Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja ...

[From the lecture series on Srila Sanatana Gosvami's commentary of Sri Damodarastakam by Sri Satyavrata Muni (Verse 8)]

namas te 'stu damne sphurad dipti-dhamne
tvadiyodarayatha visvasya dhamne
namo radhikayai tvadiya priyayai
namo nanta-lilaya devaya tubhyam

["O Damodara! I offer obeisances to the exalted rope binding Your waist. I also offer obeisances to Your belly, which is the source of the Brahman effulgence and the mainstay of the entire universe. Time and time again I offer obeisances to Srimati Radhika, Your dear-most beloved, and I also offer my obeisances hundreds of times unto Your wondrous, uncommon pastimes." (Verse 8)]

Satyavrata Muni had prayed in verse 7:
 
“You were bound by of Mother Yasoda, and at that time You delivered Manigriva and Nalakuvera from maya and awarded them prema-bhakti. I don’t want the benediction of impersonal liberation. It is prema-bhakti that I want, but not ordinary prema-bhakti. I want the liberation of prema-bhakti that You awarded to Manigriva and Nalakuvera.”
 
When Manigriva and Nalakuvera performed parikrama of Lord Krsna, they offered many prayers, such as the following: “Wherever in this world we may take birth, we only desire to hear glorification of Your loving pastimes from Your premi-bhaktas. We don’t desire liberation. Rather, we will take birth after birth, just to hear Your glorious pastimes. We pray that You will arrange for us to always have the association of qualified Vaisnavas.”
 
Srila Sanatana Gosvami explained the mood of this prayer in Brhad-Bhagavatamrta. The devotee does not fear taking any birth. For example, although Vrtasura took birth as a demon, he was always glorifying Krsna’s pastimes.
 
In the seventh verse of Sri Damodarastakam, Satyavrata Muni had prayed to become a premi-bhakta like the sons of Kuvera. But then he changed his mind and said, "I don't want that." Now, in this eighth verse he prays:
 
namas te ‘stu damne spurad dipti-dhamne
tvadiyodarayatha visvasya dhamne
namo radhikayai tvadiya priyayai
namo ‘nanta-lilaya devaya tubhyam
 
Srila Sanatana Gosvami states that Satyavrata Muni is offering his worshipful prayers to the rope that bound Krsna’s belly, and then to the belly itself. That rope is not a material object. It is sat-cit-ananda; eternal, and full of bliss and knowledge.   
 
Before Srimad-Bhagavatam, no scripture had given the information that anyone had bound the Supreme Lord. Sri Krsna is that Supreme Lord. There is no limit to His expanse – inner, outer, upper, lower, downward or sideways. How, then, could a rope, which is itself matter and has limit, bind the unlimited Krsna? That rope was sat-cit-ananda, and especially it was made of the vatsalya-prema of Mother Yasoda. Actually it wasn’t an ordinary rope; it was the rope that Mother Yasoda used to tie her hair. Krsna was bound simply by that.
 
All paraphernalia in the pastimes of Vraja are a manifestation of Sri Baladeva Prabhu. The seats, the ornaments and the clothing of Vraja are His manifestation. Who is Baladeva Prabhu? He is also Krsna – a manifestation of Krsna. The rope that binds Lord Krsna is also a manifestation of Baladeva Himself.
 
This is the rope to which Satyavrata Muni offers his prayers, and after that he also offers prayers to Krsna’s belly – spurad dipti-dhamne tvadiyodarayatha. Krsna's belly and neck each have three folds. How beautiful that belly is, especially when Krsna is crying.