ká¹›tÄgasaá¹ taá¹ prarudantam aká¹£iṇī
kaá¹£antam añjan-maá¹£iṇī sva-pÄṇinÄ
udvÄ«ká¹£amÄṇaá¹ bhaya-vihvaleká¹£aṇaá¹
haste gá¹›hÄ«tvÄ bhiá¹£ayanty avÄgurat

 ká¹›ta-Ägasam - who was an offender; tam - unto Kṛṣṇa; prarudantam - with a crying attitude; aká¹£iṇī - His two eyes; kaá¹£antam - rubbing; añjat-maá¹£iṇī - from whose eyes the blackish ointment was distributed all over His face with tears; sva-pÄṇinÄ - with His own hand; udvÄ«ká¹£amÄṇam - who was seen in that attitude by mother YaÅ›odÄ; bhaya-vihvala-Ä«ká¹£aṇam - whose eyes appeared distressed because of such fear of His mother; haste - by the hand; gá¹›hÄ«tvÄ - catching; bhiá¹£ayantÄ« - mother YaÅ›odÄ was threatening Him; avÄgurat - and thus she very mildly chastised Him.


Text

When caught by mother YaÅ›odÄ, Kṛṣṇa became more and more afraid and admitted to being an offender. As she looked upon Him, she saw that He was crying, His tears mixing with the black ointment around His eyes, and as He rubbed His eyes with His hands, He smeared the ointment all over His face. Mother YaÅ›odÄ, catching her beautiful son by the hand, mildly began to chastise Him.

Purport

From these dealings between mother YaÅ›odÄ and Kṛṣṇa, we can understand the exalted position of a pure devotee in loving service to the Lord. YogÄ«s, jñÄnÄ«s, karmÄ«s and VedÄntists cannot even approach Kṛṣṇa; they must remain very, very far away from Him and try to enter His bodily effulgence, although this also they are unable to do. Great demigods like Lord BrahmÄ and Lord Åšiva always worship the Lord by meditation and by service. Even the most powerful YamarÄja fears Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, as we find in the history of AjÄmila, YamarÄja instructed his followers not even to approach the devotees, what to speak of capturing them. In other words, YamarÄja also fears Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s devotees. Yet this Kṛṣṇa became so dependent on mother YaÅ›odÄ that when she simply showed Kṛṣṇa the stick in her hand, Kṛṣṇa admitted to being an offender and began to cry like an ordinary child. Mother YaÅ›odÄ, of course, did not want to chastise her beloved child very much, and therefore she immediately threw her stick away and simply rebuked Kṛṣṇa, saying, “Now I shall bind You so that You cannot commit any further offensive activities. Nor for the time being can You play with Your playmates.†This shows the position of a pure devotee, in contrast with others, like jñÄnÄ«s, yogÄ«s and the followers of Vedic ritualistic ceremonies, in regarding the transcendental nature of the Absolute Truth.