Rasa-pancadhyayi III - The Gopi-gita

Bhāgavata 10.31.1

The gopīs said: Vraja shines more gloriously because of Your birth, for Indirā dwells here forever. Beloved, please appear! Your own maidservants, who have placed their very lives in You, search for You in every direction. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī [Introductory Sanskrit verses]

In the thirty-first chapter, the row of lotus blossoms known as the Gopī-gīta shines with the fragrance of love's honey, melody, rhythm, and other excellences, attracting the bee Kṛṣṇa. Again and again I bow to my masters headed by Sanātana, my revered gurus. Sustained solely by the remnants they leave, I now strive toward the highest good.

The preceding chapter said that the gopīs sang. What precisely did they sing? The words "the gopīs said" introduce their song. "O beloved, Vraja triumphs because of Your birth." Since no particular place of comparison is named, Vraja surpasses every world. To exclude even Vaikuṇṭha, they say that it triumphs "more greatly": Vaikuṇṭha is the highest place, but Vraja is higher still. They give another sign of this. Indirā, Mahā-Lakṣmī herself, perpetually takes shelter there and serves it, whereas in Vaikuṇṭha she herself is served. Vraja is therefore filled with prosperity beyond even Vaikuṇṭha.

Although Vraja is filled with immense happiness because of Kṛṣṇa's birth, the gopīs, His own beloveds, now experience suffering of an unbearable kind never seen or heard in any world. Yet they do not ask Him to save them from it; they ask only that He appear once and make their eyes successful. "Here in Vṛndāvana, surely You should be seen. What is there to see? Your own people are searching for You."

Kṛṣṇa might wonder how their bodies survive such torment. They answer that their lives have been placed in Him, having been driven mad by Him. Had those lives remained within their own bodies, the fire of separation would have burned them and they would mercifully have died in an instant. But their lives dwell in their Lord, Kṛṣṇa, who possesses supreme happiness, and therefore follow His happiness. How can their bodies collapse while their life airs remain happy in Him? Thus, they suggest, His happiness of watching their suffering can continue forever.

In this verse the second syllable of each quarter is identical, as are the first and seventh syllables. Similar patterns occur here and there in most of the following verses and are explained by the author of the Muktā-phala commentary. Textual note 90: A variant reads "the gopikās said." Textual note 91: Viśvanātha records the reading "beautifully there." Textual note 92: Viśvanātha records "whose lives have departed."

Bhāgavata 10.31.2

O Lord of love, Your glance steals the beauty from the heart of a perfect lotus freshly blossomed in an autumn lake. We are Your unpaid maidservants. O giver of blessings, is killing us in this way not truly murder? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might ask, "Do I wish to give you pain, that you imply such a thing?" The gopīs reply that He is indeed killing them. With His eyes alone He solicits amorous union, and with those same eyes, O giver of boons, He grants the desired happiness. Yet through that very glance, which throws masses of the fire of prema, He kills them, His unpaid maidservants. Is that not killing? Is death by a weapon alone called killing, while death by a glance is not? It certainly is. The address "giver of boons" also permits a wordplay: while giving what they desire, He cuts apart all the happiness they could desire in this life or the next.

If He possesses even a little courage, they say, He may preserve His own property or burn it; neither is a fault. But He did not purchase them with a price or accept them through marriage. In their innocence they spontaneously became His unpaid maidservants. They describe His glance to explain that His power as the emperor of great thieves who enchant and drive others mad is what caused this. In autumn a lake is deep and filled with clear water. Within it a perfectly formed lotus, excellent in species and blossoming at the proper time and place, possesses beauty and wealth in its heart. Kṛṣṇa's glance steals even that inner splendor. This describes the exceptional beauty, fragrance, coolness, and tenderness of His eyes.

His thieving glance crosses the fortified water of that lake, enters the inner chamber of such a noble lotus, and steals its wealth. It likewise cast the dust of enchantment and madness upon the gopīs, took the treasure of amorous love and the lives they freely offered, and delivered both to Kṛṣṇa. Hence the previous statement that their lives were placed in Him. Having deprived them of all wealth and killed them, He has incurred the sin of killing thousands upon thousands of women. They imply that even from fear of this sin He should grant them His sight.

