Bhagavatam tenth canto study 73 – 10.13.21-27 How Krishna as the expanded gopas and calves reciprocated love with the motherly gopis and cows

How that happens we will discuss in subsequent verses. Thank you. And now the story will unfold from that point.
So, Krishna manifesting himself as the different vatsan, cows, and tat-goshti-niveshya-saha. Krishna went to their respective cowsheds and tat-atma-bhavat-rajams. And similarly, becoming, as manifesting, those cowherd boys who were different souls, Krishna manifested as them.
And then tat-tat-sadam-pravishtavan, he entered into their sadma, that is, their abodes, their homes. We know from Krishna Leela that he has the capacity to expand himself. Most famously, Krishna expanded himself in the Raas Leela so that he was with every gopi.
This is probably the past time when the expansion lasts for the longest time. As we will see in subsequent verses, the expansions, Krishna’s many expansions are manifested for one full year. When the expansions can be of various kinds, sometimes when the yogis expand themselves, at that time they all look identical.
All the expansions more or less act in similar ways, and they also look similar. Of course, sometimes yogis might be able to create multiple manifestations, which might have somewhat different abilities. But here what Krishna is manifesting is truly extraordinary because he is manifesting in many different forms with their corresponding personalities, and not just human forms, but bovine forms also.
He is also manifesting as the cows. So clearly, Krishna’s expansions here manifest his potency as the absolute, as he is not just a yogi, he is Yogeshwara. And as he can manifest in a large number of human and bovine forms, all with their particular individual characteristics, physical, psychological, behavioural, everything, such is Krishna’s potency.
And now, life goes on in Raja as if nothing has changed, but almost everything has changed, the dynamics of the relationship of those cows with their cows, as well as of the cowherd boys with their parents. Text 22 Mother of those cowherd boys, Venu, Ravat, Tvarod, Thita, so when they went back home, as they were returning, they were playing various instruments, such as the Venu. And as they were playing that, Tvarod, Thita, they immediately got up, in the sense that, not as if they were asleep, but they were absorbed in their household activities, and immediately they got awakened from there, eager to welcome their sons who were coming back home.
So, with their two arms, they embraced their children, and not only that, their milk started, so breast milk started overflowing from there. Breasts, and then not only that, and when they offered that milk to Krishna, he tasted it like it was nectar. And as they were offering milk, not just to their sons, but to Krishna, and Krishna accepted that milk, tasted and relished that milk as if it was nectar.
So, the breast milk is one of the most intimate mediums for exchange between the sweetest, the closest, the most life-sustaining of loves. The mother, from her own body, produces and offers a product of her love, that is her milk. And Krishna and the child drinks that milk, and thus both of them are bonded together through that connection which is both physical and emotional.
So, the point here is that the Gopas, the mothers and the children bonded very specially because now the children were Krishna, and devotees aspire to offer their very best to Krishna. And the best can manifest in various ways. In this case, the best manifested as, for the Gopis, it manifested as their milk which they would love to offer to Krishna.
Krishna at this point is in the Kumara or Asa, is coming towards Bauganda, he is still a small child, and motherly women wish to offer their maternal love to Krishna. And Krishna provided them that opportunity during this pastime to fulfill that desire through one of the most intimate, closest acts of offering love that can be there between a mother and a child. And that is through breastfeeding which establishes both a physical and emotional connect.
And of course, because Krishna is a supreme spiritual reality, and the Brijvasis are pure devotees, so it is in this case also spiritual connect. So, the reciprocation of love, how it attained intense heights is depicted here. Thereafter, the Gopas, the mother-mothers massaged them with oil, and they bathed them, ornamented them with oil, sandalwood for alankara.
Then, put ornaments on them. Lepana is more of smearing with oils, that’s also we could say for ornamental purposes, but it’s not exactly putting in ornaments. All the sandalwood also decorates the body.
Jaleep, alankara, raksha, they protected Krishna. Now, there are different ways to protect him. When there is little physical danger, then something fighting, someone has to fight, they have to fight, and of course, Krishna himself does that.
But still, a mother’s natural mood is to protect her children, and she does various things, just practicing religious rites and rituals and chanting protective mantras. So, we see this mood from the beginning in the Vraja Leela, right when Krishna was just a month old, and Putana tried to kill him, and then he was miraculously saved, and Putana was killed. So, after that, the Vraja Vasis chanted various mantras for the protection of Krishna.
And similarly, here also, various mantras are chanted, that’s how they protect, protective mantras. They protected Krishna. And they offered tilaka, they applied tilaka on various parts of his body, and they also then fed him.
Peeding is also a very important and intimate form of reciprocation, intimate not in the sense of sexual intimacy, but intimate in the sense of that which leads to a close connection. Samlalitaha svacharitai samlalitaha. Lalan means to care.
So, they cared in this way for Krishna. Now, love can be offered one way, but love is especially enriched and enhanced when it is reciprocated. So, the motherly gopis offered Krishna their love in all the ways that a mother would offer.
By massaging, bathing, smearing, decorating, protecting, anointing, feeding. But Krishna also reciprocated with their love by svacharitaha. He behaved in such a way that he made them very pleased.
When a child is resentful, or a child is neglectful, or a child is impudent, and the mother will still love the child, but the child’s behavior doesn’t increase the reciprocation of love of the mothers. But here Krishna also behaved in a way that praharsayan, that they felt very happy with his behavior and their love increased for him. So, with each particular activity, Krishna reciprocated in the appropriate way, and thus, with the passage of time, their love for Krishna increased.
And the mothers served him more and more. Thus, the bond of affection between them increased, intensified, sweetened. And what applied to the cowherd boys and their mothers also applied to the cows and the cows, where the cows had also become Krishna.
