SB 10.16.21 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

ता: कृष्णमातरमपत्यमनुप्रविष्टां तुल्यव्यथा: समनुगृह्य शुच: स्रवन्त्य: । तास्ता व्रजप्रियकथा: कथयन्त्य आसन् कृष्णाननेऽर्पितद‍ृशो मृतकप्रतीका: ॥ २१ ॥

Verse text

tāḥ kṛṣṇa-mātaram apatyam anupraviṣṭāṁ tulya-vyathāḥ samanugṛhya śucaḥ sravantyaḥ tās tā vraja-priya-kathāḥ kathayantya āsan kṛṣṇānane ’rpita-dṛśo mṛtaka-pratīkāḥ

Synonyms

tāḥ — those ladies ; kṛṣṇa — mātaram — the mother of Kṛṣṇa (Yaśodā) ; apatyam — upon her son ; anupraviṣṭām — fixing her vision ; tulya — equally ; vyathāḥ — pained ; samanugṛhya — holding back firmly ; śucaḥ — floods of sorrow ; sravantyaḥ — spilling forth ; tāḥ tāḥ — each of them ; vraja — priya — of the darling of Vraja ; kathāḥ — topics ; kathayantyaḥ — speaking ; āsan — they stood ; kṛṣṇa — ānane — unto the face of Lord Kṛṣṇa ; arpita — offered ; dṛśaḥ — their eyes ; mṛtaka — corpses ; pratīkāḥ — resembling .

Translation

Although the elder gopīs were feeling just as much distress as she and were pouring forth a flood of sorrowful tears, they had to forcibly hold back Kṛṣṇa’s mother, whose consciousness was totally absorbed in her son. Standing like corpses, with their eyes fixed upon His face, these gopīs each took turns recounting the pastimes of the darling of Vraja.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Although the elder gopīs were feeling just as much distress as she and were pouring forth a flood of sorrowful tears, they had to forcibly hold back Kṛṣṇa's mother, whose consciousness was totally absorbed in her son. Standing like corpses, with their eyes fixed upon His face, these gopīs each took turns recounting the pastimes of the darling of Vraja. KB 10.16.21 When Mother Yaśodā arrived, she wanted to enter the river Yamunā, and being checked, she fainted. Her friends, who were equally aggrieved, were shedding tears like torrents of rain or waves of the river, but in order to bring Mother Yaśodā to consciousness, they began to speak loudly about the transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. Mother Yaśodā remained still, as if dead, because her consciousness was concentrated on the face of Kṛṣṇa.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

This verse describes the distress of those in parental love. Tah refers to the famous women of Vraja with children. Yasoda is described as being torn apart (prataptam) upon seeing (anu) her son (apatyam). Another reading is pravistam instead of prataptam. That would mean she entered the same state as her son (who seemed to have fainted), or fainted as he did. Seeing her try to jump in the river, other elder gopis took her by the arms (samanugryha), as she was still fairly conscious, and washed her face covered with sweat and tears. In loud voices, they began to recite stories about the dear boy of Vraja (vrajapriya) in order to revive her. These elder gopis were rivers of lamentation (sucah sravantyah . amara kosa says svaranti means river). With the waves of their lamentation they drowned others as well. Thus the gopis became paralyzed like corpses (mrtika pratikah).

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

What happened to his mother? Overcome with grief, Śukadeva describes her a little, and gives a detailed description of all of the women. Tāḥ refers to those gopīs previously mentioned who were friends of Yaśodā. The word apatyam means he who does not cause the family to fall into any sort of suffering: a son who is the object of the highest affection. Because of (anu) her son (apatyam) she was suffering extremely (prataptam). Another version has anupraviṣṭām: she started to enter the water. Though the other women were equally afflicted, they held on (gṛhya) to her firmly (sam) and constantly (anu). They released tears of grief in streams (śucaḥ sravantyaḥ). They began to relate to each other topics dear to Vraja such his being protected by the Lord from Pūtanā and his killing of Baka and Vatsa using his strength. “He has killed many great demons. What is this one rascal snake among all of them? He will kill the snake and come now.” They spoke like this to pacify Yaśodā. They stood with their eyes fixed on Kṛṣṇa, and later appeared like corpses. Viṣṇu Purāṇa describes their grief in detail. sarvā yaśodayā sārdhaṁ viśāmo ‘tra mahā-hrade nāga-rājasya no gantum asmākaṁ yujyate vraje divasaḥ ko vinā sūryaḥ vinā candreṇa kā niśā vinā vṛṣeṇa kā gāvo vinā kṛsṇena ko vrajaḥ vinākrtā na yāsyāmaḥ kṛṣṇenanena gokulam araṇyaṁ nātisevyaṁ ca vārihīnaṁ yathā saraḥ yatra nendīvara-dala-prakhyakāntir ayaṁ hariḥ tenāpi mātarvāsena ratir astīti viṣmayaḥ utphulla-paṅkaja-dala spāṣṭakānti-vilocanam apaśyanto hariṁ dīnāḥ kathaṁ goṣṭhe bhaviṣyatah atyartha-madhurālāpa-hṛtāśeṣa-manodhanāḥ na vinā puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ yāsyāmo nandagokulam bhogenāveṣṭitasyāpi sarpa-rājasya paśyataḥ smita-śobhimukhaṁ gopyaḥ kṛṣṇsyāsmad vilokane We will all enter the huge lake of the snake king with Yaśodā. It is not proper for us to return to Vraja. What is the day without the sun, the night without the moon, and what is the cow without the bull, and what is Vraja without Kṛṣṇa? Without Kṛṣṇa we cannot return to Gokula incomplete. Where Kṛṣṇa with the complexion of a blue lotus is absent it is like a forest having a lake without water. It is surprising that living there would be pleasant. O Yaśodā! Not seeing Kṛṣṇa with lotus eyes, how could the wretched people continue living in the village? Since the unlimited treasures of our minds have been captured by his sweet speech, without lotus eyed Kṛṣṇa, we will not go to Nandagokula. O cowherd women! Look at his smiling face when he looks at us, even though he is held by the coils of the king of snakes.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

