SB 10.9.14 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

न चान्तर्न बहिर्यस्य न पूर्वं नापि चापरम् । पूर्वापरं बहिश्चान्तर्जगतो यो जगच्च य: ॥ १३ ॥ तं मत्वात्मजमव्यक्तं मर्त्यलिङ्गमधोक्षजम् । गोपिकोलूखले दाम्ना बबन्ध प्राकृतं यथा ॥ १४ ॥

Verse text

na cāntar na bahir yasya na pūrvaṁ nāpi cāparam pūrvāparaṁ bahiś cāntar jagato yo jagac ca yaḥ taṁ matvātmajam avyaktam martya-liṅgam adhokṣajam gopikolūkhale dāmnā babandha prākṛtaṁ yathā

Synonyms

na — not ; ca — also ; antaḥ — interior ; na — nor ; bahiḥ — exterior ; yasya — whose ; na — neither ; pūrvam — beginning ; na — nor ; api — indeed ; ca — also ; aparam — end ; pūrva — aparam — the beginning and the end ; bahiḥ ca antaḥ — the external and the internal ; jagataḥ — of the whole cosmic manifestation ; yaḥ — one who is ; jagat ca yaḥ — and who is everything in creation in total ; tam — Him ; matvā — considering ; ātmajam — her own son ; avyaktam — the unmanifested ; martya — liṅgam — appearing as a human being ; adhokṣajam — beyond sense perception ; gopikā — mother Yaśodā ; ulūkhale — to the grinding mortar ; dāmnā — by a rope ; babandha — bound ; prākṛtam yathā — as done to a common human child .

Translation

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no beginning and no end, no exterior and no interior, no front and no rear. In other words, He is all-pervading. Because He is not under the influence of the element of time, for Him there is no difference between past, present and future; He exists in His own transcendental form at all times. Being absolute, beyond relativity, He is free from distinctions between cause and effect, although He is the cause and effect of everything. That unmanifested person, who is beyond the perception of the senses, had now appeared as a human child, and mother Yaśodā, considering Him her own ordinary child, bound Him to the wooden mortar with a rope.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no beginning and no end, no exterior and no interior, no front and no rear. In other words, He is all-pervading. Because He is not under the influence of the element of time, for Him there is no difference between past, present and future; He exists in His own transcendental form at all times. Being absolute, beyond relativity, He is free from distinctions between cause and effect, although He is the cause and effect of everything. That unmanifested person, who is beyond the perception of the senses, had now appeared as a human child, and mother Yaśodā, considering Him her own ordinary child, bound Him to the wooden mortar with a rope. KB 10.9.13-14 There is no inside or outside of Him, nor beginning or end. He is unlimited and all-pervading. Indeed, He is Himself the whole cosmic manifestation. Still, Mother Yaśodā was thinking of Kṛṣṇa as her child. Although He is beyond the reach of all senses, she endeavored to bind Him to a wooden grinding mortar.

Purport

In Bhagavad-gītā (10.12), Kṛṣṇa is described as the Supreme Brahman ( paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma ). The word brahma means “the greatest.” Kṛṣṇa is greater than the greatest, being unlimited and all-pervading. How can it be possible for the all-pervading to be measured or bound? Then again, Kṛṣṇa is the time factor. Therefore, He is all-pervading not only in space but also in time. We have measurements of time, but although we are limited by past, present and future, for Kṛṣṇa these do not exist. Every individual person can be measured, but Kṛṣṇa has already shown that although He also is an individual, the entire cosmic manifestation is within His mouth. All these points considered, Kṛṣṇa cannot be measured. How then did Yaśodā want to measure Him and bind Him? We must conclude that this took place simply on the platform of pure transcendental love. This was the only cause. advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi ( Brahma-saṁhitā 5.33 ) Everything is one because Kṛṣṇa is the supreme cause of everything. Kṛṣṇa cannot be measured or calculated by Vedic knowledge ( vedeṣu durlabham ). He is available only to devotees ( adurlabham ātma-bhaktau ). Devotees can handle Him because they act on the basis of loving service ( bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ ). Thus mother Yaśodā wanted to bind Him.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Yasoda tied up with her cords of strong prema the all pervading Lord of all, who binds up with the ropes of maya everyone from Brahma to the blade of grass. With this intention the verse is spoken. It is possible to bind up limited objects by surrounded them on the outside. But for he who has great powers, and who does not have an outside, or even an inside, where can one place the rope? After establishing his pervasion of all space, the verse speaks of his pervasion of time. Time has no limit. It has no before and after. The unlimited can bind the limited, but in this case it was the opposite. The limited cannot bind the unlimited. He is also the universe, as it is a result of his sakti. The universe cannot bind him, what to speak of a rope inside the universe. One cannot say that a little boy cannot bind up the universe, because Yasoda saw the universe within his belly. How then can he be bound up? The answer is given: he is bound by uncommon parental love (atmajam matva-thinking him as her son). Though he is all powerful, by his quality of being controlled by love, by his inconceivable energy, he is bound up. He is called avyaktam because being controlled by love, he covers his powers and appears as a human ( martya lingam), even though he is beyond the material senses (adhoksajam). The strength of Yasoda’s love bound up the Lord who is the aggregate of all consciousness, just as one binds an ordinary child (prakrtam).