Bhāgavata 10.31.3

O greatest of all, You have repeatedly protected us from death by poisoned water, from the serpent demon, from rain and wind, from lightning and fire, from the bull, Maya's son, and fear on every side. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī They continue: "If You intend to kill us, why did You save us from every earlier danger? It is improper to preserve someone only to kill her afterward. You protected us from Kāliya's poisonous water, from the serpent demon Aghāsura, from Indra's rain, from the whirlwind Tṛṇāvarta, from the lightning-fire of Indra's thunderbolt, from the bull Ariṣṭa, from Maya's son Vyoma, and from every other danger. O best of men, by protecting us You made our lives dependent upon You alone. When You saved all Vraja from rain and other perils, we were saved as part of Vraja. Trusting You as our protector, we came to You seeking relief from the net of Cupid's five arrows. Instead You burn us with the flames of separation from You, millions of times fiercer. Do You not fear the sin of betraying those who trusted You?"

Although the killing of Ariṣṭa and Vyoma had not yet occurred chronologically, Garga, Bhāguri, and other astrologers had foretold those events from Kṛṣṇa's birth chart. Because the gopīs had already heard them, the verse speaks of them as past.

Bhāgavata 10.31.4

You are surely not merely the son of a cowherd woman. You are the seer within the hearts of all embodied beings. At Brahmā's prayer You appeared in the Sātvata dynasty to protect the universe. O friend! Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might threaten: "O thoughtless cowherd girls, stop! You have decided that I, Nanda's son and the root of all bliss, am guilty of killing women and betraying those who trusted Me. I shall therefore leave this place and hide alone so completely that not once in this lifetime will you see Me." Imagining this frightening statement, the gopīs regret their accusation and praise Him in order to win His favor.

Bhāgavata 10.31.5

O foremost of the Vṛṣṇis, Your lotus hand grants fearlessness to those who approach Your feet in fear of worldly existence. Beloved, it fulfills desire and holds Śrī's hand. Place it upon our heads. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might then say, "O sweet speakers, I disappeared only to drink the nectar of your words of loving anger. Now I have obtained what I desired. Choose whatever boon you wish." Reassured by this imagined favor, different gopīs ask for different cherished gifts over the next four verses. "O foremost of the Vṛṣṇis, sun of the lotus of Your lineage, place Your lotus hand upon our heads." Why? It is kāmada: it cuts down the desire whose arrows made them take shelter of Him, while by a secondary implication it also grants love's desire. That hand is certainly powerful enough, for it bestows fearlessness upon those who approach His feet out of fear of material existence. If it can protect them from saṁsāra itself, what effort is required to protect the gopīs from fear of Cupid?

Kṛṣṇa might offer instead to place His hand upon their breasts, since He too desires to put it there. They decline: His hand is held by the hands of Śrī Lakṣmī. Just as Lakṣmī would prevent Him from placing it upon their breasts, the gopīs would likewise have to prevent that act.

Bhāgavata 10.31.6

O destroyer of Vraja's distress, heroic one whose smile destroys the pride of Your own beloved women, O friend, attend upon us, Your maidservants. Show us Your beautiful lotus face. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Other gopīs pray: "Among all women, You remove the torment produced by Cupid's arrows specifically from the women of Vraja. You do not remove it from goddesses and other women." The Bhāgavata will describe the women traveling in celestial vehicles fainting with their waistbands loosened (10.35.3). They call Him hero, the great victor in the irresistible battle of love. For the sake of their good fortune, He cannot tolerate even their pride and its pain, the contrary mood of loving resentment; His smile destroys the pride of His own people.

When He urges them to choose their boon quickly, they say, "Serve us, Your maidservants." He may object: "If you are My servants, why do you order Me to serve you?" They call Him friend. When He asks what service they want, they begin, "Your lotus feet..."

