FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.31.15

अटति यद् भवानह्नि काननं त्रुटि युगायते त्वामपश्यताम् । कुटिलकुन्तलं श्रीमुखं च ते जड उदीक्षतां पक्ष्मकृद् दृशाम् ॥ १५ ॥
aṭati yad bhavān ahni kānanaṁ
[atati yad bhavaan ahni kaananam]
truṭi yugāyate tvām apaśyatām
[truti yugaayate tvaam apashyataam]
kuṭila-kuntalaṁ śrī-mukhaṁ ca te
[kutila-kuntalam shree-mukham cha te]
jaḍa udīkṣatāṁ pakṣma-kṛd dṛśām
[jada udeekshataam pakshma-krid drishaam]
aṭati — travel yat — when bhavān — You ahni — during the daytime kānanam — to the forest truṭi — about 1/1700 of a second yugāyate — becomes like an entire millennium tvām — You apaśyatām — for those who do not see kuṭila — curling kuntalam — with locks of hair śrī — beautiful mukham — face ca — and te — Your jaḍaḥ — foolish udīkṣatām — for those who are eagerly looking pakṣma — of lids kṛt — the creator dṛśām — of the eyes .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
aṭati yad bhavān ahni kānanaṁ
aṭati
travel
yat
when
bhavān
You
ahni
during the daytime
kānanam
to the forest
truṭi yugāyate tvām apaśyatām
truṭi
about 1/1700 of a second
yugāyate
becomes like an entire millennium
tvām
You
apaśyatām
for those who do not see
kuṭila-kuntalaṁ śrī-mukhaṁ ca te
kuṭila
curling
kuntalam
with locks of hair
śrī
beautiful
mukham
face
ca
and
te
Your
jaḍa udīkṣatāṁ pakṣma-kṛd dṛśām
jaḍaḥ
foolish
udīkṣatām
for those who are eagerly looking
pakṣma
of lids
kṛt
the creator
dṛśām
of the eyes .
  • truṭi — about 1/1700 of a second
    Sanskrit's smallest standard time-unit. Pairing truṭi with yuga in one breath compresses cosmic time-scales into the felt fabric of viraha. Gauḍīya commentary reads this couplet as the technical definition of mahā-bhāva — when time itself loses its normal proportions inside love.
  • yugāyate — becomes like a millennium
    Denominative verb from yuga — 'acts like a yuga'. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's Śikṣāṣṭaka quotes precisely this construction: 'yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa' — a moment of separation becomes a yuga. This Gopī-gīta verse is the source-text Mahāprabhu Himself sang in His own viraha.
  • kuṭila-kuntalam — with curling locks of hair
    Compound: kuṭila (curling, curving) + kuntalam (locks). Specifically the dancing curls that fall around Kṛṣṇa's lotus face. Standard mādhurya-iconography — the curls are part of the assembly of features the gopīs catalog because they cannot stop looking.
  • pakṣma-kṛt — the maker of eyelids
    Compound: pakṣma (eyelash, eyelid) + kṛt (maker). Brahmā the engineer of the body — and the verse calls him jaḍaḥ, dull-witted, for installing eyelids whose blink interrupts darśana. Vraja's love overrules the cosmic blueprint; only here would the creator be insulted on aesthetic grounds.
  • udīkṣatām — for those who are eagerly looking
    Genitive plural participle of ud-√īkṣ, 'to look up at intently'. The verb adds 'up at' to looking — they are not merely seeing; they are looking up, like devotees at a darśana-door. Even at the height of mādhurya, the upward gaze of bhakti remains.
When You go off to the forest during the day, a tiny fraction of a second becomes like a millennium for us because we cannot see You. And even when we can eagerly look upon Your beautiful face, so lovely with its adornment of curly locks, our pleasure is hindered by our eyelids, which were fashioned by the foolish creator.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
When You go off to the forest during the day, a tiny fraction of a second becomes like a millennium for us because we cannot see You. And even when we can eagerly look upon Your beautiful face, so lovely with its adornment of curly locks, our pleasure is hindered by our eyelids, which were fashioned by the foolish creator.
Commentary

"Our bad destiny alone is the cause of our grief. So what can you do about it?" "When you go to Vrndavana, not seeing your, a truti (1/2700 of a ksana) seems like a yuga for us. The pain of separation from you makes three praharas seem like three months for the other inhabitants of Vraja, but those three praharas become like millions of yugas for us gopis. There is no cause for this except our bad fortune. And even when we get the opportunity to see your face, the creator makes us suffer by giving us eye lids to interrupt our vision of you. Thus even in seeing you we are thrown into an insurmountable ocean of suffering. The fraction of a second that an eyelid blinks is an interruption to our sight of you. Nine hundred trutis, the time it takes to blink the eye (nimesa), becomes nine hundred yugas to us. We are so unfortunate that whether seeing you nor not seeing you, we suffer. According to Maitreya, The time duration needed for the integration of three trasarenus is called a truti, and one hundred trutis makeone vedha. Three vedhas make one lava. The duration of three lavas is equal to one nimesa, and the combination of three nimesas makes one ksana. There is another meaning of the phrase plaksma krt. The first meaning refers to brahma as the maker (krt) of the eyelid (plaksma). Another meaning of plasma krt is "cutting off the eyelid." "Those who are intelligent (ajada) would cut off their eyelids so they could see Krsna continuously. Being unintelligent, we gopis cannot do that."

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Since it is impossible to tolerate the time of suffering, a moment feels like a yuga. Not seeing you for a long time is intolerable. Therefore quickly reveal yourself. All the people of Vraja cannot see you when you go to the forest, what to speak of us. And when we do see your beautiful face, with curling locks of hair, we, what to speak of others, do so with eyes having eyelids. Thus even seeing you is faulty. Or, O Kṛṣṇa with inscrutable nature! We derive no pleasure from you at all. Seeing or not seeing you we suffer. Then they speak this verse. First they show that not seeing him produces suffering and then they show that seeing him produces suffering. Brahmā is ignorant since he did not make eyes that do not blink. He should be cursed. Or, he who can cut off (kṛt) eyelashes of people who see is very learned (ajaḍa). Or, he who cuts eyelids off his eyes (sudṛśām) is wise and can see nicely (udīkṣatām). We however, with eyelids covering our eyes, are foolish. What can we see directly?

Related values
Anahankarah (Freedom from False Ego)Kshama (Forgiveness / Patience)Asteya (Non-stealing / Honesty)Aparigraha (Non-possessiveness)
Related verses
When Kṛṣṇa goes to the forest, a fraction of a second feels like a millennium to the gopīs, and even seeing Him is hindered by the eyelids' blink. Pure love makes ordinary time strange — every separation feels endless.
Reflection Questions
  • Where in your life does even brief separation from Kṛṣṇa feel intolerable rather than fine?
  • What 'eyelids' — habits or distractions — interrupt your gaze on Him?

A truṭi — one seventeen-hundredth of a second — stretches into a yuga when the eyes that measure time have nothing to look at. And when at last the looked-for face is there, the very eyelids the Creator built — meant to protect the eye — become the saboteurs of love. The gopīs say: even the body's reflexes have become collaborators in our distance from You.

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