Devanagari
शरदुदाशये साधुजातसत्-
सरसिजोदरश्रीमुषा दृशा ।
सुरतनाथ तेऽशुल्कदासिका
वरद निघ्नतो नेह किं वध: ॥ २ ॥
Verse text
śarad-udāśaye sādhu-jāta-sat-
sarasijodara-śrī-muṣā dṛśā
surata-nātha te ’śulka-dāsikā
vara-da nighnato neha kiṁ vadhaḥ
Synonyms
śarat
—
of the autumn season
;
uda
—
āśaye — in the reservoir of water
;
sādhu
—
excellently
;
jāta
—
grown
;
sat
—
fine
;
sarasi
—
ja — of the lotus flowers
;
udara
—
in the middle
;
śrī
—
the beauty
;
muṣā
—
which excels
;
dṛśā
—
with Your glance
;
surata
—
nātha — O Lord of love
;
te
—
Your
;
aśulka
—
acquired without payment
;
dāsikāḥ
—
maidservants
;
vara
—
da — O giver of benedictions
;
nighnataḥ
—
for You who are killing
;
na
—
not
;
iha
—
in this world
;
kim
—
why
;
vadhaḥ
—
murder .
Translation
O Lord of love, in beauty Your glance excels the whorl of the finest, most perfectly formed lotus within the autumn pond. O bestower of benedictions, You are killing the maidservants who have given themselves to You freely, without any price. Isn’t this murder?
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O Lord of love, in beauty Your glance excels the whorl of the finest, most perfectly formed lotus within the autumn pond. O bestower of benedictions, You are killing the maidservants who have given themselves to You freely, without any price. Isn't this murder?
KB 10.31.2
Another gopī said, “My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are the life and soul even of the lotus flower that grows on the water of lakes made transparent by the clear rains of autumn. Although the lotus flowers are so beautiful, without Your glance they fade away. Similarly, without You, we are also dying. Actually, we are not Your wives but are Your slaves. You never spent any money for us, yet we are simply attracted by Your glance. Now, if we die without receiving Your glance, You’ll be responsible for our deaths. Certainly the killing of women is a great sin, and if You do not come to see us and we die, You will suffer the reactions of sin. So please come see us. Do not think that one can be killed only by certain weapons. We are being killed by Your absence. You should consider how You are responsible for killing women.
Purport
In the autumn season, the whorl of the lotus has a special beauty, but that unique loveliness is surpassed by the beauty of Kṛṣṇa’s glance.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Krsna said, "How can you conclude that I desire to see your suffering?"
"Not only do you want to see us suffer, but you are killing us." That is the intention of this verse.
"By the glance of your eyes you are calling us for love making (surata natha), and giving us happiness (varada). By your glances which are emanating the blazing fire of prema, you are killing servants who were purchased for free (asulla dasika). Is this not murder? Certainly, for murder does not need a weapon. Therefore Varada, who have destroyed (da from di to destroy) our of happiness in this world and the next (vara), if you actually owned us there would be no fault in either protecting us or burning us. But do you own us? You purchased us without payment, without bestowal of the marriage thread. We are just free maidservants, we became your slaves of our own will, foolishly."
In describing the glance, the gopis indicate the cause of Krsna’s power to bewilder, to madden, and to expertly steal. "Your eye steals the beauty within the best blooming lotus (sat sarsi ja) growing in the clear lakes of the autumn in the saintly place , Vraja (sadhu jatam)."
In this way the gopis describe the extraordinary beauty , fragrance, coolness, and softness of Krnsa’s eyes, which are able to enter into the secluded inner chambers inaccessible to the common man, and steal the treasure.
"Those thieving eyes, sprinkling a powder of mohana and unmada, made us crazy, and thus freely made us give our treasure of conjugal pleasure and our life airs, which they then offered to you. (thus in the previous verse they gopis said our life airs are held by you (tvayi dhrta asavah). Having our treasures stolen, we are dying. And by doing this thievery, you are willingly accepting the sin of killing thousands of women. If you fear such sin, you should reveal yourself to us."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Your eye steals the beauty of the center of the lotus, the height of beauty, which appears when it is born in the autumn lake. Wherever the beauty of your eye is seen, there is no longer beauty seen in the lotus. The beauty of the lotus is defeated by the ever-fresh beauty of your eye. Only one eye is mentioned because by one eye you indicate your love. And if one eye has such beauty what can be said of the beauty of both eyes. This phrase can be connected with surata-nātha: O requester of love, by your eye which defeats the beauty of the lotus. You have made us desirous of you. You have given the blessing of making that desire stronger (varada). Thus we are not at fault. Rather we have good qualities since are your servants without taking a fee. The fault is with you. Now, however it has become a great fault. You are killing us.
In order to show his fault, they indicate that he is absorbed in theft in three ways. He does not consider the great fault from taking the wealth of the righteous, he has knowledge of others’ secret treasures, and trespasses the greatest obstacles. The first aspect of thievery is expressed in the lotus growing in the autumn lake. The producer of the lotus, the lake, is pure. It is birth is pure (sādhu-jata). The qualities and form of the lotus are proper (sat-sarasija). The second aspect is expressed by the center of the lotus hidden within its petals within the huge water body. The third aspect is expressed by the center of the lotus being surrounded by a thousand petals, difficult to see, and being situated an unfathomable depth of water in a lake filled by the monsoon rains. You have stolen the beauty of the lotus even though it hides in fear of you. What to speak of stealing us innocent gopīs who wander fearlessly in Vraja and Vṛndāvana. Let us forget about being stolen by you. The beauty of the lotus is kept within your eyes, by her craftiness. But we, on the other hand, being innocent, stolen by force, serving causelessly without hatred, without any fee, are being killed by you. This is most unjust. Will you not kill us? People will not know about your theft. Should you not kill us? You say you are requesting love and that you offer all benedictions. We know all about that. That is all lies since you are killing us. Or te aśūlka-dāsikāḥ can also mean te śukla-dāsikāh: we are your servants accepting a wage, the beauty of your eye. Still you kill us by rejecting us. O oppressor (nātha) of those who are have great love (su- rata)! O stopper of benedictions (vara da)! You should come here to rid yourself of your faults.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Śrī-muṣā suggests that his eyes are the greatest thieves. There is a theft of great treasure equal to Lakṣmī, placed amidst the excellent objects of the devotees, at the best time, in the inaccessible water. For such theft, death is proper punishment. Actually this expresses the great beauty of his eyes. One eye only is mentioned out of agitation from intense bhāva. Or even one eye defeats the lotus.
We are unpaid, low class maidservants (aśukla-dāsikāḥ). Surata-nātha and varada indicate that he should not make them die. Then his reputation as the fulfiller of the devotees’ desires in love (surata) and his previously state as the giver of benedictions (varada) would be destroyed. Since you are the lord of enjoyment in love, you made us desire you. By giving benedictions you confirmed this. Thus there is no fault in our bold request.
Or “O wise one! By our death you will be blamed.” O lord of love by the eyes (dṛśā surata-natha)! By your eyes alone you give the happiness of enjoyment in love. Because of this killing (nighnataḥ), by not bestowing benedictions, it is a sin, murder (vadhaḥ).
Or by the price in the form of your eyes (stealing from us), we have paid the price. Or without price, the maidservants have been killed. Or by the pain of separation or by your rejection, their death happens by itself. They address him as lord of love and giver of blessings out of anger in love or intense pain of separation.
You cause pain (nātha) to those who are most attracted to you (su-rata). You destroy your benedictions (varada) or are the supreme destroyer. Do means to destroy. Thus you should come to prevent faults in yourself.