Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.9.7
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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bhagnam
—
broken
Past participle of √bhañj. The broken pot is the chapter's hinge: Yaśodā does not see absence, she sees evidence. Gauḍīya reading: every 'disruption' from the Lord is signed; the devotee learns to read His handwriting.
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sva-sutasya
—
of her own child
Compound: sva (her own) + sutasya (of the son). 'Her own' — the possessive that vātsalya cannot relinquish. Kṛṣṇa is everyone's, but Yaśodā's poet keeps writing 'her own.'
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jahāsa
—
smiled
Perfect of √has. Yaśodā's response to the broken pot is laughter, not anger — the Gauḍīya signature reaction to the Lord's mischief. She is not exasperated; she is enchanted.
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karma
—
work, doing
Yaśodā recognizes the deed as His karma — His characteristic work. Gauḍīyas note: the Lord's actions have a signature; the trained heart recognizes Him in His marks. Karma here is not bondage but identification.
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paśyatī
—
finding, seeing
Present participle of √paś. The verse turns on a not-seeing — she does not see Him in the room, which is the start of the chase. Apparent absence is the engine of pursuit.
Seeing the pot broken and Kṛṣṇa not present, Yaśodā definitely concluded that the breaking of the pot was the work of Kṛṣṇa. There was no doubt about it.
Taking the cooked milk (suska payah) from the stove, she entered the room where she was churning the yogurt, and saw the strong shiny pot broken (dadhy amakrakam) . The suffix ka is added to amakram out of sympathy for its sorry state. Understanding that this was the work of her son, she put her forefinger to her nose and began laughing.
Suśrtam means well cooked. She saw the broken pot and understood that he had done it since no one else would do that, since the hole was made skillfully and since it was possible that he was angry. But not seeing him there, she laughed because of his fickle nature, his skill in breaking the pot, his running away in fear, and because of the sound of moving pots and his ankle bells in the next room.
She immediately took the milk from the fire. She saw that the yogurt was flowing from the pot and understood that Kṛṣṇa had done this. No one else would desire to do this or was capable of doing this. Not seeing him there she laughed, because it displayed his fickle nature, his skill in breaking it or because he had fled in fear. She quietly pursued him (ca) on her tip toes.
- Ananda Krishna Pr SB 10-09-07 German - The Goal is Krishna
- Laxmidhar Pr SB 10-09-07 Hindi - 2014-02-04 ISKCON Mira Road
- Padaseva Pr SB 10-09-07 Oriya
- Sri Sacinandana Pr SB 10-09-07
- BAVS SB 10-09-07-08 - 2021-06-25 ISKCON Vrindavan
- BhaktiPS SB 10-09-07 - Damodar Lila - 2012-11-13 ISKCON Mayapur
- HanumatPSw SB 10-09-07 - 2015-10-22 ISKCON New Govardhan
- Romapada Sw SB 10-09-07-09 - Damodar Lila Part-04 - 2020-11-03 Boston
- Notice the next small 'broken pot' in your day — a spilled plan, a disrupted schedule — and refuse to read it as mere accident; ask what Kṛṣṇa is drawing you toward.
- When something you were working on is undone, pause before reacting in anger and recall Yaśodā's vātsalya — let affection, not loss, be your first response.
- Practice nishkāma-karma today by completing one task with full care while holding its result loosely, the way Yaśodā kept churning even after the milk-pot was upset.
A gardener returns to find a single rose stalk snapped off — and instead of grief she smiles, because she knows which child did it and where he is hiding. The 'broken pot' is signed: only Kṛṣṇa breaks things this way, and the broken thing becomes the trail by which the lover follows the beloved.
When Rāvaṇa abducted Sītā, she dropped her ornaments piece by piece — onto a mountaintop where the vānaras would find them. The 'loss' was the map: Hanumān followed those fallen jewels until he reached Laṅkā (Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara-kāṇḍa).
What looked like grief was guidance. Like the broken yogurt pot that led Yaśodā to where Kṛṣṇa was, Sītā's scattered ornaments were the Lord's own design — disruption read correctly becomes direction.
My note
Source: vedabase.io