SB 10.8.29 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

वत्सान् मुञ्चन् क्‍वचिदसमये क्रोशसञ्जातहास: स्तेयं स्वाद्वत्त्यथ दधिपय: कल्पितै: स्तेययोगै: । मर्कान् भोक्ष्यन् विभजति स चेन्नात्ति भाण्डं भिन्नत्ति द्रव्यालाभे सगृहकुपितो यात्युपक्रोश्य तोकान् ॥ २९ ॥

Verse text

vatsān muṣcan kvacid asamaye krośa-saṣjāta-hāsaḥ steyaṁ svādv atty atha dadhi-payaḥ kalpitaiḥ steya-yogaiḥ markān bhokṣyan vibhajati sa cen nātti bhāṇḍaṁ bhinnatti dravyālābhe sagṛha-kupito yāty upakrośya tokān

Synonyms

vatsān — the calves ; muṣcan — releasing ; kvacit — sometimes ; asamaye — at odd times ; krośa — saṣjāta — hāsaḥ — after this, when the head of the house is angry, Kṛṣṇa begins to smile ; steyam — obtained by stealing ; svādu — very tasteful ; atti — eats ; atha — thus ; dadhi — payaḥ — pot of curd and milk ; kalpitaiḥ — devised ; steya — yogaiḥ — by some sort of stealing process ; markān — to the monkeys ; bhokṣyan — giving to eat ; vibhajati — divides their portion ; saḥ — the monkey ; cet — if ; na — not ; atti — eats ; bhāṇḍam — the pot ; bhinnatti — He breaks ; dravya — alābhe — when eatables are unavailable or He cannot find such pots ; sa — gṛha — kupitaḥ — He becomes angry at the residents of the house ; yāti — He goes away ; upakrośya — irritating and pinching ; tokān — the small children .

Translation

“Our dear friend Yaśodā, your son sometimes comes to our houses before the milking of the cows and releases the calves, and when the master of the house becomes angry, your son merely smiles. Sometimes He devises some process by which He steals palatable curd, butter and milk, which He then eats and drinks. When the monkeys assemble, He divides it with them, and when the monkeys have their bellies so full that they won’t take more, He breaks the pots. Sometimes, if He gets no opportunity to steal butter or milk from a house, He will be angry at the householders, and for His revenge He will agitate the small children by pinching them. Then, when the children begin crying, Kṛṣṇa will go away.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

"Our dear friend Yaśodā, your son sometimes comes to our houses before the milking of the cows and releases the calves, and when the master of the house becomes angry, your son merely smiles. Sometimes He devises some process by which He steals palatable curd, butter and milk, which He then eats and drinks. When the monkeys assemble, He divides it with them, and when the monkeys have their bellies so full that they won't take more, He breaks the pots. Sometimes, if He gets no opportunity to steal butter or milk from a house, He will be angry at the householders, and for His revenge He will agitate the small children by pinching them. Then, when the children begin crying, Kṛṣṇa will go away. KB 10.8.29 They said, “Dear Yaśodā, why don’t you restrict your naughty Kṛṣṇa? He comes to our houses along with Balarāma every morning and evening, and before the milking of the cows They let loose the calves, and the calves drink all the milk of the cows. So when we go to milk the cows, we find no milk, and we have to return with empty pots. If we warn Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma about doing this, They simply smile so charmingly that we cannot do anything. Also, your Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma find great pleasure in stealing our stock of yogurt and butter from wherever we keep it. When Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma are caught stealing the yogurt and butter, They say, ‘Why do you charge Us with stealing? Do you think that butter and yogurt are in scarcity in Our house?’ Sometimes They steal butter, yogurt and milk and distribute them to the monkeys. When the monkeys are well fed and do not take any more, then your boys chide, ‘This milk and butter and yogurt are useless—even the monkeys won’t take it.’ And They break the pots and throw them hither and thither.

Purport

The narration of Kṛṣṇa’s naughty childhood activities would be presented to mother Yaśodā in the form of complaints. Sometimes Kṛṣṇa would enter the house of a neighbor, and if He found no one there, He would release the calves before the time for the cows to be milked. The calves are actually supposed to be released when their mothers are milked, but Kṛṣṇa would release them before that time, and naturally the calves would drink all the milk from their mothers. When the cowherd men saw this, they would chase Kṛṣṇa and try to catch Him, saying, “Here is Kṛṣṇa doing mischief,” but He would flee and enter another house, where He would again devise some means to steal butter and curd. Then the cowherd men would again try to capture Him, saying, “Here is the butter thief. Better capture Him!” And they would be angry. But Kṛṣṇa would simply smile, and they would forget everything. Sometimes, in their presence, He would begin eating the curd and butter. There was no need for Kṛṣṇa to eat butter, since His belly was always full, but He would try to eat it, or else He would break the pots and distribute the contents to the monkeys. In this way, Kṛṣṇa was always engaged in mischief-making. If in any house He could not find any butter or curd to steal, He would go into a room and agitate the small children sleeping there by pinching them, and when they cried He would go away.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

