Krishna's Mischievous Miracle

Listen to little Krishna's world of mischief and magic, featuring miraculous uprooting of trees, in this charming story.

Krishna's Mischievous Miracle

Our dear Lord Krishna used to be very naughty when he was young.
And he has performed so many miracles.
That’s how we came to know that he is no ordinary child. He is an avatar of Lord Mahavishnu himself.
Once, in the morning, his mother Yashoda Mata was churning curd to take out the butter.
The young Lord came again and again and asked her for freshly churned butter.
She kept on saying no.
Out of anger, the Lord took a stone and threw it at the clay pot in which Yashoda Mata was churning curd. The pot broke and the entire curd spilled on the floor.
And our dear Lord ran away. Mata started running after him.
After a long chase, finally, Yashoda Mata managed to catch him.
She started tying him to a mortar.
Do you know what a mortar is?
A mortar is made of rock. It looks like a cylinder and is about 2 feet in height. Grains like rice are put into a cup-like dip made on the top side of the mortar and pounded with a long wooden pestle which looks like a rod.
By pounding the grains like this, they become powder or flour.
The husk of grains like paddy is also removed like this.
A mortar, being made of rock, is very heavy.
Even adults cannot lift it alone.
And Mata Yashoda was trying to tie our little Lord to the mortar.
Whichever rope she could find, she found them all short in length to tie around him and the mortar together. She tried tying many ropes together, still, they all fell short.
Finally, the Lord felt pity for his mother and allowed her to tie him to the mortar.
Then she went away.
All her friends also came and saw the little mischievous Lord tied to the mortar.
After some time, after everyone left, the Lord started pulling the mortar and walking towards the banks of the river Yamuna.
There, there were two big tall trees standing very close to each other. Lord Krishna managed to squeeze himself between the trees and get to the other side, but the mortar got stuck. He started pulling hard. And both the trees were uprooted and they fell down.
Mind you, Lord Krishna is a small child, and he uprooted two big trees.
Hearing the loud thud, all came running.
And they all stood amazed, some with their hands covering their mouths, some with their mouths wide open, all in awe.
And from the fallen trees, two divine men came out and disappeared into the sky.
They were all more surprised and puzzled.
Yashoda Mata immediately untied the young Lord from the mortar and took him to her lap.
Those divine men were, in fact, sons of Kubera. Kubera is the God who is in charge of all divine treasures.
These two sons of Kubera were very proud of themselves and were misbehaving once on the banks of the river Yamuna. They were cursed by a muni and they became trees.
Our dear Lord Krishna gave them relief from the curse after they stayed as trees for a long time and repented for their bad behavior.
Through this miracle, everyone’s love and affection and devotion to the Lord increased more than ever.

Knowledge Bank

Why did Krishna run away from Jarasandha?

Lord Krishna is lovingly called Rancchod (रणछोड) in North India because he left his battle with Jarasandha midway and migrated with his entire clan to Dwaraka. Mahabharata very clearly says that Balarama at one point in time was just about to kill Jarasandha. But then, an oracle was heard that Jarasandha was destined to die at the hands of Bhima. Rajasuya of Yudhishtira was the first step for the Pandavas to show their power to the world. Vanquishing someone as formidable as Jarasandha definitely would help in this. Krishna must have intended to make this happen.

What is Hastinapur called now?

Meerut. Hastinapur, the capital of the Kurus in Mahabharata is identified with Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.