Devanagari
गोप्य ऊचु:
जयति तेऽधिकं जन्मना व्रज:
श्रयत इन्दिरा शश्वदत्र हि ।
दयित दृश्यतां दिक्षु तावका-
स्त्वयि धृतासवस्त्वां विचिन्वते ॥ १ ॥
Verse text
gopya ūcuḥ
jayati te ’dhikaṁ janmanā vrajaḥ
śrayata indirā śaśvad atra hi
dayita dṛśyatāṁ dikṣu tāvakās
tvayi dhṛtāsavas tvāṁ vicinvate
Synonyms
gopyaḥ ūcuḥ
—
the gopīs said
;
jayati
—
is glorious
;
te
—
Your
;
adhikam
—
exceedingly
;
janmanā
—
by the birth
;
vrajaḥ
—
the land of Vraja
;
śrayate
—
is residing
;
indirā
—
Lakṣmī, the goddess of fortune
;
śaśvat
—
perpetually
;
atra
—
here
;
hi
—
indeed
;
dayita
—
O beloved
;
dṛśyatām
—
may (You) be seen
;
dikṣu
—
in all directions
;
tāvakāḥ
—
Your (devotees)
;
tvayi
—
for Your sake
;
dhṛta
—
sustained
;
asavaḥ
—
their life airs
;
tvām
—
for You
;
vicinvate
—
they are searching .
Translation
The gopīs said: O beloved, Your birth in the land of Vraja has made it exceedingly glorious, and thus Indirā, the goddess of fortune, always resides here. It is only for Your sake that we, Your devoted servants, maintain our lives. We have been searching everywhere for You, so please show Yourself to us.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The gopīs said: O beloved, Your birth in the land of Vraja has made it exceedingly glorious, and thus Indirā, the goddess of fortune, always resides here. It is only for Your sake that we, Your devoted servants, maintain our lives. We have been searching everywhere for You, so please show Yourself to us.
KB 10.31.1
One gopī said, “My dear Kṛṣṇa, ever since You took Your birth in this land of Vrajabhūmi, everything appears to be glorious. The land of Vṛndāvana has become glorious, and it is as if the goddess of fortune is personally always existing here. But it is only we who are very unhappy, because we are searching for You but cannot see You with our greatest effort. Our life is completely dependent upon You; therefore we request that You again come to us.”
Purport
Those who are familiar with the art of chanting Sanskrit verses will be able to appreciate the especially exquisite Sanskrit poetry of this chapter. Specifically, the poetic meter of the verses is extraordinarily beautiful, and also, for the most part, in each line the first and seventh syllables begin with the same consonant, as do the second syllables of all four lines.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In this chapter are presented the verses of gopis gita ,which are like a group of lotuses, with prema as their honey and graceful tones and rhythms as their frangraces. These lotuses attract the bee called Krsna. Paying respects to Sanatana Goswami, Sridhara Svami and the gurus of my line, whose remnants are the sustenance of my life, I will begin to explain the gopi gita.
"O beloved, because of your birth, Vraja has become glorious." Not mentioning more glorious than what, the implication is that it is more glorious than all planets or places.
"But Vaikuntha is just as glorious."
"But Vraja is more glorious (adhika). ThoughVaikuntha is most wonderful, of the most wonderful, Vraja is topmost, beyond which there is nothing."
Other characteristics are then described. That maha laksmi (Indira) who is served by all in Vaikuntha, is serving Vraja constantly. Therefore Vraja is more prosperous than Vaikuntha. In this Vraja, filled with such topmost happiness because of Laksmi, only your dear gopis, are experiencing the most intolerable agony unheard of or unseen by anyone. We do not offer prayers to you to remove that suffering, but please, for certain, glance one time (drsyatam) towards this Vrndavana (atra) filled with happiness."
"What will I see?"
"In this happy Vrndavana, those dedicated to you are dying, searching for you. What a remarkable scene! Why are you putting you people suffering so much into danger? You should not think, ‘How have I put you in difficulty?’ for we have offered to you all of our life airs (tvayi dhrta asavah). We would be happy if our life airs, maddened by you, staying within our bodies, had burned in the fire of separation, and we had died. But instead, these life airs are happy to reside in you their happy master. But if the life airs are happily situated, how could you leave our bodies in danger? Therefore, it seems that you simply derive happiness in seeing our great suffering."
In this verse the second syllable of each line is the same (ya), and the first and seventh syllable of each line also. The following verses are similar for the most part. This has been described in the Mukta Phalita Tika of Vopadeva.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
May the gopīs be pleased with my eagerness as I desire to explain the meaning of their words dedicated to Kṛṣṇa. I to some extent accept the remnants of the nectar of the gopis’ song drunk by Śrīdhara Svāmī.
