When Krishna is caught red handed while stealing butter, He pretends He is innocent. But the evidence is all over his face and body, for He has smeared the butter over His body. He has also been happily sharing butter with monkeys! Perhaps this explains the covering of idols of Hanuman with butter in temples, for nowhere does the Ramayana talk of monkeys being fed butter. The practice, therefore, perhaps owes its origin to Krishna’s prank.
Yasoda has run out of patience. She picks up frayed pieces of rope and ties them together. Using this rope, she ties Krishna by His waist to a grinding stone. How could a frayed rope deter the movements of the Supreme One? But the rope was enough to hold Him in place, because it was Yasoda’s bhakti that was the real fastening rope, said M.S. Srikanth in a discourse. He submitted to being tied up because of her devotion. He thus earned the name Damodara- dAma (rope) and udara (belly).
Such is the Lord’s attachment to those who have bhakti towards Him. It must be bhakti that does not seek any favour or reward in return. It is this kind of bhakti that Andal is talking of in the fifth verse of Her Thiruppavai. The Lord says in the Gita that He gladly accepts leaves, flowers, fruits, and water offered to Him with bhakti.
There is a story about a man who did not offer the Lord anything. When the Lord asked him if he could not offer flowers or fruits or leaves or even water, the man replied that he couldn’t afford anything. And then the Lord asked, “Not even the water that is in your eyes?” If we are unable to offer Him anything, we should feel sorry about it and shed tears over our situation. That is the moral of this story. Pure bhakti moves Him.