Rasa-pancadhyayi I - The Flute's Summons and the Gopis' Arrival

Bhāgavata 10.29.1

Śrī Śuka said:

Bhagavān beheld those autumn nights, when the jasmine flowers had blossomed. Desiring to sport, He formed His resolve under the shelter of Yogamāyā. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī I bow to the feet of Śrī Rāma Kṛṣṇa Gaṅgā and to the gurus of immense love. I offer homage to my master Śrīla Narottama and to Lord Śrī Gaurāṅga.

Again bowing to Śrī Guru, to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the ocean of compassion, and to Lokanātha, I take shelter of Śrī Śuka, the eye of the world. I give myself and all that is mine for the cherished service of Him who is the most powerful beloved and very life of the cowherd women.

In five chapters, as dear as the five vital airs, the sage now describes Hari's rāsa, the crown jewel of the entire wealth of His pastimes. All glory to that rāsa, whose gift of good fortune enabled the cowherd women standing upon the earth to humble even Rasā, the Goddess of rasa who occupies the highest realm. The twenty-ninth chapter describes the flute's cruel shower of poison upon the cātaka birds who are the gopīs, their play, and Kṛṣṇa's disappearance.

Bhagavān was seven years old when, on the new-moon day of Kārttika, He refuted the doctrine of ritual action and stopped Indra's sacrifice. On the first lunar day of the bright fortnight came the festival of Govardhana worship. On the second came the brother-and-sister feast on the Yamunā's bank, which should be understood although the great sage does not narrate it. Indra's wrath was also expressed then. From the third through the ninth Kṛṣṇa held Govardhana. On the tenth the cowherds spoke at length in wonder; on the eleventh came Govinda's ceremonial bathing; on the twelfth His journey to Varuṇa's realm; and on the full moon His visit to Brahmā's realm. Autumn then ended. In the following year, when He was eight, the festival of rāsa, the crown jewel of every festival among His pastimes, occurred on the full moon of Āśvina. The sage begins to narrate it with the words "Bhagavān also." Although complete in all six divine excellences, He "made up His mind to sport." The sense is that He was attracted by the unsurpassed sweetness of the stimulants and foundations of amorous play: the autumn night, Vṛndāvana, and the women of Vraja.

He wished to receive through His ears and other senses the supremely lovely voices, beauty, tenderness, fragrance, sweetness, skill, and manifold arts of hundreds of billions of amorous heroines, each a wish-fulfilling jewel of radiant rasa. He likewise wished to make them receive His beauty and other excellences through their senses. Because love controlled Him, all this was to occur continuously in a single night. Therefore Yogamāyā, impelled by the power that unfailingly fulfills His resolve and expert in accomplishing the impossible, brought and displayed within that four-watch night more than a hundred billion nights sufficient for completing all those pastimes. Hence the plural expression, "seeing those nights." Later the text will likewise say, "when the night of Brahmā came to an end" (Bhāgavata 10.33.38). By using the familiar word "nights," it praises nights possessing many extraordinary qualities. In those nights, jasmine had blossomed in autumn. Even though it was autumn, jasmine bloomed, as did kunda flowers, as indicated by "the fragrance of the clan-chief's kunda garland blows here." Even lotuses opened at night, for the text later says that He sported in the breeze fragrant with lotuses and agitating their joy. Such details proclaim Vṛndāvana's excellence. On the reading "autumnal and filled with blossoming jasmine," He began to sport with those nights themselves.

Some explain that if the verse had simply said "He sported," the play of Bhagavān, who delights in Himself and is naturally fulfilled in every desire, with the women of Vraja would appear to be an external and novel imitation. The phrase "He made up His mind to sport" therefore shows that this play is inward, not external. True, it is entirely inward. Yet someone might still explain that it occurs merely at the request of the women of Vraja because they are His devotees. The middle-voice verb "made up His mind" is therefore used to show that the play is for His own delight. Thus the women of Vraja possess such love that, although Bhagavān is complete in every happiness by His very nature, He Himself formed the desire to sport with them. This resembles the statement "although the sages delight in the Self, Hari possesses qualities of such a nature" (Bhāgavata 1.7.11), and it establishes the supreme excellence of the women of Vraja.

The Viṣṇu Purāṇa and Hari-vaṁśa likewise state: "Madhusūdana, honoring the age of adolescence, sported with them through the nights, immeasurable in nature and quick to destroy His foes" (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 5.13.60); and "Knowing the appointed time at night, He delighted with the young women and cowherd maidens while honoring adolescence" (Hari-vaṁśa 2.20.18). In both passages "honoring" means treating adolescence with due respect. Without pastimes in their company, even His adolescence would go unhonored. Therefore the great authorities have said, "Hari makes adolescence fruitful by performing pastimes within the grove" (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 2.1.231). This again suggests the complete excellence of the women of Vraja.

To explain how everything required for the pastime, whether stated or unstated, was accomplished, the verse says that He "resorted intensely to Yogamāyā," the function of His own inconceivable spiritual potency. Although she herself takes shelter of Him, He took shelter of her in this pastime, which reveals the extraordinary measure of her good fortune here.

Bhāgavata 10.29.2

Then the king of the stars arose. With his rays and their most soothing crimson glow, he anointed the face of the eastern quarter. Wiping away the sorrows of humankind, he appeared like a beloved who has returned to his beloved after a long absence. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī At that very moment another stimulant of love appeared: the king of stars, the moon, arose. Nor was he merely a stimulus; he also served as a witness establishing the propriety of Kṛṣṇa's sport with the cowherd women. The verse therefore speaks of the eastern direction. A beloved husband who has been absent a long time anoints his beloved wife's face with red kuṅkuma held in his own hand. In the same way, the moon colored the face of the eastern direction red with the crimson hue of dawn borne by his most soothing rays. This famous moon removed the grief of carṣaṇīs, the human race, as the Sixth Canto says that Carṣaṇī was the wife of Aryaman and Mātṛkā, and that Brahmā established the human race among their sons (Bhāgavata 6.6.42).

The implication is this. Though ancient, a twice-born king, a forefather of Kṛṣṇa's own dynasty, and himself possessed of many wives fit for amorous enjoyment, the moon touches with his own rays the face of the eastern direction, who is another's wife because she belongs to Indra. By touching her, he becomes attached to her and makes her attached to him. If that is so, what fault could there be in Kṛṣṇa, youthful scion of that lineage, born among cowherds, as yet unmarried and therefore without a wife of His own, delighting the human race by His beauty and sporting with the women of the cowherds?

Bhāgavata 10.29.3

He saw the moon's unbroken orb, filled with night-blooming lilies, resembling Ramā's face and crimson like fresh kuṅkuma. He saw the forest anointed by the moon's tender rays, and He sang a soft melody that stole the minds of the doe-eyed gopīs. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The moon's appearance produced in Kṛṣṇa an extraordinary transformation of desire. Remembering the rule, "Whatever a great person does, ordinary people follow" (Bhagavad-gītā 3.21), and seeing within Himself the conduct of that forefather of His lineage, He fearlessly undertook an infallible means to summon women who outwardly belonged to others. The verse therefore begins, "Seeing." Kumut means a water lily, as the Viśva lexicon says that the water lily may also be called kumut. Because the moon causes it to blossom, the phrase may also be understood to say that He saw Himself as one who causes the lilies to bloom. Since the adjective and substantive are not separately stated, "whose orb is unbroken" may mean the complete one whose form is the universe. Because Lakṣmī is the moon's sister, his beauty resembles her face. Alternatively, according to the statement that the supreme enchantress, the totality of all beauty, is composed of every Lakṣmī, Ramā means Śrī Rādhā. Or Ramā may mean the gopīs, who delight and cause delight; the moon resembled their faces. Seeing it brought them onto the path of His remembrance.

On the corresponding inner reading, He saw Himself as possessing the radiance that shines within the faces of those delightful women and fully manifests their inward transformation of love. He was red because pervaded by the hue of moonrise, or because freshly adorned with kuṅkuma. He also saw the forest anointed and deeply colored by the moon's gentle rays. On the inner reading, the forest was beautified by those well-known cows: by the radiance of His own limbs or by the cows under His protection, and had long been so adorned. The unusual grammatical form is Vedic usage. Seeing in this way both the stimulants and the supporting object of love, He sang sweetly; "upon His flute" is understood, as confirmed by the later words, "O beloved, what woman would not be enchanted by the nectar of the flute's sweet notes?" (Bhāgavata 10.29.40).

How did He sing? He sang so as to captivate specifically the minds of the young women whose lovely eyes were turned toward Him. Scripture says that women desire a man who sings. By a concealed double meaning, kalam consists of the syllables ka and la, while vāma-dṛśām may be read without an expressed case ending: with the fourth note called vāma-dṛk, He sounded the fifteen-note seed mantra of love. The secret is that His mind-enchanting song was the great Cupid-mantra that is His very own nature and draws every mind.

Bhāgavata 10.29.4

Hearing that song, which increased the power of Ananga, the women of Vraja, their minds already seized by Kṛṣṇa, came to the place where their beloved stood. Hurrying so swiftly that their earrings swung, they did not notice one another setting out. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs came near Kṛṣṇa like puppets strung upon the thread of His sweet song. Although that song was enchanting, it also increased desire. Kṛṣṇa had sent into Vraja the master thief called the flute-song. Entering without obstruction through the open doors of the women's ears and penetrating the treasury of their inner being, that thief stole the great treasures of steadiness, modesty, fear, discrimination, and the rest, together with their very minds, and instantly brought and delivered them to Kṛṣṇa. Thus their minds and everything connected with mind, including composure, memory, discrimination, modesty, and fear, had been seized by Kṛṣṇa. They therefore came as though to demand their own stolen wealth from the emperor of master thieves.

I think that, intent upon catching this great thief, they did not notice one another's endeavor. They followed directly behind the thief. Where did they go? To the place where their beloved stood. Because they hurried, their earrings swung, and with them the bracelets, waist bells, and other ornaments indicated by the earrings. The thief had not stolen those external treasures left in their houses because He considered them of little value.

Bhāgavata 10.29.5-7

Some were milking cows. Eagerly abandoning the milk pail, they hurried toward Him. Others left milk heating on the stove and went without taking down the cooked sweet rice.

