THE BUTTER THIEVES
The gopis complained to mother Yasoda: “If we keep our stock of yogurt, butter, and milk in a solitary dark place, your Krsna and Balarama find it in the darkness by the glaring effulgence of the ornaments and jewels on Their bodies. If by chance They cannot find the hidden butter and yogurt, They go to our little babies and pinch their bodies so that they cry, and then They go away. If we keep our stock of butter and yogurt high on the ceiling, in a pot hanging on a swing, although it is beyond Their reach They try to reach it by piling all kinds of wooden planks on top of a grinding machine. And if They still cannot reach the mouth of the pot, They poke a hole in the bottom. So we think that you’d better take all the jeweled ornaments from the bodies of your children.”
On hearing this, Yasoda would say, “All right, I will take all the jewels from Krsna so that He cannot see the butter hidden in the darkness.”
Then the gopis would day, “No, no, don’t do this. What good will it do to take away the jewels? We do not know what kind of boys these are, but even without ornaments They spread some kind of effulgence so that even in the dark They can see everything.”
PAINTING BY DHRTI – DEVI DASI (1978)