Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.22
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
veṇu-rava
—
the sound of (their) flutes
Compound: veṇu (flute) + rava (sound). Each 'boy' brings his flute home — but every flute is now Kṛṣṇa's own. Gauḍīyas hear the resonance: every flute-note in Vraja, for a year, was Kṛṣṇa's, and yet the mothers heard their own sons.
-
sneha-snuta
—
flowing from love
Compound: sneha (affection) + snuta (flowing). The same phrase used of Yaśodā at 10.9.5. Gauḍīyas treasure such repetitions — vātsalya is recognizable by its bodily signature, and the Bhāgavata reuses the words to make the signature unmistakable.
-
stanya-payaḥ
—
breast milk
Compound: stanya (from stana, breast) + payas (milk, drink). The specific milk of the nursing mother. Gauḍīyas read its mention as the Bhāgavata's refusal of the abstract: Vraja-vātsalya is fed from the mother's body.
-
brahma
—
the Supreme (Kṛṣṇa)
Paired in the verse with param (supreme): param-brahma — the very Parabrahman the Upaniṣads reach by negation is here being fed milk by an unsuspecting cowherd mother. Gauḍīyas cite this verse against impersonalists: Parabrahman has a mouth, drinks milk, has a mother.
-
sudhā-āsavam
—
tasting like nectar
Compound: sudhā (nectar of the gods) + āsava (intoxicating drink). The mother's milk is, to Him, sudhāsava. Gauḍīyas read this as the doctrine that the Lord receives every offering of love as superior to amṛta — vātsalya's milk outranks the demigods' nectar.
Although all the elderly gopīs knew that Kṛṣṇa was the son of mother Yaśodā, they still desired, “If Kṛṣṇa had become my son, I would also have taken care of Him like mother Yaśodā.” This was their inner ambition. Now, in order to please them, Kṛṣṇa personally took the role of their sons and fulfilled their desire. They enhanced their special love for Kṛṣṇa by embracing Him and feeding Him, and Kṛṣṇa tasted their breast milk to be just like a nectarean beverage. While thus bewildering Brahmā, He enjoyed the special transcendental pleasure created by yoga-māyā between all the other mothers and Himself.
"O can we ever be like Yasoda and have Krsna as our child?" This verse describes how Krsna fulfilled this desire of the gopis without their knowing it. The mothers , treating their sons like God, put them on their laps and fed them breast milk. The reading "uduhya" is also sometimes found in stead of utthapya. They held their children more affectionately than before and the milk flowed from their breasts in affection more than before (nirbharam—excessively). And param brahma Krsna drank that milk thinking it the sweetest nectar. That is the indication from the word sudhasavam. That milk was filled with their intense affection. Krsna relished that milk as tasty as nectar (sudha), as intoxicating as wine (asavam) by tasting their prema, and was absorbed in joy. From before, Krsna had a desire to become the sons of these mothers. It was finally achieved in the Brahma mohana pastimes. For this reason Krsna kept their sons under the influence of his yoga maya for one year. That is why Brahma said, "In great pleasure they drank the nectar from their mothers’ breasts."
The astonishment of the mothers is described. Their characteristics are described to show how they had more affection than previously. Taking them on their laps (utthāpya) they embraced them. Or they raised the children (utthāpya) when the children bowed before them. Another version has udūhya (pressing). Śukadeva praises their good fortune with a show of awareness of Kṛṣṇa’s greatness by calling him param brahma. This happens later as well: 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 Vrajabhūmi! 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 In order to indicate that the mothers’ affection was greater than previous the words tvarā (as soon as), nirbharam (intensely) and sudhāsavam (sweet nectar) are used.
- Where is the love I think I am directing at family members actually love for Kṛṣṇa, looking for its source?
- How would I parent or partner differently if I knew the love flowing through me had Him as its real object?
A mother whose milk begins to flow the moment she hears her child's flute — the body's response runs ahead of recognition. The gopīs feed 'their' sons; the milk knows it is feeding Parabrahman; only the mothers' minds remain undisturbed by the secret. Vātsalya's reflex is wiser than vātsalya's awareness.
Just four chapters earlier (SB 10.9.5), the Bhāgavatam described Yaśodā's breast milk flowing from intense love for Kṛṣṇa as she churned. The same phenomenon — sneha-snuta-stanya-payaḥ — returns here, now multiplied across every Vraja-mother whose 'son' is in fact Kṛṣṇa Himself in disguise.
Gauḍīyas read this echo as deliberate: the body's involuntary response to Kṛṣṇa's presence is the vātsalya-marker, and that marker fires across all the mothers at once for a year. The līlā is the Bhāgavata's empirical demonstration that vātsalya is somatic, not theological.
My note
Source: vedabase.io