Devanagari
तास्तथा तप्यतीर्वीक्ष्य स्वप्रस्थाने यदूत्तम: ।
सान्त्वयामास सप्रेमैरायास्य इति दौत्यकै: ॥ ३५ ॥
Verse text
tās tathā tapyatīr vīkṣya
sva-prasthāṇe yadūttamaḥ
sāntvayām asa sa-premair
āyāsya iti dautyakaiḥ
Synonyms
tāḥ
—
them (the gopīs )
;
tathā
—
thus
;
tapyatīḥ
—
lamenting
;
vīkṣya
—
seeing
;
sva
—
prasthāne — as He was leaving
;
yadu
—
uttamaḥ — the greatest of the Yadus
;
sāntvayām āsa
—
He consoled them
;
sa
—
premaiḥ — full of love
;
āyāsye iti
—
“I will return”
;
dautyakaiḥ
—
with words sent through a messenger .
Translation
As He departed, that best of the Yadus saw how the gopīs were lamenting, and thus He consoled them by sending a messenger with this loving promise: “I will return.”
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
As He departed, that best of the Yadus saw how the gopīs, were lamenting, and thus He consoled them by sending a messenger with this loving promise: "I will return."
KB 10.39.35
Kṛṣṇa was very much affected upon seeing the plight of the gopīs, but His duty was to start for Mathurā, for this was foretold by Nārada. Kṛṣṇa therefore consoled the gopīs. He told them that they should not be aggrieved: He was coming back very soon after finishing His business. But they could not be persuaded to disperse.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Seeing the pain of the gopis, the best of the yadus, who was now inclined to protect the yadus, consoled them by sending through messengers thousands of assurances to increase their faith, so that they would regain full consciousness (dautyakaih plural form). Ka is added to indicate that the messages were full of compassion. "I will return quickly. O gopis! Like you , I am also subject to the worst broken heart. I am going to Mathura by maintaining life through the licking with the tongue of my intelligence your laughing sweet glances of honey rare to the three worlds. If I do not return the day after tomorrow, then you and I will both not be able to maintain our lives. But if I live because of a long life span or because of expectations of reunion, this life will be more suffering than a million deaths." Such were his words mixed with the nectar of prema.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
As he departed, that best of the Yadus saw how the gopīs were lamenting, and thus he consoled them by sending messengers with this loving promise: “I will return.”
Some say that in the information delivered by the messengers, he said, “I will come in my other forms (sphūrti), not personally.” This is not true. The word iti at the end of the statement āyāsya iti does not indicate that. The gopīs would also be extremely disturbed if such a message came saying that he would return as a sphūrti only. This idea is refuted when Uddhava delivers his message:
āgamiṣyaty adīrgheṇa kālena vrajam acyutaḥ
priyaṁ vidhāsyate pitror bhagavān sātvatāṁ patiḥ
Infallible Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of the devotees, will soon return to Vraja to satisfy his parents. SB 10.46.34
This verse says that he sent words through many messengers (dautyakaiḥ), in secret, filled with prema and with promises, and with no deceit. The phrase best of the Yadus (yadūttamaḥ) indicates that Kṛṣṇa was going to give protection to the Yadus. The future tense is used (āyāsye) to indicate the present or very near future (I am coming). This would happen after he killed Dantavakra as mentioned in Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa. This will be quoted later.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
As the Lord was departing, or related to his departure, seeing the gopīs were in pain in an indescribable way, by various means, with prema (sa-premaiḥ), he who had appeared among the Yadus to display unlimited qualities like mercy, who was capable in this way, consoled them. Or saying “I am going in order to protect the Yadus, as the best of the Yadu dynasty, but after doing that I will return,” he consoled them. Padma Purāṇa says that he did return after killing Dantavakra, to make his words true.