Srimad Bhagavatam – 10.9.15 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Nov 06, 2026
jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-vihārī
gopījana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī
yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-rañjana
yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracharine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine
jaya sri-krishna-chaitanya
prabhu nityananda
sri-adwaita gadadhara
shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 9 Verse 15.
ŚB 10.9.15
तद् दाम बध्यमानस्य स्वार्भकस्य कृतागस: ।
द्व्यङ्गुलोनमभूत्तेन सन्दधेऽन्यच्च गोपिका ॥ १५ ॥
tad dāma badhyamānasya
svārbhakasya kṛtāgasaḥ
dvy-aṅgulonam abhūt tena
sandadhe ’nyac ca gopikā
Synonyms
tat dāma — that binding rope; badhyamānasya — who was being bound by mother Yaśodā; sva-arbhakasya — of her own son; kṛta-āgasaḥ — who was an offender; dvi-aṅgula — by a measurement of two fingers; ūnam — short; abhūt — became; tena — with that rope; sandadhe — joined; anyat ca — another rope; gopikā — mother Yaśodā.
Translation
When mother Yaśodā was trying to bind the offending child, she saw that the binding rope was short by a distance the width of two fingers. Thus she brought another rope to join to it.
Purport
Here is the first chapter in Kṛṣṇa’s exhibition of unlimited potency to mother Yaśodā when she tried to bind Him: the rope was too short. The Lord had already shown His unlimited potency by killing Pūtanā, Śakaṭāsura and Tṛṇāvarta. Now Kṛṣṇa exhibited another vibhūti, or display of potency, to mother Yaśodā. “Unless I agree,” Kṛṣṇa desired to show, “you cannot bind Me.” Thus although mother Yaśodā, in her attempt to bind Kṛṣṇa, added one rope after another, ultimately she was a failure. When Kṛṣṇa agreed, however, she was successful. In other words, one must be in transcendental love with Kṛṣṇa, but that does not mean that one can control Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa is satisfied with one’s devotional service, He does everything Himself. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ He reveals more and more to the devotee as the devotee advances in service. Jihvādau: this service begins with the tongue, with chanting and with taking the prasāda of Kṛṣṇa.
ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi
na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ
sevonmukhe hi jihvādau
svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.234)
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, here we see that Mother Yasoda tried to bind up Krishna. And she used a rope. That is dāma. And she tried to tie Him up around the waist, udara. And thus, Krishna is called Damodara, or a person who has rope around His waist. So, this story is very famous. Why? Because normally, the Lord does not get tied up. In most forms, the Lord displays all His powers. Thus, He kills demons and ties others up. And to get tied up oneself, that is a sign of weakness and defeat. So, of course, in Kshatriya code, to get tied up means you are in great shame. So, generally, of course, the Lord being the greatest person should not get tied up and be put in a humiliating position. Yet we see in this incident, this is exactly what happened to Krishna.
Of course, there are other symptoms that Krishna is not acting like the normal Supreme Lord. He got angry with Mother Yasoda because He wanted to drink her breast milk. So, this is natural for a small child, but it is not natural for the Supreme Lord. Then, when He saw Mother Yasoda with a stick, He ran away. So, again, this is usually the symptom of fear and cowardice. And again, for a warrior, for instance, it is not proper conduct. Nevertheless, it is natural for a small child to be afraid of a stick. And then, Krishna cried. So again, something very unnatural for the Supreme Lord. And now we see Krishna getting tied up, another event which looks very unnatural for the Lord. And, yes, it is very rare that this will happen to the Lord.
It is stated here that Mother Yasoda ran after Krishna and caught Him, while the yogis could not do that. They can, maybe realize the light coming from His toenail, that’s about it, they can’t catch Him. So, Mother Yasoda caught Krishna and now she is tying Him up. These are things which usually the devotee does not want to do. So, most of the people practicing yoga and Jnana and many devotees would never aspire to chase after Krishna, catch Him and tie Him up. And even we will see with other devotees of Krishna, they do not aspire to do this. But here we see, this is a quality of Mother Yasoda, which is natural to her. And that is because of her rasa, which is Vatsalya. Of course, we will see Vasudeva and Devaki also have Vatsalya rasa. But even they do not strive to tie up Krishna. So, this is a remarkable feature of a devotee in Vrindavan. And the devotees are very special and Krishna is very special. And thus, in Vrindavan, Krishna is called Purna- tama. Which means most perfect.
