वेणु-गीत

Veṇu-Gītā

The Gopis’ Song to Krishna’s Flute

Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.21

The autumn has arrived in Vraja. The afternoons are clear. Krishna and Balarāma go out with their cowherd friends, taking the cows toward the forest. Krishna plays his flute as he walks. The gopis stand on their rooftops watching, and what they see is so beautiful that they begin to describe it to each other, in nineteen verses, just to share what their eyes have just seen.

The Veṇu-Gītā is the chapter the Vraja-rasikas read most often when they want to remind themselves what Krishna looks like. The cows drink his flute through their ears. The calves stop nursing to gaze at him. Govardhana himself is praised as the best of all bhaktas because he gives Krishna everything without being asked. The peacocks dance.

The Movement of the Chapter

Verses 1 to 4 set the scene: Śuka opens with autumn in Vraja, the clear water, the lotus-scented winds, Krishna walking out with Balarāma and the cowherd boys, sounding his flute, while the gopis hear it and begin to describe him secretly to each other but cannot finish for the rush of love. Verse 5 paints the portrait the gopis are about to describe.

Verses 7 to 19 are the gopis’ song to each other in distinct registers: praise of the eyes that see him (7), envy of the flute (9), praise of Vrindavan and the dancing peacocks (10), praise of the deer-wives (11), the cows and calves drinking the music (13), the rivers slowing into embrace (15), the cloud becoming an umbrella (16), the tribal women of the forest finding the trace of his foot in the grass (17), Govardhana as the best of all bhaktas (18), and the closing image of the world’s natural order inverted by his music: what moves stops, what does not move trembles (19).

The presentation below covers the chapter at length. A small number of intermediate verses (6, 8, 12, 14) are not reproduced here, and editions vary on the exact closing count (nineteen or twenty). The full Sanskrit text is given in the BBT, Gita Press, and Motilal editions.

Bhāgavata 10.21.1

श्रीशुक उवाच इत्थं शरत्स्वच्छजलं पद्माकरसुगन्धिना। न्यविशद्वायुना वातं सगोगोपालकोऽच्युतः॥

śrī-śuka uvāca itthaṁ śarat-svaccha-jalaṁ padmākara-sugandhinā nyaviśad vāyunā vātaṁ sa-go-gopālako 'cyutaḥ

Śrī Śuka said: Thus the autumn brought clear water and breezes scented with lotus pools. Into a forest cooled by such winds the infallible Lord entered, together with his cows and his cowherd friends.

The chapter opens with Śuka setting the season. Autumn in Vraja: water clarified, ponds full of lotuses, the wind carrying their fragrance. Krishna enters the forest with the cows and the cowherd boys. Everything that follows happens inside this scene.

Bhāgavata 10.21.2

कुसुमितवनराजिशुष्मिभृङ्ग- द्विजकुलघुष्टसरःसरिन्महीध्रम्। मधुपतिरवगाह्य चारयन्गाः सहपशुपालबलश्चुकूज वेणुम्॥

kusumita-vanarāji-śuṣmi-bhṛṅga- dvija-kula-ghuṣṭa-saraḥ-sarin-mahīdhram madhu-patir avagāhya cārayan gāḥ saha-paśu-pāla-balaś cukūja veṇum

The lord of Madhu entered a region of flowering forests humming with eager bees, of lakes and rivers and hills resounding with the calls of many kinds of birds. Pasturing the cows along with Balarāma and the cowherd boys, he sounded his flute.

Krishna walks into a landscape already singing: bees in the flower-rows, birds at the lakes and rivers and on the hills. The text is careful to name the company. Balarāma, the cowherd friends, the cows. Then, one verb. He sounded the flute. The stage is set; the music begins.

Bhāgavata 10.21.3

तद्व्रजस्त्रिय आश्रुत्य वेणुगीतं स्मरोदयम्। काश्चित्परोक्षं कृष्णस्य स्वसखीभ्योऽन्ववर्णयन्॥

tad vraja-striya āśrutya veṇu-gītaṁ smarodayam kāścit parokṣaṁ kṛṣṇasya sva-sakhībhyo 'nvavarṇayan

Hearing that flute-song, which awakens love, the women of Vraja, out of Krishna's hearing, began to describe it to one another among their close friends.

