SB 10.26.1

SB 10.26.1

Devanagari

श्रीशुक उवाच एवंविधानि कर्माणि गोपा: कृष्णस्य वीक्ष्य ते । अतद्वीर्यविद: प्रोचु: समभ्येत्य सुविस्मिता: ॥ १ ॥

Verse text

śrī-śuka uvāca evaṁ-vidhāni karmāṇi gopāḥ kṛṣṇasya vīkṣya te atad-vīrya-vidaḥ procuḥ samabhyetya su-vismitāḥ

Synonyms

śrī śukaḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said ; evam vidhāni — like this ; karmāṇi activities ; gopāḥ the cowherd men ; kṛṣṇasya of Lord Kṛṣṇa ; vīkṣya seeing ; te they ; atat vīrya — vidaḥ — unable to understand His power ; procuḥ they spoke ; samabhyetya approaching (Nanda Mahārāja) ; su vismitāḥ — very astonished .

Translation

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: The cowherd men were astonished when they saw Kṛṣṇa’s activities, such as lifting Govardhana Hill. Unable to understand His transcendental potency, they approached Nanda Mahārāja and spoke as follows.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: The cowherd men were astonished when they saw Kṛṣṇa's activities, such as lifting Govardhana Hill. Unable to understand His transcendental potency, they approached Nanda Mahārāja and spoke as follows. KB 10.26.1 Without understanding the intricacies of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and without knowing His uncommon spiritual opulences, the innocent cowherd boys and men of Vṛndāvana began to discuss His wonderful activities, which surpass the activities of all men.

Purport

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains this verse as follows: “During Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastime of lifting Śrī Govardhana Hill, the cowherd men simply enjoyed the spiritual bliss of the Lord’s activities without analyzing them. But afterwards, when they had returned to their homes, perplexity arose within their hearts. Thus they thought, ‘Now we have directly seen child Kṛṣṇa lift Govardhana Hill, and we remember how He killed Pūtanā and other demons, extinguished the forest fire, and so on. At the time, we thought that these extraordinary acts occurred because of a benediction from the brāhmaṇas or because of Nanda Mahārāja’s great fortune, or that perhaps this boy had achieved the mercy of Lord Nārāyaṇa and was thus empowered by Him. “‘But all these presumptions are false, because an ordinary seven-year old boy could never hold up the king of mountains for seven whole days. Kṛṣṇa is not a human being. He must be the Supreme Lord Himself. “‘But on the other hand, child Kṛṣṇa loves it when we coddle Him, and He becomes morose when we — His uncles and well-wishers, simply worldly cowherd men — do not give Him attention. He appears to become hungry and thirsty, steals yogurt and milk, sometimes plays tricks, tells lies, chatters childishly and tends the calves. If He is actually the Supreme Lord, why would He do these things? Don’t they indicate that He is an ordinary human child? “‘We are totally unable to establish the truth of His identity. Therefore let us go and inquire from the highly intelligent King of Vraja, Nanda Mahārāja, and he shall free us from our doubts.’” According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the cowherd men thus made up their minds, and then they entered Nanda Mahārāja’s great assembly hall and questioned him as described in the following verse.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The twenty sixth chapter describes the doubts of the cowherdmen about Krsna ‘s powers and Nanda maharaja reminding them of the words of Garga. Because they were all immersed in tasting the sweetness of Krsna while he lifted Govardhana, the opportunity to think about Krsna’s extraordinary power did not arise. Afterwards, when they returned to their houses they all began to have one doubt. "When Krsna previously performed extraordinary activities like killing Putana or swallowing the forest fire we could think that it was because of the brahmanas blessings, the good fortune of Nanda , or Narayana entering the boy by his mercy. But seeing Krsna lift Govardhana such reasoning becomes useless. It is very astonishing that a seven year old boy could lift the biggest mountain for seven days. It is unimaginable that he can be a human." In this way they concluded that he was the Supreme Lord. "But how can it be possible that the supreme Lord would be pleased to be raised by us cowherd people, with ordinary mother father, aunt and uncle, and become disturbed if we did not care for him, that he would steal yogurt and milk from hunger and thirst, would blatantly tell lies and herd the calves? It is not possible that he is the Lord. He is human. We are unable to know the real truth about him. Let us go to the very intelligent king of Vraja and have our doubts settled." Thinking in this way, they entered the huge house of Nanda and asked him.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

This episode takes place in order to increase the prema of the cowherds of Vraja by having Nanda remove their doubts, and in order to remove the worry that their prema would decrease by understanding him as the Lord on seeing such great powers. This continues till the end of the chapter. They saw the most uncommon activities of Kṛṣṇa (evaṁ vidhāni karmāṇi). The plural is used to indicate all the previous incidents. They had not think about his powers (atad-vīrya-vidaḥ) since they (te) were famous for always being controlled by their affection for him. Being completely surprised, they approached Nanda with great devotion (sam—abhyetya) and spoke with great prema or showing logic (pra—ucuḥ).