Some were serving food, while others were feeding milk to children. Abandoning these tasks, they went. Some left while tending their husbands, and others cast aside the meal they were eating.

Some left while applying cosmetics, cleansing themselves, or decorating their eyes. Others reached Kṛṣṇa wearing their garments and ornaments in the wrong places. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī At the time of going to His side, their supreme eagerness made every delay intolerable. Three verses describe their disregard for duties connected with "mine" and "I," and show how some abandoned the obligations of their station. Those milking cows left the act of milking and hastened to Him. Others had placed milk in a vessel upon the stove but did not wait for it to boil. Some did not take down even the already-cooked preparation of wheat grains.

The next verse describes abandonment of duties common to women: some left while serving food, while others stopped attending their husbands by giving hot water and the like. Some abandoned even the bodily adornments they needed: they stopped anointing themselves with sandalwood and other substances or cleansing the body with fragrant powders. Overwhelmed by agitation, some even lost awareness of the proper place for each bodily ornament and put them on in reverse. This is the expressive symptom called vibhrama, as Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 11.39 states: "At the moment of attaining the beloved, bewilderment born from the invasion of love places necklaces, garlands, and other ornaments in the wrong locations."

Bhāgavata 10.29.8

Though their husbands, fathers, brothers, and other relatives tried to restrain them, they did not turn back. Govinda had stolen their very selves, and they were utterly enchanted. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī One may accept that the gopīs, through the strength of love, abandoned every consideration. But how could their husbands and other relatives abandon concern for them? The verse answers that although the married women were restrained by their husbands and the unmarried girls by their fathers and others, they did not turn back. The reason is contained in the name "Govinda." What need is there to speak of fear and modesty when even their very selves had been stolen by Govinda? "Bewildered" means that they were like unconscious puppets moved by strings.

One might object that husbands and relatives could not tolerate even the movement elsewhere of the bodies of wives and daughters from whom life itself had departed, because of fear for family honor. That is true. This apparent contradiction should be understood as resolved by Yogamāyā. The later narrative will explain the method: at that very moment she fashioned corresponding gopī forms, made each appear to be the particular wife or daughter concerned, and had the husbands and other relatives turn those forms back toward their respective homes.

Bhāgavata 10.29.9

Some gopīs, confined within their homes and unable to find a way out, closed their eyes and meditated upon Kṛṣṇa, wholly absorbed in thoughts of Him. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The matter is distinguished here according to the teaching of Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. The gopīs are first of two kinds: eternally perfected and perfected through practice. Those perfected through practice are again of two kinds, belonging to groups and not belonging to groups. Those belonging to groups are also of two kinds: the personified Vedas, because they form the group of the revealed scriptures, and the sages, because they form the group of the ancient seers. The Padma Purāṇa accordingly names four kinds: "The gopīs should be known as the revealed scriptures, those born from sages, the cowherd maidens, and the daughters of the gods, O King; they are never ordinary human women." Although their being human is already implied by their being gopīs, the denial that they are human establishes that they are not material human beings.

The cowherd maidens in this list are the eternally perfected gopīs, because no spiritual practice is described for them. Their worship of Kātyāyanī, despite their already being gopīs, simply displays the humanlike nature of the pastime, since their perfection as gopīs was already established. This was explained fully in the discussion of that episode. Their eternal perfection is shown by Brahma-saṁhitā's description of them as pervaded by conscious, blissful rasa, which establishes that they are manifestations of the hlādinī potency; by the Bṛhad-gautamīya statement, "Hlādinī is the great potency"; by the beginningless nature of Kṛṣṇa's amorous play with them; by their inclusion in mantras of ten, eighteen, and other numbers of syllables; and by the fact that worship of those mantras and the revealed injunctions prescribing it exist throughout beginningless and endless time. Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi explains that the daughters of the gods known from the scriptural statement "Let the women of the gods take birth" (Bhāgavata 10.1.23) are portions of eternally perfect gopīs.

The personified Vedas' perfection through practice is known from statements of the Bṛhad-vāmana Purāṇa such as: "Seeing You, whose beauty equals millions of Cupids, our minds have unquestionably assumed the mood of women and become agitated by love. We desire to take birth like the gopīs who dwell in Your realm, regard You as their lover, and worship You through amorous love." The same applies to the sages. Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 3.44 identifies them as "former worshipers of Gopāla who had not yet attained their desired perfection," while the Uttara-khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa says: "Long ago all the great sages dwelling in Daṇḍakāraṇya saw Hari there in the beautiful form of Rāma and desired to enjoy with Him. They all attained female forms and appeared in Gokula. Attaining Hari through amorous desire, they were then delivered from the ocean of becoming."

The words "seeing Rāma, they desired to enjoy Hari" mean that the sight of Rāma's beauty reminded them of their own worshipable Lord, Hari as Gopāla, and they desired to enjoy with that very Gopāla. Out of modesty they did not directly choose Rāma. By Śrī Rāma's grace, although He spoke no promise, like a wish-fulfilling tree He granted their desired perfection; this is expressed by "they all attained female forms." Their contemplated result was to attain Hari through amorous desire. Their unanticipated result was liberation from the ocean of material existence through that same desire.

Later passages speak of "mothers, fathers, and sons" (Bhāgavata 10.29.20), "service to husband, children, and friends" (10.29.32), and husbands, sons, lineage, brothers, and relatives. Kavikarṇapūra Gosvāmī's commentary on the Tenth Canto therefore understands that the gopīs confined within their homes were specifically those who had children. Following his explanation, the root meaning of the text should be understood consistently throughout.

The theological conclusion is this. Upon seeing the sweetness of Śrī Rāma's form, the sages who worshiped Gopāla ascended the exceedingly tender initial stages of firm faith, taste, and attachment within devotion composed of sacred passion. Although their remaining material impressions had not completely ripened, goddess Yogamāyā brought them to Gokula and caused them to be born as daughters in the wombs of gopīs. Among them, some received abundant association with eternally perfect gopīs. Beginning at the threshold of youth, they developed prior attachment to Kṛṣṇa and attained vivid inner manifestations of contact with His limbs. Their remaining impurities were thoroughly burned, and they ascended the stages of prema, sneha, and beyond. Though outwardly married to cowherd men, Yogamāyā protected them from the fault of bodily contact with those men. Their bodies became spiritual, and Kṛṣṇa enjoyed with them. When the flute sounded that night, their husbands tried to stop them, but by Yogamāyā's gracious assistance they went with the eternally perfect gopīs to meet their dearest Lord.

Others lacked the fortune of abundant association with the eternally perfect gopīs and therefore had not attained prema; their residual impressions remained unburned. They were married to cowherd men, were physically approached by those men, and bore children. Only afterward, through abundant association with the eternally perfect gopīs and others, did a powerful desire to touch Kṛṣṇa's limbs arise within them. They developed prior attachment and became recipients of the perfected gopīs' mercy. Yet because their bodies were still unfit for contact with Kṛṣṇa's limbs, Yogamāyā did not assist them. Their husbands restrained them, and they were unable to go to Kṛṣṇa. Overwhelmed by this great calamity, they regarded husbands, brothers, fathers, and others as enemies of their very lives. When brought to the point of death, ordinary women remember their mothers and other relatives; these gopīs instead remembered Kṛṣṇa, the sole friend of their lives. Hence the verse says they remained within. "Unable to find a way out" means that their husbands forcibly kept them seated under threats and with staffs in hand. Though always united with meditation upon Him, at that moment they meditated with extraordinary intensity. Each lamented inwardly: "Alas, sole friend of my life! Treasury of Vṛndāvana's arts! May I become Your beloved even in another birth. At this final moment I cannot behold the moon of Your face with my eyes. So be it; I shall at least see You within my mind." Closing their eyes, they meditated upon Him completely.

Bhāgavata 10.29.10-11

The unbearable, blazing pain of separation from their dearest Lord swept away all that was inauspicious. In meditation they attained Acyuta's embrace, and the bliss of that union exhausted all that was auspicious.

Though they approached Him with the conception of a paramour, He alone was the Supreme Self. Their bonds were at once completely destroyed, and they relinquished bodies composed of the material qualities. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The object attained by these gopīs is supremely confidential. Concealing it from externally oriented people, the sage uses a single construction to communicate an outward meaning to them while conveying his intended inward meaning to intimate devotees who know the conclusions of bhakti. He begins with "unbearable."

For the outwardly oriented, the verses say that Kṛṣṇa gave the gopīs liberation. The intense fire produced by unbearable separation from their dearest Lord removed all their inauspicious karma. The bliss of embracing Acyuta, whom they attained in meditation, exhausted their auspicious karma. Thus the bondage of their already-fructifying karma was completely destroyed. Although they regarded Him as a paramour, they attained that very Supreme Self and abandoned the body.

For inward devotees, however, the verses state that at this time the gopīs experienced immeasurable sorrow and happiness arising respectively from separation from and union with their beloved, and thereby gradually fulfilled their desires. The intense heat of unbearable separation from their dearest Lord "shook the inauspicious": seeing the intensity of that heat, thousands of terrible things such as submarine fires and cosmic poisons spread throughout millions of universes abandoned their pride in their own intensity and trembled, recognizing their defeat. Acyuta appeared vividly within meditation. The bliss of embracing Him then caused every auspicious pleasure, material or spiritual, to become thin and insignificant. Seeing the happiness born from embracing their vividly manifested beloved through wondrous bodies filled with prema, composed of consciousness, and endowed with their corresponding natures and self-conceptions, thousands of pleasures of material objects and impersonal Brahman throughout millions of universes, all designated by the word "auspicious," became emaciated and contemptible by comparison.

The explanation that the sorrow and joy born from separation from and union with Bhagavān destroyed already-fructifying sin and merit because such karma can be destroyed only by experiencing its fruit does not accord with the Vaiṣṇava conclusion. Separation from and union with Bhagavān are not fruits of sin and merit; moreover, authorities say that the destruction of such already-fructifying karma occurs at the stage of removing impediments during the practice of bhajana itself.

