Devanagari
गोप्य: संस्पृष्टसलिला अङ्गेषु करयो: पृथक् ।
न्यस्यात्मन्यथ बालस्य बीजन्यासमकुर्वत ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
gopyaḥ saṁspṛṣṭa-salilā
aṅgeṣu karayoḥ pṛthak
nyasyātmany atha bālasya
bīja-nyāsam akurvata
Synonyms
gopyaḥ
—
the gopīs
;
saṁspṛṣṭa
—
salilāḥ — touching a cup of water and drinking
;
aṅgeṣu
—
on their bodies
;
karayoḥ
—
on their two hands
;
pṛthak
—
separately
;
nyasya
—
after placing the letters of the mantra
;
ātmani
—
on their own
;
atha
—
then
;
bālasya
—
of the child
;
bīja
—
nyāsam — the process of mantra-nyāsa
;
akurvata
—
executed .
Translation
The gopīs first executed the process of ācamana, drinking a sip of water from the right hand. They purified their bodies and hands with the nyāsa-mantra and then applied the same mantra upon the body of the child.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The gopīs first executed the process of ācamana, drinking a sip of water from the right hand. They purified their bodies and hands with the nyāsa-mantra and then applied the same mantra upon the body of the child.
KB 10.6.21
They washed their hands and feet and sipped water three times, as is the custom before chanting mantra.
Purport
Nyāsa-mantra
includes
ācamana,
or first drinking a sip of water kept in the right hand. There are different
viṣṇu-mantras
to purify the body. The
gopīs,
and in fact any householders, knew the process for being purified by chanting Vedic hymns. The
gopīs
executed this process first to purify themselves and then to purify the child Kṛṣṇa. One executes the process of
aṅga-nyāsa
and
kara-nyāsa
simply by drinking a little sip of water and chanting the
mantra.
The
mantra
is preceded with the first letter of the name, followed by
anusvāra
and the word
namaḥ:
oṁ namo ’jas tavāṅghrī avyāt, maṁ mano maṇimāṁs tava jānunī avyāt,
and so on. By losing Indian culture, Indian householders have forgotten how to execute the
aṅga-nyāsa
and are simply busy in sense gratification, without any advanced knowledge of human civilization.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In the beginning, because of great fear, they began the rituals for protection without doing acamana. After calming down, they then performed the rituals in the proper way, by first performing acamana (samsprsta salila). They then performed anga nyasa and kara nyasa on their own bodies and hands. Then, on the child’s limbs such as feet, they invoked bijas. The bija consists of the first syllable of the name with an anusvara. Example: am namah, "May Aja protect your feet." Mam namah, "May Maniman protect your knees."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Yaśodā and Rohiṇī are not included here as before. This is indicated by the word pṛthak (separately).
The bīja-nyāsa is formed by the first syllable of the name of the Lord with an anusvara, followed by namaḥ (for instance yaṁ yajñāya namaḥ). The names from aja to īśvara were used to touch eleven parts of Kṛṣṇa’s body.