Text 1: ĹrÄŤla Ĺukadeva GosvÄmÄŤ said: O best of devotees, most fortunate ParÄŤkᚣit, you have inquired very nicely, for although constantly hearing the pastimes of the Lord, you are perceiving His activities to be newer and newer.
Text 2: Paramahaášsas, devotees who have accepted the essence of life, are attached to KášášŁáša in the core of their hearts, and He is the aim of their lives. It is their nature to talk only of KášášŁáša at every moment, as if such topics were newer and newer. They are attached to such topics, just as materialists are attached to topics of women and sex.
Text* 3: O King, kindly hear me with great attention. Although the activities of the Supreme Lord are very confidential, no ordinary man being able to understand them, I shall speak about them to you, for spiritual masters explain to a submissive disciple even subject matters that are very confidential and difficult to understand.
Text* 4: Then, after saving the boys and calves from the mouth of AghÄsura, who was death personified, Lord KášášŁáša, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, brought them all to the bank of the river and spoke the following words.
Text 5: My dear friends, just see how this riverbank is extremely beautiful because of its pleasing atmosphere. And just see how the blooming lotuses are attracting bees and birds by their aroma. The humming and chirping of the bees and birds is echoing throughout the beautiful trees in the forest. Also, here the sands are clean and soft. Therefore, this must be considered the best place for our sporting and pastimes.
Text* 6: I think we should take our lunch here, since we are already hungry because the time is very late. Here the calves may drink water and go slowly here and there and eat the grass.
Text* 7: Accepting Lord KášášŁášaâs proposal, the cowherd boys allowed the calves to drink water from the river and then tied them to trees where there was green, tender grass. Then the boys opened their baskets of food and began eating with KášášŁáša in great transcendental pleasure.
Text 8: Like the whorl of a lotus flower surrounded by its petals and leaves, KášášŁáša sat in the center, encircled by lines of His friends, who all looked very beautiful. Every one of them was trying to look forward toward KášášŁáša, thinking that KášášŁáša might look toward him. In this way they all enjoyed their lunch in the forest.
Text* 9: Among the cowherd boys, some placed their lunch on flowers, some on leaves, fruits, or bunches of leaves, some actually in their baskets, some on the bark of trees and some on rocks. This is what the children imagined to be their plates as they ate their lunch.
Text 10: All the cowherd boys enjoyed their lunch with KášášŁáša, showing one another the different tastes of the different varieties of preparations they had brought from home. Tasting one anotherâs preparations, they began to laugh and make one another laugh.
Text 11: KášášŁáša is yajĂąa-bhuk â that is, He eats only offerings of yajĂąa â but to exhibit His childhood pastimes, He now sat with His flute tucked between His waist and His tight cloth on His right side and with His horn bugle and cow-driving stick on His left. Holding in His hand a very nice preparation of yogurt and rice, with pieces of suitable fruit between His fingers, He sat like the whorl of a lotus flower, looking forward toward all His friends, personally joking with them and creating jubilant laughter among them as He ate. At that time, the denizens of heaven were watching, struck with wonder at how the Personality of Godhead, who eats only in yajĂąa, was now eating with His friends in the forest.
Text* 12: O MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit, while the cowherd boys, who knew nothing within the core of their hearts but KášášŁáša, were thus engaged in eating their lunch in the forest, the calves went far away, deep into the forest, being allured by green grass.
Text 13: When KášášŁáša saw that His friends the cowherd boys were frightened, He, the fierce controller even of fear itself, said, just to mitigate their fear, âMy dear friends, do not stop eating. I shall bring your calves back to this spot by personally going after them Myself.â
Text 14: âLet Me go and search for the calves,â KášášŁáša said. âDonât disturb your enjoyment.â Then, carrying His yogurt and rice in His hand, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, KášášŁáša, immediately went out to search for the calves of His friends. To please His friends, He began searching in all the mountains, mountain caves, bushes and narrow passages.
