We Remember Krishna
Krishna
the Butter Thief
narrated by Mother Yasoda
There he is, my beautiful
baby Krishna. Doesn't he look sweet? Sometimes I wonder how such an
innocent-looking child could
get into so much mischief. Of course, to some he is not
simply a child, but a poweful god, the
eighth avatar of Vishnu, in fact. To me though he will always be my
little boy.
However, I am not
actually Krishna's birth mother. That honor belongs to Queen Devaki,
wife of Vasudeva. Krishna was born while the couple were imprisoned by
Devaki's evil brother Kamsa, who was determined to kill all of Devaki's
children because of a prophecy that said her eighth child would destroy
him. To save this avatar from the fate of his elder siblings, Vishnu
helped Vasudeva carry the infant from his parents' prison to the home
of his foster parents.
I am Yasoda, the wife
of
Nanda,
king of the cowherders, and chosen foster-mother of Krishna. Raising a god-child was not
as easy as it sounds. 'Why, Yasoda,' you might
say, 'surely Krishna was a perfectly behaved boy, a model for other
children. We would expect nothing less from a god.' But Krishna did anything but
follow expectations.
Before he could walk
and talk
(which, being a god, he did very early),
he was getting into mischief. His favorite question was "why?" or,
more often, "why not?" He made no distinction between "no, you may
not" and "yes, please do!" Given the amount of trouble he was always
in, his motto might have been "Easier to ask forgiveness rather than
permission." One particular instance
stands out in my mind.
It was getting to be
early
afternoon, and being a normal boy with a
normal boy's appetite, Krishna was pestering me for a snack. At the
moment I was very busy churning butter, and I was at a delicate stage
in the process where I could not stop to take care of him. Besides, as
I told him, he had had a snack only an hour ago, so he could very well
wait for dinner.
The butter churning
made me
absent-minded, or I would have become
suspicious of the good grace with which he accepted the refusal. His
usual modus operandi
was to
throw a temper tantrum. Unfortunately I was so preoccupied that I did
not
notice the angelic face which he only wears when he is brewing some
particular mischief.
Grateful when he
sauntered
away, I returned to churning, only to be
shocked a moment later by a loud commotion coming from the yard. I
rushed outside, only to find what I feared: somone had let the young
goats out of their pen. They were running wild around the yard,
crushing the garden, eating clothes from the line, and generally
wreaking havoc. It took me a full hour to catch and return them all to
the pen. Finally, sweaty, tired,
and more than a little irritated, I returned to the kitchen...to find
Krishna, on the floor,
with his hands in the jar of freshly made butter, and a look of
contentment on his face!
Not so innocent now, is he? Well, of all the brazen
things to do! After I had deliberately told him
"no," too! God or no god, he had to be taught a lesson. I tied him to a post in the
kitchen, where he could watch me clean up
the mess he had made. He squirmed and wriggled, but his protests fell
on deaf ears. I think the worst part of the punishment was not actually
being tied up, but having to smell the tantalizing aromas of the dinner
being cooked and not being able to so much as lick a spoon!
Afterwards I was a little
awed at my own daring. After all, Krishna is God, naughty or not. But every
time I think about that butter...! And I think a little
punishment was good for him. He was beautifully
behaved for a full three days, the longest stretch he had ever gone.
(He made up for this by making his next misadventure truly spectacular,
but my husband and I rejoiced in the peace while it lasted.) And after all, even gods must
learn that they can't always get what
they want, don't you think?
Of course, it's impossible to
stay angry with Krishna for long. One
sunny smile from him and all was forgiven. For that is the kind of
person Krishna is-- stubborn and willful, yes,
but so sweet and good-natured that one cannot help but love him.
***********
Author's Note: I made
several changes in the stories Krishna's birth, Krishna the Butter
Thief, and Yasoda ties Krishna. Also, in the interests of time, I had
to eliminate some details.
The story of Krishna's conception and birth is
theologically complicated, so I chose to ignore that aspect. Also,
originally Krishna is exchanged for the newborn baby girl of Yasoda.
This infant is actually Yogamaya, "the internal potency of the Lord."
Yogamaya's birth causes everyone around her to fall into a deep sleep,
making Vasudeva's journey to exchange the babies easier.
In the story of the Butter Thief, I made Krishna
older than he is in the original story, because I think the stories of
divine babies nursing, but also able to run around and talk, sound
strange to Western ears and would be a distraction.
I added the detail about the escaping goats.
Originally Yasoda was distracted by milk boiling over on the stove.
Having Krishna deliberately created a distraction makes him even more
guilty.
Also, the story of the Butter Thief is meant to be
an illustration of how, even though Krishna was God, he played the part
of a human to be kind to his devotees. When Yasoda tries to bind him,
she finds that no matter how much rope she uses, it is always too
short, because, of course, God cannot be bound. Knowing that Yasoda
thought of him as her child and not a god, but Krishna submitted
himself to her out of love.
This brings us to the first-person narration
technique. I wanted Yasoda to describe what Krishna was like as a
child, but I also wanted to give a lot of information about Krishna, so
I had to let Yasoda know more than she did in the original story. For
example, one of the effects of Yogamaya's sleep was that Yasoda was so
tired that she could not remember if she had borne a boy or a girl, so
she did not notice the exchange and therefore would not have known
about Krishna's real parents. She also does not understand the
theological implications of his divine nature, which she shows by her
determination to punish him and her confusion when she is unable to tie
him.
Check out the links in the bibliography for more
details of these and many other rich and beautiful stories of Lord
Krishna.