They therefore attained that very Supreme Self, the supreme object of love, even through the apparently very low conception of a paramour, and attained Him more completely than Rukmiṇī and others, whose exalted conception was that of a husband. In comparison with the wedded conception, the paramour conception contains the unsurpassed, unrestricted intensity of love established by Uddhava's statement, "abandoning relatives who are so difficult to renounce and the path of the noble" (Bhāgavata 10.47.61). In this avatāra's pastimes, apparently low things are repeatedly raised above conventionally exalted ones. Thus, in Bhīṣma's statement about Kṛṣṇa holding the whip and reins in Arjuna's victory chariot (Bhāgavata 1.9.39), His pastime as Arjuna's charioteer is shown superior even to His pastime as emperor of emperors. Similarly, amorous rasa, conventionally considered lower, surpasses the exalted peaceful rasa; within it, paramour love surpasses wedded love; and humble guñjā berries, mineral pigments, and peacock feathers surpass precious jewels as His ornaments.

Some of the confined gopīs, receiving Yogamāyā's favor, overcame the obstruction, went out, and attained Him as He enjoyed rāsa that very night; others attained Him on another night. One might object that Bhagavān's play with women whose bodies had been enjoyed by other men is improper. The answer lies in the statement that they "abandoned the body." The singular "body" expresses the class. Some say Yogamāyā made those bodies disappear without others noticing. Others explain that only a body composed of the material qualities can be abandoned. The emphatic adjective "composed of the qualities" therefore indicates that before the flute sounded their bodies had two aspects, material and spiritual. They abandoned precisely the material bodies that had been enjoyed by their husbands.

The distinction is as follows. From the beginning of devotion taught by Śrī Guru, pure bhakti consisting of hearing, chanting, remembering, prostration, service, and other practices enters a devotee's ears and other senses. Bhagavān says, "One who takes shelter of Me is beyond the qualities" (Bhāgavata 11.25.26). When devotees employ their ears and other senses in relation to Bhagavān's qualities, they become beyond the qualities. When they also engage with ordinary sounds and objects, they retain an aspect composed of the qualities. A devotee's body therefore possesses both a transcendent and a conditioned aspect. By the principle expressed in "devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment" (Bhāgavata 11.2.42), where satisfaction, nourishment, and relief from hunger increase with every morsel, the transcendental portion of the body increases in proportion to the growth of bhakti, while the conditioned portion correspondingly diminishes. When prema becomes complete, the conditioned aspect disappears and the body becomes entirely transcendent.

For the sake of people turned outward and to protect the secrecy of bhakti-yoga, Bhagavān may use Māyā to display the apparent fall of a gross body, as sometimes occurred with the Yādavas in the club-fight pastime. To demonstrate the excellence of bhakti-yoga, He may also show no such fall, as with Dhruva and others. The Twenty-fifth Chapter of the Eleventh Canto supplies evidence. After teaching that faith and other qualities can be either transcendent or composed of the guṇas, Bhagavān says: "O gentle one, the living being who has conquered these qualities born within the mind becomes fixed in Me through bhakti-yoga and attains My nature" (Bhāgavata 11.25.32). Thus Bhagavān declares that bhakti itself conquers and destroys conditioned things.

The verses may therefore also intend this meaning: the inauspicious bodies made of the qualities were scorched and shaken away, while through the bliss of His embrace their auspicious spiritual bodies, incapable of decay, became fully developed. Hence their bondage to ignorance and the obstruction imposed by husbands and others were completely severed when Yogamāyā's favor enabled them to depart. It must not be explained that their bodies simply fell because of death. Bhagavān later says: "Those blessed women of Vraja who remained here in their homes and did not attain the rāsa dance with Me attained Me through meditation upon My heroic deeds" (Bhāgavata 10.47.37). The word "blessed" reveals His intention: although they wished to abandon their bodies because their husbands restrained them and separation from Him tormented them, the inauspicious event of death was not His desire at the commencement of the supremely auspicious rāsa festival; they remained endowed with auspiciousness. Śuka likewise later says, "Delighted, they spoke to Uddhava as his message awakened their remembrance." Those who spoke were the very women previously confined within their houses and unable to attain the rāsa dance. Thus they abandoned their conditioned bodies without dying: scorched by the intense fire of separation, those bodies relinquished their conditioned nature and became spiritual, as happened with Dhruva and others. This transformation is the intended sense of abandoning the body.

The expressions "unable to find a way out" here and "remaining in Vraja" there correspond; "embracing Acyuta attained in meditation" here and "they attained Me through meditation upon My heroic deeds" there have the same meaning. Yet this passage says that some "attained Him," whereas the later one says some "did not attain rāsa." This difference establishes two classes among the gopīs confined within their homes.

Consider an analogy. When seven or eight fruits appear fully ripe, one recognizes the mango tree as bearing ripe fruit, plucks all the fruits, and brings them home. A discerning servant prepares for the king's enjoyment at the proper time those fruits that have become lovely in form, fragrance, flavor, and tenderness through the passage of time and the sun's rays. Fruits ripe within but still unripe outside, lacking beauty and other desirable qualities and therefore not yet fit for the king, are ripened by special warmth and offered to him on the second, third, or later day. In the same way, among the sage-born gopīs born in Gokula, those who from the outset abandoned material embodiment and were born with bodies of pure consciousness, untouched by other men, were sent by Yogamāyā together with the eternally perfect gopīs to meet Kṛṣṇa. Others still outwardly possessed conditioned bodies. Through the heat of separation from Śrī Kṛṣṇa they relinquished that conditioned state, lost every defect associated with another man's touch, and acquired spiritual bodies. Some of them followed all the others and met Him that very night. In some, a faint residue still remained, and the same heat of separation removed it so that they met Him on later nights.

Having attained the rāsa dance and other play, they returned at night's end with the eternally perfect gopīs to their husbands' homes. From then onward Yogamāyā protected them from contact with their husbands. Empty of possessiveness toward husbands and children and flooded by the overwhelming weight of love for Kṛṣṇa, their breasts dry of milk, they did not nourish their children. Their relatives therefore regarded them as if seized by a spirit. In this way no fault remains. Others say that even the gopīs confined in their homes had no children and that later terms such as "children" indicate a co-wife's son, a foster son, or a brother's son.

Bhāgavata 10.29.12

The king said:

O sage, the gopīs knew Kṛṣṇa only as their supreme beloved, not as Brahman. Their minds were absorbed in His qualities. How, then, could the current of the material qualities cease for them? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Seeing doubt within the hearts of certain outwardly oriented people present there merely from the expressions on their faces, King Parīkṣit speaks as though doubtful. By Śuka's grace he already knows the intended meaning of the sage's words, but asks solely to remove their doubt. O omniscient sage, the gopīs knew Kṛṣṇa, though He is the Supreme Self and Supreme Person, only as their lover, their own beloved; they did not know Him as Brahman. Their understanding therefore remained connected with the qualities: "We shall sport with Kṛṣṇa." How, then, could the current of the guṇas cease for them? Scripture and remembered tradition say that liberation arises specifically from knowledge of the Supreme Self: "Knowing Him alone, one crosses beyond death" and "they discern the Self as the Self of the self."

Bhāgavata 10.29.13

Śrī Śuka said:

I already explained to you how Śiśupāla attained perfection even while hating Hṛṣīkeśa. How much more, then, must this be true of those who were dear to Adhokṣaja? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The great sage knows inwardly that this is not really the king's own question. Therefore, under the pretext of rebuking him as though he were devoid of intelligence for asking it, he actually chastises the ignorant people whose doubt occasioned the question. He says, "It was already stated." "Previously" means in the Seventh Canto. If even one who hates Him can attain absorption by the adverse emotion called hatred, what need is there to speak of the favorable emotion called amorous love?

The name Hṛṣīkeśa implies another majesty of His mercy. Descending by His causeless compassion, although Brahmā and other gods cannot grasp Him with their senses, He makes Himself an object visible through His inconceivable potency to the senses of even the lowest people in the mortal world, in order to deliver them. These gopīs, however, are the beloveds of Adhokṣaja, the transcendent Lord beyond the senses: they are both the abode and object of His love.

In asking how Agha attained perfection, the verse passes over nearby Aghāsura and uses the distant king of Cedi as its example. The sage thereby gives the king a confidential teaching. Because of the Cedi king's intense absorption in hatred, only the material body imposed by the sages' curse came to an end. His inner spiritual body as the Lord's eternal associate remained imperishable. Hence the statement "their sin was slain by Viṣṇu's disc" (Bhāgavata 7.1.45): the disc destroyed their sin, not the two associates themselves. "He attained perfection" means that he reached his desired destination and regained the position of an associate, as stated: "Led to identity with Acyuta through intense meditation bound to hostility, the two attendants of Viṣṇu again went to Hari's side."

Bhāgavata 10.29.14

O king, the imperishable, immeasurable Bhagavān, who stands beyond the material qualities and is the source of all qualities, manifests Himself for the highest good of human beings. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Bhagavān descended after considering, "I deliver even people who possess no means to the highest good if they have merely some relationship with Me." This is explained in two verses beginning with "for human beings." The supreme good may mean merging for some, residence in His realm and related liberations for others, and prema for still others. His manifestation solely to kill Kaṁsa and other burdens of the earth would otherwise be implausible, since He can destroy millions of universes by the mere movement of His eyebrow. He is imperishable: even by giving His own self to each devotee, He never becomes depleted. If one asks how this is possible, He is called immeasurable, incapable of being comprehended. Who can know the truth of Him? He is beyond the material qualities, yet He is also the very Self composed of auspicious qualities intrinsic to His being. An ocean of transcendental qualities made of consciousness and bliss can never be measured.

Bhāgavata 10.29.15

Those who constantly direct desire, anger, fear, affection, unity, or friendship toward Hari surely attain absorption in Him. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The king should therefore first understand the general conclusion. The gopīs and others constantly direct amorous love toward Him; the Cedi king and others direct anger and hatred; Kaṁsa and others fear; Nanda and others parental affection; self-delighting sages awareness of identity; and the Vṛṣṇis, Pāṇḍavas, and others friendship. The present tense, "constantly directing," shows that even now each eternally directs the corresponding emotion toward Him, thereby revealing the eternal nature of all those pastimes. They attain absorption in Him. For the gopīs and similar devotees this means attachment to Him, as when a lover is said to be completely absorbed in a woman. Others understand it as merging.

