The wonderful childhood of the Lord.

Here is another example of the puzzlement that the beings of the Lord's Divine Beings generate. The Lord, as we have seen, remains such in all circumstances, but it happens sometimes that at the same time, He wishes himself the subordinate of his pure devotee. The pure sage serves the Lord solely for love, unmixed love, and it may be that in the performance of his devotional service he forgets the supreme position of the Lord. But this one receives with even greater joy the service of love of his devotees when he is precisely accomplished in spontaneity, out of pure affection, without any trace of formal respect. In general, the Lord receives from his devotees a reverential adoration, but He has a special joy in seeing his devotee consider him, by pure love, as his inferior. And it is in this spirit that his exchanges with his pure devotees take place in his original kingdom of Goloka Vrindavan. There, Krishna's friends consider Him one of them. They do not see it as an object of veneration. As for the Lord's parents, they see him as a mere child, and he accepts their punishment with better grace than the prayers of celestial beings. In the same way, He feels a greater pleasure at being reproached with love by the Gopis than at hearing the Vedic hymns.

When the Lord, Sri Krishna, for the sole purpose of turning sentient beings to Himself, came to reveal in this Universe the eternal Divestments that are His in the absolute kingdom of Goloka Vrindavan, He showed a unique example of subordination to Yashoda, His adoptive mother. Among his childhood games, He loved to sack Yashoda's butter reserves by breaking pots and distributing their contents to his friends and playmates, including the famous Vrindanvan monkeys, who were happy to enjoy the Lord's bounty.

One day, Yashoda took him to the point, and out of pure love for him, she wanted to correct his divine son, but without being very severe towards him. She took a rope and threatened to tie the Lord, as is usually done to punish the children. But seeing the rope in Yashoda's hands, Krishna lowered his head and began to cry, as any boy would have done in his place. Tears rolled down her cheeks, casting the dark shades that surrounded her adorable eyes. Here he is, however, frightened at the punishment of his mother.

Yashoda's point of view is held to be high because she was unaware of Krishna's supreme position. Krishna became his son and made him completely forget that his child was none other than the Lord. If she had been aware of Krishna's supremacy, Yashoda would have hesitated to punish him, but the Lord made her forget everything, for he wanted to play the part of a child in all respects before the affectionate Yashoda. Their maternal and filial feelings expressed themselves quite naturally.

When Krishna saw Mother Yashod approaching, armed with a rope to tie Him up, He immediately became fearful, thinking: