SB 10.9.17

Devanāgarī

एवं स्वगेहदामानि यशोदा सन्दधत्यपि । गोपीनां सुस्मयन्तीनां स्मयन्ती विस्मिताभवत् ॥ १७ ॥

Text

evaṁ sva-geha-dāmāni yaśodā sandadhaty api gopīnāṁ susmayantīnāṁ smayantī vismitābhavat

Synonyms

evam—in this manner;sva-geha-dāmāni—all the ropes available in the household;yaśodā—mother Yaśodā;sandadhatiapi—although she was joining one after another;gopīnām—when all the other elderlygopīfriends of mother Yaśodā;su-smayantīnām—were all taking pleasure in this funny affair;smayantī—mother Yaśodā was also smiling;vismitāabhavat—all of them were struck with wonder.

Translation

Thus mother Yaśodā joined whatever ropes were available in the household, but still she failed in her attempt to bind Kṛṣṇa. Mother Yaśodā’s friends, the elderly gopīs in the neighborhood, were smiling and enjoying the fun. Similarly, mother Yaśodā, although laboring in that way, was also smiling. All of them were struck with wonder.

Purport

Actually this incident was wonderful because Kṛṣṇa was only a child with small hands. To bind Him should have required only a rope not more than two feet long. All the ropes in the house combined together might have been hundreds of feet long, but still He was impossible to bind, for all the ropes together were still too short. Naturally mother Yaśodā and her gopī friends thought, “How is this possible?” Seeing this funny affair, all of them were smiling. The first rope was short by a measurement the width of two fingers, and after the second rope was added, it was still two fingers too short. If the shortness of all the ropes were added together, it must have amounted to the width of hundreds of fingers. Certainly this was astonishing. This was another exhibition of Kṛṣṇa’s inconceivable potency to His mother and His mother’s friends.

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