What happened to his mother? Overcome with grief, Śukadeva describes her a little, and gives a detailed description of all of the women. Tāḥ refers to those gopīs previously mentioned who were friends of Yaśodā. The word apatyam means he who does not cause the family to fall into any sort of suffering: a son who is the object of the highest affection. Because of (anu) her son (apatyam) she was suffering extremely (prataptam). Another version has anupraviṣṭām: she started to enter the water. Though the other women were equally afflicted, they held on (gṛhya) to her firmly (sam) and constantly (anu). They released tears of grief in streams (śucaḥ sravantyaḥ). Tās tāḥ means these previously mentioned cowherd women or the women who were in an indescribable condition. They began speaking topics about Kṛṣṇa, dear to Vraja (vraja-priya) or who had affection for Vraja. Or they spoke topics in Vraja about dear Kṛṣṇa. Or they spoke dear topics of Vraja such as his childhood pastimes. Or they talked about his joking speech (kathāḥ), while sweetly smiling and glancing. But they were in complete lamentation. Or they talked about the powerful demons like Baka and Vatsa killed by Kṛṣṇa. So what is this snake? He will kill it now. They said this to console the mothers. Viṣṇu Purāṇa describes their grief in detail. sarvā yaśodayā sārdhaṁ viśāmo ‘tra mahā-hrade nāga-rājasya no gantum asmākaṁ yujyate vraje divasaḥ ko vinā sūryaḥ vinā candreṇa kā niśā vinā vṛṣeṇa kā gāvo vinā kṛsṇena ko vrajaḥ vinākrtā na yāsyāmaḥ kṛṣṇenanena gokulam araṇyaṁ nātisevyaṁ ca vārihīnaṁ yathā saraḥ yatra nendīvara-dala-prakhyakāntir ayaṁ hariḥ tenāpi mātarvāsena ratir astīti viṣmayaḥ utphulla-paṅkaja-dala spāṣṭakānti-vilocanam apaśyanto hariṁ dīnāḥ kathaṁ goṣṭhe bhaviṣyatah atyartha-madhurālāpa-hṛtāśeṣa-manodhanāḥ na vinā puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ yāsyāmo nandagokulam bhogenāveṣṭitasyāpi sarpa-rājasya paśyataḥ smita-śobhimukhaṁ gopyaḥ kṛṣṇsyāsmad vilokane We will all enter the huge lake of the snake king with Yaśodā. It is not proper for us to return to Vraja. What is the day without the sun, the night without the moon, what is the cow without the bull, and what is Vraja without Kṛṣṇa? Without Kṛṣṇa we cannot return to Gokula. We are incomplete. Where Kṛṣṇa with the complexion of a blue lotus is absent it is like a forest having a lake without water. It is surprising that living there would be pleasant. O Yaśodā! Not seeing Kṛṣṇa with lotus eyes, how could the wretched people continue living in the village? Since the unlimited treasures of our minds have been captured by his sweet speech, without lotus eyed Kṛṣṇa, we will not go to Nandagokula. O cowherd women! Look at his smiling face when he looks at us, even though he is held by the coils of the king of snakes. They remained standing (āsan) with eyes fixed on his face in order to see him. Or they were sitting (āsan) on the ground overcome with grief. Then they appeared like clay dolls, motionless. Or speaking about Kṛṣṇa and fixing their eyes on him, they were like clay dolls, because they had fainted. These women were all the same age as Yāśodā. The gopīs mentioned in the previous verse were young, beloved of Kṛṣṇa.