SB 10.14.1 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्रीब्रह्मोवाच नौमीड्य तेऽभ्रवपुषे तडिदम्बराय गुञ्जावतंसपरिपिच्छलसन्मुखाय । वन्यस्रजे कवलवेत्रविषाणवेणु- लक्ष्मश्रिये मृदुपदे पशुपाङ्गजाय ॥ १ ॥

Verse text

śrī-brahmovāca naumīḍya te ’bhra-vapuṣe taḍid-ambarāya guṣjāvataṁsa-paripiccha-lasan-mukhāya vanya-sraje kavala-vetra-viṣāṇa-veṇu- lakṣma-śriye mṛdu-pade paśupāṅgajāya

Synonyms

śrī — brahmā uvāca — Lord Brahmā said ; naumi — I offer praise ; īḍya — O most worshipable one ; te — unto You ; abhra — like a dark cloud ; vapuṣe — whose body ; taḍit — like lightning ; ambarāya — whose garment ; guṣjā — made of small berries ; avataṁsa — with ornaments (for the ears) ; paripiccha — and peacock feathers ; lasat — resplendent ; mukhāya — whose face ; vanya — sraje — wearing garlands of forest flowers ; kavala — a morsel of food ; vetra — a stick ; viṣāṇa — a buffalo-horn bugle ; veṇu — and a flute ; lakṣma — characterized by ; śriye — whose beauty ; mṛdu — soft ; pade — whose feet ; paśu — pa — of the cowherd (Nanda Mahārāja) ; aṅga — jāya — unto the son .

Translation

Lord Brahmā said: My dear Lord, You are the only worshipable Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore I offer my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You. O son of the king of the cowherds, Your transcendental body is dark blue like a new cloud, Your garment is brilliant like lightning, and the beauty of Your face is enhanced by Your guṣjā earrings and the peacock feather on Your head. Wearing garlands of various forest flowers and leaves, and equipped with a herding stick, a buffalo horn and a flute, You stand beautifully with a morsel of food in Your hand.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Lord Brahmā said: My dear Lord, You are the only worshipable Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore I offer my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You. O son of the king of the cowherds, Your transcendental body is dark blue like a new cloud, Your garment is brilliant like lightning, and the beauty of Your face is enhanced by Your guṣjā earrings and the peacock feather on Your head. Wearing garlands of various forest flowers and leaves, and equipped with a herding stick, a buffalo horn and a flute, You stand beautifully with a morsel of food in Your hand. KB 10.14.1 Brahmā said, “My dear Lord, You are the only worshipable Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead; therefore I am offering my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You. Your bodily features are the color of clouds filled with water. You are glittering with a silver electric aura emanating from Your yellow garments. “Let me offer my respectful repeated obeisances unto the son of Mahārāja Nanda, who is standing before me with conchshell earrings and a peacock feather on His head. His face is beautiful; He is wearing a helmet and is garlanded by forest flowers, and He stands with a morsel of food in His hand. He is decorated with a cane, a buffalo-horn bugle and a flute. He stands before me with small lotus feet. “My dear Lord, people may say that I am the master of all Vedic knowledge, and I am supposed to be the creator of this universe, but it has been proved now that I cannot understand You, who are present before me just like a child. You are playing with Your boyfriends and calves, which might imply that You do not even have sufficient education. You are appearing just like a village boy, carrying Your food in Your hand and searching for Your calves. And yet there is so much difference between Your body and mine that I cannot estimate the potency of Your body. As I have already stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, Your body is not material.” In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated that the body of the Lord is all-spiritual; there is no difference between the Lord’s body and His self. Each limb of His body can perform the actions of all the others. The Lord can see with His hands, He can hear with His eyes, He can accept offerings with His legs, and He can create with His mouth.

