Damodara — The Lord Bound by a Rope

Mother Yashoda tied the mischievous child to a grinding mortar, and he became "Damodara". The name shows that the infinite Lord can be bound only by the rope of love.

"Dama" means rope and "udara" means belly. Damodara is the one around whose belly a rope was tied. The name comes from one of the sweetest episodes in the Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10.

One morning Mother Yashoda was churning curd and nursing little Krishna when she saw the milk on the stove boiling over, and she set him down to attend to it. Annoyed, the child broke the pot of curd, climbed up to the hanging butter pot and began feeding butter to the monkeys. Yashoda decided to tie him to a wooden mortar, but every rope she joined fell short by two fingers' width. Only when he saw his mother tired and perspiring did the Lord allow himself to be bound. Dragging the mortar behind him, he crawled between two tall Yamalarjuna trees and pulled them down, freeing Nalakuvara and Manigriva, the sons of Kubera, who had been cursed to stand there as trees.

The month of Kartik is honoured as Damodara month. Devotees offer a small lamp every evening and recite the Damodarashtakam. The leela teaches that the Lord who holds the whole universe within him is bound by nothing except the sincere love of his devotee.

Name Sa

दामोदर

Name Roman

Damodara

Meaning

one whose waist was bound with a rope

Source

Shrimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10 (Damodara leela)