Devanagari
देहं मानुषमाश्रित्य कति वर्षाणि वृष्णिभि:
यदुपुर्यां सहावात्सीत् पत्न्य: कत्यभवन् प्रभो: ॥ ११ ॥
Verse text
dehaṁ mānuṣam āśritya
kati varṣāṇi vṛṣṇibhiḥ
yadu-puryāṁ sahāvātsīt
patnyaḥ katy abhavan prabhoḥ
Synonyms
deham
—
body
;
mānuṣam
—
exactly like a man
;
āśritya
—
accepting
;
kati varṣāṇi
—
how many years
;
vṛṣṇibhiḥ
—
in the company of the Vṛṣṇis, those who were born in the Vṛṣṇi family
;
yadu
—
puryām — in Dvārakā, in the residential quarters of the Yadus
;
saha
—
with
;
avātsīt
—
the Lord lived
;
patnyaḥ
—
wives
;
kati
—
how many
;
abhavan
—
were there
;
prabhoḥ
—
of the Lord .
Translation
Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has no material body, yet He appears as a human being. For how many years did He live with the descendants of Vṛṣṇi? How many wives did He marry, and for how many years did He live in Dvārakā?
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has no material body, yet He appears as a human being. For how many years did He live with the descendants of Vṛṣṇi? How many wives did He marry, and for how many years did He live in Dvārakā?
Purport
In many places the Supreme Personality of Godhead is described as
sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha,
possessing a spiritual, blissful body. His bodily feature is
narākṛti,
that is, exactly like that of a human being. Here the same idea is repeated in the words
mānuṣam āśritya,
which indicate that He accepts a body exactly like that of a man. Everywhere it is confirmed that Kṛṣṇa is never
nirākāra,
or formless. He has His form, exactly like that of a human being. There is no doubt about this.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
How many years did he live with the Yadus? By using the phrase "deham manusam asrita" he indicates that the years should be in human calculation, not that of the devas. In other places the Lord is referred to as " paramatma narakrti", "narakrti parabrahma" and "budha parabrahma manusya cihnadhari". These statements show that the human-like form of Krsna is his svarupa or spiritual form. Thus "deham manusam " cannot mean that Krsna has a material body.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Dehaṁ mānuṣam āśritya: he took shelter of this material world (deham) filled with humans (mānuṣam). The world is like his body, since the universal form is his expansion. For the ignorant he was the universal form (virāḍ aviduṣām). Since this form is merely a portion of his real body, he cannot have a material human body. Thus, the yogīs saw his body as the supreme truth (tattvaṁ paraṁ yoginām). (SB 10.43.17) Another meaning of mānuṣam is “coming in Manu’s line” just as a Yādava comes in Yadu’s line.
The word āśritya means “taking shelter of the eye with a particular form” or in other words “manifesting.” The Lord is his own shelter and never takes shelter of a material body. Thus we find verse such as sa ātmā svāśrayāśrayaḥ: the shelter of the ātmā is the Paramātmā, who takes shelter of himself. (SB 2.10.9) Yoga-māyām upāśritaḥ: he took shelter of his own yoga-māyā potency. (SB 10.29.1) thus meaning of dehaṁ mānuṣam āsritya is “revealing his most beautiful body with a human form” since his body is eternal, being completely sac-cid-ānanda.
He lived with the Vṛṣṇis. They also must have similar bodies. For how many years did he manifest this spiritual form in Dvārakā? Some versions have the word madhupuryām instead of yadupuryām.
How many were the wives that he had? The meaning is “For how many women was there so much good fortune?”