Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.65.14
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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tat
—
about Him
Pronoun — 'that one.' The gopīs cannot bring themselves to say His name; the demonstrative does the work. Gauḍīya commentators note this as a classic mark of intense vipralambha — the name becomes too sharp to handle.
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kathayā
—
with discussion
Instrumental of kathā (story, talk). Kṛṣṇa-kathā is the Gauḍīya's daily food — and the gopīs here, paradoxically, propose to stop. The refusal is itself a higher form of the same hunger.
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kālaḥ
—
time
Time. The gopīs frame the issue temporally: time is passing for Him without us. Vraja-vipralambha is acutely time-conscious; every minute is counted.
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tasya
—
His
Genitive — again, only a pronoun. The whole verse keeps Him in pronouns. The grammar enacts the gopīs' inability to fix Him with a noun.
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tathā eva
—
in the very same way
Sandhi: tathā (thus) + eva (only). The mirroring claim — we will live as He lives. Gauḍīyas read this as a wounded mirroring; the gopīs are not actually capable of indifference, and the verse will be falsified by their tears in v. 15.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī points out that the gopīs here subtly indicate that Lord Kṛṣṇa spends His time happily without them whereas they are most unhappy without their Lord. This is the difference between Him and them. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī adds the following commentary: “Considering themselves different from other women, the gopīs thought as follows: ‘If other women are together with their lovers, they live, and if they are separated, they die. But we neither live nor die. This is the fate Providence has written on our foreheads. What remedy can we find?’”
Other gopis, agitated by love in the mood of jealousy, spoke to the gopis who had just spoken. "Time passes for both him and us, but the difference is that he passes time happily and we pass our time suffering. We are also different from other women because whereas they live in his presence and die in his absence, we neither live nor die. This must be our fate. What can be done about it?"
Afflicted by intense grief, they speak to each other. There is no use in speaking about him. We will just suffer by doing so. O gopīs, with soft, innocent natures! “But it is a fact that we cannot give him up. Ah! We are afflicted with grief. What should we do?” Speak about something else. According to the principle of “the best medicine for relieving great lamentation is not thinking of it” it is possible to overcome grief by covering that subject with a different topic. We should not think that without him we cannot pass our time. Just as he can pass his time without us, we can pass time without him (tathaiva). From the time of separation till now, not one of us has died. Or, just he is happily passing his time we can also pass our time happily. Showing lack of grief in spite of great grief indicates even greater inner grief because of tolerating it.
- What do I say I am 'over' that I actually still think about constantly?
- What in my pretended distance from God reveals my closeness?
The lover who has talked too long about the absent one finally says: 'let's change the subject.' Everyone present knows that the subject has not been changed; it has only gone underground. Vraja's silence about Kṛṣṇa is always the loudest mode of speaking about Him.
My note
Source: vedabase.io