Devanagari
स्वयमात्मात्मगोवत्सान् प्रतिवार्यात्मवत्सपै: ।
क्रीडन्नात्मविहारैश्च सर्वात्मा प्राविशद् व्रजम् ॥ २० ॥
Verse text
svayam ātmātma-govatsān
prativāryātma-vatsapaiḥ
krīḍann ātma-vihāraiś ca
sarvātmā prāviśad vrajam
Synonyms
svayam ātmā
—
Kṛṣṇa, who is personally the Supreme Soul, the Supersoul
;
ātma
—
go — vatsān — now expanded into calves that were also He Himself
;
prativārya ātma
—
vatsapaiḥ — again He Himself was represented as the cowherd boys controlling and commanding the calves
;
krīḍan
—
thus Himself constituting everything in these transcendental pastimes
;
ātma
—
vihāraiḥ ca — enjoying Himself by Himself in different ways
;
sarva
—
ātmā — the Supersoul, Kṛṣṇa
;
prāviśat
—
entered
;
vrajam
—
Vrajabhūmi, the land of Mahārāja Nanda and Yaśodā .
Translation
Now expanding Himself so as to appear as all the calves and cowherd boys, all of them as they were, and at the same time appear as their leader, Kṛṣṇa entered Vrajabhūmi, the land of His father, Nanda Mahārāja, just as He usually did while enjoying their company.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Now expanding Himself so as to appear as all the calves and cowherd boys, all of them as they were, and at the same time appear as their leader, Kṛṣṇa entered Vrajabhūmi, the land of His father, Nanda Mahārāja, just as He usually did while enjoying their company.
KB 10.13.20
Thus expanding Himself as the boys and calves in their individual capacities, and surrounded by such expansions of Himself, Kṛṣṇa entered the village of Vṛndāvana. The residents had no knowledge of what had happened.
Purport
Kṛṣṇa usually stayed in the forest and pasturing ground, taking care of the calves and cows with His associates the cowherd boys. Now that the original group had been taken away by Brahmā, Kṛṣṇa Himself assumed the forms of every member of the group, without anyone’s knowledge, even the knowledge of Baladeva, and continued the usual program. He was ordering His friends to do this and that, and He was controlling the calves and going into the forest to search for them when they went astray, allured by new grass, but these calves and boys were He Himself. This was Kṛṣṇa’s inconceivable potency. As explained by Śrīla Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī,
rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmāt.
Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are the same. Kṛṣṇa, by expanding His pleasure potency, becomes Rādhārāṇī. The same pleasure potency (
ānanda-cinmaya-rasa
) was expanded by Kṛṣṇa when He Himself became all the calves and boys and enjoyed transcendental bliss in Vrajabhūmi. This was done by the Yoga-māyā potency and was inconceivable to persons under the potency of Mahā-māyā.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Five verses describe how Krsna would daily perform pastimes in the day and afternoon, and return to the village in the evening just as before. Krsna, the soul of all (sarvatma), entered Vraja. How? As svayam atma, as himself the subject, he brought back the calves (object) who were himself (atma govatsan), by means of the cowherd boys (means ) who were himself (atma vatsapah) and played with other boys who were himself. The boys would sit on the same bank of the river and eat, herd the calves to green meadows, and Krsna, to search for the calves, would wander from forest to forest. In this way one moment spread for a whole year with Krsna acting as everyone. This was unnoticed by all. This went on every day, in all those places, with different pastimes, with Krsna and the calves and cowherd boys, untouched by rain, wind, sun, so even Baladeva could not detect the difference, by the power of the acintya sakti. After his illusion was ended, Brahma saw and praised that same Krsna-- with stick and lump of curd rice.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The cows were expecting their calves because of intense affection by their nature. Thus the calves are called govatsān in the verse. Because of the cows’ affection, he forcibly brought the calves back to their mothers. Since Kṛṣṇa was all the calves, they are called ātmā-govatsān to distinguish those calves from previous calves. These calves were naturally inferior to the previous calves since the previous calves were recipients of the affection of Kṛṣṇa.
nāham ātmānam āśāse mad-bhaktaiḥ sādhubhir vinā
śriyaṁ cātyantikīṁ brahman yeṣāṁ gatir ahaṁ parā
O brāhmaṇa! Without the devotees, who take shelter of only me, I do not desire to enjoy my own bliss by my six great qualities. SB 9.4.64
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
The cows were expecting their calves because of intense affection by their nature. Thus the calves are called govatsān in the verse. Because of the cows’ affection, he brought the calves back to their mothers. Since Kṛṣṇa was all the calves, he is called sarvātmā to distinguish those calves from previous calves. These calves were naturally inferior to the previous calves since the previous calves were recipients of the affection of Kṛṣṇa.
nāham ātmānam āśāse mad-bhaktaiḥ sādhubhir vinā
śriyaṁ cātyantikīṁ brahman yeṣāṁ gatir ahaṁ parā
O brāhmaṇa! Without the devotees, who take shelter of only me, I do not desire to enjoy my own bliss by my six great qualities. SB 9.4.64
Also they did not suffer at all when he left the original forms in the forst, since they were bewildered by māyā. That will be clear later. “What to speak of their suffering, would not Kṛṣṇa suffer from separation from his dear ones?” He was all of them (sarvātmā). He spread to all of them by his special powers. He saw them by his nature all day and even at other times there was no separation. Or he was conscious as being all the friends, not as himself.