Bhāgavata 10.29.16

You should not be astonished that people become freed through Kṛṣṇa, for He is unborn Bhagavān, the Lord even of the masters of yoga. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Let another person feel wonder, but you should not. From the time you were in the womb you have known His majesty. Though He herds cows, He is Bhagavān; though called Devakī's son, He is unborn; though appearing passionately attached to cowherd women, He is the Lord even of the masters of yoga; though manifest as Śarva, He liberates even immobile beings and others. This is Śrīdhara Svāmī's explanation. Alternatively, even the world outside the circle of His pastime is still liberated from the current of the guṇas by remembering the various emotions of amorous love, affection, and the rest directed toward Him.

Bhāgavata 10.29.17

Bhagavān saw the women of Vraja arrive close beside Him. The foremost of eloquent speakers bewildered them with artful words. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Having resolved the incidental objection, the narrative returns to its subject. The gopīs were drawn by the flute. Kṛṣṇa is foremost among eloquent speakers, those whose verbal skill suits time, place, and audience. The word peśa means "limb" or "part." The components of speech are the harsh and gentle elements that communicate direct, indicated, and suggested meanings. With these He bewildered the gopīs still further, although the flute had already bewildered them.

By addressing them harshly, Bhagavān intended to fulfill three desires. First, He would reveal to the world the purity of their love: "Even when they see indifference in Me, their beloved, not the slightest trace of their affection diminishes." Second, just as reversal is charming within amorous union, He would assume the heroine's initial contrary behavior of concealment and resistance, while inducing them to assume the hero's eager and accommodating role; thus He would fashion reversal even in their meeting. Third, He would hear the inward words that these supremely modest young women naturally concealed through dissimulation, after overturning their normal disposition.

Connoisseurs of rasa hold that just as a lover's breasts and other limbs produce wonder when concealed by cloth, inward eagerness produces wonder precisely when covered outwardly by resistance, not when openly exposed. Yet a hero sometimes longs to see the uncovered limbs of the heroine he will enjoy. In the same way he sometimes longs to hear her inward eagerness uncovered by resistance. He does not wish to see or hear this in the presence even of another man such as his own intimate friend. Kṛṣṇa, who had never before seen all the covered limbs of the gopīs, now desired to hear the multitude of their inward words stripped of the covering of resistance. Therefore one should understand that He did not bring even a beloved joking companion with Him at that time.

Bhāgavata 10.29.18

Śrī Bhagavān said:

Welcome, O greatly fortunate ones. What pleasing service may I perform for you? Is all well in Vraja? Please tell Me the reason for your coming. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Among men and women expert in rasa, the convention at a meeting is that men reveal eagerness for love, while women, unable to tolerate such directness, become angry. Kṛṣṇa first adopts this convention and says, "Welcome. Has your coming been comfortable?" Since they are supremely fortunate, the implication is that from birth they have never seen the face of sorrow.

Alternatively, this is not a question but a declaration: "Your arrival today is welcome and auspicious. You have done well to come here, for the actions of fortunate women become successful and bring happiness both to themselves and to others. What pleasing service shall I perform for you? Tell Me plainly what hospitality a solitary young man may offer young women at night in this secluded forest. Since I desire to please you, mercifully state clearly and without guile what you want, so that I may act without doubt."

The proper response would have been: "O extraordinarily shameless libertine! You dare speak in this way even to us, faithful wives. Do you not fear either religious law or the king?" But no such reply came. Their silence, caused by modesty, signaled assent to the suggested meaning of His question, namely bodily union. Bhagavān therefore considered: "If they do not adopt today the resistance appropriate to them, I should not display the eagerness appropriate to Me. I should mix it with resistance. As reversal is charming in the act of union, let reversal also be charming in the act of meeting. Their accommodating directness arises helplessly from drinking the honey of My utterly enchanting flute. Since I am not similarly helpless, I shall outwardly display an artificial resistance in response, though inwardly My natural eagerness remains." With such thoughts He begins to ascend the path of contrariness and asks with feigned fear and agitation, "Is Vraja well?" "I do not know whether some present calamity caused by Indra or another being afflicts Vraja, making all of you flee in fear and come to Me for protection."

The gopīs looked at one another with smiling wonder, thinking, "What new wave of trickery is this today?" Kṛṣṇa then said in effect: "Your silence shows that no calamity has occurred. Then tell Me why you have come, for I am unable to guess."

Bhāgavata 10.29.19

This night has a terrifying appearance and is frequented by fearsome creatures. O slender-waisted women, return to Vraja. Women should not remain here. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs spoke to one another merely through sidelong glances: "Alas! Every day He destroys our family duty, composure, modesty, and everything else by enjoying with us. Today He drew us here with His flute and now asks why we came!" They cast glances toward the vines as though saying, "We came to gather night-blooming flowers for worshiping the gods." Kṛṣṇa rejects that claim as unsuitable to the time, place, and persons involved. "This night, though bright with moonlight, is terrible simply because it is night. Tiny snakes, scorpions, and other creatures are difficult to see among the roots and young leaves of the vines, so this is not a proper time for gathering flowers. Ferocious animals such as tigers frequent this place; thus Vṛndāvana is not a proper place at this hour. Therefore return to Vraja."

If they propose to rest a moment before leaving, He says, "Women should not remain here." In relation to the time and place, persons of your kind are also unsuitable. The address "O slender-waisted ones" adds: "You are beautiful young women, and I too am a handsome youth alone here. You are certainly supremely chaste, and by the authority of the Gopāla-tāpanī statement, 'I am Kṛṣṇa, a celibate,' I too am a celibate, so there should be no fault in our remaining together. Even so, the mind, both yours and Mine, is notoriously untrustworthy." In this way His inward eagerness is suggested.

A second, intimate meaning becomes clear by dividing the words differently. "If modesty keeps you from telling Me why you came, do not speak; I already know. Therefore hear the truth. This night delights and, because filled with moonlight, is not terrible. Vṛndāvana is frequented by gentle creatures such as deer and, owing to its naturally nonviolent character, even by tigers and other normally fierce beings that have become harmless. You therefore need not fear here. Nor need you fear your husbands or other relatives, for those fierce-natured men will not come here. Therefore by no means return to Vraja; remain here beside Me."

One may object, "Do You keep every woman beside You?" He therefore says, "O slender-waisted ones. Women whose youthful beauty gives them lovely waists, namely you alone and no others, should remain here." Both the outwardly neglectful and inwardly attentive meanings should thus be understood in Kṛṣṇa's words. Textual note 10: A variant reads "home."

Bhāgavata 10.29.20

Your mothers, fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands, unable to see you, are surely searching for you. Do not cause fear among your relatives. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī One may object: even at night, even in a forest, people do not fault young women for going together in a group. True. Yet your relatives will certainly be searching for you now, fearing that some harm has befallen you. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "Do not make them anxious." Your mothers, fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands are searching for you because they do not see you. Infants only two or three months old cannot search, but they cry in distress; the general statement that all are searching is spoken because Kṛṣṇa pretends not to know the particular circumstances of each gopī. Thus, "Do not cause fear among those relatives by remaining out of their sight."

In the intimate reading, the words convey the opposite assurance: "Because they do not see you, your relatives will search for you. But they cannot discover this distant and exceedingly dense forest. Therefore do not be afraid of them. Sport freely with Me here at night."

Bhāgavata 10.29.21-22

You have seen the flowering forest, colored by the full moon's rays and beautified by tender leaves that tremble playfully in the Yamunā breeze. Therefore, do not delay. Go to the cowherd settlement, chaste ladies, and serve your husbands. The calves and children are crying; feed the children and milk the cows. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs then looked all around in embarrassment, and Kṛṣṇa said, "Ah, I understand. You have come to see the forest." When they raised their eyes upward, He pointed out the moonlight. When they looked toward the Yamunā, He described how the breeze, having touched her waters, gently moved the tender shoots of the trees adorned with blossoms. "You wished to see the forest; that purpose has now been fulfilled. Do not delay here any longer. Return to the cowherd settlement."

The intimate sense is entirely different: "Vṛndāvana is the foremost of all places; the full-moon night is the foremost of all times. The Yamunā flows in every direction, while breezes that are cool, gentle, and fragrant move through the flowering trees. All these are stimulants of divine rasa, and I am its supporting object. Today the expertise in rasa possessed by you connoisseurs will be put to the test. Therefore do not return to the settlement." Textual note 11: Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī reads "the cowherd settlement"; some read "home."

Bhāgavata 10.29.23

Or perhaps affection for Me has compelled your hearts and brought you here. That is entirely fitting, for every living being feels affection for Me. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Alternatively, Kṛṣṇa says: "I needlessly imagined all those other reasons for your coming. Now I understand. The affection for Me that fills you in every respect has brought your hearts under its control, and so you have come. Your coming is appropriate, and simply by seeing Me its purpose has already been fulfilled. All living beings love Me. Your affection is therefore a natural good fortune, not something contrived. It is merely the general affection felt for Me by all creatures, not a special love shaped by some particular desire."

The intimate reading is this: "Your intense affection for Me is prema in the mood of beloveds. It has turned your hearts into instruments, and I am drawn and governed by the machinery of those hearts. Your coming is wholly fitting, not unreasonable. Even animals and other creatures love Me; how much more must you, who are endowed with such profound feeling, love Me." Textual note 12: Some witnesses read "My."

Bhāgavata 10.29.24

O auspicious women, sincere service to one's husband is the highest duty for women, together with service to his relatives and the care of one's children. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs might reply: "If You know that we possess such deep affection for You, why do You repeatedly tell us to return? No one can abandon the object of her love." Kṛṣṇa answers that scripture nevertheless teaches how women of Vraja who love Him should act so that their dharma may be fulfilled: they should faithfully serve their husbands and also the husbands' relatives, such as their mothers-in-law. The husband's service is called the supreme duty, and it must be free from deceit and infidelity.

In the intimate reading, because women are the subject, Kṛṣṇa specifically addresses the beautiful women of Vraja. Service to a husband is para-dharma, another's duty rather than their own, and therefore it is not to be performed by them. Scripture enumerates five branches of irreligion: "One who knows dharma should reject vidharma, another's dharma, an imitation of dharma, an inferior substitute for dharma, and deceit" (Bhāgavata 7.15.12). "I am Viṣṇu and you are Vaiṣṇavīs. Worship of Me is your own proper dharma; service directed elsewhere is para-dharma. Therefore worship Me after abandoning all other duties, as the Lord teaches: 'One who has wholly abandoned every prescribed duty and worships Me is the best of the saintly' (Bhāgavata 11.11.32)."

