Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.9.1-2

śrī-śuka uvāca

ekadā griha-dāsīshu

yaśodā nanda-gehinī

karmāntara-niyuktāsu

nirmamantha svayam dadhi

yāni yānīha gītāni

tad-bāla-caritāni ca

dadhi-nirmanthane kāle

smarantī tāny agāyata

SYNONYMS

śrī-śukah uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said; ekadā — one day; griha-dāsīshu — when all the maidservants of the household were otherwise engaged; yaśodā — mother Yaśodā; nanda-gehinī — the queen of Nanda Mahārāja; karma-antara — in other household affairs; niyuktāsu — being engaged; nirmamantha — churned; svayam — personally; dadhi — the yogurt; yāni — all such; yāni — such; iha — in this connection; gītāni — songs; tat-bāla-caritāni — in which the activities of her own child were enacted; ca — and; dadhi-nirmanthane — while churning the yogurt; kāle — at that time; smarantī — remembering; tāni — all of them (in the form of songs); agāyata — chanted.

TRANSLATION

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: One day when mother Yaśodā saw that all the maidservants were engaged in other household affairs, she personally began to churn the yogurt. While churning, she remembered the childish activities of Krishna, and in her own way she composed songs and enjoyed singing to herself about all those activities.

PURPORT

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura, quoting from the Vaishnava-toshanī of Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, says that the incident of Krishna's breaking the pot of yogurt and being bound by mother Yaśodā took place on the Dipavali Day, or Dīpa-mālikā. Even today in India, this festival is generally celebrated very gorgeously in the month of Kārtika by fireworks and lights, especially in Bombay. It is to be understood that among all the cows of Nanda Mahārāja, several of mother Yaśodā's cows ate only grasses so flavorful that the grasses would automatically flavor the milk. Mother Yaśodā wanted to collect the milk from these cows, make it into yogurt and churn it into butter personally, since she thought that this child Krishna was going to the houses of neighborhood gopas and gopīs to steal butter because He did not like the milk and yogurt ordinarily prepared.

While churning the butter, mother Yaśodā was singing about the childhood activities of Krishna. It was formerly a custom that if one wanted to remember something constantly, he would transform it into poetry or have this done by a professional poet. It appears that mother Yaśodā did not want to forget Krishna's activities at any time. Therefore she poeticized all of Krishna's childhood activities, such as the killing of Pūtanā, Aghāsura, Śakatāsura and Trināvarta, and while churning the butter, she sang about these activities in poetical form. This should be the practice of persons eager to remain Krishna conscious twenty-four hours a day. This incident shows how Krishna conscious mother Yaśodā was. To stay in Krishna consciousness, we should follow such persons.

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