One evening the courtyard was lit by the full moon. Yashoda sat conversing with the women of Vraja. Krishna was playing nearby. Then He noticed the moon. He approached His mother from behind and tugged at her covering. With His little hands He disturbed her braid and nudged her back. In indistinct, eager words He asked her to give Him something. Affectionately Yashoda looked toward her companions for help.
The women called Him closer and asked what He wanted. They offered milk and fine yogurt. They also mentioned cheese, sugarcane, and thick butter. They assured Him that they would provide it and He should not be angry with His mother. But Krishna was not interested in the food made at home. He raised His finger upward. His gaze remained directed toward the moon. Now it became clear what He was requesting.
One woman told Him that what He saw above was not butter. She compared the bright heavenly body to a white swan swimming across the sky's lake. Then Krishna asked them to bring Him that swan to play with. He wanted to receive it before it reached the other shore. He stamped His feet and held the women around their necks, repeatedly asking them to give it. Another woman said that it was not a swan but the moon. This did not lessen His desire. Now He asked still more insistently for the moon itself.
Yashoda took Him onto her lap and offered her own explanation. She said that there really was butter above, rather than a swan. But that butter, she said, had become tainted with poison. Therefore no one ate it, although it looked fine. Krishna asked how poison had come to be there and what it was. His crying changed into a wish to hear the story. Yashoda used this change to soothe Him. She embraced Him and began speaking in a gentle voice.
She told Him that there was an ocean of milk. Krishna asked how many cows had given enough milk to fill an ocean. Yashoda answered that it was not cows' milk. He wondered how there could be milk without cows. She said that the one who creates milk within cows can create it without them too. Krishna asked who He was. She spoke of the Lord, the cause of the world, who could not simply be reached by going there. The child accepted her answer and asked her to continue.
Yashoda described the gods and demons churning the Milk Ocean. Mount Mandara served as the churning rod, and the serpent Vasuki as the rope. One group pulled from one side and the other from the opposite side. Krishna asked whether it was like the gopis churning yogurt, and His mother agreed. She continued that the poison Kalakuta had then appeared. Krishna wondered how poison could be in milk when He associated it with snakes. In her account, Shiva drank the poison, and snakes acquired venom from fallen drops. Yashoda thus explained the Lord's power and continued her tale of heavenly butter.
She said that this butter had also emerged from the same ocean. According to her explanation, a trace of the poison remained within it. She pointed to the dark mark on the moon as its sign. She suggested that He eat the butter prepared at home instead. All this was the mother's tale with which she was soothing her child. As He listened, Krishna sank into His play of sleep. Yashoda placed Him on a beautiful bed furnished in white. Then she gently let Him sleep.
Before sunrise she prepared yogurt and butter and gently woke Him. She washed His face, placed Him on her lap, and offered the food in a golden vessel. At first Krishna wished to nurse, and she briefly nursed Him. Then she again offered Him His favorite butter. He complained that her story had put Him to sleep the previous night while He remained hungry. He said that therefore He did not now wish to eat it. Playfully Yashoda asked who would then steal the butter. Krishna replied that He had never stolen her butter and that she was not telling the truth.