Bhāgavata 10.29.25

Women who desire a good destination in this world and the next must not abandon a husband who is not fallen, even if his conduct is bad, his fortune poor, or he is old, incapable, diseased, or destitute. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs may object: "Those husbands are incompatible with our affection for You. Their dispositions are hostile to it, and they give us no delight. How can we serve them?" Kṛṣṇa therefore says that even a husband of bad character, unfortunate, aged, dull, sickly, or poor should not be abandoned, provided he is not fallen. This follows the remembered injunction that a wife should serve a husband who has not fallen; only a husband guilty of a sin that causes spiritual fall may be forsaken. The phrase "women who desire his world" means those who seek the happiness of the realm attained with their husbands.

In the intimate reading, only women who desire the exceedingly petty fame and happiness available in this world and the next are told not to abandon their husbands. "But you have already offered a handful of water in farewell to both worlds and are sporting in the ocean of the bliss of My sweetness. From the very beginning, therefore, you have abandoned your husbands."

Bhāgavata 10.29.26

For a woman of respectable family, relation with a paramour obstructs heaven, destroys reputation, is insignificant, painful, fear-producing, and condemned everywhere. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa continues: "Affection for Me in a general sense arises naturally in you, but a particular affection that opposes religious duty must be abandoned altogether. Adultery does not lead to heaven." If they answer, "Let heaven go," He says, "It destroys one's good name." If they reply, "Let fame go as well," He says, "Your claim that this love is supreme is hollow." If they protest, "It is not hollow, for we experience it as the highest of all things," He answers, "It is difficult and painful, filled with the suffering caused by husbands and others who obstruct it."

The gopīs might cite the science of rasa: "A woman's contrariness, her difficulty of attainment, and the restrictions placed upon her - these, I think, are the supreme weapons of the five-arrowed god of love" (Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 3.20); and, "Even intense suffering delights the mind as though it were happiness" (Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 14.126). "For passionate women like us, therefore, that very hardship becomes the cause of surpassing happiness." Kṛṣṇa replies, "It is fearsome. Because it is forbidden by both society and scripture, it produces fear in this life and the next."

They may again cite the science of rasa: "Where there is a special prohibition and the doe-eyed woman is exceedingly difficult to obtain, there the hearts of sophisticated lovers become most intensely attached" (Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 3.21). "Far from being harmful, such fear nourishes rasa." Kṛṣṇa therefore says, "Adultery is condemned everywhere. In every country and at every time, intercourse with another's spouse is regarded as reprehensible for a woman of good family. Thus a respectable woman who engages in it is universally censured. You might readily endure disgrace in order to fulfill your cherished desire, but how could I cause disgrace to fall upon you, who are the objects of My love? Therefore return to the cowherd settlement."

The intimate reading turns the word "everywhere" against that conclusion: the condemnation is indeed universal in ordinary cases, but not here. "Through the tradition descending from Garga and other sages, you have heard that I am equal to Nārāyaṇa. Consequently, even union with Me outside conventional marriage brings no blame. As the Supreme Lord, I transcend both auspicious and inauspicious material action." Textual note 20: A variant reads "indeed."

Bhāgavata 10.29.27

Love for Me arises through hearing, seeing, meditating, and repeated glorification, not so much through physical nearness. Therefore, return to your homes. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs might answer: "Why do You imagine otherwise? We have not come seeking bodily contact with You. On the authority of Garga's declaration that no one is equal to Nārāyaṇa (Bhāgavata 10.8.19), we know You to be Nārāyaṇa Himself and have come desiring devotion to You. Keep us near You for this one night and mercifully allow us to serve Your lotus feet." Kṛṣṇa responds that pure devotees do not desire even proximity to the Lord, residence in His world, or the other forms of liberation. Vaiṣṇavīs such as the gopīs have certainly heard the celebrated teaching that they desire only practices such as hearing and chanting. They should therefore return home.

In the intimate reading, bhāva means the god of love: "The passion born from hearing and the other devotional acts is not what arises through direct proximity. Therefore do not go home." The negation is understood a second time with the verb. Alternatively, by joining the negative prefix to the noun, the words mean: "Go toward places that are not homes," and thus remain outside the domestic sphere with Me. Textual note 21: A variant reads "home" in the singular.

Bhāgavata 10.29.28

Śrī Śuka said:

Hearing these displeasing words spoken by Govinda, the gopīs became despondent. Their resolve shattered, they entered an insurmountable anguish. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The name Govinda may be derived as "He from whom the cows and cowherd women obtain the opportunity to engage in many kinds of playful speech." His bhāṣita is articulated, explicit speech, from the verbal root bhāṣ, "to speak distinctly." The gopīs heard that explicit speech as disagreeable. At the same time, they correctly perceived within it an unspoken, beloved meaning conveyed through suggestion and verbal double entendre. Yet, finding no reason why His explicit words should be displeasing, they remained uncertain whether the hidden sense was truly favorable. The rise of humility from their enduring condition of deep attachment made them conclude, "We really are unworthy; He has rejected us." They became despondent.

Their resolve shattered, they sank into anxious deliberation: "For His sake we abandoned the duties of our husbands' families and our fathers' families, together with composure, fear, modesty, and everything else, yet He has rejected us. Shall we plead with Him piteously and clasp His feet? Or shall we somehow summon courage, pretend to be indifferent, and turn back toward Vraja in order to discover the intention hidden within His unfathomable gravity? Or should we give up our lives? If so, shall we do it before His very eyes, unseen by Him, or by entering the Yamunā? Alas, if we relinquish life, how shall we continue seeing His beautiful face? Yet if we do not die, how can we remain here after being dismissed, and how could we ever perform the vomit-like duty He has prescribed, the service of husbands and relatives? Where shall we go? What shall we do?" Thus they became utterly bewildered about their course of action.

[Sanskrit verse]

He summoned the rows of gopīs, like thirsty cātaka birds, with the sound of His flute, and then poured poison upon them. Astonished, they immediately drank that very poison from Kṛṣṇa. Having placed their trust in Him, what woman among them could abandon her sacred vow?

Bhāgavata 10.29.29

Their heads bowed, their bimba-red lips drying beneath their sorrowful sighs, the gopīs traced the ground with their feet. Their streams of tears, darkened by collyrium, washed the kuṅkuma from their breasts. Overwhelmed by the weight of immense grief, they stood in silence. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The verse describes the outward signs of their anxious reflection. By lowering their faces, they reveal their shame. At love's command they had abandoned their natural modesty; now that very abandonment had become a cause of shame. Although they were an embodied mass of the modesty proper to women of good family, they had relinquished it solely because of love. Those who understand the rasa of love praise such conduct rather than condemn it. Indeed, this is love's defining characteristic: it brings even the Supreme Lord, its object, under its extraordinary control. If Kṛṣṇa, the object of their love, had not been brought under their control, they concluded that they possessed no love at all. Then why had they abandoned modesty? From that question arose repentance, shame, and anxiety.

Their faces are further described in order to unfold their repentance. Their bimba-fruit lips were drying under the hot sighs born of grief, just as ripe bimba fruits lose their fullness and become visibly discolored when dried by the sun. Their shame and anxiety appear in their scratching the earth with the big toes of their left feet, as though pleading, "O Earth, split open so that we may enter you."

Their tears, darkened with collyrium, wiped the kuṅkuma from their breasts. This suggests that a black guideline had been drawn there so that the great saw of remorse, which intensified their separation, might cut them in two. The plural "tears" and the present-tense verb "wiping" indicate an unbroken stream. Although the verse does not say so, so many tears must also have drenched their lower garments. In the contest between the twin Yamunās flowing from their eyes, which wished to extinguish the fires of anguish rising from their hearts, and those very fires, which wished to dry the rivers of tears, neither victory nor defeat could be seen. Burdened by immense sorrow, they remained silent, as though consciousness itself had departed because it could not bear the weight. The statement that they stood implies that, bereft of awareness, they remained upright like dolls. Textual note 23: A variant reads, "not at the prompting of love."

Bhāgavata 10.29.30

Kṛṣṇa was their dearest beloved, yet He spoke as though He were otherwise. For His sake they had turned away every other desire. Deeply attached, they wiped their eyes, which were overcome by weeping, and glanced up slightly. Their voices choked by impassioned indignation, they spoke. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Then Bhagavān loudly called out, "Why are you crying uselessly in the forest? Why do you smiling, virtuous women not quickly return to your own homes?" His words traveled through their ears and awakened them from their faint, whereupon they made a small submission. Kṛṣṇa is called their dearest because He had previously embraced them many times.

Yet this dearest person spoke as though He were hostile and no longer dear, cruelly commanding them without cause to serve their respective husbands. Such a command was impossible for them to fulfill, because for His sake they had decisively turned away every desire in such a way that not even the scent of a relationship with those husbands remained. By using the word "all" without qualifying it by "other," Śuka indicates that desire directed toward Bhagavān's happiness is not included among the desires they had renounced. Their eyes had been nearly blinded by weeping, and they wiped them with the longing, "Our last moment has arrived. Let us see His lotus face once before we die."

Their agitation said, "Alas! Though He is our beloved and we have committed no offense, how can He impose a punishment that ends our lives?" Yet their agitation also subsided when they thought, "We possess neither beauty nor qualities worthy of touching His limbs. It is therefore right that He abandon us." Their voices were choked with this mingled agitation and humility. One might ask whether either response proves an absence of love and makes withdrawal proper. The verse therefore calls them deeply attached: those blinded by ever-fresh attachment cannot submit their love to such deliberation.

