66 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

In attemptingto bind her son, she became tired. She was perspiring, and
the garland on her head fell down. Then Lord Krsna appreciated the hard
labor of His mother, and being compassionate upon her, He agreed to be
bound up by the ropes. Krsna, playing as a human child in the house of
mother Yasoda, was performing His own selected pastimes. Of course no
one can control the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The pure devotee
surrenders himself unto the lotus feet of the Lord, who may either protect
or vanquish the devotee. But for his part, the devotee never forgets his
own position of surrender. Similarly, the Lord also feels transcendental
pleasure by submitting Himself to the protection of the devotee. This was
exemplified by Krsna’s surrender unto His mother, Yasoda.

Krsna is the supreme bestower of all kinds of liberation to His devotees,
but the benediction which was bestowed upon mother Yasoda was never
experienced even by Lord Brahma or Lord Siva or the goddess of fortune.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is known as the son of
Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja, is never so completely known to the yogis
and speculators. But He is easily available to His devotees. Nor is He
appreciated as the supreme reservoir of all pleasure by the yogis and
speculators.

After binding her son, mother Yasoda engaged herself in household
affairs. At that time, bound up to the wooden mortar, Krsna could see a
pair of trees before Him which were known as arjuna trees. The great
reservoir of pleasure, Lord Sri Krsna, thus thought to Himself, ‘“‘Mother
Yasoda first of all left without feeding Me sufficient milk, and therefore
I broke the pot of yogurt and distributed the stock butter in charity to the
monkeys. Now she has bound Me up to a wooden mortar. So I shall do
something more mischievous than before.” And thus He thought of pulling
down the two very tall arjuna trees.

There is a history behind the pair of arjuna trees. In their previous
lives, the trees were born as the human sons of Kuvera, and their names
were Nalakivara and Manigriva. Fortunately, they came within the vision
of the Lord. In their previous lives they were cursed by the great sage
Narada in erder to receive the highest benediction of seeing Lord Krsna.
This benediction-curse was bestowed upon them because of their forget-
fulness due to intoxication. This story will be narrated in the next chapter.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Ninth Chapter of Krsna,
“Mother Yasoda Binding Lord Krsna.”
