Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.34
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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toka-āśleṣa-sunirvṛtāḥ
—
fully satisfied by embracing (their) children
Compound: toka (child) + āśleṣa (embrace) + su-nirvṛta (fully-at-peace). Āśleṣa is the technical word for the loving embrace; sunirvṛta is the deepest satiation. Gauḍīyas note these stacked terms as Bhāgavata-style emotional precision.
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kṛcchrāt
—
with great difficulty
Ablative of kṛcchra (hardship, distress). The fathers leave only with difficulty. Gauḍīyas read this as the proof of prema's depth: separating from Kṛṣṇa is structurally painful, even in the gopas' unknowing form of contact.
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śanaiḥ
—
gradually
Adverb. They release the children slowly, not all at once. The body's grammar of love — fingers loosen by degrees.
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tat-anusmṛti-uda-śravaḥ
—
with tears flowing as they remembered them
Compound: tat (them) + anusmṛti (after-remembering, recurring memory) + uda (water) + śravas (flowing). The exact mechanism: memory triggers tears. Gauḍīyas read anusmṛti as the technical Gauḍīya term for the sustained recollection that characterizes high bhakti.
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pravayasaḥ
—
elderly
From pra-√vai (to grow old). These are the older gopas. Vraja-vātsalya is not the privilege of the young; aged fathers weep over their sons exactly as the young ones do.
In the beginning the cowherd men were angry that the cows were being attracted by the calves, but when the men came down from the hill, they themselves were attracted by their sons, and therefore the men embraced them. To embrace one’s son and smell his head are symptoms of affection.
The elders (pravayasah) with great difficulty, (krchracchanaih) freed themselves from the embrace of their children (apagata) to tend the cows. Thinking of separation from them, tears flowed from their eyes (uda srava).
Since the cowherds were elderly, it was not possible for them to become bewildered in intelligence by a short separation from their sons. However it happened at this time. It should be understood that previously the elderly used to herd the cows. Since it was the nature of cowherds to herd, the elders used to herd the cows since there were no substitutes available while Nanda’s son was young. They gave the others company.
Since the cowherds were elderly, it was not possible for them to become bewildered in intelligence by a short separation from their sons. However it happened at this time. It should be understood that previously the elderly used to herd the cows. Since it was the nature of cowherds to herd, the elders used to herd the cows since there were no substitutes available while Nanda’s son was young. They were elder in years but not withered with age (pravayasaḥ). Or they had remarkable age, being ever young. They constantly remembered (anusmṛti) their sons after ceasing the embraces.
- Where am I performing detachment when the truer response would be honest tears and continued service?
- What duty am I walking back to today that deserves to be done with that kind of tender heart?
Like fathers who set down a beloved child after an embrace and find the body keeps reaching back, eyes wet on the walk home — the gopas' returning bodies and turning-back faces are the ordinary face of Vraja-prema. Even routine separation breaks them.
My note
Source: vedabase.io