"Listen, mother Yasoda, to your son’s stealing activities. One day, thinking to steal the yogurt from some empty house, he went around looking for an empty house. Before the milking time (asamaye) he let the calves loose to drink the cows milk. When everyone was running here and there to catch the loose calves, he entered the empty room, stole the yogurt and fled away. Another day when that yogurt thief came, we shouted "Beat him! Tie him up!" But he just smiled sweetly. Smitten by his intoxicating smile, we watched him do his dirty work, not able to do anything, while he ate the milk and yoghurt. He just sat there eating, not even running away, while we stood there bewildered." "In that case why didn’t you just let him eat till his belly was full?" "He is always being fed by you so he has no hunger. It is not a question of hunger. He has a taste for stealing. He likes to steal the yogurt and milk. He does not like it if we give it to him. Being skilful at releasing the calves and at smiling, he steals in two ways ---without our seeing and directly visible. Using his intelligence he finds different ways to steal. Later, one day even before eating himself, he distributed it to the monkeys. When all the monkeys had overeaten and none could eat more, He thought "Without you what is the purpose in my eating? I will not eat." In distress, he broke the pots. Sometimes when he enters an empty house and finding no yogurt, he becomes angry at the occupants (sagrha). "Stay there, and I will come tomorrow morning with a flaming coal in my hand. If you don’t give some yogurt, I will burn your house down along with the elders and children." Saying that he then makes the young children cry by scratching them with his nails."

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

They spoke in the following manner. Two and a half verses now describe Kṛṣṇa’s fickleness. The first half of the first verse may be taken as one statement, and is explained separately for relishing the topic. The gopīs speak of the first disturbance that Kṛṣṇa causes. He releases the calves. The plural (vatsān) is used to express their agitation. “But there is no fault on his part, since he cares for the calves.” But he does this when it is not milking time (asamaye). “The child has done this out of ignorance. Why worry? There are many people in the house. Can they not prevent it?” They cannot prevent it when they are busy in other household engagements. “Why don’t you frighten him?” When we shout at him he laughs. This describes his bewildering nature. “Why does he release the calves?” Laughing they imitate his answer. “I want to drink milk.” This means he releases the cows to make the people run here and there. “Oh, you are unkind. Give him some milk before he does this.” Slowing they say with smiling brows, “He wants stolen milk, not milk which we have given him. If we give him milk, he will not drink it.” “But what loss is there if he takes a little milk from your storehouse?” He takes the tastiest milk set aside for our husbands. He drinks it all. “It is not possible that an untaught boy can steal from you, for you are very clever.” He has invented methods unseen or unheard of previously by his intelligence. “This is the result of piety of your father and grandfather since he is enjoying what is not given by you misers. Why do you not accept this joyfully, after it is done?” He gives it to the monkeys. Let him eat it with his friends, but before he eats it he divides it up and gives it to the monkeys. And if even one monkey does not eat, since they have eaten enough fruits in the forest. He also does not eat it. He simply breaks the pot. He becomes angry when the gopīs do not follow his order to give butter to the monkeys which have come to the door. Or sometimes, since he has already eaten, he will not eat the stolen goods but still break the pot and blame others. “If you know this, why do you not hide the pots? By not doing so, you are making my playful child agitated.” The gopīs use the word saḥ to indicate that Kṛṣṇa is not present, even though they can see him in front of them since he is now like another person, very gentle in behavior. He becomes angry at all the people in the house. He makes the young children—Rādhā, Cāndrāvalī and their young brothers-- cry and then runs away. Sa can also be a compound: sa-gṛha-kūpitaḥ: he becomes angry at people in the house.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

They speak to dispel the notion that they are being bold in speaking about his fickle childhood pastimes, or to create more attractiveness in relating his pastimes. At some time or in some place (kvacit), he releases the calves. This word is understood with all the actions described. While engaged in doing other activities, they cannot catch him. He releases the calves, and they must again tie them up. While the women are busy he leisurely enters their houses to eat the yogurt. He smiles when the babies cry. Or by making them cry, he announces his play to the people. He is very naughty. After releasing the calves he eats the butter with his friends. He devises new means of stealing the butter. Not only does he eat the butter with his friends, but makes the monkeys eat also. He makes newborn infants cry. Or if he does not eat the butter, he gives it to the monkeys, so that they will blame the monkeys.