Yashoda and Rohini's sons grew up very fast.

Soon, they were playing with the calves and the cows of the village. And they were a rowdy and beautiful bunch of toddlers who had captivated the entire village.

The gopas would just not believe the number of pranks, the two toddlers along with their friends would do all around the village.

They would release calves when it was time for the cow to feed them and the gopas would rush after the prancing calf to bring it back to their house. Then they would steal curd, butter and milk from every household and after sharing it, they would give it to the monkeys around the place. Krishna somehow was always in the thick of all of it.

And once when one of the gopa ladies caught Krishna red handed, he gave her a toothless grin – one that was so cute and heart breaking that the gopa ladies just could not even stay angry at Krishna anymore.

Despite this the gopa ladies came to Yashoda daily, with a huge list of complaints and they just would not believe it when they saw Krishna sitting innocently in the corner of his home as if he did not even understand what the ladies were talking about.

But almost everyone realized one thing – the gopa ladies – they did not come to complain – they came to look at Yashoda's son and enjoy his beautiful pranks again.

(There is a very interesting description in the Bhagavata about this description. It seems the gopa ladies put the curds and pots in a room and tied it high up in the room and as a further deterrence, they closed all the windows to the room, so that the room would be dark. It seems Krishna found his way in the dark room because the room was illuminated by the jewels that he wore – another sure sign of the opulence of the Gopas.)

*****

Once Balarama and his friends came running towards Yashoda panting.

"What?" Yashoda asked wondering what new thing Krishna had dragged in today.

In fact, Krishna had not even left the home today. He had been sitting in the courtyard quietly – which was very much unlike Krishna.

"He is eating mud, mother!" Balarama said looking at Yashoda slightly horrified.

Yashoda blinked and rapidly walked out of the home. "What?" She asked faintly.

Krishna was coming inside the home and as usual he had that look that he had been upto some mischief and he stubbornly kept his mouth shut.

"What is your brother saying?" Yashoda demanded looking at Krishna as she was annoyed.

"What is he saying?" Krishna asked in his cute lisping toddler talk.

"Why did you eat mud?" Yashoda asked bending down as she looked at Krishna very, very annoyed. Somehow, she had no doubt that Balarama was speaking the truth.

"I didn't!" Krishna said almost vehemently. "Balarama and others are all lying."

"Open your mouth." Yashoda said struggling not to sigh.

Krishna for once obeyed his mother.

For Yashoda, everything around her stood still. Because what she was seeing was not possible.

She was seeing the entire universe inside her son's mouth. She saw the planets, the elements, the souls of people, their karma...she saw it all.

(Interestingly, this was the second time, she had seen this. Once when Krishna was younger and Yashoda was feeding milk to him, she had had the same experience.)

It was said that for a second, Yashoda became a "gnani" - a person of highest knowledge who understands everything in the universe.

But by the power of Goddess Yogamaya, the memory of what she had seen faded and Yashoda was just a normal mother looking at her son.

And she did not even remember that she had been angry with her son as she cuddled him slowly and smiled and walked away from there.

******

Once Krishna just broke far too many things in and around the home.

He had just wanted butter and he had split hot milk and then broken the pestle too.

Yashoda had just had it. For once she was really angry at Krishna as she picked up a stick to hit Krishna.

Krishna looked terrified as he backed away from Yashoda.

Yashoda was annoyed as she saw the stick and threw it away.

But today she had decided that Krishna needed to be punished.

So she tied Krishna. She tried to.

It seems every rope that Yashoda tied, fell short of an inch to tie Krishna. She tied another rope to this one and still this fell short too.

The other Gopa ladies just could not believe it. Yashoda had brought the ropes from all over the home and she still could not tie Krishna.

Yashoda was tired. Really tired and that was when she had successfully managed to bind the child. (It was said that Krishna relented on seeing his mother look so tired.)

"Stay here!" Yashoda told Krishna angrily and walked away from the place – back to her work.

Naturally, Krishna would not listen. Outside, he saw two Arjuna trees. (Arjuna trees are around 20-25 meters tall and have very strong trunks)

*********

Much before the birth of Krishna, Kubera, the God of Wealth had two sons – Nalakuvara and Manigriva.

The two sons were womanizers and were drunkards too. As they were enjoying the company of women once, they were naked and they had even failed to note that Sage Narada had come near the river that they were enjoying themselves.

Sage Narada was furious with the two sons of Kubera. He cursed them to become arjuna trees.

Out of the mercy of his heart, Narada added a caveat to his curse that the two sons of Kubera would be freed when they came in contact with Vasudeva and they would pray him with devotion.

********

Krishna just could not let it be as he dragged the mortar to which he was bound and dragged it through the entire home. He pushed himself in between the arjuna trees, but the mortar was stuck in between the trees. Krishna just would not let it be as he pulled and pulled.

He pulled the mortar such a vigour that the two Arjuna trees fell hard.

The entire Gokul heard the resounding crash and saw Krishna tied to a mortar and the broken trees.

And all the Gopas definitely missed two transparent beings bow to the dark child as the two beings vanished from there.

The children of the Gopas told the adults that Krishna had been the one to pull the mortar and they even said that they saw two luminescent beings near Krishna. But naturally none of the adults believed the children.

Nanda smiled at the bound Krishna and released him, thinking that the child had learnt his lesson.