2024.05.30 (Vrindavan Today News): One day, Shrinath ji, along with his beloved Kumbhandas, was sitting in the village square early in the morning. What a wonderful sight it was – the father of the entire universe, like a little child, was playing in the lap of his loving devotee Kumbhandas. Just then, an innocent milkmaid from Braj happened to pass by.
Shrinathji called out to the milkmaid, “Come here!”
The milkmaid asked, “Baba! Are you thirsty?”
Shrinathji replied, “Not me, my Kumbhana is thirsty.”
Shrinathji lovingly called Kumbhandas “Kumbhana.”
Kumbhandasji said, “Shrinathji! I am not thirsty.”
Shrinathji told the milkmaid, “Give him some buttermilk!”
As soon as the milkmaid gave Kumbhandasji the buttermilk, Shrinathji secretly took bread from her bundle, and Kumbhandasji noticed it.
Shrinathji told the milkmaid, “Now you can go!”
The innocent milkmaid, after giving the buttermilk to the baba, went back to her work.
As soon as the milkmaid left, Kumbhandasji said to Shrinathji, “Shriji, your habit of stealing hasn’t gone away.”
Shrinathji gave half of the bread to Kumbhana and took the other half himself.
As soon as Kumbhandasji took it, Shrinathji said, “Oh Kumbhana! Just taste it.”
Kumbhandasji took a bite and said, “Baba! What is this taste?”
Shrinathji said, “When this milkmaid makes the bread, she rolls it while taking my name, so it is filled with the sweetness of my name.”
“Baba, now you tell me, how can I live without eating this love-filled bread? This innocent milkmaid, out of shyness, will never come to the Shrimandir to offer me this simple bread. That’s why, Baba, I stole it myself.”
