A short time after the naming ceremony, both Balarama and Krishna began to crawl on Their hands and knees. When They were crawling like that, They pleased Their mothers. The bells tied to Their waist and ankles sounded fascinating, and They would move around very pleasingly. Sometimes, just like ordinary children, They would be frightened by others and would immediately hurry to Their mothers for protection. Sometimes They would fall into the clay and mud of Vrindavana and would approach Their mothers smeared with clay and saffron.
Sometimes the naughty babies would crawl up to the cowshed, catch the tail of a calf and stand up. The calves, being disturbed, would immediately begin running here and there, and the children would be dragged over clay and cow dung. To see this fun, Yashoda and Rohini would call all their neighborhood friends, the gopis. Upon seeing these childhood pastimes of Lord Krishna, the gopis would be merged in transcendental bliss. In their enjoyment they would laugh very loudly.
Krishna and Balarama were so restless that Their mothers Yashoda and Rohini would try to protect Them from cows, bulls, monkeys, water, fire and birds while they were executing their household duties. Always being anxious to protect the children and to execute their duties, they were not very tranquil. In a very short time, Krishna and Balarama began to stand up and slightly move on Their legs. When Krishna and Balarama began to walk, other friends of the same age joined Them, and together They gave the highest transcendental pleasure to the gopis, specifically to mother Yashoda and Rohini. All the gopi friends of Yashoda and Rohini enjoyed the naughty childish activities of Krishna and Balarama in Vrindavana.
Another day, when Krishna and Balarama were playing with Their friends, all the boys joined Balarama and complained to mother Yashoda that Krishna had eaten clay. On hearing this, mother Yashoda caught hold of Krishna’s hand and said, “My dear Krishna, why have You eaten earth in a solitary place? Just see, all Your friends, including Balarama, are complaining about You.” Being afraid of His mother, Krishna replied, “My dear mother, all these boys, including My elder brother, Balarama, are speaking lies against Me. I have never eaten any clay. My elder brother, Balarama, while playing with Me today, became angry, and therefore He has joined with the other boys to complain against Me. They have all combined together to complain so you will be angry and chastise Me. If you think they are truthful, then you can look within My mouth to see whether I have eaten clay or not.” His mother replied, “All right, if You have actually not eaten any clay, then just open Your mouth. I shall see.”
When the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna was so ordered by His mother, He immediately opened
His mouth just like an ordinary boy. Then mother Yashoda saw within that mouth the complete opulence of creation. She saw the entire outer space in all directions, mountains, islands, oceans, seas, planets, air, fire, moon and stars. Along with the moon and the stars she also saw all the elements—water, sky and the extensive ethereal existence, along with the total ego and its products, namely the senses, the controllers of the senses, all the demigods and the objects of the senses like sound and smell. Within His mouth she also saw the three qualities of material nature, all living entities, eternal time, material nature, spiritual nature, activity, consciousness and different forms of the whole creation.
Yashoda could find within the mouth of her child everything necessary for cosmic manifestation. She also saw, within His mouth, herself taking Krishna on her lap and having Him suck her breast. Upon seeing all this, she became struck with awe and began to wonder whether she were dreaming or actually seeing something extraordinary. She concluded that she was either dreaming or seeing the play of the illusory energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. She thought that she had become mad, mentally deranged, to see all those wonderful things. Then she thought, “It may be cosmic mystic power attained by my child, and therefore I am perplexed by such visions within His mouth. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the expression of consciousness, mind, work and philosophical speculation, and whose different energies produce everything manifested and unmanifested. Under His energy, bodily self and bodily possessions are conceived.” She then said, “Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Him under whose illusory energy I am thinking that Nanda Maharaja is my husband and Krishna is my son, that all the properties of Nanda Maharaja belong to me and that all the cowherd men and women are my subjects. All this misconception is due to the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. So let me pray to Him that He may protect me always.”
While mother Yashoda was thinking in this philosophical way, Lord Krishna again expanded His internal energy just to bewilder her with maternal affection. Immediately mother Yashoda forgot all philosophical speculation and accepted Krishna as her own child. She took Him on her lap and became overwhelmed with maternal affection. She thus began to think of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is understood through the processes of cultivating knowledge derived from the Upanishads and the Vedanta-sutra, practicing mystic yoga and studying Sankhya philosophy, as her own begotten child.
Certainly mother Yashoda had executed many, many pious activities, as a result of which she got the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as her son who sucked milk from her breast. Similarly, Nanda Maharaja also must have performed many great sacrifices and pious activities for Lord Krishna to become his son and address him as “father.”
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