Upanishads · Kṛṣṇa 1.17
॥
Devanāgarī
दुग्धसिन्धौ समुत्पन्नो मेघघोषस्तु संस्मृतः । दुग्धोदधिः कृतस्तेन भग्नभाण्डो दधिगृहे
Transliteration (IAST)
dugdhasindhau samutpanno meghaghoṣastu saṃsmṛtaḥ | dugdhodadhiḥ kṛtastena bhagnabhāṇḍo dadhigṛhe
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
दुग्ध-सिन्धौ समुत्पन्नःdugdha-sindhau samutpannaḥborn in the milk ocean
मेघ-घोषः तु संस्मृतःmegha-ghoṣaḥ tu saṃsmṛtaḥis recalled as the thunder of a cloud
दुग्ध-उदधिः कृतः तेनdugdha-udadhiḥ kṛtaḥ tenathe milk ocean was made by him
भग्न-भाण्डः दधि-गृहेbhagna-bhāṇḍaḥ dadhi-gṛhea broken pot in the storeroom
Translation
"Born in the milk ocean is recalled as the thunder of a cloud; the milk ocean was made by him — a broken pot in the storeroom."
Version
78136a44ae1a · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The correspondence is wittily constructed: a broken pot of curds is the milk ocean. It refers to Kṛṣṇa's most famous prank: he breaks the pots of butter and curds in Yaśodā's storeroom. And it is said: this spill on the floor is the very ocean the gods churned.
This correspondence, for all its playfulness, is, to my mind, the finest expression of what the Vaiṣṇava side calls mādhurya. The greatest event of primordial history — the churning of the ocean for nectar — turns out repeated in the storeroom of a village house, and moreover by a child. It is worth saying what stands behind such a comparison, for it is not mere wit.
Behind it stands the position that His deeds are not measured by size. The churning of the ocean and the broken pot are one and the same deed, differing only in appearance; and the grandeur of the first does not make the second trivial. The Bhāgavatam expresses this by describing Kṛṣṇa's pranks in the very same style it uses to describe the creation of the world: with the same turns of phrase, the same solemnity.
Let us add what follows from this and is worth keeping. If size does not decide, it does not decide in our own life either; and a person who thinks one can serve only in great things errs exactly as much as one who would consider a broken pot unworthy of mention.