Text 15: O MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit, BrahmÄ, who resides in the higher planetary system in the sky, had observed the activities of the most powerful KášášŁáša in killing and delivering AghÄsura, and he was astonished. Now that same BrahmÄ wanted to show some of his own power and see the power of KášášŁáša, who was engaged in His childhood pastimes, playing as if with ordinary cowherd boys. Therefore, in KášášŁášaâs absence, BrahmÄ took all the boys and calves to another place. Thus he became entangled, for in the very near future he would see how powerful KášášŁáša was.
Text 16: Thereafter, when KášášŁáša was unable to find the calves, He returned to the bank of the river, but there He was also unable to see the cowherd boys. Thus He began to search for both the calves and the boys, as if He could not understand what had happened.
Text 17: When KášášŁáša was unable to find the calves and their caretakers, the cowherd boys, anywhere in the forest, He could suddenly understand that this was the work of Lord BrahmÄ.
Text 18: Thereafter, just to create pleasure both for BrahmÄ and for the mothers of the calves and cowherd boys, KášášŁáša, the creator of the entire cosmic manifestation, expanded Himself as calves and boys.
Text 19: By His VÄsudeva feature, KášášŁáša simultaneously expanded Himself into the exact number of missing cowherd boys and calves, with their exact bodily features, their particular types of hands, legs and other limbs, their sticks, bugles and flutes, their lunch bags, their particular types of dress and ornaments placed in various ways, their names, ages and forms, and their special activities and characteristics. By expanding Himself in this way, beautiful KášášŁáša proved the statement samagra-jagad viᚣášumayam: âLord Viᚣášu is all-pervading.â
Text 20: Now expanding Himself so as to appear as all the calves and cowherd boys, all of them as they were, and at the same time appear as their leader, KášášŁáša entered VrajabhĹŤmi, the land of His father, Nanda MahÄrÄja, just as He usually did while enjoying their company.
Text 21: O MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit, KášášŁáša, who had divided Himself as different calves and also as different cowherd boys, entered different cow sheds as the calves and then different homes as different boys.
Text 22: The mothers of the boys, upon hearing the sounds of the flutes and bugles being played by their sons, immediately rose from their household tasks, lifted their boys onto their laps, embraced them with both arms and began to feed them with their breast milk, which flowed forth because of extreme love specifically for KášášŁáša. Actually KášášŁáša is everything, but at that time, expressing extreme love and affection, they took special pleasure in feeding KášášŁáša, the Parabrahman, and KášášŁáša drank the milk from His respective mothers as if it were a nectarean beverage.
Text* 23: Thereafter, O MahÄrÄja ParÄŤkᚣit, as required according to the scheduled round of His pastimes, KášášŁáša returned in the evening, entered the house of each of the cowherd boys, and engaged exactly like the former boys, thus enlivening their mothers with transcendental pleasure. The mothers took care of the boys by massaging them with oil, bathing them, smearing their bodies with sandalwood pulp, decorating them with ornaments, chanting protective mantras, decorating their bodies with tilaka and giving them food. In this way, the mothers served KášášŁáša personally.
Text 24: Thereafter, all the cows entered their different sheds and began mooing loudly, calling for their respective calves. When the calves arrived, the mothers began licking the calvesâ bodies again and again and profusely feeding them with the milk flowing from their milk bags.
Text 25: Previously, from the very beginning, the gopÄŤs had motherly affection for KášášŁáša. Indeed, their affection for KášášŁáša exceeded even their affection for their own sons. In displaying their affection, they had thus distinguished between KášášŁáša and their sons, but now that distinction disappeared.
Text* 26: Although the inhabitants of VrajabhĹŤmi, the cowherd men and cowherd women, previously had more affection for KášášŁáša than for their own children, now, for one year, their affection for their own sons continuously increased, for KášášŁáša had now become their sons. There was no limit to the increment of their affection for their sons, who were now KášášŁáša. Every day they found new inspiration for loving their children as much as they loved KášášŁáša.
Text 27: In this way, Lord ĹrÄŤ KášášŁáša, having Himself become the cowherd boys and groups of calves, maintained Himself by Himself. Thus He continued His pastimes, both in VášndÄvana and in the forest, for one year.