In Dwaraka, Krishna is called Purna. And in Mathura, He is called Purna-tara, more perfect. In Vrindavan, He is Purna-tama, the most perfect. In any case, He is superior to all the other forms as Svayam Bhagavan but even among His forms in Dwaraka, Mathura and Vrindavan, Vrindavan form is most perfect. And though He displays all rasas in Dwaraka, Mathura and Vrindavan, those rasas are displayed most perfectly in Vrindavan. So Vrindavan has this very special quality because there is no sense of Aishwarya that Krishna is Supreme Lord. So this allows the sweetness aspect of Krishna to be predominant. And therefore, these pastimes, like the Damodara pastime, is full of sweetness. If Mother Yasoda sees Krishna as Supreme Lord, she would not chase Him, she would not become angry at Him, she would not try to tie Him up at all, there would be no pastime.
Of course, Krishna also tests Mother Yasoda. So, previously Mother Yasoda looked in His mouth and she saw the universe. So, by doing that Krishna informed Mother Yasoda, Look, you are holding me in your lap, but I am the Lord of the Universe, everything is in me. So, what would she do? After Krishna withdrew that vision, she did nothing. Her Vatsalya rasa became so strong, she forgot about it. So in this way, she passed the test. So, therefore there is nothing surprising that this pastime takes place.
So here we see in this verse that Mother Yasoda tried to tie Him up. But the rope was too short. She got more rope and tied it together. But it was still too short. She got more rope, tied it on, it was still too short. And the mystery was, it was always two fingers too short. So the logical conclusion is, that though she tied more and more rope together, the rope was not becoming any longer, how is that possible? The other conclusion is that the rope is getting longer, but Krishna is getting bigger. But that also was not visible, Krishna was the same size. So, Mother Yasoda kept trying by making the rope bigger and she failed. So, in terms of material logic, this is impossible because even if the rope was short, it should not always be the same short, two fingers short. It should actually get a little smaller, one finger short, half finger short, it didn’t do that either.
So, of course, in school, you learn 1 plus 1 is 2, 2 plus 1 is 3, etc. But here, 1 plus 1 is 1. 1 plus 2 is still 1 [Laughs]. 1 plus infinity is still 1 [Laughs]. So, in the material world, of course, this is impossible. But we also know that spiritual world and Krishna are not bound by any logic. Time and space, as mentioned previously, are completely different. If Krishna is inside, outside, everything and bigger than the universe, how are you going to ever try to tie Him up [Laughs]? So, in other words, spiritual things do not obey material laws. And this was a good illustration of that.
So, previously, Krishna tested mother Yasoda by showing the universe in His mouth. Then Krishna withdrew that vision. And then she forgot about it. Here, He did not immediately withdraw this impossibility. She kept getting more and more and more rope, it was always short. So, why Krishna didn’t immediately agree? Of course, one we can say, He is trying to show His power. However, we know if He keeps showing His power, then mother Yasoda will lose her affection [Laughs]. So, Krishna’s reason for not agreeing to be tied up was that He wanted to go and play.
So, in other words, like a small child, child does not want to get tied up, they want to go and play, so, Krishna wanted to go and play. To do that, then He had to show this remarkable power. However, we see that mother Yasoda’s response was very surprising. Of course, her neighbours came and said, you give up, you shouldn’t do this. But she kept getting more rope, she got all the rope in her house, she went to her neighbour’s house, got the rope there and tied it all together and tried to tie up Krishna and still, she couldn’t tie Him up. So, she was determined to tie up Krishna, to discipline Him as her son. Because of that great affection for her son, then she kept trying, even though it looked impossible. At the same time, Krishna did not agree to get tied up because He wanted to go and play. So, we have mother Yasoda’s desire and Krishna’s desire competing. And of course, normally we say, well, Krishna is going to win because He is the Supreme Lord. But we see in this case, no, Krishna lost, He got tied up.
Of course, we have to attribute it to Krishna giving up His desire to play. So, why did He give up His desire to play? So, it’s explained that He saw that after all these attempts over many hours, mother Yasoda was getting tired. And instead of keeping His desire to play, He decided, I will let mother Yasoda tie me up. In this way, we see that Krishna was submissive to the desire of His mother. But only after some time. So, this means that the Lord submits to the devotee, but He may not do so immediately. But, when He sees the devotee putting forth effort, then He will agree to be tied up.
