Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.20
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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sarva-ātmā
—
the Soul of all
Compound: sarva (all) + ātmā (self). Kṛṣṇa as Paramātmā in His Vraja form. Gauḍīyas insist that sarva-ātmā does not erase the personal Kṛṣṇa — He is the Self of all while remaining Himself the cowherd boy walking back into town.
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ātma-go-vatsān
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calves who are Himself
Compound: ātma (self) + go (cow) + vatsa (calf). 'His own calves' — both because they are in His care and because they are extensions of Him. The double genitive is the Bhāgavata's signature.
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krīḍan
—
playing
Present participle of √krīḍ. The chapter's atmospheric verb — even this cosmic substitution is krīḍā, play. Gauḍīyas read krīḍā as the highest category of līlā: action without need, performed for the joy of the doing.
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ātma-vihāraiḥ
—
by His own pastimes
Compound: ātma (own) + vihāra (pastime, from vi-√hṛ — to wander, sport). Vihāra is a Gauḍīya term of art for Kṛṣṇa's deliberate līlā-movements. Here His vihāra includes a year-long undercover operation.
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vrajam
—
Vraja
Accusative of Vraja — the cowherd settlement, eternal dhāma. Gauḍīyas read this entry-into-Vraja with full devotional weight: not a return to a town, but Bhagavān's reentry into His own eternal abode by way of a līlā-detour.
Kṛṣṇa usually stayed in the forest and pasturing ground, taking care of the calves and cows with His associates the cowherd boys. Now that the original group had been taken away by Brahmā, Kṛṣṇa Himself assumed the forms of every member of the group, without anyone’s knowledge, even the knowledge of Baladeva, and continued the usual program. He was ordering His friends to do this and that, and He was controlling the calves and going into the forest to search for them when they went astray, allured by new grass, but these calves and boys were He Himself. This was Kṛṣṇa’s inconceivable potency. As explained by Śrīla Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, rādhā kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmāt. Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are the same. Kṛṣṇa, by expanding His pleasure potency, becomes Rādhārāṇī. The same pleasure potency ( ānanda-cinmaya-rasa ) was expanded by Kṛṣṇa when He Himself became all the calves and boys and enjoyed transcendental bliss in Vrajabhūmi. This was done by the Yoga-māyā potency and was inconceivable to persons under the potency of Mahā-māyā.
Five verses describe how Krsna would daily perform pastimes in the day and afternoon, and return to the village in the evening just as before. Krsna, the soul of all (sarvatma), entered Vraja. How? As svayam atma, as himself the subject, he brought back the calves (object) who were himself (atma govatsan), by means of the cowherd boys (means ) who were himself (atma vatsapah) and played with other boys who were himself. The boys would sit on the same bank of the river and eat, herd the calves to green meadows, and Krsna, to search for the calves, would wander from forest to forest. In this way one moment spread for a whole year with Krsna acting as everyone. This was unnoticed by all. This went on every day, in all those places, with different pastimes, with Krsna and the calves and cowherd boys, untouched by rain, wind, sun, so even Baladeva could not detect the difference, by the power of the acintya sakti. After his illusion was ended, Brahma saw and praised that same Krsna-- with stick and lump of curd rice.
The cows were expecting their calves because of intense affection by their nature. Thus the calves are called govatsān in the verse. Because of the cows’ affection, he forcibly brought the calves back to their mothers. Since Kṛṣṇa was all the calves, they are called ātmā-govatsān to distinguish those calves from previous calves. These calves were naturally inferior to the previous calves since the previous calves were recipients of the affection of Kṛṣṇa. nāham ātmānam āśāse mad-bhaktaiḥ sādhubhir vinā śriyaṁ cātyantikīṁ brahman yeṣāṁ gatir ahaṁ parā O brāhmaṇa! Without the devotees, who take shelter of only me, I do not desire to enjoy my own bliss by my six great qualities. SB 9.4.64
The cows were expecting their calves because of intense affection by their nature. Thus the calves are called govatsān in the verse. Because of the cows’ affection, he brought the calves back to their mothers. Since Kṛṣṇa was all the calves, he is called sarvātmā to distinguish those calves from previous calves. These calves were naturally inferior to the previous calves since the previous calves were recipients of the affection of Kṛṣṇa. nāham ātmānam āśāse mad-bhaktaiḥ sādhubhir vinā śriyaṁ cātyantikīṁ brahman yeṣāṁ gatir ahaṁ parā O brāhmaṇa! Without the devotees, who take shelter of only me, I do not desire to enjoy my own bliss by my six great qualities. SB 9.4.64 Also they did not suffer at all when he left the original forms in the forst, since they were bewildered by māyā. That will be clear later. “What to speak of their suffering, would not Kṛṣṇa suffer from separation from his dear ones?” He was all of them (sarvātmā). He spread to all of them by his special powers. He saw them by his nature all day and even at other times there was no separation. Or he was conscious as being all the friends, not as himself.
A king who has secretly become every guard in his palace and every servant in his kitchen, while still riding through the gate as himself — Kṛṣṇa enters Vraja as the leader of a procession that is, top to bottom, also Him. The town that receives the herd does not know it has received its Lord in every direction at once.
My note
Source: vedabase.io