Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.12.2
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
snigdhāḥ
—
very attractive, affectionate
From snih (to be sticky, to love). The boys are 'sticky' with love for Kṛṣṇa — sakhya-rasa is described in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu as the rasa in which the sthāyī-bhāva makes the heart adhere to the friend.
-
śik
—
lunch bags hanging from strings
The śikya is the small net-bag the cowherd boys carry. These bags become the running joke of verse 5 (they steal each other's) and the entire premise of Brahmā's later test — when the calves vanish, the bags are still in hand.
-
vetra
—
stick for controlling the calves
The cowherd's staff. Kṛṣṇa Himself carries one — Gauḍīyas meditate on tribhaṅga-mūrti with vetra and veṇu in hand. Sakhya-rasa retains tool and uniform; it does not dissolve into formless love.
-
veṇavaḥ
—
flutes
Plural — every boy has a flute, but only one flute is Kṛṣṇa's. The veṇu motif runs through Canto 10: in 10.21 the gopīs declare His flute supremely fortunate. Here the instrument is still casual, a child's toy among many.
-
viṣāṇa
—
horns (as bugles)
Buffalo or cow horn used as a signaling instrument. Cowherd life has its own kit — staff, flute, horn, lunch-bag. The Gauḍīya tradition cherishes these small concrete details because Vraja is not abstract; it is a particular place with particular objects.
Prthuka refers to the cowherd boys. They were holding slings (sik), sticks, horns and flutes. Sahasra pari sankhya means ten thousand. Krsna had asankhya calves. Asankhya is one followed by seventeen zeros. One should not say however that that many cows cannot fit in the sixteen krosa area of Vrndavana, because by the inconceivable energy of the Lord, the dhama is unlimited. In one portion of the dhama the billions of universes measuring 50 koti yojanas fits. Krsna showed this to Brahma in a later chapter. It is said in the Brhad Bhagavatamrta that because the Lord, associates, and the dhama have inconceivable power, there is no obstacles.
All the boys came out with great speed and simultaneously in order to associate with him since they had great affection for him. They were in the thousands. ekaṁ daśa śataṁ caiva sahasraṁ ayutaṁ tathā lakṣaṁ ca niyutaṁ caiva koṭir nyarbudam eva ca A thousand is ten hundreds and ayutam is a ten thousand. Lakṣa is a hundred thousand. Niyutam is a million. Koṭi is ten million. Nyarbuda is a hundred million. Thus they were in the ten thousands. The boys and calves together could not be counted. If the number of calves that they herded in the forest was beyond calculation, how many more calves must have been left back in Vraja--the small calves taking milk from their mothers, as well as the mothers of the calves that went to the forest, other cows, the elder male and female calves, the bulls, whose numbers kept increasing daily by the power of Gopāla, and the buffalo as well. Thus the animals, cowherd and cowherd women were unlimited in number. Rāsa-dhyānaṁ pramadā-śata-koṭibhir ākulitaḥ: a billion gopīs gathered at the place of the rāsa dance. Such places exist by the inconceivable power of the Lord. The boys were joyful (mudā) because Kṛṣṇa had personally awakened them. They departed in a special manner (vi—niryayuḥ).
- Am I trying to walk with Kṛṣṇa alone, or am I in the company of devotees actually moving in the same direction?
- What 'equipment' (japa beads, books, basic discipline) am I leaving at home that I am meant to bring along?
Imagine a village festival where every family sends out its children at the same hour, each with a satchel of lunch and a flute — and at the center of the procession, the village's beloved boy whose laugh decides the mood. Vrajabhūmi empties into the forest each morning because Kṛṣṇa is going, and no one wants to be left behind.
My note
Source: vedabase.io