SB 10.33.7 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

पादन्यासैर्भुजविधुतिभि: सस्मितैर्भ्रूविलासै- र्भज्यन्मध्यैश्चलकुचपटै: कुण्डलैर्गण्डलोलै: । स्विद्यन्मुख्य: कवररसनाग्रन्थय: कृष्णवध्वो गायन्त्यस्तं तडित इव ता मेघचक्रे विरेजु: ॥ ७ ॥

Verse text

pāda-nyāsair bhuja-vidhutibhiḥ sa-smitair bhrū-vilāsair bhajyan madhyaiś cala-kuca-paṭaiḥ kuṇḍalair gaṇḍa-lolaiḥ svidyan-mukhyaḥ kavara-rasanāgranthayaḥ kṛṣṇa-vadhvo gāyantyas taṁ taḍita iva tā megha-cakre virejuḥ

Synonyms

pāda — of their feet ; nyāsaiḥ — by the placement ; bhuja — of their hands ; vidhutibhiḥ — by the gestures ; sa — smitaiḥ — smiling ; bhrū — of their eyebrows ; vilāsaiḥ — by the playful movements ; bhajyan — bending ; madhyaiḥ — by their middles ; cala — moving ; kuca — covering their breasts ; paṭaiḥ — by the cloths ; kuṇḍalaiḥ — by their earrings ; gaṇḍa — on their cheeks ; lolaiḥ — rolling ; svidyan — perspiring ; mukhyaḥ — whose faces ; kavara — the braids of their hair ; rasanā — and their belts ; āgranthayaḥ — having tightly tied ; kṛṣṇa — vadhvaḥ — the consorts of Lord Kṛṣṇa ; gāyantyaḥ — singing ; tam — about Him ; taḍitaḥ — bolts of lightning ; iva — as if ; tāḥ — they ; megha — cakre — in a range of clouds ; virejuḥ — shone .

Translation

As the gopīs sang in praise of Kṛṣṇa, their feet danced, their hands gestured, and their eyebrows moved with playful smiles. With their braids and belts tied tight, their waists bending, their faces perspiring, the garments on their breasts moving this way and that, and their earrings swinging on their cheeks, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s young consorts shone like streaks of lightning in a mass of clouds.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

As the gopīs sang in praise of Kṛṣṇa, their feet danced, their hands gestured, and their eyebrows moved with playful smiles. With their braids and belts tied tight, their waists bending, their faces perspiring, the garments on their breasts moving this way and that, and their earrings swinging on their cheeks, Lord Kṛṣṇa's young consorts shone like streaks of lightning in a mass of clouds. KB 10.33.7 While Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs danced, they displayed extraordinary bodily features. The movements of their legs, their placing their hands on one another, the movements of their eyebrows, their smiling, the movements of the gopīs' breasts, clothes and earrings, their cheeks, their hair with flowers—as Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs sang and danced these combined to appear like clouds, thunder, snow and lightning. Kṛṣṇa’s bodily features appeared just like a group of clouds, the gopīs’ songs were like thunder, their beauty appeared to be just like lightning in the sky, and the drops of perspiration visible on their faces appeared like falling snow. In this way, the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa fully engaged in dancing.

Purport

Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that according to the analogy of lightning flashing in clouds, the perspiration on the lovely faces of the gopīs resembled drops of mist, and their singing resembled thunder. The word āgranthayaḥ may also be read agranthayaḥ, meaning “loosened.” This would indicate that although the gopīs began the dance with their hair and belts tightly drawn, these gradually slackened and loosened. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī points out that the gopīs were expert at exhibiting mudrās (precise hand gestures that express feelings or convey meanings associated with the theme of a performance). Thus sometimes Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs would artistically move their interlocked arms together, and sometimes they would separate arms and exhibit mudrās to act out the meaning of the songs they were singing. The word pāda-nyāsaiḥ indicates that the gopīs artistically and gracefully placed the steps of their dancing feet in an enchanting way, and the words sa-smitair bhrū-vilāsair indicate that the romantic movements of their eyebrows, smiling with love, were most charming to behold.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Just as Krsna attained additional beauty in association with the gopis, so the gopis also attained additional beauty in association with Krsna. Tha foot movements of the gopis coordinated with the songs’ rhythm and rasa. In this way the gopis manifested more and more colorful dances and songs. Though the gopis were all holding each other or Krsna, their hands made exquisite movements. Sometimes they also freed their hands, and then quickly showed various mudras to express the subject of the song. In order to indicate the rasa and confirm the skill of their song or dance, they moved their eyebrows and smiled. Because their waists were thin by nature, they appeared bent during the movements of dancing. They picked up the cloths that they had laid on the ground for Krsna to sit on after he got up, and waved those cloths in the air while they sang. These women are called krsna vadhva. Vadhu can mean, women, wife and daughter in law. If we take the meaning as wife, then this will contradict what Bhisma stated. "Let me surrender to Krsna whose mood was attained by the wives of the gopas during the rasa lila." (sb 1.9.40) Bhisma did not say wives of Krsna. Thus Sanantana Goswami also does not interpret vadhu as wife in this verse. He describes vadhu as a golden complexioned woman who has taken complete shelter of Krsna, who is embraced by him as in the rasa lila, who is to be enjoyed only by him. Thus those gopis are described as vadhu, because they were similar to wives. This is explained in Vaisnava Tosini.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