So, our Acharyas explain that Krishna couldn’t get tied up because the rope was two fingers too short. But finally, mother Yasoda was able to fill up those two fingers and tie Him up. So, they explain that these two elements that cause Krishna to get tied up are effort of the devotee and Krishna’s mercy. If the devotee puts forth greater effort, the Lord gives greater mercy. So this is one of the rules in devotional service.
In Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, as you surrender unto me, so I respond. Because the devotees in Vrindavan have the most intense Prema, Krishna responds in the most remarkable way. And thus, mother Yasoda is able to tie up Krishna, nobody else can. So, one of the four remarkable features of Krishna is the sweetness of His pastimes. So, this sweet pastime is something very unique and we will not find it with any other form of the Lord or even in Dwaraka or Mathura. And because of this unique quality of Krishna in Vrindavan, therefore, Krishna is called Svayam Bhagavan.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A :
1.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. So, in Vrindavan, Krishna displayed the full of sweetness, Madhurya, that Madhurya aspect of the Lord. But we see sometimes, Krishna also displayed the Aishwarya aspect in Vrindavan. Like, see, He is not getting tied up. But how to understand that and also killing many demons and other things is also Aishwarya aspect. How to understand this?
So, of course, the unique quality in Vrindavan is Krishna is very sweet. This does not mean that He doesn’t have all power. And thus, He displays all that power even in Vrindavan. But the nature of the people of Vrindavan is such that they do not appreciate that power. So, one of the first pastimes of Krishna is He killed Putana. And the event of killing Putana is considered special with Krishna, showing special mercy because He took her to the spiritual world. But the people of Vrindavan didn’t see that [Laughs]. And they didn’t see how Krishna killed her also. So, when Krishna killed these different demons, the people of Vrindavan saw the demon die, but they could not attribute that to Krishna doing it. So, Nanda, he attributed it to Vishnu’s protection.
So, in other words, even though they may see remarkable events with Krishna, killing demons, etc., they never really attributed it to Krishna. And most of that is because the power of their bhakti is such that it overpowers any vision of power. So, we see that Mother Yasoda saw the universal form of Krishna and then she forgot it [Laughs]. And here, Krishna did a remarkable thing by making himself bigger and bigger and the rope smaller and smaller. She did not think anything of it. She said, finally, I have tied up Krishna. That’s all [Laughs].
Sometimes when the cowherd boys report, oh Krishna did this, Krishna pulled the two trees over and they became devatas, then the people of Vrindavan say, ah, children exaggerating [Laughs]. So, whatever happens there, this power is always covered up.
2.) Maharaj, we see that these pastimes are displayed, like Mother Yasoda is trying to bind Krishna and many ropes, she is bringing and it is getting short. It’s like Sanatana Goswami says, it’s like a display of Krishna’s vibhuti shakti. But here you see that Mother Yasoda is trying, trying, trying and Krishna’s karuna shakti manifests. Karuna shakti manifests. That time vibhuti shakti becomes weakened. Can you also explain it? Because it’s explained somewhere, I read it. That vibhuti shakti and karuna shakti, both two energies.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: What’s that one?
Devotee: Vibhuti shakti and one is karuna shakti. It’s like a display of these two energies, one is becoming more and more prominent and stronger and one becoming more weaker.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, sometimes the two shaktis go together. When Krishna kills a demon like Kamsa, then His karuna shakti and His vibhuti shakti are together [Laughs] because by His mercy He kills the demon and He frees the Yadus from the persecution of Kamsa. And that display of His powers adds to the affection of the Yadus. However, in Vrindavan, the people don’t appreciate the display of power, so therefore He hides all of His killing demons and they don’t see it like that [Laughs]. And if He does show it, if He becomes too strong and the devotees become disturbed, then He withdraws it. So, when Krishna showed the universe inside him, Mother Yasoda began to worry, oh, maybe He is Supreme Lord. All the time I have been treating Him as a son but He is something else. And when she began thinking like that, then Krishna withdrew that completely.
3.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj we know the two fingers short is because of one is devotee’s effort and second one is Lord’s mercy. But we see here Mother Yasoda is trying like anything. Mother Yasoda is very determined and her effort is maximum. In that way it should be one finger short. Why it’s two fingers short?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Hmm?