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

What strength of prema in Yaśodā! He has nothing outside him because he is spread everywhere. And contrary to that, he has nothing inside him. He has nothing previous to him or after him. Without being the cause, without being the effect, he is the universe. How can he be bound by rope which is manifested from a portion of energy of the universe which arises from his energy? Fire cannot be burned by fire. The negative na is repeated to strengthen the statement. The word ca means “though.” In spite of his powers she bound him. Because the phrases of the relative clauses refer to him because of the relationship of yaḥ to tam, his svarūpa is indicated in those clauses. How could he be bound like a material child? He had the form of that looked like a human child. “Then how can you say he has no inside or outside?” His form is beyond sense knowledge (adhokṣajam). nityāvakto ‘pi bhagavān īksāte nija-śaktitaḥ tam ṛte paramātnānaṁ kaḥ paśyed amitam prabhum The lord, eternally invisible, is seen by his śakti. Without his mercy who can see Paramātmā, the unlimited master? Nārāyaṇādhyātma He cannot be seen by anyone. Thus he is called avyakta. His very nature however is his inconceivable power by which he is either manifest or unmanifest. arvāg devā asya visarjanenātha ko veda yata āvabhuva The devatās are younger than the Lord. Who, then, can tell whence he has come into being? Ṛg Veda 3.54.5 acintyā khalu ye bhāvā taṁs tarkeṇa yojayet prakṛtibhyaḥ paraṁ yat tu tad acintyasya lakṣaṇam Inconceivable objects are beyond logical explanation. Objects beyond the material world have this inconceivable quality. Mahābhārata śrutes tu śabda-mūlatvāt The scripture is the main evidence for non-material subjects. Brahma-sūtra 2.1.27 Madhva has quoted the following from śruti and Purāṇas: asthulo ‘nanur amadhyamo madhyamo ‘vyapako hariḥ The Lord is not gross, is not small, is not average size, but is also of average size, not spreading everywhere. Nṛsiṁha-tāpanī Upaniṣad asthūlaś cānaṇuś caiva sthūlo ‘ṇuś cāpi sarvataḥ avarṇaḥ sarvataḥ proktaḥ śyāmo raktānta-locanaḥ aiśvarya yogād bhavagān viruddhārtho abhidhīyate The Lord is not heavy and not small. But he is heavy and small at all times. He has no color at all but he is black with reddish eyes. Because of his endowment of powers, Bhagavān is said to have contrary characteristics. Kūrma Purāṇa turīyam aturīyam ātmānam anātmānam ugram anagram vīram av;piraṁ mahāntam amahaṇtam; viṣnum aviṣnuṁ jvalantam ajvalantaṁ sarvato mukham asarvatomukham The Lord is beyond inconceivable and conceivable, is spiritual and material, is fierce and gentle, is courageous and cowardly, is great and small. He is pervading and not pervading. He is fiery and not fiery. He has his face everywhere and nowhere. Nṛsimha-tāpanī Upaniṣad The Lord himself has directly stated: mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā | mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ || na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni paśya me yogam aiśvaram | bhūta-bhṛn na ca bhūta-stho mamātmā bhūta-bhāvanaḥ || I pervade this whole universe by my form which is invisible to material eyes, and simultaneously all entities are within me. But I am not in them. And the living beings are not in me. See my inconceivable power. I maintain them and protect them, but I am not in them. My mind maintains and protects them. BG 9.4-5 Simultaneously two opposite conditions (visible and invisible, without inside or outside) can occur because of the inconceivable, unlimited contrary and non-contrary śakti of the Lord. Thus Yaśodā could see the universe in his mouth, though he was seated on her lap. All the ropes were always two fingers too short. Because the Lord is endowed with natural inconceivable powers, the pastimes cannot be considered the work of māyā, illusion. If he has such great powers, anything is easily accomplished by him. Why did she not see his grandeur? She thought of him as her son. Because of her full rasa of vātsalya his powerful portion was covered. She bound him around the waist. That is not mentioned because it is well known from his name Dāmodara. Hari-vaṁśa however says dāmnā caivodare baddhvā pratyabandhad ulūkhale: he was bound by a cord around his waist to a mortar. She bound him so that it was not painful, but because she feared he would run away in fear. The mortar was not within the gate of the house. It was in front of the door, since he went towards the two sacred arjuna trees pulling the mortar later. The trees’ sacred nature will be explained later.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

The great fortune of Yaśodā is described in two verses. He has no inside or outside. He has no previous or later part, since he is by nature beyond conception, being a form of eternity, knowledge and bliss. This indicates his all-pervasive nature. The negative na is repeated to strengthen the statement. The word ca means “though.” In spite of his powers she bound him. Or he cannot be bound because he is all pervading. Like the sky he is inside and outside. He has no cause (pūrvam) and effect (aparam). He is beyond conception because he is always one form. Moreover it is not possible to tie him up. He is inside and outside, cause and effect. Moreover he is beyond the senses (adhokṣajam) because he is very fine (avyaktam). But he has a manifested human form by his mercy. Or she thought of him as her son, who had been saved from the crashing cart as if born again (adhokṣajam). Like tying an elephant to a post, she tied him with soft rope used for churning, made by the cowherds, to the mortar which he had brought for stealing the butter, as if he were an ordinary child (prākrṭam yathā). Or though he had an attractive form, with soft limbs, like normal children, she tied him up. She did this because her heart was flooded with affection for him as his mother (gopikāḥ), and wanted to protect him (gopa). She tied him around his waist. This is not stated since it is well known by his name Dāmodara. Hari-vaṁśa however says dāmnā caivodare baddhvā pratyabandhad ulūkhale: he was bound by a cord around his waist to a mortar. She bound him so that it was not painful.