Bhāgavata 10.31.7

Your lotus feet destroy the sins of embodied beings who bow to You, follow the grazing cows, serve as the abode of Śrī, and were placed upon the serpent's hoods. Put those feet upon our breasts and destroy the longing in our hearts. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Still other gopīs pray: "Place Your lotus feet upon our breasts. Cut down the desire in our hearts." These supremely clever women possess immense love but speak as if they were incapable of love. Their bodily, verbal, and mental actions have Kṛṣṇa's happiness as their sole purpose, without awareness of removing their own pain or obtaining pleasure. In order to intensify His happiness in union, they describe their own beauty, youth, and torment of desire. They avoid diminishing love by openly speaking of it and speak only of desire.

Suppose a person sees a gluttonous friend hungry and lovingly labors to prepare four kinds of sweet food. When asked, he says, "I am working for myself, not for you." That concealment makes his love weighty. If he instead says, "All this effort is solely for your happiness; I have no selfish desire," his love becomes light. Prema-sampuṭa says:

[Sanskrit verse]

The love of two connoisseurs is like a lamp that illuminates the chamber of the heart and shines steadily there. If it is brought outside through the doorway of the mouth, it quickly goes out or becomes faint (68).

The absence of concern for their own happiness is established by Bhagavān's own statement, "I am unable to repay you" (10.32.22), which reveals that they brought Him under their control. Every scripture teaches that He is controlled by prema alone, never by ordinary desire.

If Kṛṣṇa says He fears sin, they answer that His foot destroys the sins of all embodied beings who bow to Him; how could He fear sin Himself? If He fears that His tender lotus foot will hurt upon their hard breasts, they reply that it follows cows who graze on rough ground. If His foot endures such terrain, their breasts cannot be too hard; rather, they will give it pleasure. If it seems improper to place His foot upon breasts adorned with many jewels, they call those breasts the abode of beauty: His foot will become their finest ornament. If He fears their husbands, they remind Him that He placed His foot upon the hoods of the serpent Kāliya. He did not fear that serpent; how could He fear those men?

Bhāgavata 10.31.8

Lotus-eyed hero, Your sweet voice, charming words, and speech delightful to the wise have made us Your maidservants. We are falling into bewilderment. Revive us with the intoxicating nectar of Your lips. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs inwardly heard Kṛṣṇa reassure them: "O sole beloveds of My life, O lovers more precious than jewels, I am never indifferent to you, who are My very life. Why distrust Me, your servant, perpetually bound by golden chains made of your golden prema? Trust Me. Know that I remain marked by your hands, like a bracelet upon them." Hearing this manifestation of His words, another group of gopīs began the prayer, "With Your sweet voice..."

Bhāgavata 10.31.9

The nectar of Your stories is life for those scorched by suffering. Praised by sages, it removes all impurity. Auspicious to hear, filled with splendor, and spread everywhere, it is proclaimed on earth by those who give the greatest gift. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Who can describe the glory of the sweetness of a narrative spoken by Kṛṣṇa Himself? Even narrations about Him spoken by others are more delicious and excellent than both kinds of nectar. His narration is itself nectar because, like celestial nectar and the nectar of liberation, it restores those scorched by grave illness and by material existence. Yet it surpasses both because it also revives those scorched by separation from Him. Poets such as Dhruva and Prahlāda praise it in verses beginning, "It is the true joy of embodied beings." Those same devotees show no attraction to the other two nectars, saying, "My Lord, let that bliss remain in Brahman and its own glory; may it not be mine, what then of pleasure in celestial vehicles that fall when cut by the sword of death?" (Bhāgavata 4.9.10).

Bhāgavata 10.31.10

Beloved, Your radiant laughter, Your loving glances, Your pastimes that bring auspiciousness when contemplated, and those intimate words spoken in private that touch the heart all agitate our minds, O deceiver. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Without seeing Kṛṣṇa, even the mere memory of anything connected with Him gives the gopīs extreme pain. His broad smile, intimate union, and heart-touching conversations and jokes are all supremely auspicious and blissful even in meditation. Yet precisely because they cannot forget them though they wish to escape the pain, all four agitate and torment their minds. These memories enter the heart, give happiness instantly, and in the very next moment produce immense sorrow. Therefore they call Him a deceiver. A conjurer's sweets may taste supremely delicious at once but later burn terribly and take one's life.

