Devanagari
तासां तत् सौभगमदं वीक्ष्य मानं च केशव: ।
प्रशमाय प्रसादाय तत्रैवान्तरधीयत ॥ ४८ ॥
Verse text
tāsāṁ tat-saubhaga-madaṁ
vīkṣya mānaṁ ca keśavaḥ
praśamāya prasādāya
tatraivāntaradhīyata
Synonyms
tāsām
—
of them
;
tat
—
that
;
saubhaga
—
due to their good fortune
;
madam
—
intoxicated state
;
vīkṣya
—
observing
;
mānam
—
the false pride
;
ca
—
and
;
keśavaḥ
—
Lord Kṛṣṇa
;
praśamāya
—
in order to diminish it
;
prasādāya
—
to show them favor
;
tatra eva
—
right there
;
antaradhīyata
—
He disappeared .
Translation
Lord Keśava, seeing the gopīs too proud of their good fortune, wanted to relieve them of this pride and show them further mercy. Thus He immediately disappeared.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Lord Keśava, seeing the gopīs too proud of their good fortune, wanted to relieve them of this pride and show them further mercy. Thus He immediately disappeared.
KB 10.29.48
Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Keśava, could immediately understand their pride caused by their great fortune of enjoying Him personally, and in order to show them His causeless mercy and to curb their false pride, He immediately disappeared from the scene, exhibiting His opulence of renunciation. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always full with six kinds of opulences, and this is an instance of the opulence of renunciation. This renunciation confirms Kṛṣṇa’s total nonattachment. He is always self-sufficient and is not dependent on anything. This is the platform on which His transcendental pastimes are enacted.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport of the Twenty-ninth Chapter of Kṛṣṇa, “The Rāsa Dance: Introduction.”
Purport
The word
prasādāya
here is significant. Lord Kṛṣṇa was not going to neglect the
gopīs;
rather, He would increase the power of their loving affairs by making another spectacular arrangement. After all, the
gopīs
were basically proud of Kṛṣṇa. He also made this arrangement, as we shall see, to show special favor to the beautiful young daughter of King Vṛṣabhānu.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Tenth Canto, Twenty-ninth Chapter, of the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
entitled “Kṛṣṇa and the Gopīs Meet for the Rāsa Dance.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Because of Krsna’s equal enjoyment with all the gopis, there arose within the chief of the gopis, the daughter of Vrsabhanu a haughty feeling with anger in her eyes. As well within all the lesser ranking gopis there arose a feeling of pride in their good fortune. When this different mood arose, Krsna solved the problem as explained in this verse. Tasam which generally means "of them," can also be divided into ta and sa, indicating "them, of the women of Vraja" and "she, of Radha". Thus the phrase should read "seeing the pride (saubhaga madam) of the women of Vraja and the anger (manam) of Radha." Another reading is tam saubhaga madam instead of tat saubhaga madam. In order to nullify the pride of the women and to give mercy to the angery Radha, Kesava disappeared. Kesava can be analysed as ka, isa and vayate. Ka means brahma, isa means Siva. Vayate means praise. Kesava thus means "one whom Brahma and Siva praise." For Kesava, who even Brahma and Siva praise, what effort is necessary to curb the pride of the gopis? Kesava also suggests kesan vayate , one who cleans the hair, Krsna who is expert at dressing Radha’s hair. Antaradiyata (a passive form) is an archaic usage meaning the same as antardadhat. From later verses it can be understood that Krsna disappeared taking Radha forceably with him. He did not go elsewhere, but remained there, invisible to the other gopis. The moment Krsna had that desire, it was accomplished by Yogamaya.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
He saw particularly (vīkṣya) their pride because of their good fortune. Mada means semen, musk pride (garva) and transformation due to joy according to Viśva-prakāśa. He thought that the pride (garva) could not be removed by reasoning and that the māna could not be removed by conciliation. To relieve them of garva and sooth their māna, he disappeared. The form of the verb conjugated as the fourth class of verb, expresses disrespect (antardīyate). He did not go somewhere else where he could be seen. As will be explained later, he disappeared along with Śrī Rādhā. By his desire this was accomplished by yogamāyā. For relieving a person of māna arising from envy, the hero sometimes shows disrespect:
hetur yas tu śamaṁ yathāyogyaṁ prakalpitaiḥ |
sāma-bheda-kriyā-dāna-naty-upekṣā-rasāntaraiḥ ||
Anger with a cause is destroyed suitably by use of sāma (pacification), bheda (division), kriyā (action), nati (offering respects), upekṣā (disrespect) and rasāntara (change of rasa). Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 15.112
However causeless māna has no remedy or very little remedy. In this case Kṛṣṇa showed disrespect by disappearing in order to relieve them of māna since it was deeply embedded with garva. Thus he disappeared in order to relieve them of garva and māna. He had a desire to dissipate both garva and māna, though they arose from mature prema, because of the desire of his līlā-śakti, and because of his desire to give all of them the highest rasa. Separation produces the highest prema. It will be said:
nāhaṁ tu sakhyo bhajato ’pi jantūn
bhajāmy amīṣām anuvṛtti-vṛttaye
yathādhano labdha-dhane vinaṣṭe
tac-cintayānyan nibhṛto na veda
The reason I do not immediately reciprocate the affection of living beings even when they worship me, O gopīs , is that I want to intensify their loving devotion. They then become like a poor man who has gained some wealth and then lost it, and who thus becomes so anxious about it that he can think of nothing else. SB 10.32.20
The root cause of his disappearance however was his desire for pastimes with Rādhā alone.
