Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.30.18
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
veṇum-kvaṇantīm
—
vibrating the flute
Phrase: veṇu (flute) + kvaṇantī (sounding, from √kvaṇ to ring). The veṇu is Kṛṣṇa's defining instrument — Veṇu-Gopāla. The gopī mimics His flute-tone; in Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra the veṇu-nāda itself is a vibhāva (causal stimulus) of mādhurya.
-
āhūya-dūra-gāḥ
—
calling the far-away cows
Phrase: āhūya (calling) + dūra (far) + gāḥ (cows). Kṛṣṇa is Go-pāla — He knows each cow by name and calls them home at dusk. The gopīs envy this naming-knowledge; in re-enactment one of them assumes it.
-
sādhu iti
—
'excellent!'
Sādhu — well done, holy, true. The same cry the demigods raise when an avatāra acts. The gopīs unconsciously perform the role of devas applauding līlā; their re-enactment is liturgically structured.
-
krīḍantīm
—
playing games
Present participle of √krīḍ — the root that gives krīḍā (sport). Krīḍā is the technical Gauḍīya term for Kṛṣṇa's free, purposeless play — never duty, never necessity. The gopī plays a player; rasa is self-referential.
One gopi acted like Krsna, playing the flute to call the cows who had wandered far off, and having them follow after him.
After enacting various pastimes, in the enacted of pastimes of the summer previous to killing Pralamba, the anubhāva called līlā is portrayed, imitating their beloved, in two verses, since this marked the appearance of his kaiśora age favorable for śṛṅgāra-rasa. Dūra-gā means cows which wandered away.
Now vocal imitation is described in five verses. Various pastimes before killing Pralamba are imitated in two verses. Since it was vocal imitation, or because of greater and greater absorption in imitating, there is no mention of imitating Kṛṣṇa. He called the cows situated far off in Vraja, just as he called the gopīs with the sound of his flute. Some praised others who had taken the role of cowherds (anuvartatīm), singing etc.
- Whom is Kṛṣṇa calling through me, and am I lending Him my voice?
- What does it mean to call others home rather than just seek my own homecoming?
A musician's apprentice imitates the master's flute-flourish so exactly that the audience cries out 'sādhu! sādhu!' — and the apprentice, hearing the cry, knows the master is somehow present in her playing. So with the gopī who calls the cows in Kṛṣṇa's voice; the chorus of sādhu from her sisters is the gopīs' affirmation that He has, for an instant, returned through her.
My note
Source: vedabase.io