to remain clueless and would pretend to lose his temper. To show his annoyance he would pinch small infants and children till they wailed. The mothers would rush to attend to their children.
Vishnave namah