Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.16.20
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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gopyaḥ
—
the cowherd girls
The supreme exemplars of mādhurya-rasa in Gauḍīya theology. Their love is the topmost limb of bhakti, the rasa Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to relish.
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anurakta - manasaḥ
—
whose minds are deeply attached
Compound: anurakta (attached, coloured) + manasaḥ (minds). Anurāga — the technical term for the mature stage of prema in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. The gopīs already stand at this height.
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sauhṛda
—
friendship, affection
From su + hṛd (good heart). The gopīs remember not romance abstractly but the specific warmth of His friendship — His glance, His words. Gauḍīya prema is always concrete.
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śūnyam
—
empty
Loaded word. Gauḍīyas distinguish their śūnya from Buddhist śūnyatā: the gopīs' world is empty BECAUSE Kṛṣṇa is absent, not because all is empty in principle. Their śūnya is the negative space cut out by His shape.
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tri - lokam
—
the three worlds
Compound: tri + loka. The entirety of cosmic geography. Vraja-prema's measure: nothing less than the whole universe goes empty without Kṛṣṇa.
This verse describes the distress of the young women attracted to Krsna. Bhagavati here means most beautiful. Ananta means filled with unlimited qualities. Seeing the most beautiful Krsna endowed with infinite attractive qualities bound in the coils of the serpent, remembering the prema that Krsna had for them (tat sauhrda), his soft smiles , his secret glances, his conversations during love making, they viewed the three worlds as empty without their beloved, for due to the fire of separation, the three worlds became consumed into ashes. If the phrase vyati krtam is alternativly read vyati hrtam then the sentence means they felt the worlds vacant having become completely (visesena atisayena vyati) unconscious through loss of their beloved.
The general description of everyone’s condition has been described. Now the gopīs’ condition is specifically is described. Kṛṣṇa was full of all powers (bhagavate), and without destruction (anante), or was inseparable from devotees. Thus it was impossible that he could be held by the snake. But by his will he was trapped in the snake’s coils. The gopīs were extremely afflicted with grief at this because by their nature they were constantly filled with prema for him. He alone was most dear by his nature. Ātma is dear, Paramātmā is dearer, and Kṛṣṇa is dearest because of his particular qualities. Thus, because of their great prema for him, they did not recognize his great powers. That is the significance of using the word priyatama. Or Kṛṣṇa was most beautiful (bhagavān) with unlimited qualities. He was very dear to some, but most dear to the gopīs, because their minds were constantly attracted to him (anurakta-manasaḥ). Now, when he appeared to be caught, completely surrounded by the snake’s coils, they remembered his words, glances and smiles arising from his prema (sauhrḍa) and became overcome with intense grief. They saw that the universe completely taken away by him (priyavyati-hrṭam). That means the universe lost its memory, becoming deaf and blind. Another version has priya-vyatikrṭam: the universe was devastated because of the condition of their dear one. Śrīdhara Svāmī says the meaning is “the universe was separated from their dear one.” Thus the gopīs saw the world to be vacant. Because of the intensity of grief, they considered the world to be like themselves. Thus everything took on the form of grief for their beloved.
- What in my life would go void if Kṛṣṇa appeared in trouble — and is that the measure of where my love really lives?
- Which of His past kindnesses do I revisit most when fear surfaces?
The young gopīs remember His smile, His glance, His teasing speech — and the entire universe appears to them as empty space. This is the Gauḍīya śūnyatā: not the Buddhist void of no-self, but the void of a world that no longer contains the beloved. Without Him, the three worlds are zero.
In His later Purī years, Caitanya Mahāprabhu would lie in the small Gambhīrā room and feel the entire universe as empty — śūnyāyate jagat sarvam, govinda-viraheṇa me. Without Govinda, everything was zero.
Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes this mood as drawn directly from the gopīs' bhāva at moments like this one. The Vraja-prema captured in this verse is the same prema Caitanya came to taste and distribute.
My note
Source: vedabase.io