Bhāgavata 10.29.31

The gopīs said:

All-pervading Lord, You should not speak such cruel words. We have completely abandoned every object of sense and taken refuge at the root of Your feet. O difficult one, reciprocate with us; do not forsake us. Just as the primeval Lord accepts those who seek liberation, accept us. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs say that it is improper for Kṛṣṇa to teach them dharma while intending to heap sin upon Himself: "Do not speak so. As the son of Nanda, a man universally renowned for righteousness, You should not utter words so merciless that they directly kill us. A common man whose trade is killing people might perhaps speak that way, but not You. You have discharged millions of arrow-like words at us all at once. We shall therefore immediately leave our bodies and all go to Yama's city, not to the cowherd settlement You prescribe. You may then take upon Yourself the sins of killing hundreds of millions of women and return to the settlement alone. If You do not wish to incur the sin of killing women, then accept us, Your devotees, who have abandoned every object of sense and served the root of Your feet." By saying "all objects" rather than "other objects," they imply that contact with Bhagavān's limbs is not an ordinary sense object.

Kṛṣṇa might ask, "O passionate women, can your desire not be pacified by your own husbands? Why abandon them and worship Me alone?" They answer by calling Him duravagraha. Pāṇini uses avagraha for the obstruction of rain. Since the implied object is a cloud afflicted by a terrible failure to rain, their address means, "O cloud that rains nothing but poison! For us cātaka birds, You, the dark cloud Kṛṣṇa, are our only friend even from afar. Yet through a fault of destiny You have become a rainless cloud and today shower poison. If You will not rain water, then do not rain at all. We shall drink the poison You have poured and die, but we will never drink even the water of nearby lakes. Please understand the nature of our resolve."

Therefore they plead, "Do not abandon us, if You value gratitude." One could reply that cātaka birds may depend upon a cloud, but the cloud does not depend upon them; whether they live or die costs it nothing. True, they answer, but Kṛṣṇa is not an insentient cloud. He is the crown jewel of the clever and equal to Nārāyaṇa, so He should act as the divine Nārāyaṇa. Out of submission to His devotees He reciprocates even with liberation-seekers who merely wish to abandon all objects in order to worship Him, fulfilling what they seek. How, then, can He refuse to reciprocate with the gopīs, who have actually abandoned every class of object solely for His sake?

Bhāgavata 10.29.32

Dear one, You know dharma and have said that a woman's own duty is faithful service to her husband, children, and friends. Let that teaching stand, but let it be directed toward You, the Lord. You are surely the dearest beloved, relative, and very Self of all embodied beings. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Some bold gopīs, wishing to defeat Kṛṣṇa by His own words, answer: "Let Your statement that obedience to husbands, children, and relatives is a woman's own duty stand exactly as spoken. We do not dispute it. Indeed, we perform that duty at every moment."

How do they do so? Only by first obeying Kṛṣṇa, the very seat and speaker of this instruction, can obedience to husbands and the others become proper. The teacher who expounds dharma must first be served; only afterward can one perform the dharma he teaches. Scripture also holds that dharma succeeds through sincere obedience to the teacher. Here the teacher is moreover the Supreme Lord. If the ācārya himself is the Supreme Lord, what further need is there to speak?

Because He is the Lord, Kṛṣṇa is the Self of all embodied beings. Because He is their Self, He is dearest; because He is dearest, He is their true friend. Scripture commands service to husbands and the rest only while the Supreme Self remains present within them. When the self departs, they are immediately carried out of the house and their faces are burned on a riverbank or elsewhere, as the law books prescribe. Service to the embodied Self, Kṛṣṇa, therefore accomplishes service to husbands and relatives as well. What use are those husbands and others who, because they oppose Him, are as soulless as corpses with burned faces?

An objection arises: complete prema covers awareness of the Lord's majesty. Since the gopīs possess perfect prema, how can such knowledge of His divinity appear in them? Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī answers that prema, characterized in the Nārada-pañcarātra and other works and explained in the treatises on devotional rasa, eternally possesses its own natural heat and coolness and produces the experience of the rasas of separation and union. The Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu says: "Even if the bliss of Brahman were multiplied by the highest conceivable number, it could not equal even an atom of the ocean of devotional happiness" (1.1.38).

In separation, the experience of love, though surpassing even that multiplied Brahman-bliss, burns more fiercely than millions of suns. It illuminates all Bhagavān's qualities, those of majesty as well as sweetness, and conceals none of them, for separation is like the sun and reveals everything. In union, however, love delights more than millions of moons and manifests only His sweetness. Union resembles the moon; through its nectar, and through states such as mādana, it covers awareness of majesty. Wherever majesty remains manifest even during union, one should understand that prema is not yet complete. Here the gopīs imagine a separation about to occur, so their vision of Kṛṣṇa's greatness arises in separation and is itself produced by prema. Love can project greatness even where it is absent, what then when the greatness is real? The greater the love, the greater the perceived glory, just as King Bharata exclaimed about the earth, "What austerity has this ascetic earth performed?" (Bhāgavata 5.8.23). Thus ends the explanation of Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī. Textual note 28: A variant reads "some outspoken gopīs."

Bhāgavata 10.29.33

Those who truly know what is good place their love in You, their own Self and eternal beloved. What use have we for husbands, sons, and others who only bring distress? Therefore, O Lord who bestows every boon, be gracious to us. Lotus-eyed one, do not cut down the hope we have held in You for so long. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Other gopīs echo that argument and strengthen it by citing the conduct of the wise. Garga had said, "O greatly fortunate one, enemies cannot overcome those who love this child, just as demons cannot overcome those protected by Viṣṇu" (Bhāgavata 10.8.18). Trusting these words, they say that wise people direct love toward Kṛṣṇa. Strictly speaking, however, one should not even say that the wise "create" such love, for their attachment to Him is innate. He alone is "their own," the object of their sense of possession, and He alone is the Self, the basis of their very identity. Hence He is eternally dear and their love for Him is eternal. Love for husbands, sons, and others arises only from temporary conditions and is therefore impermanent; the gopīs say that even such conditional love for them is absent in their own hearts. Those relatives give pain because they obstruct the gopīs' journey to Kṛṣṇa. "Therefore be gracious and keep us alive. Or, if You will not preserve us married women, why do You make these unmarried girls weep, O giver of boons? You already granted them a boon when You said, 'O chaste girls, I know your resolve'" (Bhāgavata 10.22.25).

Kṛṣṇa might reply that their worship of Kātyāyanī gave Him a reason to bless those girls, whereas the others have shown no such cause. They therefore plead for entirely causeless mercy: "O Lord, independent in whatever You desire to do, do not now cut down the wish we have cherished in You since childhood, a wish-fulfilling vine that has finally borne fruit. A good person does not cut down a fruitful vine. The words 'for so long' and 'do not cut' make this reproach clear."

They add that He Himself planted this vine of hope in the garden of their minds: "O lotus-eyed one, when we first saw You at the threshold of youth, You sent the glances of Your lotus-like eyes through the openings of our eyes and planted in the field of our hearts the seed of the vine of hope called loving emotion. According to the science of rasa, visual attraction comes first, followed by attachment of the mind and then resolve. That vine grew through hearing of and seeing Your qualities and beauty. It has borne fruit, and we have tasted and continue to taste that fruit. How can You now cut it down with the little axe of cruel speech? You know the maxim that even a poisonous tree, once one has nurtured it, should not be cut down by oneself." Textual note 29: A variant reads "O Supreme Lord." Textual note 30: A variant reads "held." Source note 31: The cited verse lists the ten stages of love: first attraction through sight, then attachment of the mind, resolve, loss of sleep, emaciation, withdrawal from sense objects, loss of modesty, madness, fainting, and death. Source note 32: Two parallel forms of the maxim are quoted: "He should not now be killed, for he has attained maturity; even a poisonous tree, once nurtured, should not be cut down by oneself," and, "That demon, having attained prosperity, does not deserve destruction from me; even a poisonous tree, once nurtured, should not be cut down by oneself."

Bhāgavata 10.29.34

Our minds, which once entered happily into household life, have easily been stolen by You. Our hands no longer engage in household duties, and our feet cannot move even one step from the base of Your feet. How can we go back to Vraja? What could we possibly do there? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Other gopīs reveal the relish of their own love: "O emperor of thieves, we have not come for any other purpose. We have come only to recover our own treasure, which You stole. You have taken our hearts." Nor did He have to exert Himself like an ordinary thief; He did it easily, merely by blowing through the holes of His flute.

The treasure of their hearts was not a small possession. Their mind entered completely into every affair of the home. Now that He had stolen it and left them without a mind, what did they care whether their homes burned or prospered? By deliberate exaggeration, "homes" also means the senses, such as hearing: the mind entered each one and enabled it to fulfill its purpose, and without it all the senses became useless. Thus, by stealing the mind He had stolen all their senses as well. Their hands, which once entered into household duties, and by implication their eyes, ears, and every other faculty, had all been taken by Him.

Kṛṣṇa might say, "Go for today. Tomorrow or the next day I shall examine your claim and return your minds." They answer: "Without the mind You stole, our feet cannot move even a single step from the root of Your feet. Give the mind back to us; only then can we leave."

Bhāgavata 10.29.35

Dear one, extinguish the fire of desire in our hearts, born from Your smiling glances and soft song, by flooding us with the nectar of Your lips. If You do not, friend, our bodies will be consumed by the fire born of separation, and through meditation we shall reach the path of Your feet. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa reflected: "On the day I stole their garments, I saw the unclothed bodies of these beautiful women, which ordinarily one longs to see only at the time of union. Similarly, I have wished to hear these deeply feeling women speak without modesty at a time other than intoxication, yet even now I do not hear it. Alas! My flute, filled with desire, drove them mad; then My artful words bewildered them. I even stole the mind upon which modesty, discrimination, dharma, patience, and the rest depend. Still they generally speak with reserve and have not yet fully revealed their inward feeling." As He considered this, some of the foremost gopīs, their natures overturned by the powerful transitory state of divine madness, spoke the words beginning with "Pour."

The possessive understood with "smile" is "Your." Their meaning is: "Dear Kṛṣṇa, the fire of desire in our hearts was awakened and kindled by Your smiling glance and gentle song. Extinguish it by pouring upon it a flood of nectar from Your own lips." The person who starts a fire must, upon regaining judgment, put it out; only then is his offense absolved. Otherwise the one who kindles it incurs the sin caused by the burning of a house or anything else.

