- Krishnashtakam https://youtu.be/-OqY_ZbIT-k
- Shree Govinda Damodara stotram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--3BXJuMVQ0
- Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 - Sankhya yoga verses 39-72 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwv-WSJSokEORu2iEsVanXQhQHOoiiQIy
| T | It was time for a popcorn reading of Bala Bhagavatham. The chapter for the popcorn reading was continuation of Lord Krishna's childhood antics. After getting a sigh of relief from the tragic happenings with the baby boy, Nanda and Yashoda decide to perform the naming ceremony of the boy. As per custom and Indian tradition, the newborn are to be named after consullting the local priest or kula guru and panchang. Maharshi Garg was Yadava's guru. Per the request of Nanda. Garg maharishi fixed a time and date for the naming ceremony. Nanda's family became busy with preparations for naming ceremonies, although villagers wanted it to be huge, sensing some danger, Nanda decided that the ceremony will be a low key one and would be performed in goshala - cow shed, instead of the tradition of performing in the house. On the designated auspicious day and muhurta, Nand Baba, invites sage Garg to his home to perform the ceremony. Sage Garg first performs the ceremony to another baby boy that was born to Vasudeva from his first wife Rohini who also happened to live in Gokul. Garg rishi names Rohini's son as Balarama - the powerful one and blesses him to be a powerful warrior when he grows up. After naming Balarama, Garg Muni takes Yashoda's baby into his lap and looks at the dark-skinned beautiful kid - instantly names him "Krishna - the one with dark skin" Krishna in Sanskrit literally means black. Everyone will be surprised to know that even Krishna was bullied and taunted by his fellow kids on his name and skin color and was called Kanha/ Kanhaiya the black one. All it tells that human psychology and kids' instincts have been the same since time immemorial. There are beautiful episodes throughout all Indian languages on this - one is the famous from Sant Surdas's Sur Sagar. Krishna used to constantly complain to Yashoda on the predicament he was in - kids around him used to taunt him - why is Krishna's mother Yashoda is fair and why Krishna is black/ dark skinned. Krishna was growing up and soon became a darling of the village, while they were all tired of his antics - stealing the freshly made butter, yogurt and all the mess he and his entourage used to leave behind, but none could come close to taking him to task and admonish him. As soon as they wanted to teach him a lesson or admonish him, they would take one look at his face and would feel guilty looking at his innocent face and let Krishna go unpunished 😀 One day Balarama caught Krishna eating dirt from the ground and drags him to Yashoda and complains to her about Krishna. Krishna plays his usual trick and poses an innocent face and denies the whole thing. Yashoda was already fed up with his antics and was worried about him becoming sick and demanded that Krishna open his mouth and prove his innocence. Krishna eventually opens his mouth and to the astonishment of Yashoda sees all the 14 worlds, the entire universe!!! One day mother Yashoda was tired of Krishna's antics - Krishna broke a pot of butter and made a mess of the kitchen. All this because, he was angry because she left in the middle of feeding to attend to boiling milk. Yashoda wanted to teach Krishna a lesson - she stealthily tried to come from his rear and catch him, Krishna was aware of this and started running away, seeing maa Yashoda chasing him with a wand, he ran faster. this continued for a while and Krishna let himself caught after seeing his mother tired and frustrated. Having cuaght him, she got a rope and tried to tie around his waist and secure him to mortar, only to realize that the rope was a little short. So maa Yashoda, gets a longer piece of rope, and yet again it falls short. This drama goes on for several more times, every time she tries to tie Krishna, rope falls a few inches shorter. Once again, seeing mother getting frustrated, Krishna finally stops his antics and lets her tie him to the mortar and goes back into her kitchen to take care of the mess. In the meantime, Krishna doesn't sit quiet. He starts to struggle to get free of the rope and mortar. The mortar flips and starts rolling. Krishna feels amused and starts crawling and gets stuck as the mortar gets stuck between two large trees. Krishna struggles to dislodge himslef of the mortar and in the process starts shaking the mortar. With all this struggle, the trees came loose and fall to the ground with a thud. Out of the fallen trees, came two Gandharva's - Nala Kubera and Mangareva. The two were sons of Kubera who got cursed for their arrogance when they belittled sage Narada who cursed them to be trees until a great person and deliver them from the curse. The two Gandharva's bow to lord Krishna, who blesses them and regain their original form. Hearing the huge thud sound, Yashoda rushes outside to see if Krishna is safe and to her horror and amusement sees baby Krishna playful and playing in between the two huge fallen trees! With this, the time was up and was time for Bhavad Gita Chanting, aarati and pledge. We covered slokas 47-48 Until we meet next time Shivram & Meena |