SB 10.12.2 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

तेनैव साकं पृथुका: सहस्रश: स्‍निग्धा: सुशिग्वेत्रविषाणवेणव: । स्वान् स्वान् सहस्रोपरिसङ्ख्ययान्वितान् वत्सान् पुरस्कृत्य विनिर्ययुर्मुदा ॥ २ ॥

Verse text

tenaiva sākaṁ pṛthukāḥ sahasraśaḥ snigdhāḥ suśig-vetra-viṣāṇa-veṇavaḥ svān svān sahasropari-saṅkhyayānvitān vatsān puraskṛtya viniryayur mudā

Synonyms

tena — Him ; eva — indeed ; sākam — accompanied by ; pṛthukāḥ — the boys ; sahasraśaḥ — by the thousands ; snigdhāḥ — very attractive ; su — beautiful ; śik — lunch bags ; vetra — sticks for controlling the calves ; viṣāṇa — horn bugles ; veṇavaḥ — flutes ; svān svān — their own respective ; sahasra — upari — saṅkhyayā anvitān — numbering over a thousand ; vatsān — the calves ; puraḥ — kṛtya — keeping in front ; viniryayuḥ — they came out ; mudā — with great pleasure .

Translation

At that time, hundreds and thousands of cowherd boys came out of their respective homes in Vrajabhūmi and joined Kṛṣṇa, keeping before them their hundreds and thousands of groups of calves. The boys were very beautiful, and they were equipped with lunch bags, bugles, flutes, and sticks for controlling the calves.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

At that time, hundreds and thousands of cowherd boys came out of their respective homes in Vrajabhūmi and joined Kṛṣṇa, keeping before them their hundreds and thousands of groups of calves. The boys were very beautiful, and they were equipped with lunch bags, bugles, flutes, and sticks for controlling the calves. KB 10.12.2 In this way, Lord Kṛṣṇa assembled thousands of His boyfriends. They were each equipped with a stick, flute and horn, as well as a lunch bag, and each of them was taking care of thousands of calves.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Prthuka refers to the cowherd boys. They were holding slings (sik), sticks, horns and flutes. Sahasra pari sankhya means ten thousand. Krsna had asankhya calves. Asankhya is one followed by seventeen zeros. One should not say however that that many cows cannot fit in the sixteen krosa area of Vrndavana, because by the inconceivable energy of the Lord, the dhama is unlimited. In one portion of the dhama the billions of universes measuring 50 koti yojanas fits. Krsna showed this to Brahma in a later chapter. It is said in the Brhad Bhagavatamrta that because the Lord, associates, and the dhama have inconceivable power, there is no obstacles.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

All the boys came out with great speed and simultaneously in order to associate with him since they had great affection for him. They were in the thousands. ekaṁ daśa śataṁ caiva sahasraṁ ayutaṁ tathā lakṣaṁ ca niyutaṁ caiva koṭir nyarbudam eva ca A thousand is ten hundreds and ayutam is a ten thousand. Lakṣa is a hundred thousand. Niyutam is a million. Koṭi is ten million. Nyarbuda is a hundred million. Thus they were in the ten thousands. The boys and calves together could not be counted. If the number of calves that they herded in the forest was beyond calculation, how many more calves must have been left back in Vraja--the small calves taking milk from their mothers, as well as the mothers of the calves that went to the forest, other cows, the elder male and female calves, the bulls, whose numbers kept increasing daily by the power of Gopāla, and the buffalo as well. Thus the animals, cowherd and cowherd women were unlimited in number. Rāsa-dhyānaṁ pramadā-śata-koṭibhir ākulitaḥ: a billion gopīs gathered at the place of the rāsa dance. Such places exist by the inconceivable power of the Lord. The boys were joyful (mudā) because Kṛṣṇa had personally awakened them. They departed in a special manner (vi—niryayuḥ).