By saying "the desire that lies in the heart" rather than merely "desire," they suggest: "Our desire always lay asleep in our hearts, and no one but You could awaken it. Accompanied by the sound of Your flute, You entered our hearts through the openings of our ears, awakened the sleeping fire of love, fed it with the ghee and honey of Your smiling glance, and fanned it with the wind of Your gentle song. Now it has begun to burn the innocent lives dwelling there. If You fear the sin of burning them, put the fire out. Neither kindling nor extinguishing it requires the slightest effort from You: Your smiling glance is its fuel, and the nectar of Your lips is what quenches it. Both are present in the single moon of Your face. O prince of wicked sports, we have repeatedly seen Your play both kindle and extinguish fires, never merely kindle them. Only today do we see such one-sided play."

Kṛṣṇa might answer, "My smiles, glances, and gentle songs arise naturally. If young women burn because of them, how many, in how many places, must I treat with the nectar of My lips?" The gopīs reply that His stubbornness will end when He experiences the astonishing remorse produced by the deaths of many thousands of women. "If You do not extinguish the fire, our bodies will be consumed by the fire of separation. Like yoginīs, we shall then meditate upon the path of Your feet and reach it at once."

They elaborate inwardly: "We understand ourselves to be ascetics from our previous births. Since You do not accept us in this birth, we need no external, ordinary fire for further austerity: the fire of desire in our hearts and the fire of separation from You are already present. The ever-intensifying fire of separation will itself subdue the fire of desire. Into that fire we shall offer our lives with this resolve: 'O fire of separation from Kṛṣṇa, hoping for the touch of His feet, we offer our lives into you. Place us invisibly along the path of Kṛṣṇa's feet, so that His feet fall upon our breasts rather than upon the earth.' The weight of Your feet will extinguish the fire in our hearts and fulfill our desire. Though unwilling, You will receive the pleasure of touching our breasts, while the remorse of having killed women will fall upon You all the more."

Bhāgavata 10.29.36

Lotus-eyed one, at some rare moment Your foot, which grants an audience even to Ramā and is dear to the forest people, touched us. From that moment, delighted by You, we have been unable to stand easily before any other person. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might say, "Then approach your own husbands; they can extinguish this fire." The gopīs answer: "O lotus-eyed one, from the very moment we saw Your eyes, we became like female bees hovering around lotus blossoms." The science of rasa says that visual attraction comes first, followed by attachment of the mind and then resolve. Their first exchange of glances therefore initiated their prior love.

More than that, at a certain moment in a secluded grove on Govardhana or elsewhere, they touched the soles of His feet with their breasts. Those feet grant even Lakṣmī of Vaikuṇṭha, Nārāyaṇa's beloved, a festival of longing for amorous union. They had heard from Garga and others the serpent-wives' words, "Desiring the dust of those feet, Śrī performed austerity" (Bhāgavata 10.16.36). If His feet inspire such longing in Lakṣmī, what wonder is there that they produce a festival of longing in forest-dwelling cowherd women?

Kṛṣṇa might ask how they could be qualified to obtain what even Lakṣmī desires. They answer that the beloveds of Kṛṣṇa, whose very preference is for those born in the forest among the cowherds, are those gopīs themselves. "From the moment we touched Your feet, we have been unable even to stand before our respective husbands. Seeing them immediately produces disgust in our minds. Nor did we merely touch You. You delighted with us in every way, enjoyed with us as You wished, and even placed us in the active role of lovers. Having already enjoyed us, do not send us elsewhere. We fall at Your feet." Textual note 33: A variant reads "dear one."

Bhāgavata 10.29.37

Śrī herself, though she obtained a place upon Nārāyaṇa's chest, desired the dust of His lotus feet together with Tulasī, dust already served by His attendants. Other gods strive merely to receive her glance. In the same way, we too have surrendered to the dust of Your feet. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs say by way of example: "You Yourself have made us Your beloveds, yet what we desire is service to Your feet. Lakṣmī desired the dust of Nārāyaṇa's lotus feet. In the same way, we have taken shelter of the dust of Your lotus feet, for You are equal to Him. Garga's words establish Your equality with Nārāyaṇa, and consequently our equality with Lakṣmī follows of itself."

Although Lakṣmī obtained the foremost place upon Nārāyaṇa's chest, she still desired the dust of His feet, a position shared with her rival Tulasī and served by attendants. Despite the crowd of male servants there, she abandoned the natural modesty proper to a beloved and accepted an apparently lower station. Thus she desired the mood of a maidservant even more than that of a beloved, and so do the gopīs. Casting modesty aside, they wish to massage Kṛṣṇa's feet even beside servants such as Raktaka and Patraka. They also wish to imitate the Pulinda women of Vṛndāvana by accepting a humble position and anointing their foreheads with the kuṅkuma from His feet that clings to the grass.

The satisfied Lord Nārāyaṇa gave Lakṣmī His own chest as her eternal residence. But Kṛṣṇa, though the crown of connoisseurs, does not grant the gopīs even a moment near the soles of His feet. "Our foreheads alone must be cursed with ill fortune. If You seek fame and, on Garga's authority, wish to prove Yourself equal to Nārāyaṇa, then carry us upon Your chest." This deep suggestion also touches their inward feeling.

Someone might joke, "Lakṣmī is fickle; you too should adopt her nature and wander from house to house among fortunate people." What fool could say this? Lakṣmī is supremely steadfast. Brahmā and the other gods, who are like her sons, exert themselves merely to receive a maternal glance of mercy from her, yet she scarcely looks even at them. One of her potencies simply bestows upon them the prosperity they desire. Textual note 35: Other witnesses read "performed" or "and other."

Bhāgavata 10.29.38

Therefore be gracious to us, O destroyer of distress. We have abandoned our homes and come to the foot of Your feet, hoping to worship You. O ornament of men, grant servitude to us, whose hearts burn with the fierce longing born from Your beautiful smiling glance. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Having abandoned home and family like devotees of Nārāyaṇa, the gopīs desire only Kṛṣṇa's service. Because He is equal to Nārāyaṇa, they ask Him to be gracious to them.

Kṛṣṇa might reply that adverse destiny has allotted them suffering and therefore prevents His grace: even Nārāyaṇa is not gracious in every circumstance. They answer, "O destroyer of affliction, You Yourself must destroy that suffering. Nārāyaṇa invariably ends the distress of those who surrender to Him, and we have reached the root of Your feet. We have abandoned our dwellings without any other desire."

He might say, "Though you abandoned domestic happiness, surely you want Me to give you some other pleasure." They answer that their hope rests solely in serving Him, not in any happiness He might give as the fruit of that service. Their only intention is to please Him. If happiness happens to arise in them from seeing His happiness, what fault is there in that?

He may then ask why they previously begged Him to extinguish the fire in their hearts. They reply that His beautiful smile and glance caused that intense desire and set their hearts ablaze. Even so, they ask Him to grant the position of maidservants, not wives. Śrī Vallabhācārya explains: "We seek service, not marriage. Ordinary social rites such as investiture are therefore irrelevant. Whether we are unmarried girls or married to others makes no difference, for service to You is possible in either condition." Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī similarly explains in the original Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī that worship in paramour love brings a greater and more exalted happiness than worship as a wedded wife, a truth well known from Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, works on poetic ornament, and elsewhere. The gopīs therefore request a special kind of service here, and will shortly say, "Let us become Your maidservants" (10.29.39).

What is their intention? Kṛṣṇa is an ocean of desire and a lover of women. For these young women, worship means producing His happiness with their own bodies. Their request that He quench the fire in their hearts is thus itself a request to worship Him; even their fire of desire is their principal instrument of service. Hence the address "O ornament among men" is perfectly appropriate: Kṛṣṇa is the sapphire ornament adorning every limb of these fair-complexioned women.

Bhāgavata 10.29.39

Having beheld Your face encircled by curling locks, the beauty of Your earrings upon Your broad cheeks, the nectar of Your lips, and Your smiling glance, and having seen Your two staff-like arms that grant fearlessness and Your chest, the sole pleasure-ground of Śrī, we have become Your maidservants. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might ask: "If you are My maidservants, did I purchase you for a price, or are you servants whom I hired and paid?" They answer: "At the threshold of our youth You purchased us for a price millions upon millions of times greater than our worth, an unprecedented and priceless jewel: contemplation of Your smiling glance. You brought us into Your own bower-temple and, under the guise of Your curling locks and other features, displayed treasures of sapphire, lotus treasure, refined gold, paired sea monsters, wish-fulfilling stones, jewel-paved terraces, jeweled pillars, the playground of Lakṣmī, and temples of blue gems. Every day You fed us nectar unavailable even to the gods. Merely by beholding You, therefore, we became Your maidservants."

When Kṛṣṇa binds a red, curling turban upon His head, a servant combs His locks upward, while He restrains them with His fingers and carefully tucks them under the turban. Only their roots remain visible at the left and right edges of His forehead. His face is then surrounded by locks without being covered. When He ties His hair in a topknot, short curls lightly veil the upper left and right sides of His forehead. During oil massage, cleansing, and the intensity of secret union, His curls fully cover His face. Tasting with their eyes the abundance of sweetness in all these forms, the gopīs become His servants.

At different times the earrings and curls leave one another uncovered, partly covered, or wholly covered; they may be still, slightly restless, or exceedingly restless. Each condition gives His face a distinct beauty. When He smiles or laughs broadly, the corners of His mouth spread across His cheeks, and the nectar of His lips seems to overflow onto them. That nectar climbs from one cheek to the other and is drunk by the cātaka-like eyes of the gopīs. At different confidential moments His lip-nectar rests upon their cheeks, and the nectar of their lips rests upon His. Alternatively, the compound describes cheeks bearing the reflected beauty of the earrings and lips filled with nectar. His glance is joined with a smile, or it makes the gopīs and the night-blooming lotuses blossom.

Kṛṣṇa might warn that their intolerant husbands could complain to King Kaṁsa and place both Him and them in danger. They answer by pointing to the pair of mighty arms that gave fearlessness even against Indra's pride through lifting Govardhana. Those very arms would take the life of the beast Kaṁsa. The heroic rasa suggested here nourishes the amorous rasa.

He may say, "I do not make other men's wives My servants." They retort, "You forcibly brought even Lakṣmī, Nārāyaṇa's wife, from Vaikuṇṭha and carry her upon Your chest." Out of modesty she sports there chiefly in the form of a golden line. The gopīs suggest: "However young You may be, we now understand that throughout the fourteen worlds, the higher realms, and even the great Vaikuṇṭha beyond the material universe, You will not leave any beautiful woman untouched."

