They blew their horns (dhmantah), they chased the shadows of the birds (vichayabhih vi = vina without the birds), they pulled the tails of baby monkeys (kisa balan kisa=kidrsa what kind of) hanging from the branches, and by that climbed up into the trees. They made funny faces (vikurvantah), and with baby monkeys jumped from branch to branch. They jumped into pools of water filled up from flowing rivers with the frogs. They laughed at their own shadows, raising their arms in the air (vihasantah), and cursed their echoes. "Are (ahah), who are you speaking?" Hearing a single syllable echo back, they became angry. "What is this? Answering back to me with "re- re -re". Today you will die!" In this way they would curse again and again with no final solution. Having previously described the playing of the cowherd boys, this verse praises the good fortune of all Vrajavasis’ above everyone elses fortune. In this world there are three types of people: jnanis, bhaktas and karmis. The word satam indicates the jnanis with some trace of devotion. The inhabitants of Vraja played with Krsna who is the knowledge and happiness of Brahman for the jnanis. By this it should be understood that Krsna’s body, with which the Vrajavasis played, contains the Brahman. The word sat cannot not apply to those jnanis who think of the body and form of Krsna as material. Dasya ganana refers to all the genuine devotees other than the inhabitants of Vraja, who see Krsna as their worshipable Lord. The Vrajavasis played with Krsna who is seen by these other devotees as their reverent Lord. The Vrajavasis played with Krsna, who is perceived by those involved in material happiness (mayasritanam) as an ordinary human (naradarakena). The jnanis have realization of Krsna , but they cannot play with him. The dasya bhaktas worship Krsna in reverence, but they are not qualified to play with Krsna. The karmis have no realization of Krsna, nor worship, since they have no respect for him, so what to speak of playing with him. And the Vrajavasis played with him. Though he is complete in bliss, they gave him more intense bliss in the pastimes of prema. And they also attained remarkable bliss in all ways. Therefore, more than all others, they were fortunate ( krta punya). This is of course a material viewpoint. For the nitya siddha inhabitants of Vraja, who surpass the jnanis and dasya bhaktas by far, the cause of the playing with Krsna cannot be material piety. Here punya can only mean activities pleasing to the Lord, by which the Lord comes under the devotee’s control.

Four verses describe what they did when he went off in the distance. Some played flutes. While they played, others blew horns in order to perfect their association with him and in order to find him quickly. Or, after touching him, they performed these individual activities in bliss to give him happiness. The word sādhu (expertly) is an adverb modifying all the verbs. They made faces like the monkeys or caught the tails of the baby monkeys on the branches and pull their tails. The creeks were filled with water from waterfalls. The creeks were narrow. They laugh on seeing their shadows since the shadows were very long. They laughed in special ways (vi), such as throwing their arms in the air. Or they imitated their reflections by making faces. Satām refers to those who have manifested the state (sat) of their highest svarūpa or those who have the quality of sat because of closeness to Brahman. In either case it refers to jñānīs. Anubhūti means the self-manifesting substance whose correlative is dull matter. This conscious entity is happiness. It gives happiness since, in its highest form of ātmā (Kṛṣṇa), it is the basis of the highest unconditional prema. It is called Brahman, the greatest, since is the highest svarūpa for all the jñānīs by appearing only in that form for them. For devotees with dāsya-bhakti, he appears the most worshipable deity, full of all powers. In order to show the greatness of Kṛṣṇa, these two realizations are shown to be very rare by showing the opposite. Those who are covered by māyā think of Kṛṣṇa as a human child since they have no jñāna or bhakti. The boys did not play with Kṛṣṇa in that form. The boys played with Kṛṣṇa who gave them his association because he was controlled by their prema. “They had accrued heaps of piety.” This is a mundane statement. Actually they had piles of pure splendor (puṇya) caused by the highest mercy of the Lord who performs pastimes (kṛta). Amara-koṣa says puṇya means splendor (cāru). Śukadeva’s intention is to show that Kṛṣṇa is an extraordinary form of aiśvarya and madhurya: he is the form of the highest bliss; he has unlimited natural control with unequalled powers; he is attractive to all by his unequalled sweetness; he has natural excellence in his form, qualities and pastimes. The means of the different realizations are jñāna, bhakti mixed with reverence and pure bhakti without reverence. Without these three methods, people of the material world will only a shadow realization of the Lord since they cannot contact him at all. Gītā says nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasysa yogamāyāsamāvṛtaḥ: I am not revealed to everyone, since I am covered by my yoga-māyā. (BG 9.25) taṁ brahma paramaṁ sākṣād bhagavantam adhokṣajam manuṣya-dṛṣṭyā duṣprajñā martyātmāno na menire They failed to recognize that he is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the directly manifest lord, whom the material senses cannot ordinarily perceive. Thus bewildered by their false identification with the mortal body, they did not show him proper respect. SB 10.23.11 The status of realization is as stated in the verse. The realization of the Lord with power is more complete than realization of Brahman. yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ The devatās constantly dwell with all good qualities in that person who has pure bhakti for the Lord. SB 15.18.12 It is complete because it contains within it all aspects of knowledge of the Lord. