Remembering Lord Krishna’s childhood on Children’s Day

This year, we dedicate the occasion of Children’s Day to Shri Krishna’s younger years and would like to share with you some stories from his childhood that teach us valuable lessons.

The basket of mangoes

Once when Krishna was very little, a woman had come to their house with a basket of ripe mangoes. The scent of the juicy mangoes was so enticing that it had drawn everyone out. Back then, a barter system was in place, so Nanda went in brought a big basket, full of grains, in exchange for the mangoes. The woman was delighted as usually she only got half a basket of grains for the same number of mangoes. Little Krishna was watching all this trying to understand what was happening.

It struck him that the woman would give him mangoes in exchange for grains. He went to the store-room and picked up two fistfuls of grains and came back to the woman, wanting some mangoes of his own. But when he saw the amount of grain in the basket his father had given her and compared it to the meagre amount in his fists, his face fell. The woman, in the meantime, was watching little Krishna as he was looking adorable. But then she found that she was almost in a trance and she couldn’t look away from Krishna’s face.

Finally, when she did manage to look away, she was surprised to see that the basket of grains that she had been given by Nanda had turned into a basket of precious stones and gems. Taking pity on Krishna looking so sad, she had already handed him a few mangoes to appease him, but now she was so overwhelmed that she laid the remaining ones at his feet.

Perhaps every child does not have the powers of Lord Krishna and when we give something to an underprivileged child, they don’t return our favour with gold and pearls. But Lord Krishna does reside in every child and every child needs our help.

Little Krishna shows Yashoda his true form

Another story worth mentioning here is something that took place between Yashoda and little Krishna. Once little Krishna was playing in the courtyard in their house. When Yashoda was passing by, she saw that he had been playing in the mud and his clothes were all soiled. Enraged, she went to him and scolded him for having dirtied himself. Noticing dirt near his mouth, she suspected he must have eaten mud too. Her suspicion deepened when he kept refusing to open his mouth.

Yashoda was losing her patience and becoming more and more enraged. Krishna noticed that. Finally, this time when she asked him to open his mouth, he did. It is said that Yashoda did not see mud in Krishna’s mouth but the entire Universe, with all its living and non-living elements. That day she understood that her little son was no ordinary child but an avatar of Vishnu himself.

All children may not be divine avatars, but they are the future of mankind. When we invest in the welfare of underprivileged children, we are investing in our future.

This Children’s Day, let’s remember these two stories and their morals and do what we can to make this world a better place for children.