Bhāgavata 10.29.40

Beloved, what woman anywhere in the three worlds would not forsake honorable conduct when bewildered by the swelling music of Your flute, whose notes are tender and prolonged? And what woman would remain unmoved after beholding this form, which contains all the beauty and good fortune of the three worlds, seeing that cows, birds, trees, and deer themselves bristle with ecstasy before it? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might object: "You have already cast away the path of dharma. Will you now corrupt other faithful wives as well, following the maxim that a shameless person who is himself corrupt defames others too? A golden line, an innate distinguishing mark, shines upon My chest. Seeing it, how can you insult Lakṣmī, the crown jewel of faithful wives, and offend her?" The gopīs answer with angry playfulness: "We malign no woman. Rather, the Creator made You to destroy the dharma of women throughout all three worlds. What woman could remain unmoved?" Textual note 41: Variant readings give "the flute-song whose tender notes are prolonged" and "the flute-song whose tender notes are nectar." Textual note 42: A variant reads "the path of honorable conduct."

Bhāgavata 10.29.41

It is manifest that You have appeared to remove Vraja's fear and anguish, just as the primeval Lord appears to protect the celestial realm. Therefore, O friend of the distressed, place Your lotus hand upon the burning breasts and heads of Your maidservants. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs continue: "Enough of this elaborate cleverness. Stop concealing Yourself. It is openly known everywhere that You were born in Nanda's house in every respect like Nārāyaṇa in order to remove Vraja's fear of forest fires and its pain from rainstorms, violent winds, and other dangers. If these hundreds of millions of gopīs die today, their parents and all the people of Vraja will suffer anguish and terror upon learning that they all died at once in the forest. Therefore, O friend of the distressed, place Your lotus hand upon our burning breasts."

Kṛṣṇa might say, "My hand is tender. Will it not burn?" They answer that although their breasts are hot, they are instruments for His service because they belong to His maidservants. Just as the heat of sunrise does not scorch a lotus but gives it joy, their heat will delight His lotus hand. They also ask Him to place it upon their heads, thereby assuring them that they need no longer fear His abandonment. Textual note 46: A variant accepted by Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa and Vīrarāghava and cited by Viśvanātha reads "remover of the distress of Vraja's people."

Bhāgavata 10.29.42

Śrī Śuka said: Hearing their distressed appeal, the Lord of the masters of yoga laughed, and, though self-delighting, compassionately delighted the gopīs. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa heard their distraught words, words that revealed their helplessness, and by hearing them fulfilled His own desire. He smiled and teased them: "O women of profound feeling, every day when we meet you display limitless resistance. Today, for just this one occasion, I concealed My intent and showed a little resistance, and even that resistance held tenderness within it. Yet it made you so helpless that you performed the funeral rite of your modesty and made Me laugh. I alone, expert enough to drink up the ocean of your daily concealment, have defeated you. O women who think yourselves the crown jewels of intelligence, you are conquered. Come of your own accord. Having abandoned the obstructing forces of modesty and composure, become golden and jeweled necklaces around My neck and give Me the nectar of your lips to drink. A tremendous thirst has arisen in Me after so long."

Thus He joked with them, and although self-satisfied, He delighted the cowherd women compassionately and affectionately. The construction resembles the statement that Hari possesses qualities of such a kind in the famous verse "the self-satisfied sages" (Bhāgavata 1.7.11): the point here is that the cowherd women possess love of such a kind. Because the gopīs are transformations of His intrinsic pleasure potency and therefore His own very selves, His enjoyment with them is entirely possible.

Bhagavān says, "Neither Saṅkarṣaṇa, nor Śrī, nor even My own self is as dear to Me as you" (Bhāgavata 11.14.15), and "I do not desire even My own self apart from My saintly devotees" (Bhāgavata 9.4.64). His devotees therefore give Him more joy than His own self. Since the gopīs are the crown jewels of all devotees, even the self-satisfied Lord enjoys with them specifically to increase His own bliss.

An objection may arise from the Āgamic statement that He was surrounded by hundreds of millions of women: how could one Kṛṣṇa enjoy with all of them in one place at the same time? The verse calls Him the Lord even of masters of yoga such as Rudra and of yogīs such as Saubhari. Saubhari and others enjoy only after expanding their bodies, but Kṛṣṇa does so, by inconceivable conduct, without such an expansion. The Bhāgavata will later exclaim, "How astonishing that He did this with one body" (10.69.2). Textual note 48: Sanātana follows a reading that gives "at the proper time" in place of "compassionately."

Bhāgavata 10.29.43

Surrounded by the assembled gopīs, whose faces blossomed beneath their beloved's glance, infallible Kṛṣṇa shone with magnanimous gestures. His generous smile gleamed with jasmine-white teeth, and He appeared like the moon encircled by stars. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Acyuta's generous pastimes give the gopīs the happiness of love and bestow prema upon devotees of sacred emotion who hear and chant about them. He remains Acyuta, never falling away from complete absorption in enjoyment with each gopī simultaneously. His broad and generous smiles, which gave them happiness, revealed rays of brilliance from His teeth like rows of jasmine buds.

Bhāgavata 10.29.44

Praised in song while singing aloud Himself, the leader of hundreds of groups of women wandered through the forest and adorned it, wearing a Vaijayantī garland. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs sang of Kṛṣṇa with extraordinary excellence in melody, pitch, rhythm, and other musical qualities. They sang in three tālas, for example:

[Sanskrit song]

May Your face, the abode of sweetness; Your gait, which destroys the fame of lordly elephants; and Your smile, desired by beautiful-eyed women, ever protect me, O companion.

Kṛṣṇa in turn sang in response to each of the foremost gopīs, such as Śrī Rādhā and Candrāvalī, each of whom leads a hundred groups of women, following the manner of her song and using that very melody. Sometimes they exchanged songs by changing a single note:

[Sanskrit songs]

Your face is the dwelling place of sweetness; upon it the play of the corners of Your eyes appears. Within those glances, O beautiful one, all the arts of love attain incomparable splendor.

O beloved, the moon, having received its rise from the beauty of Your face, bears only disgrace in the guise of its deer-mark. Otherwise, did that foolish twice-born moon swallow poison merely so that we might mock it together?

When the beloved gopīs sang in response, they changed the vocative "O beautiful woman" to "O beautiful man," and "O beloved woman" to "O beloved man." Kṛṣṇa wore a vaijayantī garland woven from flowers of five colors, in keeping with the statement that a vaijayantī consists of five colors. Textual note 52: The source quoted in another witness reads, "May Hari steal my heart."

Bhāgavata 10.29.45

Entering the riverbank whose sand was cool, He sported with the gopīs in a breeze delighted by the river's rippling waves and fragrant with night-blooming lilies. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The breeze carried the fragrance of lotuses that blossomed even at night. Made delightful by the coolness and gentleness of the river's dancing waves, that breeze accompanied Kṛṣṇa's enjoyment. If the reading is "served by the breeze," the phrase connects with the following verb and means that He caused the gopīs to rejoice. Some witnesses read "the fragrance of night lotuses" and others "the delight of the moving waves." Textual note 53: Vīrarāghava and others read "served." Textual note 54: Vallabha and others accept a reading meaning "delightful"; Vīrarāghava reads "accompanied." Textual note 55: Sanātana and others read "the fragrance of lotuses."

Bhāgavata 10.29.46

By extending His arms, embracing them, touching their hands, locks, thighs, girdles, and breasts, by playful taps of His fingernails, by jesting, glances, and laughter, He aroused the lord of love in the beautiful women of Vraja and caused them to delight. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī He extended His arms toward each gopī's breast, spread His arms around them in embrace, touched their hands and other limbs, joked playfully with them, placed the tips of His nails upon them, cast glances, and smiled. By all these playful acts He aroused the lord of love, the desire composed of prema, both in them and in Himself. Through these self-manifesting expressions He delighted each one individually.

One may object that on a riverbank crowded with so many gopīs, without privacy and without beds for amorous play, it would be impossible for Him to enact intimate union separately with hundreds of millions of women. Yet the land of Vṛndāvana is all-pervading just as Bhagavān's form is. Yogamāyā, expert in making the impossible possible, revealed even a sesame-sized space as immensely expansive, filled with many screened bowers and varied flower beds for love, together with fragrances, garlands, betel, and every other provision. When the pastime ended, she concealed that manifestation again. Thus the account is entirely coherent.

Bhāgavata 10.29.47

Having thus received honor from magnanimous Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, the proud gopīs each considered herself greater than every other woman on earth. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The science of rasa states: "Without separation, union does not attain full nourishment; just as cloth develops a deeper color after being treated with a mordant" (Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 15.3). In accordance with this principle attributed to Bharata, the pastime potency now manifests the semblance of separation in order to nourish rasa. The verse introduces its pretext. The gopīs had received honor from the great-souled Bhagavān, who stands above even the assemblies of the most exalted divine heroes, and specifically from Kṛṣṇa, His original personal form. Having attained amorous enjoyment with Śrī Kṛṣṇa, each considered herself superior to every other woman on earth. Each thought, "I alone am supremely fortunate," and thus became proud.

Bhāgavata 10.29.48

Seeing their intoxication with good fortune and their loving indignation, Keśava disappeared at that very place in order to pacify the former and graciously appease the latter. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Because Bhagavān had been enjoying with all the gopīs in an apparently equal way, the foremost of them all, the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu, suddenly became proud with jealous resentment, her eyes reddened by wounded love. The others, who were lesser than she, became proud of their own good fortune. Faced with this extraordinary divergence among them, Bhagavān Himself resolved it in the manner described by this verse.

By the grammatical principle through which two groups are represented by one remaining plural, "the gopīs" means both the beautiful women of Vraja and that daughter of Vṛṣabhānu. Kṛṣṇa successively observed the others' intoxication with good fortune and Her loving resentment. Alternatively, the expression may be taken as a compound meaning "that pride born of good fortune," or according to a variant simply "their pride of good fortune." He disappeared in order to pacify the other gopīs' pride in their fortune and to bestow His favor upon the beloved who had entered jealous resentment. Textual note 59: Variant readings give "that" in different grammatical forms.