Vraja is completely (adhikam) glorious because of your birth--since (hi) Lakṣmī resides here continually. She is not seen elsewhere. Or, Lakṣmī or all wealth (non-different from her) resides here at every moment (adhikam saśvat) since wherever she resides all wealth also resides. And by that influence everyone there has all auspiciousness. Only we are miserable, by fate, and to the extreme. Though you are omniscient, most merciful and most dear to us, you do not know this. They pray “Forget other things at this moment. Let this alone be known to you.” Let it be known to you (dṛṣyatām). In showing our suffering, you, who suffer from others suffering, will directly appear. That is the deep meaning. What is that suffering? Those who have been accepted by you, or who think they belong to you (tāvakāḥ) search for you in all directions, wandering here and there with great fatigue. They experience the greatest suffering in searching. They suffer for you. Otherwise they would not suffer. The word dayita (beloved) indicates compassion. They utter this out of misery. According to Kṣīrasvāmī dayita means “placing the heart.” This meaning gives a slight sense of criticism but is still acceptable. “Prema without cheating does not exist in the human world. If it does, there would be separation, and, with separation, who could live?” In separation from the beloved the woman cannot survive. That is true. But ordinary women do not die because of you. We maintain our lives with the hope of attaining you. Or, our senses are meant for you. We see by directing our senses to you alone.
All the verses in the chapter have similar syllables and lines, with the same second syllable in each line (ya in the first verse) or sometimes the first syllable and the seventh syllable is the same in line. This is described in the Muktāphala commentary. The meaning of dṛśyatām is according to Śrīdhara Svāmī’s first explanation. This should be considered since seeing also refers to revelation and making known, just as cooking refers to softening food.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
May the gopīs be pleased with my eagerness as I desire to explain the meaning of their words dedicated to Kṛṣṇa. To some extent I accept the remnants of the nectar of the gopis’ song drunk by Śrīdhara Svāmī.
Vraja is more glorious than everything else or even Vaikuṇṭha (adhika). Vraja includes all their qualities because (hi) in Vraja (atra), at all times, Lakṣmī, increasing more and more, full of wealth, serves personally, at all times (adhikam), everything there without distinction.
Or the queen of Vaikuṇṭha lives there in a surrendered mood, or coming and going, since she cannot stay there permanently, because there is more wealth there than in Vaikuṇṭha or because Lakṣmī is directly seen going from house to house in a humble mood.
Hi can also mean certainly. Therefore it is said:
tata ārabhya nandasya vrajaḥ sarva-samṛddhimān
harer nivāsātma-guṇai ramākrīḍam abhūn nṛpa
O Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the home of Nanda Mahārāja is eternally the abode of the Supreme Lord and his qualities, and is therefore always naturally endowed with all wealth. Yet beginning from Kṛṣṇa’s appearance there, it became the place for the pastimes of the goddess of fortune. SB 10.5.18
Or though Kṛṣṇa was born in Mathurā, Vraja excelled its wealth. Or because they believed he was born in Vraja, they talk about his birth there. By that influence everyone there had all auspiciousness. Only we, stuck with misfortune, suffer at all times, exceedingly. That is not known by you, our dear life, most merciful and full of knowledge. For now let all else be. But that should be known. They pray. This should be known (dṛśyatām) or directly done. Seeing our suffering directly, being pained by our suffering, he will come. Being accepted by you (tāvakāṇ), or being your servants, we searched everywhere (dikṣu), in great pain. Because of being yours, we have suffered.
They do not directly say “we” or “the gopīs.” They could not say this because of extreme humility caused by defeat on being rejected. Or thye spoke generally with a desire to announce their sorrow as his servants, in great pain. Or the statement becomes deeper by making a general statement. For the same reasons they later say apaśyatām (verse 15).
“You are unintelligent. You should dedicate yourself to someone else.” Only you are pleasing. No relationship with anyone else is pleasing. It is said, “Prema without deception does not exist among men of this world. If it exists, there is separation, and in separation who can live?” In separation from the lover, the lovers cannot live. Because of you, we do not die. We maintain our lives because of you. We maintain our lives with the hope of attaining you. Or placing ourselves in you, our prāṇas are not destroyed (tvayi dhṛtāsavaḥ).
All the verses in the chapter have similar syllables and lines, with the same second syllable in each line (ya in the first verse) or sometimes the first syllable and the seventh syllable is the same in line. This is described in the Muktāphala commentary.