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ: only by devotion does a person know me as I am. (BG 18.55) However pure bhakti without reverence is more praiseworthy than bhakti with reverence: aho bhāgyam aho bhāgyaṁ nanda-gopa-vrajaukasām yan-mitraṁ paramānandaṁ pūrṇaṁ brahma sanātanam How greatly fortunate are Nanda Mahārāja, the cowherd men and all the other inhabitants of Vraja! There is no limit to their good fortune, because the Absolute Truth, the source of transcendental bliss, the eternal Supreme Brahman, has become their friend. SB 10.14.32 Thus one realizes one’s svarūpa by impersonal jñāna. One realizes the Lord with power by bhakti mixed with reverence. One realizes the Lord with sweetness by knowledge filled with prīti. The manifestation of the highest sweetness of the Lord cannot be known by the impersonal jñānīs. It is not sufficiently achieved by persons with dāsya-bhāva because the bhakti cannot comprehend the Lord fully with a heart restricted by reverence. But in considering the absolute entity (in all its forms), that intimate realization is most relishable: ātmārāmāś ca munayo nirgranthā apy urukrame | kurvanty ahaitukīṁ bhaktim ittham-bhūta-guṇo hariḥ || Some sages who are ātmārāmas, beyond the scriptures, false ego and rules, also practice unmotivated, pure bhakti to the master of pure bhakti, Kṛṣṇa, since he possesses qualities attractive to even them. SB 1.7.10 pariniṣṭhito ’pi nairguṇya uttama-śloka-līlayā gṛhīta-cetā rājarṣe ākhyānaṁ yad adhītavān Though I was fixed in Brahman and beyond the guṇas, my mind became attracted to the pastimes of the Lord. I thus learned about his pastimes. I will tell them to you. SB 2.1.9 Kṛṣṇa is the ocean of all powers. brahmā bhavo ’ham api yasya kalāḥ kalāyāḥ śrīś codvahema ciram: great demigods like Brahmā and Śiva, and even the goddess of fortune and I, are simply parts of his spiritual identity, and we also carefully carry that dust on our heads (SB 10.68.37) Balarāma took him as a friend: bhrātṛ-sneha-pariplutaḥ. (SB 10.53.20) With his friends in Vraja he acted as follows: vṛṣāyamāṇau nardantau yuyudhāte parasparam anukṛtya rutair jantūṁś ceratuḥ prākṛtau yathā Sometimes like bulls they roared loudly with the other boys disguised as cows and bulls and would fight with one another, roaring loudly, and sometimes they would imitate the voices of the animals. In this way they wandered about, exactly like two ordinary human children. SB 10.11.40 Their prīti as friends, with no restriction of reverence, expands at every moment because of its lack of restriction and its special nature with fullness. Kṛṣṇa’s heart responds to that and, accordingly, his friends realize the exceptional sweetness of his form, qualities and astonishing pastimes. What more can be said? Like churning the ocean to get nectar, such intimate love produces the highest sweetness and control of Kṛṣṇa because of their sweet love. This is not seen in the jñānī or the devotee with reverence but in all the people of Vraja. That he has given such pastimes to all of Vraja (kṛta-puṇya-puṇjāḥ) is most astonishing to us. Or, the first line can be explained as before. Now, in this avatāra, even the materialists realize Kṛṣṇa as a sweet child by his mercy. Or, those who take shelter of his mercy (another meaning of māyā) realize Kṛṣṇa as the highest form of sweetness, a small child. They also played with him.

He was easily realized (sukhānubhūtyā) as ātma-tattvam (brahman) by the liberated, who exist in a state of mere existence (satām). They consider that this is the highest goal. Or for the devotees (satām) he was Bhagavān, the form of happiness or prema-bhakti, most worthy of worship. For the ignorant he was that which destroys the jīva--liberation. Or for the gopīs who served Kātyāyanī with great faith to attain Kṛṣṇa (though this happened in the future, it was discussed by Śukadeva and Parīkṣit at this time), he appeared as a beautiful human child (nāradārakena). He appeared in this way to them because of their great prema. Or he appeared as happiness (kena for ka, happiness) for the groups of women (nāra-dara). This would be suitable for the list which starts with the inferior (liberated souls) and ends with best (the gopīs). Pūnya refers to bhakti as in dharmo madbhakti-kṛt proktaḥ: dharma is performing bhakti to me. (11.19.27) The boys must have performed lots of hearing etc. as sādhana. Or they did piles of meditation on the Lord in Satya-yuga (kṛta). Or they had accomplished (kṛta) piles of anurāga (puṇya). The gopīs’ rati was not fulfilled during the day because of separation and even at night was not fulfilled with comfort (compared to these boys easily associating with Kṛṣna). akṣaṇvatāṁ phalam idaṁ na paraṁ vidāmaḥ sakhyaḥ paśūn anaviveśayator vayasyaiḥ vaktraṁ vrajeśa-sutayor anu veṇu juṣṭaṁ yair vā nipītam anurakta-kaṭākṣa-mokṣam The cowherd girls said: O friends! We do not know any other success for those with eyes than the face of the younger one who plays the flute--the face experienced as he casts a side glance of love, the face tasted by people with eyes-- as the two sons of Nanda take the cows from forest to forest along with their friends. SB 10.21.7 Śukadeva desires that the gopīs could associate in the same way as the boys did. Thus he uses the word ittham (in this way) in the present verse.