From the Bhagavata Purana, Book 10, Chapter 9
The ninth chapter of the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana is the Damodara Lila — the story of how the infinite was bound by a rope. It is the companion piece to chapter eight, where Yashoda saw the universe in her toddler's mouth and then forgot. Here, she tries to bind the child who contains all worlds to a grinding mortar as punishment for stealing butter.
The chapter's central image is the two-finger gap: every rope Yashoda ties falls short by two fingers' width. She ties another. Still short. Another. Still short. She empties the house of every cord and rope, and the neighbor women gather and smile, and still — two fingers short. The tradition reads those two fingers as the devotee's effort and God's grace. When both are present, the infinite allows itself to be bound. Without either, all the rope in the world is not enough.
This is a Good Works Translation from the Sanskrit text of the Bhagavata Purana as published by GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages). The chapter follows directly from the naming ceremony and cosmic vision of chapter 8 (The Childhood of Krishna).
Shuka spoke:
One day, when the household servants were busy with other tasks, Yashoda, wife of Nanda, churned the yogurt herself.
As she churned, she remembered the songs of her child's deeds — all the little stories of what he had done — and sang them aloud.
She wore fine linen gathered at her broad hips, held by a cord. Her breasts were wet with milk from tenderness for her son. Her brow was fair, her bangles swaying with the pull of the rope, her earrings swinging, her face glistening with sweat, jasmine flowers slipping from her braided hair. She churned.
Krishna came to her wanting milk. He seized the churning rod and stopped it — filling her with delight.
She lifted him to her lap and gave him the breast — milk flowing from her love — gazing at his smiling face. But before he had drunk his fill, she set him down and rushed away. The milk on the stove was boiling over.
Anger rose in him. His lower lip quivered red. He bit down and smashed the yogurt pot with a stone. Then — weeping false tears — he slipped into the inner room and ate the fresh butter in secret.
Yashoda took the boiled milk off the fire, came back inside, and saw the yogurt pot broken. She laughed, knowing her son's work — but he was nowhere to be seen.
She found him standing on an overturned mortar, reaching up to the hanging basket, feeding butter to a monkey. His eyes darted nervously, watching for her. She crept up behind him, softly.
He saw her coming with a stick. He leaped down and ran — as though terrified. She, whom the minds of yogis refined by lifetimes of austerity cannot reach or enter: she chased him.
His mother ran after him — her broad hips heavy, her waist slender, her hair loosening as she ran, flowers falling behind her. She caught him.
He was crying. Guilty. Rubbing his eyes with his own small fists, smearing the kohl until his eyes looked like painted masks. He looked up at her with a face trembling with fear. She took him by the hand and scolded him.
But seeing his fear, the tender mother threw down the stick. She decided to tie him up instead — not knowing his true power.
He who has no inside and no outside. No before and no after. Who IS the before and the after, the outside and the inside of the world. Who IS the world.
Thinking him merely her child — the unseen one, the one beyond the senses, disguised in a mortal body — this cowherd woman tied him to a grinding mortar with a rope, as one would tie any ordinary boy.
But the rope she used to bind her naughty child fell short by two fingers' width. She tied another rope to lengthen it.
That rope too was short. She tied another. Still two fingers short. Every rope she added — always two fingers short.
She tied together every rope in the house. The neighbor women smiled. She too smiled — amazed.
Then Krishna, seeing his mother's exhaustion — her body drenched in sweat, the garland fallen from her loosened hair — out of compassion, allowed himself to be bound.
Thus, O Parikshit, the Lord Hari showed his submission to his devotee. He by whose will this entire world — even its Lord — is held in his power: he submitted to love.
Neither Brahma, nor Shiva, nor even Lakshmi who lies upon his chest, received the grace that this cowherd woman received from the giver of liberation.
This Lord — son of the cowherd woman — is not easily won by embodied beings, nor by the self-knowing wise, as he is won by those who love with devotion.
Then, while his mother was busy with housework, Krishna — still bound to the mortar — saw two great Arjuna trees nearby, and knew them to be Guhyakas, sons of Kubera.
Long ago, drunk with pride, Nalakuvara and Manigriva — famous and wealthy — had been cursed by Narada to stand as trees.
Colophon
The ninth chapter of the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana contains the Damodara Lila — the binding of Krishna. Dama means "rope" and udara means "belly": Damodara, "rope-bellied," is the name Krishna earns in this chapter, the god who let himself be tied to a mortar by his mother's love. The two-finger gap (dvy-angula) is among the most celebrated images in all of Vaishnava theology — the teaching that the infinite cannot be reached by effort alone, nor by grace alone, but only when both meet. The chapter's closing verses (19-21) declare that neither Brahma the creator, nor Shiva the destroyer, nor Lakshmi the goddess of fortune received the grace that Yashoda received — because her love was unconditional and untheological. She did not love God. She loved her son. And that was enough.
