The world’s anticipation
Stars glistened in the dark but clear sky and were positioned auspiciously. All the other planets and celestial objects steadily moved with tranquility. Mother Earth proudly continued adorning her ornaments of towns, villages, fields, and forests. Buoyant songbirds and susurrus bees buzzed and twittered with joy as they were caressed by an aromatic zephyr. Every lake was brimming with water, and every tree wore lush green leaves. All of nature was at its best.
Meanwhile, Devaki and Vasudeva were resting inside their prison cell in Mathura. Devaki was pregnant for the eighth time, and the couple was eagerly awaiting the birth of their child.
Their first six baby sons had all been killed by Devaki’s cruel cousin King Kamsa—the same cousin who had thrown her and Vasudeva into prison—fearing their eighth child who was prophesied to be his nemesis.
The unborn child from Devaki’s seventh pregnancy had been transferred to the womb of Vasudeva’s other wife by Yogamaya, a form of Durga. Rohini—having fled from the tyrannical rule of Kamsa—was living with their friend Yashoda in the farming community on the other side of the Yamuna River, where the baby was growing safely.
Arriving with grandeur
As the night advanced, a sudden sense of deep joy pervaded every good heart. A beautiful child with four broad arms and lotus-like eyes emerged from Devaki’s womb. With one hand, the divine baby held a conch shell, and with another he held the chakra weapon. His third arm held a mace, and his fourth delicately held a fully bloomed lotus. His chest, where Sri Mahalakshmi resided, bore the Srivatsa mark. The child’s effulgent skin—black as the dense thunderclouds that were starting to form in the sky—was dressed in bright yellow silks and filled with exquisite ornaments and jewelry.
Both Vasudeva and Devaki knew that this incredible child was indubitably Sriman Narayana. One after the other, they each began addressing the Lord prayerfully. They listened awestruck as the Lord narrated the stories of their past lives.
But almost as quickly as he had appeared, the Lord transformed himself into a normal little newborn boy. Then, to carry out the next stages of his plan, Sriman Narayana enlisted the same powerful Yogamaya who had transported Rohini’s son.
Yogamaya’s hidden hand
Yogamaya started off by being born as a baby girl to Yashoda—the chief woman of the farming community Gokula—who was also pregnant at the time. Vasudeva, under the influence of Yogamaya, fell into a trance and felt compelled to take the newborn baby to Gokula where Yashoda’s husband, his friend Nanda, lived.
As he stood up, the shackles and chains binding his wrists and ankles suddenly fell apart. Devaki carefully held her baby in her arms and lovingly squeezed his cheeks again and again before handing him over to her husband with a heavy heart. Vasudeva had lined a woven basket with layers of soft pieces of cloth and placed the baby inside the basket.
As Vasudeva began walking with the basket in his arms, the iron prison doors that were locked down with heavy iron locks flew open as if by magic. Of course, it was all Yogamaya’s doing. Vasudeva peeped outside the prison cell. Every single security guard was not only fast asleep but was also snoring loudly. Not a single person was found on the streets. All of Mathura was fast asleep.
As Vasudeva continued walking across the city, his every action controlled by Yogamaya, a sudden downpour of torrential rain abruptly began. The water was longing to touch the Lord whom Vasudeva was holding as his child. But within moments, Adishesha—Sriman Narayana’s divine snake bed—appeared and used his many hoods as an umbrella to shield Vasudeva and his baby from the storm.
The water didn’t lose hope, though. It decided to touch the Lord by way of the Yamuna River, which was brimming with stormwater. When Vasudeva reached the riverbank, the water gracefully parted, opening up a pathway for him to easily walk through. However, a flash flood suddenly struck. The water rose higher and higher. It reached Vasudeva’s stomach. He immediately placed the basket on his head so the baby wouldn’t get wet. But then the water started rising even higher until it reached all the way up to Vasudeva’s neck.
The omniscient Lord felt compassion toward the water. He stuck his little toe out of the basket and gently touched the flooding river. Immediately, the flood ceased, and the gratified water fell back down.
“Just wait,” he told the river. “I will grow up on your lap, playing in your water every day.”
Vasudeva finally reached Gokula. He headed straight to his friend Nanda’s house, where Nanda’s wife Yashoda was lying fast asleep. Even the midwives around had fallen into a deep sleep. Beside Yashoda was a newborn baby girl. Vasudeva quickly swapped Yashoda’s baby girl with his own baby boy. Then, he returned to his prison cell in Mathura with the same ease with which he left, all thanks to Yogamaya’s hidden hand.
Glee in Gokula
The next morning, Yashoda shrieked in joy when she saw the beautiful baby boy beside her. She had been so fatigued when she gave birth that she had fallen asleep before even checking whether it was a boy or a girl.
The news that the dairymaid queen Yashoda had finally given birth to a baby flew around the village. All the cowherds and dairymaids rushed straight to Yashoda’s mansion. Even without having seen the baby, they all felt an inexorable and inexplicable sense of joy because of the child’s abounding charm and divinity.
The villagers tripped and fell as they ran to Yashoda, but their exhilaration didn’t dampen even slightly.
“Where is the baby?” they all asked, unable to hold in their anticipation. “Oh, please, tell me, where is the baby?”
And when they caught a glimpse of the heavenly child with large eyes and beautiful black skin, they were all spellbound with love and bliss.
One dairymaid’s eyes went wide. “This little child’s greatness is unmatched,” she said. “There is no one else as exemplary as him.”
“Yes, yes!” a cowherd declared. “This boy will rule the entire world. I just know it!”
All the villagers lost themselves in joy. They beetled from side to side mindlessly and threw nice pots of fresh milk and yogurt all over the porch and onto each other. They grabbed each other’s hands and danced thoughtlessly, messing their own hair and smearing butter and ghee all over their own bodies.
The birth of this extraordinary boy had transported the entire Gokula into a state of transcendental bliss.
This story is found partially in the tenth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam and partially within the verses of the Periazhvar Thirumozhi.
