Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.30.13
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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latāḥ
—
creepers
The female-coded plant — the vine that clings to the tree. Rūpa Gosvāmī's Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu uses latā as the canonical image for the bhakta clinging to Bhagavān's body: bhakti-latā-bīja, the seed of the creeper of devotion (CC Madhya 19).
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kara-ja-spṛṣṭāḥ
—
touched by His fingernails
Compound: kara (hand) + ja (born of, i.e. fingernails) + spṛṣṭāḥ (touched). Kara-ja-kṣata — nail-marks — is a stock erotic-rasa motif in Sanskrit kāvya. The gopīs find this evidence on the creepers and know with what relish He passed.
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utpulakāni
—
joyful eruptions on the skin
From ud- + pulaka (hair-bristling, here transferred to the creeper's bark eruptions). Same sāttvika-bhāva noun as verse 10 — the creepers, like Earth, exhibit a rapture-symptom. Vraja itself is in bhāva; only the gopīs are denied.
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vanaspateḥ
—
of the tree
Genitive of vanaspati — the 'lord of the forest' (the trunk-tree). The vine embraces the trunk as wife embraces husband; the gopīs see the marriage-image and ask the wife (vine) about Her visitor.
The gopīs reasoned that the creepers would not show signs of rapture merely by physical contact with their husband, a tree. Thus the gopīs concluded that although the creepers were embracing the strong limbs of their husband, they must have been touched by Lord Kṛṣṇa as He moved through the forest.
Showing the other gopis signs that Krnsa was there, some gopi said, "O friends, ask these creepers who have signs of having the association of Krsna. You should not say that, because they are still embracing the trees, these creepers did not meet Krsna, because even while they are tightly embracing the branches of their husbands the trees, they exhibited strong desire for Krsna. They must have been touched by the nails of Krsna, for see, their hairs are standing on end. This does not take place in meeting their husbands the trees. Seeing this symptom they cannot tell us a lie, "We did not see Krsna." as the others have one after another."
Another group of gopīs whom later ask, “Whose foot prints are these?” (SB 10.30.30) did not hear the present verses since they do not raise doubts at this time. Though some may have paid attention, they did not really hear since they did not have either attraction or hatred for Rādhā. They simply showed everyone the foot prints of Kṛṣṇa. Śukadeva in this verse shows the gopīs’ indifference to what was just said in order to show gopīs with different desires from those who just spoke. Ask this creeper embraced by the arms of her husband. “If that is so, how can you infer that they creepers associated with Kṛṣṇa?” Nūnam indicates conjecture. They have been touched by Kṛṣṇa’s fingernails. “How do you infer that?” Their hairs in the form of buds are standing on end. This is astonishing (aho). It was not like this before!
The trees are his devotees and follow him. They will not speak. We will ask the creepers, since they are female, like us. They say to each other, “Let us ask the creepers.” They are embracing the arms of their husbands. This is our bhāva also.
- What does the closeness I share with others teach me about my closeness with God?
- Can I let human affection point beyond itself to the divine source it imitates?
When the tide has come and gone in the night, you do not need to have seen the water — the swollen sand and the line of foam-debris suffice. The gopīs see creepers covered in goose-bumps and read the verdict: Kṛṣṇa's fingernails brushed them; the tide passed here.
My note
Source: vedabase.io