Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.30.16
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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daityāyitvā
—
imitating a demon
Denominative absolutive from daitya (demon, son of Diti). Refers specifically to Tṛṇāvarta. That a gopī cheerfully plays a demon in the re-enactment shows the security of Vraja: even the asuras of Kṛṣṇa's līlā are absorbed into the play.
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kṛṣṇa-arbha
—
of the infant Kṛṣṇa
Compound: kṛṣṇa + arbha (child, infant). Arbha is a rare poetic word for a very young child — emphasizing the smallness, the vulnerability that makes the demon-slaying so astonishing.
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bhāvanām
—
who was assuming the mood
Accusative of bhāvanā — mental cultivation, mood-formation. A Gauḍīya term of art: bhāvanā is the deliberate cultivation of a particular relational mood with Kṛṣṇa. The gopī playing infant Kṛṣṇa is doing bhāvanā, not pretense.
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riṅgayām āsa
—
crawled about
Periphrastic perfect of √riṅg (to crawl, of an infant). The same verb used in SB 10.8 for baby Kṛṣṇa's crawling. The gopīs' bodies are speaking scriptural Sanskrit through movement.
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ghoṣa-niḥsvanaiḥ
—
with the sounding of tinkling bells
Compound: ghoṣa (tinkling sound) + niḥsvana (sound, jingle). The ankle-bells of infant Kṛṣṇa are the sonic signature of bāla-līlā. The gopī puts them on; the absent infant returns through sound.
The gopīs started imitating all of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, beginning from His earliest activities as a baby.
One gopi imitated Trnavarta (daityayitva eka) who stole another gopi acting like the small child Krsna (krsnarbha bhavanam)
One gopī imitated the mood of Kṛṣṇa as a baby, and became absorbed in fear. One gopī crawled, making sounds with ankle bells, or employing ankle bells since she already had ankle bells on her feet. In this way she imitated Kṛṣṇa crawling about.
- What past terror in my life could I now look back on as God's protection?
- How does my fear shrink when I remember Kṛṣṇa's track record of rescue?
Children who have grown up on a single epic can re-enact any scene from memory — Tṛṇāvarta whirling, the toddler crawling with bells. The gopīs are this kind of audience: they have memorized every chapter of His bāla-līlā, and now, in His absence, they play it back through their own bodies as worship.
Sent by Kaṁsa, the whirlwind-demon Tṛṇāvarta lifted infant Kṛṣṇa into the sky — and was crushed by the same baby (SB 10.7). The gopīs of Vraja never tired of telling this story.
Gauḍīya commentators note that Kṛṣṇa permits the demon to lift Him because He thereby gives even an asura the privilege of carrying His body. In the gopīs' enactment here, a gopī plays Tṛṇāvarta — Vraja loves even its enemies through re-play.
My note
Source: vedabase.io