Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami
From the book “Sri Vraja-maṇḍala-parikramā”:
This charming pond, situated about one mile north of Nandīśvara Taḍāga‚ is surrounded by karīla and pīlū trees. While cow herding with His friends, Kṛṣṇa used to bring the cows here to drink. He and the sakhās also drank water here and performed many pastimes together. Once, Kṛṣṇa planted pearls (motī or muktā) here and produced an abundant crop.
When Kṛṣṇa passed from childhood to enter youth, Yaśodā- maiyā began to think about His betrothal. She was particularly inclined toward the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja, Kiśorī Rādhikā, who was endowed with all good qualities. Kīrtidā came to know what Yaśodā-maiyā was thinking and, after discussing it with her husband, Vṛṣabhānu, they sent many varieties of clothes and ornaments together with a basketful of pearls to Nanda-bhavana for the engagement. Vrajarāja Nanda and Vrajarānī Yaśodā became overjoyed, but it also caused them anxiety. Custom demanded that they send an even greater quantity of pearls to Varsānā in exchange for the engagement gifts, but they simply did not have that many pearls. When Kṛṣṇa entered the house He saw that His parents were in anxiety, and asked them the reason why. Yaśodā-maiyā explained the situation to Kṛṣṇa, who simply said, “Do not worry. I will quickly arrange something.”
At an opportune moment, Kṛṣṇa quietly took all of His parents’ pearls, dug a field near this pond, and planted them in it. Every day, He irrigated the field with cow’s milk. When Nanda Bābā and Yaśodā-maiyā could not find the few pearls they had, they became even more concerned and asked Kṛṣṇa if He knew where they might be. “Yes,” Kṛṣṇa said. “I have planted those pearls, and very soon they will bear many more.”
Hearing this, Bābā and Maiyā exclaimed, “Oh, lālā, has anyone ever farmed pearls?”
Kṛṣṇa smiled. “Yes,” He said, “and when My pearls will sprout and fructify, you will see this for yourselves.”
Surprisingly, the pearls began to sprout after a few days, and lush, green plants emerged. A few days later, those plants bore fruit; and as these fruits ripened, radiant and splendid divine pearls began to manifest. Now there was a great abundance of pearls. Kṛṣṇa gave a large amount to His mother, who was able to fill three or four beautiful baskets with pearls, golden ornaments and clothes, and send them to Varsānā to confirm the betrothal of Rādhā to Kṛṣṇa.
When Śrīmatī Rādhikā and Her sakhīs heard that Śrī Kṛṣṇa had planted pearls and reaped a huge crop, they asked Him for some. However, Kṛṣṇa flatly refused. “When I requested some milk from you to irrigate My pearls, you refused to give Me any. Now I will decorate My cows with ornaments made from these pearls, but I will not give any to you.” Vexed, the gopīs stole pearls from their own homes, dug a field and planted them. Although they irrigated the field with cow-milk for many days, the pearls did not sprout pearl plants – only thorny bushes that were completely devoid of fruit emerged from the soil.
The disappointed gopīs returned to Kṛṣṇa and narrated the whole story to Him. Kṛṣṇa smiled and said, “Come, I want to see your pearl field Myself.” Kṛṣṇa went there and uprooted all the thorny plants. He planted His own ripened pearls and irrigated the field with cow-milk. Within a few days, these pearls sprouted and also bore pearls, filling the gopīs hearts with joy.
Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
This kunda is mentioned in the Bhakti-ratnakara as being the place where the gopis would decorate Radharani with ornaments made from pearls. Even today, women everywhere are extremely attracted by pearls and it is a tradition in many countries that they should possess at least one pearl necklace. The word ‘mukta’ as well as ‘moti’ means a ‘pearl’ and the Bhakti-ratnakara also says that Krishna planted a pearl garden next to this kunda which is sometimes referred to by the name Mukta-sarovara meaning the ‘Lake of pearls’. There were a number of pearl-pastimes that took place here and one particular pearl-pastime is mentioned in the Garga Samita, regarding Krishna having planted pearls in a garden next to this kunda.