Bhāgavata 10.31.11

When You leave Vraja to graze the animals, O master, we fear that stones, grass, and tender shoots will hurt Your feet, beautiful as lotuses. O beloved, our minds become deeply troubled. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī They add that He does not cause them pain only now. At other times too, He strives to hurt them by first hurting Himself. Whenever He walks in the forest, they fear that His feet, more tender and beautiful than lotuses, may suffer from stones, dry grass, sprouts, and sharp husks. Their minds become disturbed.

Alternatively, kalila is that which takes up conflict. Their minds quarrel with them:

"O mind, if wandering in the forest truly tires Him, why does He leave Vraja and go there every day? Why grieve uselessly?"

"O foolish cowherd girls, the soles of His feet are softer than land lotuses, while stones, grasses, sprouts, and gravel certainly lie in the forest. How could He avoid pain?"

"O simple women, He walks only on paths of very soft sand."

"O undiscerning minds, do cows graze only along pathways?"

"O women blinded by love, He has eyes. Why would He place His feet upon stones or thorns?"

"O hearts devoid even of the fragrance of love, what if haste or a mistaken step makes His foot fall upon them?"

"O brother mind, you speak truly. The Creator made us live only so that we might experience this much pain."

"O suffering women, you may continue living. I shall depart from your bodies now together with your life airs."

Bhāgavata 10.31.12

At day's end You repeatedly show us Your lotus face, veiled by dark curls and thickly covered with the dust raised by the cows. O hero, in this way You arouse desire in our minds. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī They say that Kṛṣṇa refuses to give them happiness even in union. At the close of day His face is surrounded by dark, curling locks moved by a gentle breeze and covered in rich dust. Since dhana means both wealth and cattle, the phrase means dust raised by the cows. He bears a face like a lotus dusted with abundant pollen shaken from a graceful, moving garland. Again and again He turns here and there, ostensibly to gather the cows and find dear friends, but really to enter the gopīs' sight. Knowing that His appearance naturally gives joy to everyone, He deliberately submerges them in an ocean of anguish by awakening desire in them. That desire makes the path of family duty taste like a flame of poison, drives them mad, draws them to the forest, and leaves them weeping. They call Him hero because His arrows of love seem directed specifically toward destroying the dharma of Vraja's women. Textual note 107: Dhana, meaning wealth or cattle, is the reading accepted by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī. Textual note 108: An alternate reading is "beautifully showing."

Bhāgavata 10.31.13

O lover, place Your lotus feet upon our breasts. They grant the desires of those who bow before You, are worshiped by Lakṣmī, adorn the earth, are to be meditated upon in danger, and bestow the deepest peace. O destroyer of our pain, place them upon us. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might become angry: "If you are convinced that I always give you pain, then you have no need of Me." The gopīs regretfully think, "Blinded by suffering, the fruit of our own deeds, we have falsely placed blame upon You." To win His favor they praise His feet as the source of every happiness and reveal that they need Him alone. They ask those feet to relieve their pain. His feet fulfill the desires even of offenders who humbly bow, such as Kāliya and his wives. Brahmā worshiped them to atone for his offense, so the gopīs' offense should also be forgiven. They ornament the earth, and the gopīs ask Him to ornament their breasts by placing His feet upon them. Garga had said that by meditating on Him in danger they would easily cross every hardship (Bhāgavata 10.8.16); they ask Him to save them from their present calamity. His feet are supremely auspicious and wholly composed of happiness. O destroyer of mental pain, place them upon our breasts. Nor would this tire Him; it would give Him pleasure, for as their lover desiring union, He would thereby attain His own cherished aim.

Bhāgavata 10.31.14

O generous hero, give us the nectar of Your lips. It increases intimate love, destroys sorrow, is thoroughly kissed by Your resonant flute, and makes human beings forget every other attachment. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs address Kṛṣṇa as another Dhanvantari and the crown jewel of physicians: "Give some medicine to us, unconscious from the disease of love." The nectar of His lips nourishes amorous union and destroys grief. One cannot object that such precious medicine requires a high price. Kṛṣṇa is a hero of generosity and gives it freely even to the utterly lowly and lifeless, restoring them to life: His resounding bamboo flute has already kissed and tasted that nectar thoroughly.