Devotee: Mother Yasoda’s effort is already there. Only Lord’s mercy is not there. So, in that way it should be one finger short. So why it’s two finger short?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, if she didn’t put forth the effort, Krishna would not get tied up. So, and you put a little effort and Krishna doesn’t get tied up. And how much effort we should put into it? That’s up to Krishna to decide [Laughs]. So, when Mother Yasoda tried for hours and hours and whatever and she was getting tired and perspiring etc. Then Krishna said, ok, I will get tied up.
4.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. So Maharaj, you said that the more the devotee endeavors, the more Lord reciprocates. So, in the devotee community we see that many devotees take up several vratas like nirjala, caturmasya and reducing eating in Kartik and all these things. So, are these all favourable for bhakti and comes under that category like endeavoring for the Lord or how do we understand that Maharaj?
Some of these things are angas of devotional service among the 64 angas. And some even are major angas like Ekadasi. And the reason is they are directly related to pleasing Supreme Lord. Other vratas may or may not depending on the devotee be related to the Lord such as caturmasya or something. People who are not devotees do it also and they are not thinking of the Lord at all [Laughs]. So, generally the devotees do those vratas which are angas of bhakti.
5.) In Vrindavan the devotees don’t consider Krishna as Bhagavan. During those pastimes does Krishna also forget that He is Bhagavan?
So if Krishna forgets, that means He is not all, doesn’t have all knowledge [Laughs]. Rather we should think that His absorption in His pastimes in Vrindavan where He doesn’t show His powers but rather His sweetness is an aspect of complete knowledge of the Lord.
So, the Lord has many forms like Narasimha and Rama and Varaha, different forms. And the Lord also becomes absorbed in those pastimes. But we cannot say, well, He forgets He is also Krishna. Nevertheless He becomes completely absorbed in those particular pastimes. He never thinks, well, I am killing Hiranyakasipu. Actually I am Krishna in Vrindavan playing with the cows. So this doesn’t matter so much. No, He doesn’t. He is completely absorbed in killing [Laughs] Hiranyakasipu [Laughs]. So, we can say that the Lord’s consciousness can go simultaneously in many directions at once. And it’s not contradictory for Him.
6.) Maharaj again question may come, how can this simultaneous absorption in the lila?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: How?
Devotee: How can simultaneously He maintain absorption in lila as well as maintaining this omnipotency?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, because He is the master of all shaktis, He can do also impossible things that we cannot do [Laughs]. So, simultaneously while He is performing his pastimes in Vrindavan, He is also maintaining the universe and so many things [Laughs]. And everything is done perfectly and yet He is absorbed in each of His activities separately [Laughs].
Devotee: Sometimes His lila shakti also plays opposite to His own nature like in Aghasura pastime. In Aghasura pastime, although Krishna is trying to stop His cowherd boys not to enter into the mouth of Aghasura, but He is not able to do it. There His lila shakti is playing opposite.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, we see that sometimes His lila shakti may enthusiastically do things [Laughs]. And of course, then Krishna becomes surprised. Nevertheless, even the lila shakti is just a shakti, it’s under Krishna [Laughs]. So, we can say that the lila shakti understands the ultimate intentions of Krishna. So, she does things that even surprise Him [Laughs].
7.) Maharaj, regarding this question, Krishna has Sva-maya, Svajana-maya and Sajjana-maya. These three mayas are acting. Svamaya for Krishna, Svajana-maya for His own devotees and Sajjana-maya for non-devotees. We can understand in that way Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Sva-maya, Svajana-maya?
Devotee: Sajjana-maya.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Sajjana-maya. I have never heard of that category.
Devotee: But His Holiness Bhakti Prachar Parivrajakacharya Swami Maharaj. He told like that, but I don’t know how to understand that.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, we have, of course, the Lord and His shaktis. And they act in different ways. So, in relation to Himself and the devotees, of course, we have the spiritual shakti acting. And for materialists, we have the mahamaya, external energy acting.
8.) As a Sadhaka, how to focus only on the sweetness of the Lord?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: On the?
Devotee: Focus on the sweetness of the Lord. And avoid Aishwarya aspect as wealth, following rules of devotion which reminds of Aishwarya aspects.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, by hearing of the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan, we can become attracted to the sweetness aspect. This does not mean we give up all rules. There are rules in all Sadhana, even in Raganuga Sadhana. But the person in Raganuga will give up those rules which impede Raganuga.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!