After Krishna had lifted Govardhana Hill with only one hand, a small group of herdsmen from Varsana became disturbed by this incredible show of strength by a mere child and actually became fearful, being unsure of Krishna’s true identity. They had also been disturbed by rumors of a secret relationship developing between this unusual boy who had lifted Govardhana Hill and the beautiful princess Radha, the daughter of their king, Maharaja Vrishabhanu. In order to convince these bewildered cowherd men that Krishna was in fact the Supreme Lord and the eternal consort of Radharani, King Vrishabhanu devised a plan whereby Krishna would be induced to perform some miracle that would prove His divinity to these men. As everyone knew, King Vrishabhanu was far wealthier than Nanda Maharaja due to having the goddess of fortune Mahalakshmi (Shri Radha) residing in his house. Vrishabhanu decided to send such a valuable gift to Nanda Maharaja, that he would be unable to respond by sending a gift of equal value in return. It is the custom in this part of the world that if one has a daughter of marriageable age, one may send a gift to the family of a suitable boy as a show of affection, which also sends a signal the boy’s family that their son had been chosen as the prime candidate for their daughter’s hand. In response, the boy’s family must send a gift of equal value to the girl’s family as a mark of friendship and acceptance of the marriage proposal.
Maharaja Vrishabhanu sent a large number of his servants carrying caskets full of expensive pearl necklaces and each pearl was very large and of high quality. The servants also conveyed the news regarding the proposal of marriage. Nanda and Yashoda were overwhelmed and exceedingly happy to see the very valuable gift of pearls and to hear about the marriage proposal sent by Vrishabhanu and Kirtida. After the servants left Nandagrama and returned to Varsana, Nanda Maharaja put the caskets containing the pearls within the inner chambers of his palace where he kept his treasury. While looking around his treasury, he could not see anything of equal value to send as a return gift to Vrishabhanu, as the local custom demanded. Sometime later, Krishna, unseen by anyone, also entered the inner chambers of the palace and seeing the large caskets, picked up around one hundred of the valuable pearl necklaces and headed for the fields. Krishna removed each of the pearls from the necklaces and very carefully planted them in the ground and then returned home. Krishna was an expert pearl-grower as had been proven previously and He diligently watered the pearls every day with cow’s milk.
After a few days, Nanda Maharaja entered his treasury and opened the caskets containing the pearls to admire them, but got a sudden shock when he saw about one hundred pearl necklaces were missing. Thinking that a servant or relative from within his own palace may have stolen the valuable pearls, he felt extremely upset. But before accusing anyone, he first decided to check whether Krishna or Balarama might have taken the pearls to play with them and therefore went to ask Them if They knew anything about the missing pearls. When he found the two brothers, he enquired about the pearls and to his surprise discovered that Krishna, who thought that they were all seeds, had planted them in a garden nearby. Nanda Baba mildly scolded Krishna and asked him to show exactly where the pearls had been buried in the ground.
Krishna took Nanda Maharaja to His little garden near Mukta-kunda where He had planted the pearls. Nanda Baba got the shock of his life when he saw a thousand pearl trees, their branches bending under the weight of all the pearls that were growing there like bunches of grapes on a vine. On inspecting the crop more closely, he saw that these pearls were far bigger and of far greater in value than the ones sent by Vrishabhanu. Each and every pearl shone as if the moon itself was shining from within it. He felt somewhat overjoyed at the prospect of being able to send a large quantity of these superior quality pearls as a return gift to Vrishabhanu Maharaja. When the pearl crop was harvested, Nanda Maharaja loaded six or seven bullock carts full to the brim with the most precious pearls that anyone had ever seen and sent them to Varsana as a gift to Vrishabhanu and his wife Kirtida.
When the bullock carts filled to the brim with the high grade pearls arrived at Varsana, everyone became struck with wonder at the great and unprecedented opulence of Nanda Maharaja. Vrishabhanu was more pleased than anyone else, because it not only signified Nanda’s acceptance of the marriage proposal, but it was also a miraculous display of Krishna’s mystic potency as everyone came to know that it was Krishna who produced the pearls from His pearl-garden. After having seen the proof for themselves in the form of this colossal bounty of high quality pearls, those who doubted the divinity of Krishna became pacified. Even though the marriage of Radha and Krishna had been formalized by their parents, on the advice of the family priest Gargamuni and also Purnamasi, this arrangement was cancelled and Radha was instead married to a somewhat dull-headed and rather naive cow-herdsman from Yavata village named Abhimanyu.