The whole chapter is framed by this verse. The flute-song awakens smara, love. The gopis hear it from far off. They cannot reach him; they can only describe him to each other. Parokṣam, out of his hearing, becomes the chapter's intimate register: speech among the friends, when the beloved is just out of reach.

Bhāgavata 10.21.4

तद्वर्णयितुमारब्धाः स्मरन्त्यः कृष्णचेष्टितम्। नाशकन्स्मरवेगेन विक्षिप्तमनसो नृप॥

tad varṇayitum ārabdhāḥ smarantyaḥ kṛṣṇa-ceṣṭitam nāśakan smara-vegena vikṣipta-manaso nṛpa

Beginning to describe him, remembering Krishna's actions, they could not finish, O King. The force of love had scattered their minds.

Śuka tells King Parīkṣit that the gopis began to speak and could not. Memory of his deeds and the rush of love together undid them. The verses that follow are not finished sentences but glimpses, given in turn, by women whose minds are coming apart in the act of speaking.

Bhāgavata 10.21.5

बर्हापीडं नटवरवपुः कर्णयोः कर्णिकारं बिभ्रद् वासः कनककपिशं वैजयन्तीं च मालाम्। रन्ध्रान् वेणोरधरसुधया पूरयन्गोपवृन्दै- र्वृन्दारण्यं स्वपदरमणं प्राविशद् गीतकीर्तिः॥

barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ bibhrad vāsaḥ kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīṁ ca mālām randhrān veṇor adhara-sudhayāpūrayan gopa-vṛndair vṛndāraṇyaṁ sva-pada-ramaṇaṁ prāviśad gīta-kīrtiḥ

Wearing a peacock-feather ornament on his head, blue karṇikāra flowers on his ears, a yellow garment as bright as gold, and the Vaijayantī garland, Lord Krishna entered the forest of Vrindavan in his transcendental form as the greatest of dancers. He filled the holes of his flute with the nectar of his lips, and the cowherd boys sang his glories.

The portrait that the gopis are about to describe begins here. Peacock feather, karṇikāra flowers, yellow cloth as bright as gold, and the Vaijayantī garland. The forest is named Vṛndāraṇya, the forest of Vṛndā, who is Vrindavan's presiding goddess. He is filling his flute with the nectar of his lips. The cowherd boys around him are already singing him. The whole next chapter is the gopis seeing this and trying to describe it.

Bhāgavata 10.21.7

श्रीगोप्य ऊचुः अक्षण्वतां फलमिदं न परं विदामः सख्यः पशूननु विवेशयतोर्वयस्यैः। वक्त्रं व्रजेशसुतयोरनवेणुजुष्टं यैर्वा निपीतमनुरक्तकटाक्षमोक्षम्॥

śrī-gopya ūcuḥ akṣaṇvatāṁ phalam idaṁ na paraṁ vidāmaḥ sakhyaḥ paśūn anuviveśayator vayasyaiḥ vaktraṁ vrajeśa-sutayor anaveṇu-juṣṭaṁ yair vā nipītam anurakta-kaṭākṣa-mokṣam

The cowherd girls said: O friends, those eyes that see the beautiful faces of the sons of Mahārāja Nanda are certainly fortunate. As these two sons enter the forest, surrounded by their friends, driving the cows before them, they hold their flutes to their mouths and glance lovingly upon the residents of Vrindavan. For those who have eyes, we think there is no greater object of vision.

The gopis address each other as sakhyaḥ, friends. They are not yet praying to Krishna. They are reporting to each other what is happening in front of their eyes. The eyes that see this, they say, are fortunate. There is no higher use of having eyes. The verse is the foundational claim of darśana in Vraja-bhakti: seeing him is the entire reason eyes were given.

