FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.31

సమేత్య గావోఽధో వత్సాన్ వత్సవత్యోఽప్యపాయయన్ । గిలన్త్య ఇవ చాఙ్గాని లిహన్త్య: స్వౌధసం పయ: ॥ ౩౧ ॥
sametya gāvo ’dho vatsān
[sametya gaavo ’dho vatsaan]
vatsavatyo ’py apāyayan
[vatsavatyo ’py apaayayan]
gilantya iva cāṅgāni
[gilantya iva chaangaani]
lihantyaḥ svaudhasaṁ payaḥ
[lihantyah svaudhasam payah]
sametya — assembling gāvaḥ — all the cows adhaḥ — down at the foot of Govardhana Hill vatsān — all their calves vatsa - vatyaḥ — as if new calves had been born from them api — even though new calves were present apāyayan — fed them gilantyaḥ — swallowing them iva — as if ca — also aṅgāni — their bodies lihantyaḥ — licking as they do when newborn calves are present sva - odhasam payaḥ — their own milk flowing from the milk bags .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
sametya gāvo ’dho vatsān
sametya
assembling
gāvaḥ
all the cows
adhaḥ
down at the foot of Govardhana Hill
vatsān
all their calves
vatsavatyo ’py apāyayan
vatsa - vatyaḥ
as if new calves had been born from them
api
even though new calves were present
apāyayan
fed them
gilantya iva cāṅgāni
gilantyaḥ
swallowing them
iva
as if
ca
also
aṅgāni
their bodies
lihantyaḥ svaudhasaṁ payaḥ
lihantyaḥ
licking as they do when newborn calves are present
sva - odhasam payaḥ
their own milk flowing from the milk bags .
  • vatsa-vatyaḥ — as if new calves had been born to them
    Compound: vatsa + vat (suffix of likeness) + feminine plural. The cows act as if they had just calved, though their calves are a year older. Gauḍīyas read this as Vraja's law: vātsalya does not measure age; it always meets the calf as newborn.
  • gilantyaḥ — as if swallowing
    Present participle of √gṝ (to swallow), paired in the verse with iva (as if). The licking is so intense it looks like swallowing. The Bhāgavata's hyperbolic precision: vātsalya wants to take the child back into the body.
  • apāyayan — they fed them milk
    Causative of √pā (to drink). The same causative as the boys at verse 7 — vātsalya is grammatically a causative act. The mother causes the child to drink, repeatedly, as the chapter's recurring devotional gesture.
  • lihantyaḥ — licking
    The same word from verse 24, now intensified by the year's accumulated love. Gauḍīyas note the recurrence — the Bhāgavata's small repeated verbs are the signature of how vātsalya behaves: licking, licking, licking.
  • sva-odhasam payaḥ — milk from their own udders
    Compound: sva (own) + odhas (udder) + payas (milk). The same somatic vocabulary as verses 22 and 24, now bonded to the cows' newly-calved phantom-state. Vraja's three streams of milk — gopīs', new-calves' mothers', old-calves' mothers' — all flow at once.
The cows had given birth to new calves, but while coming down from Govardhana Hill, the cows, because of increased affection for the older calves, allowed the older calves to drink milk from their milk bags and then began licking the calves’ bodies in anxiety, as if wanting to swallow them.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
The cows had given birth to new calves, but while coming down from Govardhana Hill, the cows, because of increased affection for the older calves, allowed the older calves to drink milk from their milk bags and then began licking the calves' bodies in anxiety, as if wanting to swallow them.
Commentary

When the cows reached the bottom of Govardhana, though they were about to give birth to more calves in a two or three days, they made the old calves drink the milk which was flowing from their udders (svaudhasam payah). Licking the calves as if devouring them, they showed their excessive affection.

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Audhasam means “full udders.” Svaudhasam can mean their (sva) udder or their beautiful (su) udders.

Related values
Vairagya (Detachment / Dispassion)Tejas (Inner Radiance / Vigour)Anahankarah (Freedom from False Ego)
Related verses

Mothers nursing year-old children whom they have already weaned, because the year of separation that should have ended their nursing has only deepened the longing — the cows nurse calves they had stopped feeding months before. Love restarts what time had closed.

📝 My note

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