Purport

In the previous chapter Brahmā, the creator of the universe, tried to bewilder the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, by stealing His cowherd boyfriends and calves. But by a slight exhibition of Kṛṣṇa’s own mystic potency, Brahmā himself was completely bewildered, and now with great humility and devotion he offers his humble obeisances and prayers unto the Lord. The word kavala in this verse refers to a morsel of rice mixed with yogurt that Kṛṣṇa held in His left hand. According to Sanātana Gosvāmī, the Lord held a cowherding stick and a buffalo horn pressed under His left arm, and His flute was placed under His belt. Beautiful young Kṛṣṇa, decorated with multicolored forest minerals, exhibited opulences far greater than those of Vaikuṇṭha. Although Brahmā had seen innumerable four-armed forms of the Lord, he now surrendered unto the lotus feet of the two-armed form of Kṛṣṇa, who appeared as the son of Nanda Mahārāja. Brahmā offered his prayers to that form.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

This chapter relates how Brahma, immersed in the great ocean of Krsna’s sweetness mixed with respect, in the ocean of devotion and knowledge, praises Krsna with affection and asks questions. I am not afraid if the real devotees, engaged in taking the heap of jewels and thereby deriving great bliss, mock my stance of selling jewels (taking a few jewels). Meditating with determination solely upon the lotus feet of my guru, my mind desires to cross of the ocean of Brahma’s prayers. After having attained firm devotion at the lotus feet of Krsna, realizing directly the son of the cowherd king as the source of all forms of eternity knowledge and bliss, Brahma began to praise Krsna profusely. Most worthy of praise (idye), Vasudeva, the source of thousands of forms, praised by all from Brahma (right now) down to the grass, I praise you with verse, in order to attain you. I offer these praises to you. Or, I praise you in order to please you. I praise you who have a body tinted like the rain cloud, with cloth the color of lightning. These phrases suggest two things: the earth gets relief from heat through the cloud of Krsna’s rain, and the cataka bird devotee gets life sustenance from the rain cloud of Krsna. You are decorated with gunja berry ornaments in your hair and flower ornaments in your ears and hair. On the top of your head is a peacock feather. This description reveals the superiority of the gunja berries of Vrndavana to the jewels of Vaikuntha. The forest garland around his neck, made of local leaves and flowers, is superior to those made of flowers of the parijata from svarga loka. By mentioning the curd rice in his hand, his stick and horn, Braham indicates the superiority of the appearance of the cowherd boy over all others. In mentioning his soft feet, he indicates that those wandering in the forest become filled with ecstasy on seeing those foot prints. Mentioning that Krsna is the son of a cowherad (pasupa anga ja), he indicates that the superior fortune of Nanda over Vasudeva.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

Brahmā begins praising Kṛṣṇa, whom he realized as the highest form of power and sweetness, as his highest aspiration. O most worthy of worship (īḍye)! You are worthy of praise because today I have seen the whole material and spiritual realms enter into and emerge from you, the Supreme Brahman, composed of power and sweetness. Therefore I praise you. Why? I praise (naumi) in order to attain you (te). This follows the rule kriyārthoapapdasya ca karmāṇī sthāninaḥ: when and infinitive of purpose is suppressed (such as “to attain”) the object of the infinite (for instance “you”) is put in the dative case. (Pāṇini 2.3.14) “But you can attain me as Brahman or some other form.” You have a body of blackish color like a fresh dark cloud. Abhra means holding (bibharti) water (apaḥ). You have cloth yellow like lightning. “But the lord of Vaikuṇṭha and others also are similar to that description.” But your face shines with guñja berries and peacock feather decorations all around (pari). You have a garland made of forest flowers and leaves of various colors. With heart attracted to Kṛṣṇa’s childhood pastimes, he points out more particular items. You have yogurt rice in your left hand, a stick and horn under your left arm, and a flute tucked into your waist band. This arrangement is understood from the description in the last chapter. These are special marks. You become beautiful with these marks. You have tender feet. These are feet suitable for a small child. But Brahmā does not say that Kṛṣṇa is just a child, since he has great respect for Kṛṣṇa as his master. He does not mention his limbs painted with minerals, a sign of his playing in Vṛndāvana. At last he mentions the desired object of all these descriptive elements. You are the son of Nanda, king of the cowherds. All the elements are automatically included when the young boy is described with this term. I offer respects to you, to attain you, the child cowherd. Thus in the beginning of his praise he indicates the goal with the greatest longing.