aṁśavo ye prakāśante mama te keśa-saṁjñitāḥ
sarva-jñāḥ keśavaṁ tasmāt mām āhur muni-sattamāḥ:
Since my shining rays are called keśa, the sages call me Keśava. (Mahābhārata, Śānti parva 342.40)
Thus in this verse Keśava means “Kṛṣṇa, shining brightly.” When he disappeared everything that appeared brilliant suddenly lost its luster.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
He saw their intoxication or pride (madam) because of the good fortune of his skilful love, or because of the good fortune of giving him pleasure, or because of the happiness by his loving treatment, or because of the good fortune of his giving them pleasure. That intoxication should be reduced, otherwise his desired rāsa dance could not take place, if they had an independent mood.
He saw their anger. Being satisfied with their anger, but without its disappearance he could not give special mercy by which the special prema in the rāsa dance could be accomplished.
Or he disappeared to reduce their pride and anger so he could give special mercy to them with the rāsa dance. Or by disappearing he wanted to announce his dependence on them. (SB 10.32.22)
Or he saw their joy or insanity caused by their good fortune. Mada means semen, musk, pride and transformation due to joy according to Viśva-prakāśa. He saw their exhaltation (maṇam) in their minds. He then disappeared to create great (pra) happiness in the rāsa dance (śamāya) and to giver mercy. In disappearing, mercy was manifested in their intense worship of him, without giving him up. That will be evident later. Or he disappeared to give special happiness which was mercy.
He disappeared out of special affection, not out of indifference as ātmārāma or out of hatred. That was not the behavior of Kṛṣṇa towards those who were most affectionate to him. It will later be explained.
evaṁ mad-arthojjhita-loka-veda
svānām hi vo mayy anuvṛttaye ’balāḥ
mayāparokṣaṁ bhajatā tirohitaṁ
māsūyituṁ mārhatha tat priyaṁ priyāḥ
My dear girls, understanding that simply for my sake you had rejected the authority of worldly opinion, of the Vedas and of your relatives, I acted as I did only to increase your attachment to me. Even when I removed myself from your sight by suddenly disappearing, I never stopped loving you. Therefore, my beloved gopīs, please do not harbor any bad feelings toward me, your beloved. SB 10.32.21
He disappeared there (tatra). He was untraceable. Suddenly they could not see him. Because he was the supreme Lord (keśavaḥ) that was not impossible for him.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A . C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Tenth Canto, Twenty-ninth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Kṛṣṇa and the Gopīs Meet for the Rāsa Dance."
10.30: The Gopīs Search for Kṛṣṇa
verses: Summary, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35-36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
Chapter Summary
This chapter describes how the gopīs, tormented through the long night by separation from Kṛṣṇa, wandered like madwomen from forest to forest in search of Him.
When Śrī Kṛṣṇa suddenly disappeared from the arena of the rāsa dance, the gopīs, their minds fully absorbed in thoughts of Him, began looking for Him in the various forests. From all the moving and nonmoving creatures they asked for news of Kṛṣṇa's whereabouts. Finally they became so distraught that they began imitating His pastimes.
Later, while wandering in a corner of the forest, the gopīs saw Śrī Kṛṣṇa's footprints, which appeared mixed with Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī's. Seeing these footprints perturbed them greatly, and they declared that surely Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī must have worshiped Kṛṣṇa with unusual excellence, since She had been privileged to associate with Him in seclusion. Further along the path the gopīs came to a place where they could no longer see Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī's footprints; they then concluded that Kṛṣṇa must have taken Rādhārāṇī onto His shoulders. In another place they noticed that Kṛṣṇa's footprints were showing only the toes, and thus the gopīs concluded He had been picking flowers with which to decorate His beloved. In yet another spot the gopīs saw signs that led them to imagine that Śrī Kṛṣṇa had been tying the locks of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī's hair. All these thoughts brought pain to the gopīs' minds.
Because of the special attention She received from Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Rādhā began to consider Herself the most fortunate of women. She told Him that She could walk no further and that He would have to carry Her on His shoulders. But just then Lord Kṛṣṇa disappeared from Her sight. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, extremely troubled, then began looking everywhere for Him, and when She finally met Her gopī girlfriends She related to them what had happened. All the gopīs then went out to look for Kṛṣṇa in the forest, going as far as the moonlight reached. But in the end they were unsuccessful, so they went back to the shore of the Yamunā and simply sang Kṛṣṇa's glories in utter helplessness.