Bhāgavata 10.21.9

गोप्यः किमाचरदयं कुशलं स्म वेणु- र्दामोदराधरसुधामपि गोपिकानाम्। भुङ्क्ते स्वयं यदवशिष्टरसं ह्रदिन्यो हृष्यत्त्वचोऽश्रु मुमुचुस्तरवो यथार्याः॥

gopyaḥ kim ācarad ayaṁ kuśalaṁ sma veṇur dāmodarādhara-sudhām api gopikānām bhuṅkte svayaṁ yad avaśiṣṭa-rasaṁ hradinyo hṛṣyat-tvaco 'śru mumucus taravo yathāryaḥ

My dear gopis, what auspicious activities must the flute have performed to enjoy the nectar of Krishna's lips independently and leave only a taste for us gopis, for whom that nectar is actually meant! The forefathers of the flute, the bamboo trees, shed tears of pleasure. The mother river feels jubilation, and the lotus flowers stand erect on her body like hair.

Now jealousy of the flute. The flute has done some great spiritual practice in a past life, the gopis say, that it now drinks the nectar of his lips while we get only the leftover taste. This is the gopi-style theology: not envy, but a longing dressed as observation. The bamboo trees are the flute’s family, and they weep with pleasure. Even the river he stands by, the Yamuna, feels her lotuses rise.

Bhāgavata 10.21.10

वृन्दावनं सखि भुवो वितनोति कीर्तिं यद् देवकीसुतपदाम्बुजलब्धलक्ष्मि। गोविन्दवेणुमनु मत्तमयूरनृत्यं प्रेक्ष्याद्रिसान्ववरतान्यसमस्तसत्त्वम्॥

vṛndāvanaṁ sakhi bhuvo vitanoti kīrtiṁ yad devakī-suta-padāmbuja-labdha-lakṣmi govinda-veṇum anu matta-mayūra-nṛtyaṁ prekṣyādri-sānv-avaratānya-samasta-sattvam

O friend, Vrindavan is spreading the glory of the earth, having obtained the treasure of the lotus feet of Krishna, the son of Devakī. The peacocks dance madly when they hear Govinda's flute, and when other creatures see them from the hilltops, they all become stunned.

The whole earth is glorified, the gopis say, because Vrindavan exists, because Krishna lives there. The peacocks dance to his flute. The other animals stop on the hilltops to watch the peacocks dancing, and they themselves become motionless. The flute-music propagates outward in concentric rings of stillness and movement.

Bhāgavata 10.21.11

धन्याः स्म मूढगतयोऽपि हरिण्य एता या नन्दनन्दनमुपात्तविचित्रवेशम्। आकर्ण्य वेणुरणितं सहकृष्णसाराः पूजां दधुर्विरचितां प्रणयावलोकैः॥

dhanyāḥ sma mūḍha-gatayo 'pi hariṇya etā yā nanda-nandanam upātta-vicitra-veśam ākarṇya veṇu-raṇitaṁ saha-kṛṣṇa-sārāḥ pūjāṁ dadhur viracitāṁ praṇayāvalokaiḥ

Blessed are all these foolish deer because they have approached Mahārāja Nanda's son, who is gorgeously dressed and is playing on his flute. Indeed, both the does and the bucks worship the Lord with looks of love and affection.

The gopis call the deer mūḍha-gati, dim-witted, and yet they say the deer are blessed because the deer can stand still beside him while the gopis cannot. The grief is mixed with admiration. Even the deer perform a worship: a worship of glances. The verse names the worship of pure attention as worship indeed.

Bhāgavata 10.21.13

गावश्च कृष्णमुखनिर्गतवेणुगीत- पीयूषमुत्तभितकर्णपुटैः पिबन्त्यः। शावाः स्नुतस्तनपयःकवलाः स्म तस्थु- र्गोविन्दमात्मनि दृशाश्रुकलाः स्पृशन्त्यः॥

gāvaś ca kṛṣṇa-mukha-nirgata-veṇu-gīta- pīyūṣam uttabhita-karṇa-puṭaiḥ pibantyaḥ śāvāḥ snuta-stana-payaḥ-kavalāḥ sma tasthur govindam ātmani dṛśāśru-kalāḥ spṛśantyaḥ

Using their upraised ears as vessels, the cows are drinking the nectar of the flute-song flowing out of Krishna's mouth. The calves, their mouths full of milk from their mothers' moist nipples, stand still as they take Govinda within themselves through their tear-filled eyes and embrace him within their hearts.

