FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.29.5

దుహన్త్యోఽభియయు: కాశ్చిద్ దోహం హిత్వా సముత్సుకా: । పయోఽధిశ్రిత్య సంయావమనుద్వాస్యాపరా యయు: ॥ ౫ ॥
duhantyo ’bhiyayuḥ kāścid
[duhantyo ’bhiyayuh kaashchid]
dohaṁ hitvā samutsukāḥ
[doham hitvaa samutsukaah]
payo ’dhiśritya saṁyāvam
[payo ’dhishritya samyaavam]
anudvāsyāparā yayuḥ
[anudvaasyaaparaa yayuh]
duhantyaḥ — in the middle of milking the cows abhiyayuḥ — went away kāścit — some of them doham — the milking hitvā — abandoning samutsukāḥ — extremely eager payaḥ — milk adhiśritya — having placed on the stove saṁyāvam — cakes made of flour anudvāsya — without removing from the oven aparāḥ — others yayuḥ — went .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
duhantyo ’bhiyayuḥ kāścid
duhantyaḥ
in the middle of milking the cows
abhiyayuḥ
went away
kāścit
some of them
dohaṁ hitvā samutsukāḥ
doham
the milking
hitvā
abandoning
samutsukāḥ
extremely eager
payo ’dhiśritya saṁyāvam
payaḥ
milk
adhiśritya
having placed on the stove
saṁyāvam
cakes made of flour
anudvāsyāparā yayuḥ
anudvāsya
without removing from the oven
aparāḥ
others
yayuḥ
went .
  • duhantyaḥ — those who were milking
    Present participle of √duh, feminine plural. Milking is the most representative Vraja-task. The verb anchors the rāsa in the ordinary economy of cows and curd — the rāsa-līlā erupts not in a temple but in the dairy.
  • samutsukāḥ — very eager
    Sam + ut + suka — completely lifted-up-eager. Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu names utkaṇṭhā / utsukatā (eager longing) as a vyabhicāri-bhāva of mādhurya; the verse names the bhāva in passing as if it were household furniture.
  • hitvā — abandoning
    Absolutive of √hā (to leave). The same hitvā that occurs in BG 2.3 (klaibyam mā sma gamaḥ pārtha) — abandonment as decisive act. Here what is abandoned is not weakness but the legitimate work of the home. Bhakti can require even that.
  • saṁyāvam — wheat cake / fried preparation
    A specific Vraja food — saṁyāva is the cake left to burn. The Bhāgavatam-poet's realism: not 'duties' in the abstract but this cake, this pot. Gauḍīya devotional literature delights in such precise domestic detail.
  • adhiśritya — having placed (on the stove)
    Absolutive of adhi-√śri — to set above, to place over the fire. The action half-done is what makes the going dramatic. The unfinished pose is the verse's signature: bhakti interrupts.
Some of the gopīs were milking cows when they heard Kṛṣṇa’s flute. They stopped milking and went off to meet Him. Some left milk curdling on the stove, and others left cakes burning in the oven.

The eagerness of these cowherd girls, so lovingly devoted to young Kṛṣṇa, is shown here.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
Some of the gopīs were milking cows when they heard Kṛṣṇa's flute. They stopped milking and went off to meet Him. Some left milk curdling on the stove, and others left cakes burning in the oven.
Commentary

Three verses describe the gopis’ complete absence of attachment to their duties in their haste to meet Krsna. Some gave up their normal duties. They were made to milk the cows, but they gave up milking the cows in order to meet Krsna. Some gopis left the pots of milk boiling on the stoves in order to meet Krsna and others left wheat cakes cooking in the oven.

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Three verses describe how they went to him giving up duties and local custom with disinterest in their bodies because of the agitation caused by the most attractive song, since they were eager to go there with strong determination. First giving up their designated duties is described. They were milking cows but gave up milking or the milk, and went towards the song of the flute. Some when in large groups and others went with only two or three friends, since verse 44 describes that there were hundreds of group leaders. They left because they went most eager, unable to bear delay in time. This reason for going should be given for the following verses also. Others left while boiling milking and others left while cakes were on the fire. “Others (aparāḥ)” should be understood in all the verses. Or they left the milking boiling on the stove without taking it off, and they left cakes on the stove without removing them.

Related values
Anahankarah (Freedom from False Ego)Udyama (Industriousness / Effort)Asteya (Non-stealing / Honesty)Aparigraha (Non-possessiveness)
Related verses

Milk left to curdle, cakes left to burn — the kitchen does not finish what the flute has interrupted. Bhakti, once awakened by Kṛṣṇa's call, is intolerant of unfinished business; it walks out of the half-completed life.

Bharata leaving the deer for Kṛṣṇa

Mahārāja Bharata, having grown attached to a fawn, was reborn as a deer to finish that thought — Bhāgavatam 5.7–14. The gopīs are the opposite case: they leave the milk-pot mid-pour because their bhāva for Kṛṣṇa is so unmixed that no household attachment can catch them.

Gauḍīyas use Bharata's story as the negative space against which the gopīs' kitchen-abandonment shines: where Bharata's mind followed the deer, the gopīs' minds had already followed the flute.

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