Devanagari
ततो हसन् हृषीकेशोऽभ्यवहृत्य सहार्भकै: ।
दर्शयंश्चर्माजगरं न्यवर्तत वनाद् व्रजम् ॥ ४६ ॥
Verse text
tato hasan hṛṣīkeśo
’bhyavahṛtya sahārbhakaiḥ
darśayaṁś carmājagaraṁ
nyavartata vanād vrajam
Synonyms
tataḥ
—
then
;
hasan
—
smiling
;
hṛṣīkeśaḥ
—
Lord Kṛṣṇa, the master of everyone’s senses
;
abhyavahṛtya
—
taking lunch
;
saha
—
along with
;
arbhakaiḥ
—
the cowherd boys
;
darśayan
—
showing
;
carma
—
the skin
;
ājagaram
—
of the python Aghāsura
;
nyavartata
—
He returned
;
vanāt
—
from the forest
;
vrajam
—
to the village of Vraja .
Translation
Then Lord Hṛṣīkeśa, smiling, finished His lunch in the company of His cowherd friends. While they were returning from the forest to their homes in Vraja, Lord Kṛṣṇa showed the cowherd boys the skin of the dead serpent Aghāsura.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Then Lord Hṛṣīkeśa, smiling, finished His lunch in the company of His cowherd friends. While they were returning from the forest to their homes in Vraja, Lord Kṛṣṇa showed the cowherd boys the skin of the dead serpent Aghāsura.
KB 10.14.46
Kṛṣṇa smiled and accepted their invitation, and He began to enjoy the lunchtime company of His friends. While eating, Kṛṣṇa was thinking, “These boys believe that I have come back within a second, but they do not know that for the last year I have been involved with the mystic activities of Lord Brahmā.”
After finishing their lunch, Kṛṣṇa and His friends and calves began to return to their Vrajabhūmi homes. While passing, they enjoyed seeing the dead carcass of Aghāsura in the shape of a gigantic serpent.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Smiling to show his bliss, Krsna ate with the boys. Even though a year had passed the food did not show any lack of taste. "O friends, look at the skin of the snake." In order that the boys would spread the news of the killing of aghasura, yogamaya had kept the snake there for a year under her influence. Giving up the forest pastimes, he returned home.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Kṛṣṇa smiled because the boys, who had been bewildered, became joyful on hearing his words, which did not make mention of anything to cause them suffering. Kṛṣṇa is called the lord of the senses to show that he was dear to all of them. Another version has niravartat instead of nyavartata. The parasmaipada form (niravartat) of the verb is poetic license. He showed them the skin so that they would talk about it in Vraja. The Lord kept the skin covered by māyā for a whole year.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Kṛṣṇa smiled because the boys, who had been bewildered, became joyful on hearing his words, which did not make mention of anything to cause them suffering. He dined with the boys. Without them he did not eat for all that time. How would Yaśodā tolerate this?
Kṛṣṇa was the power behind all the senses (hṛṣikeṣaḥ). They became satisfied because of his skill at imitating eating. Another famous example is Lakṣmaṇa with Rāma.
Or though he was not inclined to eat, he did so to satisfy the boys. He ate with great satisfaction while accepting things with different tastes and aromas, by instigating his own sense of taste etc. Then he returned to Vraja. Another version has nivavarta with the same meaning. He showed the boys the skin of Aghāsura. This created memory so they could tell the killing of Agha in Vraja. The skin remained covered by māyā all this time by the Lord.