Damodara Leela - Bound by Love

Dadi: "Guddu, have you ever tried to catch someone who was running away from you?"

Guddu: "Yes! My friend Rohan runs SO fast. I can never catch him in tag!"

Dadi: "*laughing* Well, tonight I'll tell you about Mother Yashoda chasing baby Krishna all around the house—and how the Lord of the Universe let himself be caught by a rope."

Guddu: "Baby Krishna was naughty?"

Dadi: "The naughtiest! He was a butter thief, Guddu. No pot of butter was safe in Gokul. Yashoda would churn fresh butter, turn around for just a moment, and—poof!—it would vanish."

Guddu: "Where did it go?"

Dadi: "To a little blue-skinned toddler with butter smeared all over his face, his hands, even his ears! And if that wasn't enough, he'd share the butter with monkeys he let into the house."

Guddu: "*giggling* With monkeys?!"

Dadi: "One day, Yashoda caught him in the act. There was Krishna, standing on an overturned mortar to reach the hanging pots, feeding butter to his monkey friends. "KRISHNA!" she shouted."

Guddu: "Did she catch him?"

Dadi: "She tried! But baby Krishna jumped down and ran. He was impossibly fast for a toddler. Yashoda chased him through the house, around the courtyard, between the cows, under the cart. Her sari came loose. Her hair fell down. She was exhausted!"

Guddu: "Poor Yashoda Maiya!"

Dadi: "But here's the secret, beta. Krishna wasn't really running away. He was playing. And when he saw how tired his mother was, how determined she was to catch him, he slowed down—just enough. Just enough for her to grab his arm."

Guddu: "He let her catch him?"

Dadi: "Because he wanted to be caught. He wanted to be her naughty little boy who gets scolded. "I'm going to tie you up!" Yashoda declared. "You'll stay tied until your father comes home!""

Guddu: "Tie up God? Is that even possible?"

Dadi: "She found a rope and tried to tie it around his little waist. But when she went to make the knot—the rope was too short by two fingers!"

Guddu: "Too short?"

Dadi: "She added another rope. Still too short by two fingers! She added another, and another. The neighborhood women came to help, bringing all their ropes. They tied together enough rope to bind an elephant!"

Guddu: "And it still didn't fit?!"

Dadi: "Always too short by exactly two fingers. No matter how much rope they added, they needed just a little bit more. You see, Guddu, Krishna contains the entire universe in his belly. How can any rope bind infinity?"

Guddu: "So he can't be tied? How did Yashoda finally do it?"

Dadi: "She kept trying. Rope after rope. She was sweating, exhausted, but she wouldn't give up. She was a MOTHER. And mothers don't give up."

Guddu: "And then?"

Dadi: "Krishna looked at this woman—this ordinary cowherd woman who had raised him, loved him, fed him, chased him around the house. He saw her determination, her love, her refusal to stop even when the universe said it was impossible."

And he chose to let her win.

Guddu: "He made the rope fit?"

Dadi: "The rope tied perfectly. Yashoda sat back, triumphant. She had done what no one in all of creation could do—she had tied up the Lord of the Universe!"

Guddu: "Because he WANTED to be tied by her love!"

Dadi: "Exactly, beta. That's why this is the Damodara Leela—"Damodara" means "one who was tied around the belly." It's Krishna's favorite name, because it reminds him of his mother's love."

Guddu: "Did he just sit there tied up?"

Dadi: "Oh no! Being Krishna, he couldn't sit still. He started crawling, dragging the heavy stone mortar behind him. He pulled it between two huge arjuna trees in the courtyard. The mortar got stuck—but Krishna kept pulling!"

Guddu: "Did the trees fall?"

Dadi: "CRASH! Both giant trees toppled over! And from the fallen trees emerged two glowing beings. They had been celestial princes cursed to become trees until the Lord touched them!"

Guddu: "So even while tied up, he freed cursed souls!"

Dadi: "That's Krishna, beta. Playing with his mother, eating stolen butter, dragging stone mortars, liberating cursed beings—all in one afternoon."

Guddu: "Dadi, I don't understand. If Krishna is all-powerful, why does he let a mother tie him up?"

Dadi: "Because love is the only force in creation he will not resist. He who creates and destroys universes, who lifts mountains and swallows oceans—HE surrenders to a mother's love. That's the deepest secret."

Guddu: "The strongest power isn't strength. It's love?"

Dadi: "The rope was just cloth. What really bound Krishna were Yashoda's years of caring for him, her sleepless nights, her endless patience with a naughty child. THAT'S what tied him. And he was happy to be tied."

Guddu: "I bet Yashoda Maiya felt so special."

Dadi: "She probably just felt like a tired mom who finally caught her butter-thief son! She didn't know she had done something impossible. She was just being a mother."

Guddu: "That's the beautiful part—she didn't even know how amazing it was!"

Dadi: "True love never knows its own power, beta. It just loves. And that love can bind even God himself."

Guddu: "Damodara. I love that name. Good night, Dadi."

Dadi: "Good night, my sweet child. May you always know the power of love."