Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.22.13
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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govinde
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Lord Govinda
Locative of Govinda — go (cow / sense / earth) + vinda (one who gives pleasure). The name the gopīs use of Him. Brahmā in chapter 14 will sing the Govinda-stuti; here, before any stuti, the Govinda is teasing the cowherd girls.
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narmaṇā
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by His joking words
Instrumental of narma. Narma is the term of art in Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra for playful, intimate, teasing speech between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. The verb of mādhurya.
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ākṣipta
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agitated
Past participle of ā-√kṣip (to throw, fling). Their cetas is thrown — caught off-balance by His narma. Bhakti destabilizes; that is its action on the heart.
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ā-kaṇṭha
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up to their necks
Compound: ā (up to) + kaṇṭha (throat). The body's last visible portion above the cold water is the throat — the seat of the voice. They are submerged, and yet through the throat they will now speak prayer to Him.
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vepamānāḥ
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shivering
Present participle of √vep (to tremble). Kampa — trembling — is one of the eight aṣṭa-sāttvika-bhāvas (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 2.3.16) that arise from prema. The cold water reveals what the heart was already doing.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives the following example of joking between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa: O birdlike girls, if you do not come here, then with these garments caught in the branches I will make a swing and a hammock. I need to lie down, since I have spent the entire night awake and am now becoming sleepy. Gopīs: Our dear cowherd boy, Your cows, greedy for grass, have gone into a cave. So You must quickly go there to herd them back on the proper path. Kṛṣṇa: Come now, My dear cowherd girls, you must quickly go from here to Vraja and perform your household duties. Don’t become a disturbance to your parents and other elders. Gopīs: Our dear Kṛṣṇa, we will not go home for an entire month, for it is by the order of our parents and other elders that we are executing this vow of fasting, the Kātyāyanī-vrata. Kṛṣṇa: My dear austere ladies, I too, by the strength of seeing you, have now developed a surprising mood of detachment from family life. I wish to stay here for a month and execute the vow of dwelling in the clouds. And if you show mercy to Me, I can come down from here and observe the vow of fasting in your company. The gopīs were completely captivated by Kṛṣṇa’s joking words, but out of shyness they submerged themselves in the water up to their necks. Shaking from the cold, they addressed Kṛṣṇa as follows.
In this way Govinda continued to joke. Govinda here means one who uses sweet words (ga). His words were as follows. "O dark eyed girls, if you don’t come here, I will tie all these clothes to a branch of the tree and make a hammock and pillow, and I will lie down in it and go to sleep at night." Hearing this the gopis said, "O gopala! Your cows, greedy for grass, have gone into a mountain cave. You must go quickly to bring them back." Krsna said, "O gopabala! Cowherd girls! You should quickly leave here and go to Vraja to do your household duties. You should not make your parents and elders suffer." The gopis said, "For one month we will not go to our houses. At the order of our elders, after completing the Katyayani vrata, we will fast for one month (upavasa)." Krsna said, "O austere girls! Seeing your austerity, I have become detached from the house also. For one month I will make a vow to live here in the air (nabho vasa). And if you are merciful to me, I will come down from the tree and do a vrata in the water with you (jala vasa vrata)." Hearing these joking words, the gopis, becoming fearful, with water up to their necks, began trembling from the cold, and also from anxiety, joy, and eagerness.
He spoke to them again and again in various ways. Govinda means “he who has words (go) under his control.” He was skilful in using words. Attracted by his joking words they spoke. Otherwise they would not have spoken. But they were shivering, for they were up to their necks in the cold water out of embarrassment.
- Where in my life is the body shivering in resistance while the soul is already captivated?
- Am I willing to feel both at the same time without forcing a resolution?
A long playful exchange between a teasing boy in a tree and shivering girls in a river — the cold water tightening around the body even as the warm words tighten around the heart. Their captured mind is more cold than the water; the body's shivering is only a copy of the heart's trembling under prema.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura supplies the missing dialogue. Kṛṣṇa: 'I'll hang your clothes in the branches and make a hammock — I've been awake all night and need sleep.' Gopīs: 'Your cows have gone into a cave — go round them up.' Kṛṣṇa: 'Go home to your parents.' Gopīs: 'Our parents themselves ordered this month-long vow; we can't go home.' Kṛṣṇa: 'Then I too shall observe a vow — the vow of living in this tree for a month. And if you have mercy, I'll come down and observe fasting with you.'
This narma — the loving banter — is the heart of mādhurya. Rūpa Gosvāmī treats it as a constituent rasa in its own right.
My note
Source: vedabase.io