Attachment to wealth, followers, family, and the rest might be called an incompatible diet that disqualifies a patient. But this wondrous medicine itself makes one forget attachment to every other object and thus turns the patient away from harmful things. The gopīs know this from direct experience. "Distribute it to the women of the human race, O hero generous in gifts and compassion." Textual note 111: An alternate reading is "forgetfulness of every other disease."

Bhāgavata 10.31.15

When You roam the forest by day, every instant becomes an age for those who cannot see You. And when we gaze upon Your beautiful face framed by curling locks, the creator of eyelids seems a senseless fool, for they obstruct our sight. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī They say that their own evil fortune causes their suffering, so what can Kṛṣṇa do? Whenever He walks into Vṛndāvana forest, for the gopīs who cannot see Him even a truṭi, one twenty-seven-hundredth of a moment, becomes equal to an age. During the day all the people of Vraja endure roughly three months of separation, but for the gopīs its three watches equal hundreds of millions of ages. What cause could there be except cruel destiny?

Somehow, at day's end, they eagerly behold His beautiful face. Yet the creator of eyelashes is dull and undiscerning, because those lashes cause pain to the very eyes that gaze upon Him. When He is unseen, the ocean of sorrow cannot be crossed; when He is seen, even a blink arising from the lashes obstructs that sight. A blink equals nine hundred truṭis and therefore becomes nine hundred ages. In both cases their suffering arises from evil fortune. Maitreya defines the measure:

[Sanskrit verses]

The time occupied by three motes of dust is called a truṭi. One hundred truṭis make a vedha, three vedhas make a lava, three lavas make a blink, and three blinks make a moment (Bhāgavata 3.11.6-7).

Alternatively, the verbal root may mean "to cut." A clever person who cuts away the eyelashes of his eyes may behold Kṛṣṇa's beautiful face fully; the gopīs, who were not clever enough to do so, could not.

Bhāgavata 10.31.16

Unfailing one, we have completely transgressed the commands of husbands, sons, families, brothers, and relatives and have come to You. Knowing our movements, You enchanted us with Your song. What man would abandon women at night, O cheat? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī The gopīs whose husbands had locked them inside their homes when the flute sounded speak with jealousy. "We knew the final, tenth stage of our condition, death, and therefore came near You. O Acyuta, even here You have fallen away from us. Perhaps Your name 'infallible' applies only by contrary indication." Why did they come? His loud song enchanted them and destroyed their discrimination. He might cruelly tell such fools merely to endure their pain. They answer: "O cheat, what man other than merciless You would abandon frightened women who came to him of their own accord at night?" Or: "O intoxicated cheat, what young man would abandon young women who came at night? Though You deceive others, You have actually deceived Yourself." The lexicon gives kitava the meanings intoxicated man, deceiver, and yellow thorn-apple.

Bhāgavata 10.31.17

Seeing Your intimate exchanges, the awakening of desire in Your heart, Your brightly smiling face and loving glances, and Your broad chest, the abode of Lakṣmī, our minds repeatedly reel with overwhelming longing. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī What can the gopīs do? Kṛṣṇa's five enchantments enter through the openings of their eyes like the five arrows of Cupid and set their hearts ablaze. The first is His intimate conversation suggesting a request for love play. The second is His face radiant with an extraordinary smile. The third is His affectionate glance. The fourth is His broad, elevated chest, the abode of beauty. Repeatedly and intensely beholding these produces overwhelming longing. Their minds become bewildered and faint in the flames of yearning.

Bhāgavata 10.31.18

Beloved, Your appearance among the people of Vraja and the forest utterly destroys their suffering and brings auspiciousness to the whole universe. We have made longing for You our very self. Please grant us even a little of that which destroys the heartache of Your own people. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa enchanted these innocent women of good family and brought them to the forest at night. They say that He cannot intend merely to burn their lives in the fire of longing; He must also preserve them by giving contact with His limbs. His manifestation removes suffering and is filled with every blessing for all the inhabitants of Vraja and the forest without distinction. Therefore the gopīs, whose entire minds are dedicated to fulfilling the desire Kṛṣṇa Himself feels upon seeing them, ask Him not to be miserly but to release even a little of the remedy. What is it? His lotus hand is the medicine that ends the heart-sickness of His own people, meaning the pain in the breasts of those who belong to Him. If they receive that hand upon their breasts, they can fulfill His desire and preserve their lives.

