Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.26.1
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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atat-vīrya-vidaḥ
—
unable to understand His power
Compound: a (not) + tat (His) + vīrya (potency) + vidaḥ (knowers). The gopas' love is undimmed; only their cognition is overrun. Gauḍīyas treat this as the signature of Vraja — vātsalya intact even when aiśvarya floods the senses.
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su-vismitāḥ
—
very astonished
Prefix su- (very) + vismitāḥ (astonished, from √smi). Vismaya is the sthāyī-bhāva of adbhuta-rasa. Rūpa Gosvāmī teaches that adbhuta arises when the aiśvarya of Bhagavān cracks through the cover of mādhurya — exactly what is happening here.
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kṛṣṇasya
—
of Lord Kṛṣṇa
Genitive of Kṛṣṇa, the all-attractive. Even as the gopas puzzle over Him, the verse names Him as svayaṁ-bhagavān (SB 1.3.28, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam); the doubt is theirs, not the text's.
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gopāḥ
—
the cowherd men
From √gup (to protect) — the cow-protectors of Vraja. Gauḍīyas read the gopas as fixed in vātsalya/sakhya bhāva; their bewilderment in this chapter is not loss of love but love being asked to widen.
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samabhyetya
—
approaching (Nanda Mahārāja)
Sam (together) + abhi (toward) + √i (to go). They come not singly but as a community to the elder — the Vraja pattern of resolving doubt by śravaṇa from a senior Vaiṣṇava, not by private speculation.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains this verse as follows: “During Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastime of lifting Śrī Govardhana Hill, the cowherd men simply enjoyed the spiritual bliss of the Lord’s activities without analyzing them. But afterwards, when they had returned to their homes, perplexity arose within their hearts. Thus they thought, ‘Now we have directly seen child Kṛṣṇa lift Govardhana Hill, and we remember how He killed Pūtanā and other demons, extinguished the forest fire, and so on. At the time, we thought that these extraordinary acts occurred because of a benediction from the brāhmaṇas or because of Nanda Mahārāja’s great fortune, or that perhaps this boy had achieved the mercy of Lord Nārāyaṇa and was thus empowered by Him. “‘But all these presumptions are false, because an ordinary seven-year old boy could never hold up the king of mountains for seven whole days. Kṛṣṇa is not a human being. He must be the Supreme Lord Himself. “‘But on the other hand, child Kṛṣṇa loves it when we coddle Him, and He becomes morose when we — His uncles and well-wishers, simply worldly cowherd men — do not give Him attention. He appears to become hungry and thirsty, steals yogurt and milk, sometimes plays tricks, tells lies, chatters childishly and tends the calves. If He is actually the Supreme Lord, why would He do these things? Don’t they indicate that He is an ordinary human child? “‘We are totally unable to establish the truth of His identity. Therefore let us go and inquire from the highly intelligent King of Vraja, Nanda Mahārāja, and he shall free us from our doubts.’” According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the cowherd men thus made up their minds, and then they entered Nanda Mahārāja’s great assembly hall and questioned him as described in the following verse.
The twenty sixth chapter describes the doubts of the cowherdmen about Krsna ‘s powers and Nanda maharaja reminding them of the words of Garga. Because they were all immersed in tasting the sweetness of Krsna while he lifted Govardhana, the opportunity to think about Krsna’s extraordinary power did not arise. Afterwards, when they returned to their houses they all began to have one doubt. "When Krsna previously performed extraordinary activities like killing Putana or swallowing the forest fire we could think that it was because of the brahmanas blessings, the good fortune of Nanda , or Narayana entering the boy by his mercy. But seeing Krsna lift Govardhana such reasoning becomes useless. It is very astonishing that a seven year old boy could lift the biggest mountain for seven days. It is unimaginable that he can be a human." In this way they concluded that he was the Supreme Lord. "But how can it be possible that the supreme Lord would be pleased to be raised by us cowherd people, with ordinary mother father, aunt and uncle, and become disturbed if we did not care for him, that he would steal yogurt and milk from hunger and thirst, would blatantly tell lies and herd the calves? It is not possible that he is the Lord. He is human. We are unable to know the real truth about him. Let us go to the very intelligent king of Vraja and have our doubts settled." Thinking in this way, they entered the huge house of Nanda and asked him.
This episode takes place in order to increase the prema of the cowherds of Vraja by having Nanda remove their doubts, and in order to remove the worry that their prema would decrease by understanding him as the Lord on seeing such great powers. This continues till the end of the chapter. They saw the most uncommon activities of Kṛṣṇa (evaṁ vidhāni karmāṇi). The plural is used to indicate all the previous incidents. They had not think about his powers (atad-vīrya-vidaḥ) since they (te) were famous for always being controlled by their affection for him. Being completely surprised, they approached Nanda with great devotion (sam—abhyetya) and spoke with great prema or showing logic (pra—ucuḥ).
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Picture villagers who watched a small boy lift a hill yesterday and now sit speechless on the porch, unable to fit what their eyes saw into the child they fed this morning. The gopas come to Nanda the way a man might bring a strange jewel to the elder of the house — not doubting it is real, but no longer sure what kind of thing it is.
Earlier in Canto 10, Brahmā stole Kṛṣṇa's calves and cowherd friends, only to see Kṛṣṇa Himself become every calf and every boy for a full year (SB 10.13). When he returned, even the creator of the universe stood with folded hands, his vidyā exhausted, unable to grasp the child before him.
The gopas of chapter 26 stand in a quieter version of that same astonishment. They have no Brahmā-ego to dismantle; their wonder is the wonder of fathers who suddenly suspect that their son is not theirs.
My note
Source: vedabase.io