9-20 Madhumangal; Yashoda’s Affection

श्लोक ९-२० मधु मंगल यशोद प्रीति

Madhumangal's Antics

Verse 9
Hearing the sakhas arrival, Madhumangal bursts into high pitched laughter-hi hi hi! He exclaims, "Hey friends, what's this? Is our sakha still sleeping, even though morning has come? But don't fret, I'll wake him up!"
Verse 10
Madhu gets up, but still feeling groggy, staggers into Krishna's bedroom and shouts, "Hey Krishna! Get up!"

Tika:
Madhumangal is Krishna's closest friend. He often sleeps in the same room. His parents are Sandipani Muni and Sumukhi, and his grandmother is Paurnamasi. On Nanda Maharaj's request, Sandipani Muni sent Madhumangal to his house to serve as Narayan's pujari. He also assists in other religious ceremonies. Madhu is the principal vidushaka (clown) in Krishna's entourage. He loves to eat, argue and tell jokes, and is himself often the butt of the other sakhas' teasing.

Verse 11
Krishna hears Madhumangal and wakes up, but due to insufficient sleep, his eyes roll in weariness. Thus though he wants to get up, he can't!
Verse 12
After the universal destruction, Vishnu takes refuge in the milk ocean to sleep upon the bed of Ananta. Then the Shrutis offer prayers to awaken him. Similarly, as Krishna sleeps within Nanda Maharaj's jeweled palace, which is drenched in spilled milk, Mother Yashoda arrives to awaken him.

Rasa-tarangini Tika:
The Shrutis are often likened to a mother.

Mother Yashoda's Affection

Verse 13
Yashoda sits on the bed, rests her weight on her left hand, and leans over to affectionately caress Krishna's body. Drenching the bedsheets with her ecstatic tears and flowing breast milk, she exclaims, "O child! Get up out of bed and let us see your lotus face!
Verse 14
"O vatsa (means calf. It is a common term of affection, especially of parents for their children)! Although your father knows that the cows will not give their milk until they see you, even with their calves besides them, he went to the goshala. He did not call you because he was afraid of disturbing your rest.
Verse 15
So, Gopala, get up and let me wash your face. What is this? Why are you wearing Balaram's blue garments?"
With these words, Yashoda pulled the cloth off him, turned to Paurnamasi, and said,
Verse 16
"Hey Bhagavati! Just look! All these restless cowherd boys have scratched Gopala's delicate body with their sharp nails while playing wrestling games with him. They have also marked it with different colored pigments from the forest. Hay, hay! I am at a complete loss about what I should do!"

Tika:
Due to her blind affection. Mother Yashoda sees Radha's deep blue orana (woman's upper garment or chadar) and mistakes it for Balaram's chadar. She sees Radha's nail marks on Krishna's body and thinks they were made by the cowherd boys. She also takes Radha's kunkum, kasturi and chandan, which were smeared all over Krishna's body, as evidence of the sakhas mischief!
(In the same way in Gaura lila the bruise marks from Gauranga's body are supposed to happen during sankirtan, but they are the work of the nagaris -anadi's comment)

Verse 17
Hearing his mother's words, which though astonishingly misguided out of her affection for him, Krishna feels embarrassed and his eyelids flutter in shyness and anxiety!
Verse 18-19
Sensing Krishna's discomfort, Madhumangal cleverly exclaims, "O Janani! Mother! So right you are! Krishna's keli chanchala (restless playful) friends do not listen to my restrictions. Instead, they passionately sport with Krishna in Vrindavan's forest bowers every single day!"

Rasa-tarangini Tika:
Madhumangal's words can refer either to boys or girls, since he uses a collective noun (Ali) that hides the gender of the word "friend" (vayasya or vayasyā). In this equivocal way, he confirms Mother Yashoda's assumption, as well as stating the fact.

Verse 20
Knowing the meaning of Madhu's statement, Krishna blinks his eyes to check him. At the same time, he covers this gesture with a childish grin to disarm his mother!