Verse Text
yathā –
rāgaḥ saptasu hanta ṣaṭsv api śiśor aṅgeṣv alaṁ tuṅgatā
visāras triṣu kharvatā triṣu tathā gambhīratā ca triṣu |
dairghyaṁ paṣcasu kiṁ ca paṣcasu sakhe samprekṣyate sūkṣmatā
dvātriṁśad-vara-lakṣaṇaḥ katham asau gopeṣu sambhāvyate ||49||
Translation
O friend! I see that your child has thirty-two auspicious marks on His body. How is it possible that such a child could be born in a cowherd’s house? Seven places on his body are red. Six limbs are elevated. Three limbs are broad. Three limbs are short. Three limbs are deep. Five limbs are long. Five limbs are fine.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
These are the words of one elderly friend of Nanda Mahārāja. The red parts of the body are: edges of the eyes, soles of the feet, palms of the hand, roof of the mouth, upper and lower lips, tongue, and nails. Six elevated limbs are: chest, shoulders, nails, nose, waist, and mouth. The three broad limbs are: waist, forehead and chest. The three short limbs are: neck, lower legs and genital. Three deep limbs are: navel, voice, and intelligence. The five long limbs are: nose, arms, eyes, cheeks, and knees. The five fine limbs are: skin, head hair, body hair, teeth and finger joints. These are the marks of a great personality according to literature concerning bodily markings. With these thirty-two auspicious markings, Kṛṣṇa possesses the best markings among all the cowherd people with auspicious markings. Such markings are not found even in the avatāras of the Lord, so how is it possible for these markings to appear on a cowherd boy?
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
In this connection, one friend of Nanda Mahārāja, speaking about Lord Kṛṣṇa’s auspicious bodily symptoms, said, “My dear King of the cowherds, I can find thirty-two auspicious symptoms on the body of your son! I am wondering how this boy could have taken His birth in a family of cowherd men.” Generally, when Lord Kṛṣṇa appears He does so in a family of kṣatriyas (kings), as did Lord Rāmacandra, and sometimes in a family of brāhmaṇas. But Kṛṣṇa accepted the role of son to Mahārāja Nanda, despite the fact that Nanda belonged to the vaiśya community. The business of the vaiśya community is trade, commerce and the protection of cows. Therefore his friend, who may have been born into a brāhmaṇa family, expressed his wonder at how such an exalted child could take birth in a family of vaiśyas. Anyway, he pointed out the auspicious signs on the body of Kṛṣṇa to the boy’s foster father.
He continued, “This boy has a reddish luster in seven places—His eyes, the palms of His hands, the soles of His feet, His palate, His lips, His tongue and His nails. A reddish luster in these seven places is considered to be auspicious. Three parts of His body are very broad: His waist, forehead and chest. Three parts of His body are short: His neck, thighs and genitals. Three parts of His body are very deep: His voice, intelligence and navel. There is highness in five parts of His body: His nose, arms, ears, forehead and thighs. In five parts of His body there is fineness: His skin, the hairs on His head and on the other parts of His body, His teeth and His fingertips. The aggregate of all these bodily features is manifest only in the bodies of great personalities.”