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Roped Around the Abdomen

This month, from the 23rd October till the 21st November 2024, marks the most auspicious time of the year, Kartik season. In this divine period, followers of Shri Krishna celebrate his mischevious child incarnation, Lord Damodara, meaning 'roped around the abdomen.' Devotees offer a candle to the deity of Lord Damodara and chant this mystical Bhajan, the Damodarastakam, written by Vyasadeva.


Baby Krishna is being tied to a wooden grinding mortar by Mother Yasoda.
Lord Damodara is bound by Mother Yasoda's love

namāmīśvaraṁ sac-cid-ānanda-rūpaṁ

lasat-kuṇḍalaṁ gokule bhrājamanam 

yaśodā-bhiyolūkhalād dhāvamānaṁ 

parāmṛṣṭam atyantato drutya gopyā


To the Supreme Lord, whose form is the embodiment of eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss, whose shark-shaped earrings are swinging to and fro, who is beautifully shining in the divine realm of Gokula, who I (due to the offense of breaking the pot of yogurt that His mother was churning into butter and then stealing the butter that was kept hanging from a swing) is quickly running from the wooden grinding mortar in fear of mother Yasoda, but who has been caught from behind by her who ran after Him with greater speed--to that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble obeisances.

 


rudantaṁ muhur netra-yugmaṁ mṛjantam 

karāmbhoja-yugmena sātaṅka-netram

muhuḥ śvāsa-kampa-trirekhāṅka-kaṇṭha- 

sthita-graivaṁ dāmodaraṁ bhakti-baddham


(Seeing the whipping stick in His mother's hand) He is crying and rubbing His eyes again and again with His two lotus hands. His eyes are filled with fear, and the necklace of pearls around His neck, which is marked with three lines like a conch shell, is shaking because of His quick breathing due to crying. To this Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, whose belly is bound not with ropes but with His mother's pure love, I offer my humble obeisances.


itīdṛk sva-līlābhir ānanda-kuṇḍe 

sva-ghoṣaṁ nimajjantam ākhyāpayantam 

tadīyeṣita-jñeṣu bhaktair jitatvaṁ 

punaḥ prematas taṁ śatāvṛtti vande

 

By such childhood pastimes as this He is drowning the inhabitants of Gokula in pools of ecstasy, and is revealing to those devotees who are absorbed in knowledge of His supreme majesty and opulence that He is only conquered by devotees whose pure love is imbues with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of awe and reverence. With great love I again offer my obeisances to Lord Damodara hundreds and hundreds of times.


varaṁ deva mokṣaṁ na mokṣāvadhiṁ vā 

na canyaṁ vṛṇe ‘haṁ vareṣād apīha 

idaṁ te vapur nātha gopāla-bālaṁ 

sadā me manasy āvirāstāṁ kim anyaiḥ

 

O Lord, although You are able to give all kinds of benedictions, I do not pray to You for the boon of impersonal liberation, nor the highest liberation of eternal life in Vaikuntha, nor any other boon (which may be obtained by executing the nine processes of bhakti). O Lord, I simply wish that this form of Yours as Bala Gopala in Vrndavana may ever be manifest in my heart, for what is the use to me of any other boon besides this?


idaṁ te mukhāmbhojam atyanta-nīlair 

vṛtaṁ kuntalaiḥ snigdha-raktaiś ca gopyā 

muhuś cumbitaṁ bimba-raktādharaṁ

me manasy āvirāstām alaṁ lakṣa-lābhaiḥ

 

O Lord, Your lotus face, which is encircled by locks of soft black hair tinged with red, is kissed again and again by mother Yasoda, and Your lips are reddish like the bimba fruit. May this beautiful vision of Your lotus face be ever manifest in my heart. Thousands and thousands of other benedictions are of no use to me.


namo deva dāmodarānanta viṣṇo 

prasīda prabho duḥkha-jālābdhi-magnam 

kṛpā-dṛṣṭi-vṛṣṭyāti-dīnaṁ batānu 

gṛhāṇeṣa mām ajñam edhy akṣi-dṛśyaḥ

 

O Supreme Godhead, I offer my obeisances unto You. O Damodara! O Ananta! O Vishnu! O master! O my Lord, be pleased upon me. By showering Your glance of mercy upon me, deliver this poor ignorant fool who is immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows, and become visible to my eyes.


kuverātmajau baddha-mūrtyaiva yadvat 

tvayā mocitau bhakti-bhājau kṛtau ca 

tathā prema-bhaktiṁ svakāṁ me prayaccha 

na mokṣe graho me ‘sti dāmodareha


O Lord Damodara, just as the two sons of Kuvera, Manigriva and Nalakuvara, were delivered from the curse of Narada and made into great devotees by You in Your form as a baby tied with rope to a wooden grinding mortar, in the same way, please give to me Your own prema-bhakti. I only long for this and have no desire for any kind of liberation.

 

namas te ‘stu dāmne sphurad-dīpti-dhāmne 

tvadīyodarāyātha viśvasya dhāmne 

namo rādhikāyai tvadīya-priyāyai 

namo ‘nanta-līlāya devāya tubhyam


O Lord Damodara, I first of all offer my obeisances to the brilliantly effulgent rope which binds Your belly. I then offer my obeisances to Your belly, which is the abode of the entire universe. I humbly bow down to Your most beloved Srimati Radharani, and I offer all obeisances to You, the Supreme Lord, who displays unlimited pastimes.

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