This is a Good Works Translation from the Sanskrit text as published by GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages), University of Göttingen. Translated by the New Tianmu Anglican Church (Tara, with Claude), 2026. The gospel register is used throughout. The English is independently derived from the Sanskrit source text in IAST transliteration.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text
Damodara Lila — Bhagavata Purana 10.9
Sanskrit source text in IAST transliteration from the GRETIL digital edition of the Bhagavata Purana (Bhagavata-Purana 10), Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
śrī-śuka uvāca
ekadā gṛha-dāsīṣu yaśodā nanda-gehinī
karmāntara-niyuktāsu nirmamantha svayaṃ dadhi
yāni yānīha gītāni tad-bāla-caritāni ca
dadhi-nirmanthane kāle smarantī tāny agāyata
kṣaumaṃ vāsaḥ pṛthu-kaṭi-taṭe bibhratī sūtra-naddhaṃ
putra-sneha-snuta-kuca-yugaṃ jāta-kampaṃ ca subhrūḥ
rajjv-ākarṣa-śrama-bhuja-calat-kaṅkaṇau kuṇḍale ca
svinnaṃ vaktraṃ kabara-vigalan-mālatī nirmamantha
tāṃ stanya-kāma āsādya mathnantīṃ jananīṃ hariḥ
gṛhītvā dadhi-manthānaṃ nyaṣedhat prītim āvahan
tam aṅkam ārūḍham apāyayat stanaṃ sneha-snutaṃ sa-smitam īkṣatī mukham
atṛptam utsṛjya javena sā yayāv utsicyamāne payasi tv adhiśrite
sañjāta-kopaḥ sphuritāruṇādharaṃ sandaśya dadbhir dadhi-mantha-bhājanam
bhittvā mṛṣāśrur dṛṣad-aśmanā raho jaghāsa haiyaṅgavam antaraṃ gataḥ
uttārya gopī suśṛtaṃ payaḥ punaḥ praviśya saṃdṛśya ca dadhy-amatrakam
bhagnaṃ vilokya sva-sutasya karma taj jahāsa taṃ cāpi na tatra paśyatī
ulūkhalāṅghrer upari vyavasthitaṃ markāya kāmaṃ dadataṃ śici sthitam
haiyaṅgavaṃ caurya-viśaṅkitekṣaṇaṃ nirīkṣya paścāt sutam āgamac chanaiḥ
tām ātta-yaṣṭiṃ prasamīkṣya satvaras
tato 'varuhyāpasasāra bhītavat
gopy anvadhāvan na yam āpa yogināṃ
kṣamaṃ praveṣṭuṃ tapaseritaṃ manaḥ
anvañcamānā jananī bṛhac-calac-chroṇī-bharākrānta-gatiḥ sumadhyamā
javena visraṃsita-keśa-bandhana-cyuta-prasūnānugatiḥ parāmṛśat
kṛtāgasaṃ taṃ prarudantam akṣiṇī kaṣantam añjan-maṣiṇī sva-pāṇinā
udvīkṣamāṇaṃ bhaya-vihvalekṣaṇaṃ haste gṛhītvā bhiṣayanty avāgurat
tyaktvā yaṣṭiṃ sutaṃ bhītaṃ vijñāyārbhaka-vatsalā
iyeṣa kila taṃ baddhuṃ dāmnātad-vīrya-kovidā
na cāntar na bahir yasya na pūrvaṃ nāpi cāparam
pūrvāparaṃ bahiś cāntar jagato yo jagac ca yaḥ
taṃ matvātmajam avyaktaṃ martya-liṅgam adhokṣajam
gopikolūkhale dāmnā babandha prākṛtaṃ yathā
tad dāma badhyamānasya svārbhakasya kṛtāgasaḥ
dvy-aṅgulonam abhūt tena sandadhe 'nyac ca gopikā
yadāsīt tad api nyūnaṃ tenānyad api sandadhe
tad api dvy-aṅgulaṃ nyūnaṃ yad yad ādatta bandhanam
evaṃ sva-geha-dāmāni yaśodā sandadhaty api
gopīnāṃ susmayantīnāṃ smayantī vismitābhavat
sva-mātuḥ svinna-gātrāyā visrasta-kabara-srajaḥ
dṛṣṭvā pariśramaṃ kṛṣṇaḥ kṛpayāsīt sva-bandhane
evaṃ sandarśitā hy aṅga hariṇā bhṛtya-vaśyatā
sva-vaśenāpi kṛṣṇena yasyedaṃ seśvaraṃ vaśe
nemaṃ viriñco na bhavo na śrīr apy aṅga-saṃśrayā
prasādaṃ lebhire gopī yat tat prāpa vimuktidāt
nāyaṃ sukhāpo bhagavān dehināṃ gopikā-sutaḥ
jñānināṃ cātma-bhūtānāṃ yathā bhaktimatām iha
kṛṣṇas tu gṛha-kṛtyeṣu vyagrāyāṃ mātari prabhuḥ
adrākṣīd arjunau pūrvaṃ guhyakau dhanadātmajau
purā nārada-śāpena vṛkṣatāṃ prāpitau madāt
nalakūvara-maṇigrīvāv iti khyātau śriyānvitau
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Bhagavata Purana, Skandha 10, Chapter 9 (Damodara Lila), in IAST transliteration. Published by GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages), University of Göttingen. The digital text is based on the critical edition of the Bhagavata Purana. Converted to Unicode (UTF-8). GRETIL texts are provided for reference purposes under the terms of use established by the GRETIL project.
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