As we’ve witnessed in the previous episode, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna is now growing up and as He grows up, His naughtiness also grows along with Him! 🙂 As a child, He starts venturing out into other people’s homes, does some mischief and captures the attention of all the households in Gokula. Upon seeing this child unleashing His pranks at such an early age, the Gokula residents on one hand are in awe of Bhagawan Bala-Krishna. However on the other hand, they’re getting increasingly irritated with Bhagawan Bala-Krishna’s notorious behavior and thus try to “ban” His entry into their homes! As they do this, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna too takes up a vow not to enter into their homes again! However, just within few hours of “banning” His entry, the Gokula residents realize that they are starting to miss Him and His childish pranks. How can they be so harsh to a baby like that? Thus, all of them go back to Yashoda’s home and convince Bhagawan Bala-Krishna to dwell into their homes again. Such is the way in which Bhagawan Bala-Krishna captured people’s hearts with His divine childhood pranks.
Moving on further, as Bhagawan Bala-Krishna is getting a bit older and bigger, He now starts to “conspire” on how to steal butter and consume. Of course, Mother Yashoda knew that her son was extremely fond of freshly prepared butter and thus, she feeds Him with ample amounts of it. However, Bhagawan Bala-krishna has a desire – He doesn’t like to eat butter directly if someone gives it to Him. Rather, He feels that the taste of butter would be even greater if He steals it from others without their knowledge! Thus, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna slowly starts executing His plans of stealing butter from the Gokula residents. As Bhagawan Bala-Krishna is doing this on a constant basis every passing day, He is worshipped as Bhagawan Navaneetha-Chora.
Sage Paraashara beautifully explains the “modus operandi” of Bhagawan Bala-Krishna’s “butter pursuit” – He ventures out of His house during the middle of the night. As He’s black in color, nobody can easily recognize Him in the dark. Thus, He selects His spot for the night and quietly enters into that home without making any noise. As Bhagawan Bala-Krishna enters into the house, He pulls off His top coat and exposes His crest gem ornament. The ornament shines with moonlight that falls directly upon it. With this moonlight reflection, Bhagawan Bala-Krishna slowly crawls towards the place where the butter is stored. He locates it successfully, climbs over a small piece of furniture that lies beside it, opens the lid of the pot and starts consuming the butter! If by mistake there’s any noise from His end, and if someone realizes that something is happening at their home, He would immediately run away from that place through the exit door. Since Bhagawan Bala-Krishna is black in color, again He uses it to His advantage to flee off that scene without getting caught! Such was Bhagawan Bala-Krishna’s “Operation butter” and this process was happening not just for that one night, but every night after that! During the daytime when the residents check their pots, the entire lot of butter would be missing!
We might wonder whether this “Navaneetha-Chora” is running scott free everytime! Doesn’t he get caught for all what He’s doing every night? Let’s wait till the next episode to witness how Gokula residents try and tackle this “notorious” butter stealer! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 