The verse the gopis are most generous about. The cows are drinking the flute-song with their ears. The calves have stopped nursing, milk in their mouths, eyes wet with tears, and are embracing him in their hearts through their gaze. This is bhakti in animal form. The Vraja-rasikas read this verse as evidence that Krishna’s flute reaches every level of being. A calf cannot perform sandhya, cannot recite the Veda, cannot meditate on Brahman. But it can stand still, milk-mouthed, gazing.

Bhāgavata 10.21.15

नद्यस्तदा तदुपधार्य मुकुन्दगीत- मावर्तलक्षितमनोभवभग्नवेगाः। आलिङ्गनस्थगितमूर्मिभुजैर्मुरारे- र्गृह्णन्ति पादयुगलं कमलोपहाराः॥

nadyas tadā tad upadhārya mukunda-gītam āvarta-lakṣita-manobhava-bhagna-vegāḥ āliṅgana-sthagitam ūrmi-bhujair murārer gṛhṇanti pāda-yugalaṁ kamalopahārāḥ

When the rivers hear Mukunda's flute, their currents are broken by the rising of love, visible in their whirlpools. With arms made of waves, they hold him in an embrace that will not let go, and offer their lotuses at the two feet of Murāri.

The rivers’ love is given a body. Their whirlpools are the visible signs of the love that has risen in them. Their currents break against him; their wave-arms wrap around him; their lotuses are placed at his feet. The Yamuna and the other streams of Vraja are made into devotees who embrace him as he passes.

Bhāgavata 10.21.16

दृष्ट्वातपे व्रजपशून्सहरामगोपैः सञ्चारयन्तमनुवेणुमुदीरयन्तम्। प्रेमप्रवृद्ध उदितः कुसुमावलीभिः सख्युर्व्यधात्स्ववपुषाम्बुद आतपत्रम्॥

dṛṣṭvātape vraja-paśūn saha-rāma-gopaiḥ sañcārayantam anu veṇum udīrayantam prema-pravṛddha uditaḥ kusumāvalībhiḥ sakhyur vyadhāt sva-vapuṣāmbuda ātapatram

Seeing in the heat of the day Krishna pasturing the cows of Vraja with Balarāma and the cowherd boys and sounding his flute, a cloud rose up out of love, climbed above him, and with rows of small flower-shaped droplets made of its own body an umbrella for its friend.

The cloud is named the friend. It rises out of love, takes its place above him, and turns its body into shelter. The droplets fall in flower-rows. The whole sky enters the gopis’ description as another bhakta, taking the form needed to serve. Even the weather is in love with him.

Bhāgavata 10.21.17

पूर्णाः पुलिन्द्य उरुगायपदाब्जराग- श्रीकुङ्कुमेन दयितास्तनमण्डितेन। तद्दर्शनस्मररुजस्तृणरूषितेन लिम्पन्त्य आननकुचेषु जहुस्तदाधिम्॥

pūrṇāḥ pulindya urugāya-padābja-rāga- śrī-kuṅkumena dayitā-stana-maṇḍitena tad-darśana-smara-rujas tṛṇa-rūṣitena limpantya ānana-kuceṣu jahus tad-ādhim

The tribal women of the forest are made full. The reddish kuṅkuma that adorned the breasts of his beloved has rubbed off onto Krishna's lotus feet, and from his feet onto the grass. Smearing that grass-borne kuṅkuma on their own faces and breasts, the women of the woods, who suffer from the wound of love at the very sight of him, are released from their grief.

The pulinda women are the indigenous tribal women of the Vraja forests. They cannot reach him directly. They find the trace of his trace: kuṅkuma that fell from a beloved’s breast onto his foot, then from his foot onto the grass. They lift it off the grass and put it on themselves. The verse honors a longing that finds its consummation in the third remove. To touch what has touched what has touched him is enough.