Not only did he become more beautiful with the gopīs, they became more beautiful in association with him. They stepped on the ground using dance steps (pāda-nyāsaiḥ). They made various gestures with their hands. Though they could not gesture because their arms were locked together in the circle, sometimes they released their hands to make the gestures. Skilful dancing employs smiling and moving the brows. Their waists were thin by nature, but by the transformation of dancing, they seemed to break in the middle. Or their waists became bent. This took place in all of them, constantly. When Kṛṣṇa stood up, they again took all the clothes they had laid on the ground for him to sit upon (cala-kuca-paṭaiḥ). They tied their braids and belts fearing they would come loose. Or their braids and belts became loose while dancing. The words kṛṣṇa-vadhvaḥ should be explained as follows. Singing about Kṛṣṇa, the gopīs, as Kṛṣṇa’s wives, appeared like lightning in a mass of clouds. Someone could propose as follows. “In the previous verse, Kṛṣṇa was like a sapphire among golden gems. Since the relationship between a sapphire and other gems in temporary, the example suggests that Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs are not married. They do not have an innate relationship.” The secret is then revealed in this verse from absorption in bliss. They were Kṛṣṇa’s wives (kṛṣṇa-vadhvaḥ). Because of their innate relationship (like lightning with rain clouds) they were married. Thus there was excellence in all their qualities without them having to cultivate anything.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

Not only did he become more beautiful with the gopīs, they became more beautiful in association with him. They stepped on the ground using dance steps (pāda-nyāsaiḥ). They made various gestures with their hands. Though they could not gesture because their arms were locked together in the circle, they would gesture with two hands joined together, or sometimes they released their hands to make the gestures. Or interrupting certain dance steps they could gesture though their arms had been bound together. Skilful dancing employs smiling and moving the brows. Their waists were thin by nature, but by the transformation of dancing, they seemed to break in the middle. Or When Kṛṣṇa stood up, they again took all the clothes they had laid on the ground for him to sit upon (cala-kuca-paṭaiḥ). The golden women who had taken complete shelter (vadhvaḥ) of Kṛṣṇa, dark blue, sang. The example of the cloud with lightning hints at this. Or they were the dearmost (vadhvaḥ) of Kṛṣṇa. Their similarity to Kṛṣṇa in skill and bewilderment in prema was suitable. They sang about him. Parāśara describes this: Kṛṣṇaḥ śarac-candramasaṁ kaumudīṁ kumudākaram Jagau gopījanas tv ekaṁ kṛṣṇa-nāma punaḥ punaḥ Kṛṣṇa is the autumn moon, the moonlight, and a lotus. The gopīs sang one name of Kṛṣṇa repeatedly. Viṣṇu Purāṇa They shone brilliantly (virejuḥ). The skill in dancing with intoxication and prema of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs mixed together, and his powers and his human nature becoming one, produced the brilliance. The image of lightning suggests that by their mutual beauty, his beauty increased. The megha-cakra (circle of clouds) suggests that by his skill in dancing or by his special power he became many. Or it means a group of clouds. Without being black, the beauty would not be produced. After he reached the peak of beauty they became most beautiful. The rāsa dance became most astonishing because of the wealth of excellent beauty of the women who had reached the height of beauty.