SB 10.29.34 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

चित्तं सुखेन भवतापहृतं गृहेषु यन्निर्विशत्युत करावपि गृह्यकृत्ये । पादौ पदं न चलतस्तव पादमूलाद् याम: कथं व्रजमथो करवाम किं वा ॥ ३४ ॥

Verse text

cittaṁ sukhena bhavatāpahṛtaṁ gṛheṣu yan nirviśaty uta karāv api gṛhya-kṛtye pādau padaṁ na calatas tava pāda-mūlād yāmaḥ kathaṁ vrajam atho karavāma kiṁ vā

Synonyms

cittam — our minds ; sukhena — easily ; bhavatā — by You ; apahṛtam — were stolen ; gṛheṣu — in our households ; yat — which ; nirviśati — were absorbed ; uta — moreover ; karau — our hands ; api — as well ; gṛhya — kṛtye — in household work ; pādau — our feet ; padam — one step ; na calataḥ — are not moving ; tava — Your ; pāda — mūlāt — away from the feet ; yāmaḥ — we shall go ; katham — how ; vrajam — back to Vraja ; atha u — and then ; karavāma — we shall do ; kim — what ; vā — furthermore .

Translation

Until today our minds were absorbed in household affairs, but You easily stole both our minds and our hands away from our housework. Now our feet won’t move one step from Your lotus feet. How can we go back to Vraja? What would we do there?

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Until today our minds were absorbed in household affairs, but You easily stole both our minds and our hands away from our housework. Now our feet won't move one step from Your lotus feet. How can we go back to Vraja? What would we do there? KB 10.29.34 “Dear Kṛṣṇa, as women, we are certainly satisfied when our hearts are engaged in the activities of family affairs, but our hearts have already been stolen by You. We can no longer engage them in family affairs. Besides that, although You have repeatedly asked us to return home, and that is a very appropriate instruction, unfortunately we have been stunned here. Our legs have no power to move a step from Your lotus feet. Therefore, if even at Your request we return home, what shall we do there? We have lost all our ability to act without You. Instead of engaging our hearts in family affairs as women, …

Purport

Śrī Kṛṣṇa had blown into His flute, and the intoxicating music that had come out of its holes had stolen the minds of the young gopī girls. Now they had come to see Kṛṣṇa to demand back their stolen property, but they could regain their minds only if Śrī Kṛṣṇa accepted them and engaged with them in conjugal affairs. Śrī Kṛṣṇa might have replied, “But My dear gopīs, just go home for now. Let Me consider the situation for a day or two, and then I will give you back your minds.” In reply to this possible argument, the gopīs state, “Our feet refuse to move even one step. So please give us back our minds and accept us, and then we will go.”

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Other gopis, revealing their intense love said, "O king of thieves, we did not come with any other purpose than to recover the treasure that you stole from us. You did not need the help of other thieves to do this. It was accomplished very easily (sukhena), by blowing on your flute. Our hearts are not some cheap thing. They were absorbed completely in our household affairs, and by stealing them the whole house has been plundered. Actually however, our hearts are not absorbed in the household. What is it to us if the house catches fire, or increases in wealth" This is the intended meaning of their overstatement. "But the mind must become absorbed in those affairs so that the senses can perform their activities. Without the mind, the senses become useless. When you stole our minds, you also stole our senses. Our hands, and our eyes and other senses (uta) were all stolen" "Oh gopis, go home today, and after considering, tomorrow or the next day I will return your hearts." To answer this the gopis say, "Without our hearts, our feet cannot move one step away from our your feet. Give us our hearts, and we will go."

