Bhakti Vrisksha - Damodar Leela -10/21/2016

Hare Krishna everyone We had our 52nd Bhakti Vriksha class last friday conducted by HG Chaitanya Anand Prabhuji at Amit Prabhu and Ekta Mataji house and below are some stories linked to Damodar leela that we discussed.

First of all thanks to Ekta Mataji and Amit Prabhu for giving all of us a chance to light diya/lamp in this sacred month of  Kartik, also ,many thanks to Bipin Prabhu for leading the Damodarastakam

• Just as Krishna like lotus amongst all the flowers, He likes Ganga amongst all the rivers, He likes Radha amongst all the gopis, He likes Tulsi amongst all the plant ; similarly He likes Kartik amongst  all the months. This is the month in which Krishna performed most of His Leelas. 
• Krishna is supreme enjoyer and Radharani is His pleasure potency. Krishna likes different rasas;
• That is why he has friends, parents, devotees, siblings and gopis accompanying Him in His avatar.
• Once Yashoda Mata was churning butter milk to create butter and Krishna saw this and asked Yashoda mata to feed Him with her breast milk, she offered her breast milk and was gazing at the beautiful eyes of baby Krishna and His innocent face.
• The milk that was kept by Yashoda mataji on the Chula(gas stove) started to think that it is so useless that it is not even able to serve Krishna and the milk started to commit suicide by spilling over the chula and going into the gas fire.
• Yashoda mataji  saw this and left Krishna to take care of spilling milk into the gas.
• Krishna became so angry that He broke the pot and started eating the butter and also started feeding monkeys, these are the same Monkeys which helped Lord Ram to build the bridge between India and Lanka. In this avatar Krishna is returning the favor by feeding them with butter.
• When Mata Yashoda saw this she got very angry and thought of giving Krishna some punishment, but Krishna was running away from her, she got tired of trying to catch Krishna but she couldn’t catch Him, atlast she submits herself to Krishna and that’s when Krishna lets her catch Him, similarly until we submit ourselves to Krishna he keeps running from us.
• She finds a rope to tie Krishna with the grinding motor but every time the rope is short by 2 inches, here the significance of 2 inches means 1 inch one should always have the desire to please Krishna and second inch is  Krishna will reciprocate and is willing to accept our love and offerings to him .
• Krishna sees the efforts of Yashoda mata borrowing ropes from neighbors to tie Krishna with the grinding mortar and thus finally allows his mother to successfully tie Him after many unsuccessful attempts
• Krishna starts to crawls with mortar grinder attached to Him and passes between two trees outside His home.
• The story behind those trees is; once Narad Muni was passing through a beautiful lake so he stopped for a while to look at it. In the lake he saw two demi gods that is Nalakuvara and Manigriva (the two sons of King Kuvera) enjoying the bath with females, seeing NaradMuni the females covered their body with clothes but these two Demi Gods stood naked hence Narad Muni cursed them stand like naked trees until Krishna comes to liberate them.
• When Krishna tried to pass between these two trees the mortar grinder got  stuck between two trees and Krishna gently pulls the rope making both the trees fall down and thus liberating both the demi gods.

Bottom-line – 2 inch significance ; Krishna sees the desire in you and bestows His mercy upon you based on that.