Devanagari
कालेन व्रजताल्पेन गोकुले रामकेशवौ ।
जानुभ्यां सह पाणिभ्यां रिङ्गमाणौ विजह्रतु: ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
kālena vrajatālpena
gokule rāma-keśavau
jānubhyāṁ saha pāṇibhyāṁ
riṅgamāṇau vijahratuḥ
Synonyms
kālena
—
of time
;
vrajatā
—
passing
;
alpena
—
a very small duration
;
gokule
—
in Gokula, Vraja-dhāma
;
rāma
—
keśavau — both Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa
;
jānubhyām
—
by the strength of Their knees
;
saha pāṇibhyām
—
resting on Their hands
;
riṅgamāṇau
—
crawling
;
vijahratuḥ
—
enjoyed childhood play .
Translation
After a short time passed, both brothers, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, began to crawl on the ground of Vraja with the strength of Their hands and knees and thus enjoy Their childhood play.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
After a short time passed, both brothers, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, began to crawl on the ground of Vraja with the strength of Their hands and knees and thus enjoy Their childhood play.
KB 10.8.21
A short time after this incident, both Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa began to crawl on Their hands and knees.
Purport
One
brāhmaṇa
devotee says:
śrutim apare smṛtim itare bhāratam anye bhajantu bhava-bhītāḥ
aham iha nandaṁ vande yasyālinde paraṁ brahma
“Let others, fearing material existence, worship the
Vedas,
the Vedic supplementary
Purāṇas
and the
Mahābhārata,
but I shall worship Nanda Mahārāja, in whose courtyard the Supreme Brahman is crawling.” For a highly exalted devotee,
kaivalya,
merging into the existence of the Supreme, appears no better than hell (
narakāyate
). But here one can simply think of the crawling of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in the courtyard of Nanda Mahārāja and always merge in transcendental happiness. As long as one is absorbed in thoughts of
kṛṣṇa-līlā,
especially Kṛṣṇa’s childhood pastimes, as Parīkṣit Mahārāja desired to be, one is always merged in actual
kaivalya.
Therefore Vyāsadeva compiled
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Lokasyājānato vidvāṁś cakre sātvata-saṁhitām
(
Bhāg.
1.7.6
). Vyāsadeva compiled
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
under the instruction of Nārada, so that anyone can take advantage of this literature, think of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and always be liberated.
śrutim apare smṛtim itare bhāratam anye bhajantu bhava-bhītāḥ
aham iha nandaṁ vande yasyālinde paraṁ brahma
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Krsna’s pastimes mixed with aisvarya, such as killing Putana, and the unmixed sweet pastimes are both presented. Both are worthy of remembrance by the devotee worshippers.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
After having explained how Kṛṣṇa was complete, Śukadeva will begin show that completeness. A short time after the breaking of the cart and the name giving ceremony this incident occurred. Killing Tṛnāvarta took place later, after the boys were one year old. It is seen that one year old children can walk but the strong among them will walk earlier. (Therefore their crawling occurred much before one year.) Śukadeva reveals their great fortune because of the sweetness of the pastimes in Gokula at that time, though in Gokula within Vraja there was also killing of demons as extraordinary events with a show of anger on Kṛṣṇa’s part. This will be revealed later also. Balarāma is called Rāma because of his enjoyment of Gokula in performing his pastimes. Kṛṣṇa is called Keśava because he controlled (vayate) Brahmā (ka) and Śiva (īśa) by the sweetness of his pastimes or because the first hair (keśa) growing on his head hung playfully. Or according to Mahābhārata the word Keśava is given the following meaning:
aṁśavo ye prakāśante mama te keśa-saṁjñitāḥ
sarvajñāḥ kesavaṁ tasmāt mām ahur munisattamāḥ
All my rays are called keśa. Because of this, the best omniscient sages call me Keśava.
Thus Keśava means “shining one.” The two are mentioned together to show that by crawling together, they were attractive to the whole universe. Keśava’s name is placed after Balarāma’s to show that he was the younger brother. Sometimes tāta (O son!) is seen instead of alpena. Śukadeva calls out to Parīkṣit with affection because of being overwhelmed with prema on remembering the infant pastimes he is reciting. Or tāta may be compounded with the word Gokula to mean “father’s Gokula” to show that the two played freely under the protection of Nanda.