Devanagari
अहो पश्यत नारीणामपि कृष्णे जगद्गुरौ ।
दुरन्तभावं योऽविध्यन्मृत्युपाशान् गृहाभिधान् ॥ ४२ ॥
Verse text
aho paśyata nārīṇām
api kṛṣṇe jagad-gurau
duranta-bhāvaṁ yo ’vidhyan
mṛtyu-pāśān gṛhābhidhān
Synonyms
aho paśyata
—
just see
;
nārīṇām
—
of these women
;
api
—
even
;
kṛṣṇe
—
for Lord Kṛṣṇa
;
jagat
—
gurau — the spiritual master of the entire universe
;
duranta
—
unlimited
;
bhāvam
—
the devotion
;
yaḥ
—
which
;
avidhyat
—
has broken
;
mṛtyu
—
of death
;
pāśān
—
the bonds
;
gṛha
—
abhidhān — known as family life .
Translation
Just see the unlimited love these women have developed for Lord Kṛṣṇa, the spiritual master of the entire universe! This love has broken for them the very bonds of death — their attachment to family life.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Just see the unlimited love these women have developed for Lord Kṛṣṇa, the spiritual master of the entire universe! This love has broken for them the very bonds of death—their attachment to family life.
KB 10.23.42
Just see how fortunate these women are! They have so devotedly dedicated their lives to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, that they could easily do what is ordinarily so difficult: they gave up their family connections, which are just like a dark well for the continuation of material miseries.” Women in general, being very simple at heart, can very easily take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and when they develop love of Kṛṣṇa they can easily get liberation from the clutches of māyā, which are very difficult for even so-called intelligent and learned men to surpass.
Purport
Superficially, the husbands, fathers, fathers-in-law and so on were the ladies’
gurus,
or teachers. Yet the women had become perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whereas the men had fallen into the darkness of ignorance.
According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, upon returning home the ladies showed transcendental ecstatic symptoms, such as trembling of the body, shedding of tears, standing of the bodily hairs on end, discoloration of the complexion, crying out “O pleasure of my life, O Kṛṣṇa!” with faltering words, and so forth.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī goes on to state that while one may object that it is not fitting for a woman to love anyone other than her husband, here the husbands themselves point out that they are
gurus
only in imitation of the Supreme Lord, who is
jagad-guru,
the universal teacher and spiritual master. The husbands noted that the women, having perfected their transcendental attachment for Kṛṣṇa, did not have even a trace of attachment left for home, husband, children and so forth. Therefore from that day on the husbands accepted those ladies as their worshipable spiritual masters and no longer thought of them as their wives or property.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
We are much inferior to these women. In this way they lament in three verses. Aho indicates astonishment. “It is wrong from women to be attracted to other men.” But they have love for the guru of the universe, who is far superior to their husbands. Their prema (bhāvam) has cut off bondage of death. This means that they surpassed attraction to family life immediately.