Bhāgavata 10.31.19

Beloved, Your exquisitely tender lotus feet are so delicate that we fearfully place them very gently upon our hard breasts. Yet with those same feet You roam the forest. Are they not hurt by pebbles and the like? Our minds reel, for our very lives belong to You. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's Sārārtha-darśinī Kṛṣṇa might say: "O connoisseurs, the lotus foot you request is presently immersed in the delight of wandering through the forest and has no opportunity to rest upon your breasts." Weeping, they answer: "We place Your nobly born, exceedingly tender lotus feet upon our breasts, yet even then we are afraid. But with those same feet You roam the wilderness. Alas, what unequaled danger and reckless courage is this?"

Why are they afraid? Because their breasts are hard. Then why place His feet there? They call Him beloved: He is pleased precisely when they place His feet upon their breasts, and they act only after seeing His happiness. Even when directly witnessing His pleasure as His feet press them, they cannot avoid fearing that the tenderness of those feet may make the contact painful. They therefore say, "We place them gently." The state in which one feels distress from fear that pain may arise even amid the beloved's happiness is a characteristic of mahābhāva (Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 14.161). Destiny has therefore written sorrow upon their foreheads even in union with Him. "What austerity can we perform against the Creator? If we ask that our breasts become soft, You will lose pleasure; if they remain hard, Your feet may hurt. Either way we are trapped."

They may accept suffering in both union and separation, but rebuke Him for suffering without necessity: "Why do You endure hardship while acting freely by wandering the forest with those feet? Is this lotus foot suited to roaming the wilderness?" He may answer, "I do whatever comes to My mind. What concern is that of yours?" They reply that His foot certainly does hurt. Yet perhaps He is merciless toward His own limbs just as He is toward them. Or perhaps He thinks, "These women suffer when I suffer. Since I wish to hurt them, I must create and endure pain in Myself," and therefore tolerates it.

Or their suffering itself may give Him such great happiness that He regards His own pain as pleasure. Or qualities and faults may arise from association: His heart, formerly soft as a flower, became hard through contact with their hard breasts, and in the same way His feet too became hardened by that contact, so that stones and sharp shoots no longer hurt them. Or the power of touching His feet may make stones and thorns themselves soft. Or the compassionate earth, greedy to taste His sweetness, may raise her tongue wherever He places His feet. Or Kṛṣṇa may be an ocean of love even greater than the gopīs. Tormented by separation from them through the force of destiny, He wanders in madness and does not even notice the pain in His feet. Considering all these possibilities, their intelligence reels and reaches no conclusion.

Kṛṣṇa might ask why they speak so much of their own suffering when He does not consider it suffering, since their lives remain. They answer that their lives exist in Him alone. While He remains safe, not even all these torments can destroy their lives. Their idea is this: "The Creator, like You intent on making us suffer, thought, 'If I leave their lives within their own bodies, the terrible anguish I give will burn those lives and the women will die at once. Whom could I torment afterward? I shall therefore deposit their lives in Kṛṣṇa, My kindred spirit and ally, and make these deathless women experience limitless pain for as long as I please.' That is why we cannot die."

Alternatively, only their intelligence reels because it cannot settle the question; their life airs are certainly leaving their bodies, and Kṛṣṇa should see this now. If He objects that life cannot end while their lifespan remains, they answer that their lives are dedicated to Him. They now give Him all their remaining years so that He may sport in Vraja for a long time.

[Closing Sanskrit verse]

Thus, in the Sārārtha-darśinī, which delights the hearts of devotees, the thirty-first chapter of the Tenth Canto has been properly joined for the saintly.

Thus ends the thirty-first chapter, entitled "The Recitation of the Gopikā-gīta," within the Tenth Canto of the glorious Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa, the commentary upon the Brahma-sūtra, the supreme swan's collection transmitted through Vyāsa. Textual note 112: Śrīdhara Svāmī accepts the alternate reading "You lead" or "You go." Textual note 116: The commentary repeats the alternate reading "You lead" or "You go."