Vasudeva Crosses the Yamuna

On a stormy night Vasudeva carried the newborn Krishna across the flooded Yamuna to Gokul, while Sheshnag spread his hoods like an umbrella above the Lord.

Before taking the form of a baby, the Lord had instructed Vasudeva to carry him to the house of Nanda Baba in Gokul and to bring back the newborn daughter of Yashoda. The moment Vasudeva lifted the child, Yogamaya cast a deep sleep over the guards. The chains fell from his hands and feet, and the heavy prison doors swung open on their own.

Outside, rain was pouring, lightning flashed and thunder roared. Vasudeva placed the baby in a basket, lifted it onto his head and set out. Then Sheshnag, the great divine serpent, followed close behind and spread his many hoods over the Lord like an umbrella, so that not a single drop of rain could touch him.

That night the Yamuna was in fierce flood. The Bhagavatam says that just as the ocean once made way for Shri Rama, the Yamuna made way for Vasudeva. According to the popular tradition, the waters kept rising as if the river longed to touch her Lord's feet, and when baby Krishna let one tiny foot slip out of the basket and touch the water, the river was satisfied, the flood receded and a path opened.

In Gokul everyone was asleep. That same night Yashoda had given birth to a daughter, who was Yogamaya herself, but she too lay in deep sleep. Quietly Vasudeva laid the baby boy beside Yashoda, took the girl in his arms and returned to Mathura. As soon as he entered the prison, the chains closed again and the doors shut as before.

The cry of the baby girl woke the guards, who ran to tell Kansa. Devaki pleaded that it was only a daughter and begged him to spare her, but Kansa snatched the child to dash her against a stone. She slipped from his grasp, rose into the sky and appeared as the eight-armed Goddess. "Foolish Kansa," she declared, "the one who will slay you has already been born elsewhere." Kansa was filled with fear and worry.

Source

Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, ch. 3–4

Place

Mathura to Gokul

Lesson

For one who carries the Lord with devotion, every chain opens and every obstacle gives way.