Krishna Story 9

WHO ARE YOU, KRISHNA?
by J.K. Sivan
 

 

Yasodha  started realizing that Krishna is someone who could not be controlled and he had the uncanny ability to change her mood the moment she neared him to punish for his mischievous deeds. She therefore left him as such to play,  though she pretended to control him. She was aware that in no way he is like the other children and cannot be controlled,  unlike  the  other Gopis  in the village taking charge of their boys..

Krishna  though small, was always in company with  the other big children in the village,  and began going out and play around with them.  Because of his being a little boy,  smaller in size,  and younger than all of them, the bigger boys did not prefer to recognize him in their games or  count him for any role in their group playing. He  just ran with them without taking part in any side in their games. To some extent Yasodha was free from his menace as long as he was away from home!!

One evening all these children selected a big jamboo tree to play with. The bigger boys climed the branches and hung around. Many of them started picking up the jamboo fruits (known as black plum, bluish sour tasting small fruits with a seed embedded).  The tree was not far away from Nandagopan’s palace and so Yasodha permitted Krishna to go with them and play there. 

 Krishna  also tried to climb  the tree and play on the branches like the other fellows but the leader warned him  “Krishna  you are a small boy. Don’t climb the tree.  You can be down  there  and collect the fruits which fall down when we  climb  the branches and shake them. Collect all the fruits without leaving anything,  in a cloth.  We all can share them later".

Krishna had no option but to  agreeing to this condition.  He  waited for the fruits to fall down.  The other boys climbed the tree branches and  started shaking the branches  so that the unreachable  fruits would fall down.s fell As soon as the fruits began falling down here and there on the mud, Krishna ran and  was busy picking them up As the fruits were damaged due to the fall, they were sticky and were quoted with the mud under the tree.  Krishna too began eating them one by one, without freeing the fruits from mud coating.

One boy has seen what Krishna was doing below!   He alerted others “See what this boy Krishna is doing there, He is not collecting the fruits, but eating them all one by one without even cleaning the fruits from mud covering."

Another boy declared “Krishna is always a very clever and cunning boy as we know.  See, he has eaten most of them quickly,  without caring for our share.”  

The leader did not approve of Krishna’s action.  He was angry and said  " I know how to revenge Krishna. His mother is nowadays very strict.  So  we all will go and complain to her that he is eating mud so that she can beat him nicely"

Soon after they came and shared the remaining fruits, they all went to Yasodha and complained that Krishna has eaten  a mouthful of mud that evening.

Yasodha was uneasy and upset. Poor Krishna.  The child may become sick due to some infection. What to do now. How much mud would have gone inside his body.  She started crying.  She could not digest the idea of Krishna falling sick. 

"Krishna,  did you eat the mud?"

Krishna replied  “Mom, I did not eat mud. I ate only the fruits which fell down on mud”.

"No aunty. He is lying. We saw him eating handful of mud. You can check his mouth. Something  may beis still there.

Yasodha looked at the innocent looking Krishna’s face. His cheeks, throat, nose and lips were bluish with patches of mud sticking thereto.

"Krishna!  You have become too unbearable, Not a day passes without any complaint about you and your mischief increases intolerably. Don’t lie, open your mouth."

The boys were very happy that Krishna has now been caught red handed. Krishna blinked but did not reply. He nodded his head in negation. 

 

"I say,  you open your mouth"  shouted Yasodha.  As he was still obstinate, she physically force opened his mouth and looked into it. 

 "What did Yasodha see in his mouth?  Handful of mud?  No.  the entire earth, heaven, the universe and ever moving planetary bodies, seas, oceans, rivers, mountains and all the animate and inanimate  things and she could see her also standing in front of him bending and looking into His mouth"

 Yasodha swooned. The other boys did not know what happened to her and  ran away to  report to their parents what happened that evening.  Krishna smiled and closed his mouth. Within a few minutes Yasodha returned to normalcy  and looked at Krishna.

 She was bewildered.  He looked the normal child she knew him to be and magnetized her with his smile. She just embraced Krishna with immense affection and love.    No words emanated from her.  Her lips moved and slowly as she held him tightly murmuring "Who are you, Krishna ?" 

 

 

The author can be reached at: jksivan@gmail.com