Now, text 24. गावस्ततो गोष्ठम् उपेति सत्वरम् हुङ्कारगोषयि परिहुद संगतान् स्वकान् स्वकान् वच्चतरान् अपाययन् मुहूर्लिहन्त्यः स्रवत अवधसंपयः गावस्ततो गोष्ठम् उपेति सत्वरम् So, in this way, what did the… गावस्ततो The cows thereafter… As the cows went to their cowshed, गोष्ठम् उपेति सत्वरम् हुङ्कारगोषयि Immediately they called out by moving jubilant, moving sounds, just like a child would say, Mother, I am back home. So, like that, the cows called out परिहुद् संगतान् and स्वकान् स्वकान् वच्चतरान् They went to their respective cows and they started feeding them वच्चतरान् अपाययन् They started, from their milk bags, offering milk to the cows and मुहुलिहन्त्य स्रवदाउध संबयः And as they were drinking their mother’s milk, they also, the mothers were licking them, lovingly.
So, the cows also reciprocated love with the cows by the appropriate ways in the cow world. And thus, the affection, the bond of affection proceeded between them two. Now, one of the ways in which we reciprocate love is by accepting the offering of others.
In this case, what it means is, if the mothers have cooked food and the child eats the food affectionately, lovingly, the mother feels joy. And similarly, when the calf is eager to drink milk, then that also brings joy to the cow. So, our eagerness in accepting someone else’s offering also is an expression of our love and a means of reciprocating.
So, when the food is cooked and that food is lovingly, eagerly taken, that also expresses love. So, when the cows are, here is described, हुंकारगोषयी when they jubilantly call out to their mothers and the mothers offer them food, then that also, their own milk from the milk bag, that’s also a reciprocation of love. Text 25 now.
गोगोपीनाम् मात्रतास्मिन्णासित्स्नेहरदिकम् सेहरदिकाम्भिना पुरोवदास्वपिहरेष् तोकता माययाविना So, गोगोपीनाम् here, both, the cows and the elderly gopis, who were in the maternal mood for Krishna, मात्रतास्मिन्णासित्स्नेहरदिकम् Now, whatever usual love was there for their offsprings, they felt greater affection. अरदिकम्भिना पुरोवद Now, what happens is that, even earlier, their पुरोवदास्वास्वपिहरेष् they had greater affection for Krishna than what they had for their own children. तोकता माययाविना Because they would think, they would long that Krishna be their offspring, and they could offer love to Krishna.
So, earlier, naturally, because of their maternal affection, they loved their children, but they loved Krishna more. So, in the Vraja, all the family bonds exist, but the family bonds are centered on Krishna. Not that Krishna is an addition to the family relationships.
That means that the Vrajavasis love Krishna more than even their own family members. The mothers loved Krishna more than their own children. And that is a superlative devotion.
But in this case, that difference disappeared because Krishna had become their son. Krishna had become their child. That same applies to the cows also, with respect to the cows.
So, this difference between, you can say, whether we love Krishna first or our family first. That could be the difference between pure devotion and mixed devotion. When the devotion is mixed, then our family comes first and Krishna comes after that.
But when the devotion is pure, it is Krishna who comes first and the family comes thereafter. That is what we are seeing here that the Vrajavasis, both the maternal men, the motherly gopis as well as the cows are exhibiting this exalted level of devotion for Krishna. And now they are having Krishna as their child.
So that difference has disappeared. Text 26 In this way, the Vrajavasis accepted Krishna as their own son, Snehavallabdham Anvaham Snehavallabdham The creeper of affection for Krishna increased continuously. And this went on for one full year.
Anvaham, just sometimes in relationships, love increases and sometimes it may decrease. The same person whom we were passionately in love with earlier, after sometime we may not feel that love. So, if somehow things change, if their behavior disappoints us, that love may decrease.
But in this case, because Krishna is such a perfect offerer of love and object of love, so, in the relationship with Krishna, in the pure spiritual level, the love always keeps increasing. Unlike in our day-to-day relationships, where even the most passionate love sometimes becomes tempered or toned down and we have sometimes people who find each other irresistible, then after sometime just find each other barely tolerable. But with respect to Krishna, whose love was so perfect, he is the perfect object and offerer of love, that for one full year, the Vrajavasis, love for him as their child kept increasing.
Every day, Anvaham, an increase without limit. So, they loved their children as much as they loved Krishna. So, their love for Krishna was unlimited.
Yatha Krishne Tvapuravat. As Krishna they had loved immensely, so now they were living, loving their children also immensely. So, Ittham Atmatmanatmanam Vatsapalamishenavasah Palayan Vatsapovarasham Chikride Vanagoshtayo So, Chikride Vanagoshtayo In this way, the pastimes were being performed and relished.
Varsham, for one full year. Ittham Atmatmanatmanam Atmatmanatmanam Supreme Krishna, the Lord, by himself he enjoyed his own, he enjoyed himself in his expansions as Vatsapal and Vatsapalamishena in the forms of the cowherd and the cowherd boys and the cows, Sahapalyan along with those who were maintaining them. So, thus Krishna maintained his forms, expansions for one full year and relished his pastimes accordingly.
The significance of one year, the figure of one year is what is stressed in this verse, and the stress is because one year was the time interval between Krishna’s killing of Ghasur and the Gopas talking about Krishna’s killing to the Vrajavasis. So, Parishad Maharaj asked a question, why was there a one year delay? And in response to that question, Shukadeva Swami is telling this pastime. So now, he is giving the significance of that figure of one year.
That’s why in this verse, one year is stressed. And now, after that, something special will happen. What that will be, will be described from the next verse onwards, which we will discuss in our next class.