Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.21.9
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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veṇuḥ
—
the flute
Nominative singular, the subject of the gopīs' grievance. The veṇu is hollow (śūnya within) and that emptiness is the key — Gauḍīya commentators note: only what makes itself nothing can be filled with Kṛṣṇa's breath. The flute's tapasyā is its hollowness.
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dāmodara
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of Kṛṣṇa
Dāma (rope) + udara (belly) — He whose belly Yaśodā tried to bind. The name evokes vātsalya from the previous chapter (10.9); the gopīs choose it deliberately, pointing out that this same submissively-bound child is now reigning over their adhara-sudhā as an unreachable beloved.
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adhara-sudhām
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the nectar of the lips
Adhara (lip) + sudhā (immortal nectar) + accusative. The technical mādhurya-rasa term for what is exchanged in Kṛṣṇa-gopī confidential love. Rūpa Gosvāmī treats adhara-sudhā as the supreme rasa-substance; the verse openly says it 'belongs to the gopīs' — gopikānām.
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gopikānām
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which is owed to the gopīs
Genitive plural of gopikā. The verse uses a possessive: the lip-nectar is gopī-property by rasa-right. Gauḍīyas read this as scriptural endorsement of the gopīs' adhikāra over mādhurya — no other devotee tier can claim it.
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āryāḥ
—
old forefathers
Ārya — venerable elder. The bamboos that birthed the flute are the flute's elders; their tears of sap are pitṛ-tarpaṇa-like joy at a descendant's promotion. Gauḍīyas see in this Vraja's whole organic family — even the trees have lineage in the līlā.
This translation is quoted from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Caitanya-caritāmṛta ( Antya-līlā 16.140). In the guise of releasing flowing sap, the bamboo trees are actually crying tears of ecstasy upon seeing their child become an exalted devotee-flute of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Sanātana Gosvāmī gives an alternate explanation: The trees are crying because they are unhappy at not being able to play with Kṛṣṇa themselves. One may object that the trees in Vṛndāvana should not lament for that which is impossible for them to obtain, just as a beggar certainly doesn’t lament because he is forbidden to meet the king. But the trees are actually just like intelligent persons who suffer when they cannot obtain the goal of life. Thus the trees are crying because they cannot get the nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s lips.
"This flute has created a problem for us, causing us an ocean of disgrace." That is expressed in this verse. "What piety (kusalam) did this flute perform?" Though the words vamsi and murali are in feminine gender, the word venu is in the masculine, like the word dara a masculine word meaning wife. "What piety did it perform to be Krsna’s wife? None, because it took birth as a non moving creature, a low birth from performing no pious acts. But yet the flute drinks the nectar from Damodara’s lips. Can that be tolerated? No, because it should be the gopis right to taste that nectar (gopikanam) . Krsna was born as a gopa and we were born as gopis. Therefore we have a right to taste those lips, not the flute." "Furthermore the flute has the audacity to manifest a male in form and still enjoy (bhunkte). Furthermore this enjoyment is done in unmarried state, utterly alone, and by thievery. The flute announces it to the real owners of the treasure, ourselves, by blowing air. But this is not just regular blowing air, it is the sound of enjoyment the flute gets by association with Krsna. And we must keeping hear that sound! So much the flute enjoys that it leaves nothing left, not even a morsel. Though we are the rightful claimants of that lip nectar, the flute leaves nothing for us, not even his remnants. Such is his audacity!" "Those who have not performed pious acts act in the same way. Because (yat) the rivers see the flute enjoying the nectar of his lips, became happy, blooming with lotuses, like standing of hair on end (hrsyat tvacah). All the trees, pouring out their honey, seem toweep in joy. Just as devotees on hearing the glories of the Lord shed tears of joy and have their hair stand on end, hearing the sound of the flute, the rivers and trees become decorated with the symptoms of bhava. The rivers are female friends of the flute and the trees are male friends or messengers. The flute, rivers and trees are all our enemies. Therefore where should we hide the flute, so that it does not get the nectar of Krnsa’s lips? This sancari bhava of envy manifested in the gopis.
What to speak of the cowherds’ fortune, what can we say of the flute’s good fortune? The gopīs express their desire mixed with envy, while imaging falsely because of madness produced by the appearance of mahā-bhāva. Though it appears to us to be a dry piece of wood, how many pious acts has this flute performed in this life or previous lives? We will also do such pious acts for that purpose to get such benefit. Sma indicates dismay. The characteristic of the flute is described beginning with the words yad avaśiṣṭa-rasaṁ. By addressing Kṛṣṇa as Dāmodara they suggest that he and they had a special, natural relationship which started from early childhood, with the first sprouts of their present emotions. Therefore we gopīs should enjoy him. The flute is male (ayam) and thus unsuitable to enjoy with him. The flute always drinks the nectar of his lips as its only enjoyment, since we do not see it enjoying anything else. “We see that after associating with Dāmodara’s lips, the lips are still juicy, not dried up. Therefore the flute did not enjoy the lips at all.” No. What remains now is only a taste. It drank the nectar completely and left only a trickle. O gopīs! Therefore the flute’s birth is fortunate and not our birth. Why were you gopīs born? Instead of saying “our” they say “of the young gopīs (gopīkānām).” This indicates that though others may enter into their group they are not qualified for his lips since they do not have the special qualifications of the gopīs. They say this out of their identity as gopīs and out of special taste for beauty. Another meaning is that they protect (gop) their bodies by aspiring for him alone. That flute not only resides constantly in your lover’s hand, heart and mouth, but enjoys the nectar of his lips without taking your permission. Or, how does the flute enjoy? It does not leave any remains at all (another meaning of avaśiṣṭa) as in the phrase vaṣṭi-bhāgurirallopam: vaśiṣṭa means “remaining” and avaśiṣṭa means “not remaining.” Not even a drop remains. Or, because of continuing to have (avaśiṣṭa) great attraction (rasa), the flute never ceases to enjoy. Or, what is the nature of that nectar? Giving up all other rasa, the flute enjoys even the rasa remaining for the gopīs. The symptoms of the flute’s pious acts are mentioned. Seeing the good fortune of the flute, the rivers, endowed with great fortune, have their hairs standing on end in the form of lotuses blooming. Or, “the remaining rasa” can be part of this statement if the word yat does not mean “because.” The rivers taste the remaining rasa (the sound) of the flute (yat) since their hairs are standing on end. Moreover, seeing the good fortune of the flute, coming from the same plant family, all the plants release tears of honey, just as forefathers seeing the good fortune of their family members release tears. Another meaning spoken out of hatred appears. “In such company, what fault does the flute alone have?” The flute should be kept hidden (gopyaḥ) somewhere at least.
A piece of bamboo, hollowed and pierced, has somehow been allowed to drink what the gopīs were born to drink. Its grandfathers, the trees, weep sap; its mother, the river, raises her lotus-hair in goosebumps. If a bamboo can be promoted to such intimacy, the gopīs reason, what was the bamboo's tapasyā — and where do we apply?
In Padyāvalī (verse 244) and throughout Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Rūpa Gosvāmī gathers verse after verse on Kṛṣṇa's flute — calling it dhanya among instruments, the rival of the gopīs in adhara-sudhā, the messenger that summons the heart out of the body.
Gauḍīyas treat this gopī-complaint as the seed of an entire rasa-literature: Rūpa's task in Vṛndāvana was to translate this jealousy into the grammar of mādhurya-rasa, so later sādhakas could enter it without irreverence.
My note
Source: vedabase.io