Bhāgavata 10.21.18

हन्तायमद्रिरबला हरिदासवर्यो यद् रामकृष्णचरणस्परशप्रमोदः। मानं तनोति सहगोगणयोस्तयोर्यत् पानीयसूयवसकन्दरकन्दमूलैः॥

hantāyam adrir abalā hari-dāsa-varyo yad rāma-kṛṣṇa-caraṇa-sparaśa-pramodaḥ mānaṁ tanoti saha-go-gaṇayos tayor yat pānīya-sūyavasa-kandara-kandamūlaiḥ

Of all the devotees, this Govardhana hill is the best! O my friends, this hill supplies Krishna and Balarāma, along with their calves, cows, and cowherd friends, with all kinds of necessities: water for drinking, very soft grass, caves, fruits, flowers, and vegetables. In this way the hill offers respects to the Lord. Being touched by the lotus feet of Krishna and Balarāma, Govardhana hill appears very jubilant.

And here Govardhana is named hari-dāsa-varya, the best of Hari’s servants. A mountain is held up as the model bhakta. Why? Because he gives without asking and offers everything. Water, grass, caves, fruits, vegetables. He does not stop the lovers from walking on him. He simply provides. The gopis are saying: this is what we want to be. Not the lover, but the ground he walks on, providing what he needs.

Bhāgavata 10.21.19

गा गोपकैरनुवनं नयतोरुदार- वेणुस्वनैः कलपदैस्तनुभृत्सु सख्यः। अस्पन्दनं गतिमतां पुलकस्तरुणां निर्योगपाशकृतलक्षणयोर्विचित्रम्॥

gā gopakair anu-vanaṁ nayator udāra- veṇu-svanaiḥ kala-padais tanu-bhṛtsu sakhyaḥ aspandanaṁ gati-matāṁ pulakas taruṇāṁ niryoga-pāśa-kṛta-lakṣaṇayor vicitram

My dear friends, as Krishna and Balarāma pass through the forest with their cowherd friends, leading their cows, they carry ropes to bind the cows' rear legs at the time of milking. When Lord Krishna plays on his flute, the sweet music causes the moving living entities to become stunned and the nonmoving trees to tremble with ecstasy. These things are certainly very wonderful.

The closing verse the gopis say of the chapter we are surveying. What moves stops; what does not move trembles. The flute-music inverts the natural order. The animals become statues; the trees move with feeling. The world has been turned by his music inside out, and the gopis are the ones who can see it.

Gopi-Gītā

गोपी-गीत

The Gopis' Song of Longing

All Eleven Texts

Veṇu-Gītā·Gopi-Gītā·Bhramara-Gītā·Sūrdās's Bhramar Gīt·Brahma Saṃhitā·Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad·Rādhopaniṣad·Nārada Pañcarātra·Skanda Purāṇa·Hāla's Gāhā Sattasaī·Daśaślokī·Śikṣāṣṭakam·Caitanya Caritāmṛta·Gīta Govinda·Hit Caurāsī·Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhi·Premavāṭikā and Sujān Rasakhān·Padma Purāṇa·Govinda-Līlāmṛta·Yugala-Śataka·Kelimāla·Narottama Dāsa's Prārthanā·Radha in the Sources·Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa·Garga Saṃhitā·Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa·Rādhā-Sahasranāma·Krishna-Karṇāmṛta·Stava-Mālā·The Rādhāṣṭakams·Vidagdha-Mādhava and Lalita-Mādhava·Vilāpa-Kusumāñjali·Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta·The Five Sampradāyas·The Aṣṭa-Sakhīs·The Eight Watches·Mañjarī-Bhāva·Bhakti-Rasāmṛta-Sindhu·Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇi·Sat-Sandarbhas·Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa·Bhaiji·Theological Threads·Vidyāpati and Caṇḍīdāsa

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The flute is still being played. The Vrindavan-vāsīs have not stopped reporting it to each other. Five hundred years of Brajbhāṣā padas, a thousand years of Sanskrit hymns, and the gopis are still saying to each other, look, the cows have stopped. Look, the calf is gazing. Look, the bamboo is weeping.

जय जय श्री वेणु-गोपाल