Devanagari
एकदा ते पशून्पालाश्चारयन्तोऽद्रिसानुषु ।
चक्रुर्निलायनक्रीडाश्चोरपालापदेशत: ॥ २६ ॥
Verse text
ekadā te paśūn pālāś’
cārayanto ’dri-sānuṣu
cakrur nilāyana-krīḍāś
cora-pālāpadeśataḥ
Synonyms
ekadā
—
one day
;
te
—
they
;
paśūn
—
the animals
;
pālāḥ
—
the cowherd boys
;
cārayantaḥ
—
grazing
;
adri
—
of a mountain
;
sānuṣu
—
on the sides
;
cakruḥ
—
they enacted
;
nilāyana
—
of “stealing and hiding”
;
krīḍāḥ
—
games
;
cora
—
of thieves
;
pāla
—
and protectors
;
apadeśataḥ
—
playing the roles .
Translation
One day the cowherd boys, while grazing their animals on the mountain slopes, played the game of stealing and hiding, acting out the roles of rival thieves and herders.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
One day the cowherd boys, while grazing their animals on the mountain slopes, played the game of stealing and hiding, acting out the roles of rival thieves and herders.
KB 10.37.26
Later that morning, Kṛṣṇa went to play with His cowherd boyfriends on the top of Govardhana Hill. They were imitating the play of thieves and police.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The boys acted out hiding stolen objects as thieves and protectors of herds of sheep.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that Nārada did not see the killing of Vyomāsura. After killing Keśī in the morning and hearing Nārada, Kṛṣṇa continued herding the cows and then killed Vyomāsura. Or the event happened earlier and is related here because it is mentioned along with other demons who took various forms. Others say that this happened before the killing of Śaṅkhacūḍa.
Or, the killing of Vyomāsura should not have happened the same day as killing of Keśī since this verse starts with the words “one day,” indicating a different time. Therefore this pastime should have occurred at the end of Kṛṣṇa’s kaumāra period. This is suitable since the gopīs previously said:
viṣa-jalāpyayād vyāla-rākṣasād
varṣa-mārutād vaidyutānalāt
vṛṣa-mayātmajād viśvato bhayād
ṛṣabha te vayaṁ rakṣitā muhuḥ
O greatest of personalities, you have repeatedly saved us from all kinds of danger—from poisoned water, from the terrible man-eater Agha, from the wind mixed with rains and the fiery thunderbolt of Indra, from Vatsāsura and from Vyomāsura. SB 10.31.3
Vṛṣātmta-ja means Vatsāsura and Mayātmaja means Vyomāsura as explained previously. They played a game of stealing objects and hiding them. This is described. They played the roles of thieves and herders. The two parties would take other boys who played the role of sheep. That is explained in the next verse.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that Nārada did not see the killing of Vyomāsura. Or after killing Keśī in the morning and hearing Nārada, Kṛṣṇa continued herding the cows and then killed Vyomāsura. The boys, pleased that Kṛṣṇa had killed Keśī, or Kṛṣṇa and all the boys (te) played a game of stealing objects and hiding them. This is described. They played the roles of thieves and herders. The two parties would take other boys who played the role of sheep. The sheep are not mentioned since they were less active and thus not prominent in the game.