The Mother of Gopāla
Yaśodā (yaśas = glory, dā = given) was the wife of Nanda, the cowherd chief of Gokula-Vṛndāvana. The divine Kṛṣṇa was placed in her care from birth by Vasudeva, who spirited the child across the Yamunā river. Yaśodā, who had just delivered a daughter (Yogamāyā), did not know that the child she raised was the Supreme Lord himself.
Vātsalya as Devotion
Yaśodā's love for Kṛṣṇa represents vātsalya bhāva — the parental mode of devotion, in which the devotee relates to God as parent to child. This mode is considered particularly powerful because:
- The parent's love is completely unconditional — no expectation of return
- The parent's protection-instinct does not diminish even before the infinite Lord
- Yaśodā saw only her child, not the Supreme — and this total innocence of theological complication is itself a form of pure love
The Butter Thief and the Cosmos
The famous episode of Yaśodā wanting to punish Kṛṣṇa for stealing butter — and finding the entire cosmos in his open mouth when he yawned — is one of the most celebrated theological stories in Vaishnava literature. The mother, seeing the cosmos in the child's mouth, is overcome and immediately forgets what she saw — by the Lord's own will, because he wanted to remain her child, not the cosmic Lord, for her sake.
The Āzhvārs (especially Nammāzhvār) use Yaśodā's relationship as a model: the Lord desires to be bound by his devotee's love.