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

“You cannot maintain the happiness of family life by giving up husbands.” Fearing this statement the gopīs speak while finding fault with him. You have stolen our hearts easily (sukhena) by showing yourself and giving joy. And our households are now the opposite, filled with suffering. Or you have with joy stolen our hearts. Our feet which engaged in household work have been stolen and do not move one step from your feet. We cannot go back. The hands and feet cannot move because all the strength of the senses has been stolen. We could come only because of being pulled by the song of your flute. Because of that, how can we return to Vraja? “Then go back with me. You can go in front.” Having come here, what shall we do? Vā is a connective word. Though you have stolen all our senses by stealing our hearts, you have especially taken the power from our hands and feet so that we cannot engage in serving our husbands and cannot go elsewhere. Or, our hearts which were previously situated happily, having been stolen by you, cannot enter into household duties. How can we engage our hands in that work? “But it is not proper to stay here. Please go.” Your feet, stolen by you, attracted to you, cannot move one step. Our hands can only be engaged in serving you and our feet can only move towards you. A joke is also expressed. We did not come to the forest without an objective. We came because you have stolen the treasure of our hearts. Coming only for this purpose we have caught you, the thief. But we cannot go elsewhere to bind you and take you away so that we can scold you, because you have also stolen our hands and feet. Without the treasure of our hearts, how we can return to Vraja? What can we do? Since you are the best thief, knowledgeable of mantras to stun us, all methods have become powerless. Indifference is expressed in the following way. “Pulled here by my flute and being tired, how can you go?” Our hearts are preoccupied with happiness arising (bhavatā) in household duties since we have become absorbed in those activities. Or, our hearts are happy (sukhe) in our houses and are not (na) stolen by you since we are absorbed in those duties. Our hands are engaged in household duties. In response to his objection that they are tired, they say, “Why should our feet not move? They will take us far away. Why should we not go? We will go. What can we do here?”

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

You stole our mind with happiness. This implies that household duties were full of misery. Or you stole our hearts along with our happiness. The feet engaged in household chores were stolen. Our feet will not move one foot from your feet. The power to use the senses has been stolen. “You speak lies. Why did you come here?” We were attracted by your flute. We did not come by our own power. Because of this we cannot go back on our own. Our feet will not move one foot. Thus how will we go to Vraja? “O women! Shall I send you?” What will be do there? Vā indicates reference to all that was said, or questioning some alternative. Or it indicates something unspoken. We will search, but where will we go? You stole our hearts and we cannot work, or even if we can move, there is no purpose in working. Though if the heart is stolen, all the senses are stolen, hands and feet are still mentioned to indicate that they can no longer serve their husband and cannot return home. Or previously our hearts were happily engaged in our household chores. Then you stole our hearts. Now it does not enter into those chores. Why were they required anymore? “O queens of the house! Can you not do the work, but without attachment?” Our hands have been stolen. They have not interest in engaging in that work. “Then why not go home and just stay there.” Your feet have been stolen by you and cannot move. Our hearts are absorbed in you. Our hands will work for serving you. Our feet will enter your place but will not go elsewhere. Or though our hearts have been destroyed (hṛtam) by the pain (tāpa) of saṁsāra (bhava), our hands easily engaged in household chores. Why send us to serve our husbands? “O speaks of truth! You should go there.” Our feet will not move. We should not stay because you are harsh, but we cannot go either. What shall we do? This verse is an answer to verse 21. Since our hearts are stolen, there is no use trying to pick flowers or look at the forest. Even if we want to see the forest, since we cannot wander about because our feet are stolen, we cannot see much of the forest. What is the use in seeing the forest? There is a joke using puns. Since we have no goal in the forest, we did not come here to see the forest. Since hyou stole the wealth of our hearts we came here for that purpose. But coming to the thief, we cannot grab you and take you somewhere to yell at you, since you have stolen our hands and feet. With our treasure stolen how can we go to Vraja? What can we do? We are powerless, with no method to counteract the best of thieves, who has a special mantra which stuns us. Na should be applied to the verbs. If you did not happily steal our hearts, then our hearts would be absorbed in household chores. If our hands and feet were not stolen they would be engaged in household chores. Our feet go to Vraja (padam). How can we go elsewhere? Why should we do what you say? In this meaning, going to the bank of the Yamunā is rejected. Or our hearts were happily preoccupied (sukhena bhavatā) in the house because they were absorbed in the chores. Though our hands were absorbed in the chores, our feet do not move to Vraja from your feet which deviate from dharma (calataḥ), but we will go.