The Butter Thief of Gokul

Raised by Nanda and Yashoda, Krishna grew into the most charming and troublesome child Gokul had known. He and his friends formed human ladders to reach hanging butter pots, ate their fill and fed the monkeys the rest.

The gopis came daily to complain, yet left smiling — no one could stay angry at him for long. Yashoda once tied him to a heavy grinding mortar to keep him still; he dragged it between two trees and freed two cursed demigods trapped in them.

When his playmates told Yashoda he had eaten mud, she made him open his mouth — and saw within it the whole cosmos, stars, oceans and her own village. Overwhelmed, she asked the vision to fade so she could love him simply as her son.