Text 28: One day, five or six nights before the completion of the year, KášášŁáša, tending the calves, entered the forest along with BalarÄma.
Text* 29: Thereafter, while pasturing atop Govardhana Hill, the cows looked down to find some green grass and saw their calves pasturing near VášndÄvana, not very far away.
Text 30: When the cows saw their own calves from the top of Govardhana Hill, they forgot themselves and their caretakers because of increased affection, and although the path was very rough, they ran toward their calves with great anxiety, each running as if with one pair of legs. Their milk bags full and flowing with milk, their heads and tails raised, and their humps moving with their necks, they ran forcefully until they reached their calves to feed them.
Text* 31: 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 calvesâ bodies in anxiety, as if wanting to swallow them.
Text 32: The cowherd men, having been unable to check the cows from going to their calves, felt simultaneously ashamed and angry. They crossed the rough road with great difficulty, but when they came down and saw their own sons, they were overwhelmed by great affection.
Text 33: At that time, all the thoughts of the cowherd men merged in the mellow of paternal love, which was aroused by the sight of their sons. Experiencing a great attraction, their anger completely disappearing, they lifted their sons, embraced them in their arms and enjoyed the highest pleasure by smelling their sonsâ heads.
Text 34: Thereafter the elderly cowherd men, having obtained great feeling from embracing their sons, gradually and with great difficulty and reluctance ceased embracing them and returned to the forest. But as the men remembered their sons, tears began to roll down from their eyes.
Text 35: Because of an increase of affection, the cows had constant attachment even to those calves that were grown up and had stopped sucking milk from their mothers. When Baladeva saw this attachment, He was unable to understand the reason for it, and thus He began to consider as follows.
Text 36: What is this wonderful phenomenon? The affection of all the inhabitants of Vraja, including Me, toward these boys and calves is increasing as never before, just like our affection for Lord KášášŁáša, the Supersoul of all living entities.
Text 37: Who is this mystic power, and where has she come from? Is she a demigod or a demoness? She must be the illusory energy of My master, Lord KášášŁáša, for who else can bewilder Me?
Text 38: Thinking in this way, Lord BalarÄma was able to see, with the eye of transcendental knowledge, that all these calves and KášášŁášaâs friends were expansions of the form of ĹrÄŤ KášášŁáša.
Text 39: Lord Baladeva said, âO supreme controller! These boys are not great demigods, as I previously thought. Nor are these calves great sages like NÄrada. Now I can see that You alone are manifesting Yourself in all varieties of difference. Although one, You are existing in the different forms of the calves and boys. Please briefly explain this to Me.â Having thus been requested by Lord Baladeva, KášášŁáša explained the whole situation, and Baladeva understood it.
Text 40: When Lord BrahmÄ returned after a moment of time had passed (according to his own measurement), he saw that although by human measurement a complete year had passed, Lord KášášŁáša, after all that time, was engaged just as before in playing with the boys and calves, who were His expansions.
Text 41: Lord BrahmÄ thought: Whatever boys and calves there were in Gokula, I have kept them sleeping on the bed of my mystic potency, and to this very day they have not yet risen again.
Text 42: A similar number of boys and calves have been playing with KášášŁáša for one whole year, yet they are different from the ones illusioned by my mystic potency. Who are they? Where did they come from?
Text 43: Thus Lord BrahmÄ, thinking and thinking for a long time, tried to distinguish between those two sets of boys, who were each separately existing. He tried to understand who was real and who was not real, but he couldnât understand at all.
Text 44: Thus because Lord BrahmÄ wanted to mystify the all-pervading Lord KášášŁáša, who can never be mystified, but who, on the contrary, mystifies the entire universe, he himself was put into bewilderment by his own mystic power.
Text 45: As the darkness of snow on a dark night and the light of a glowworm in the light of day have no value, the mystic power of an inferior person who tries to use it against a person of great power is unable to accomplish anything; instead, the power of that inferior person is diminished.
Text 46: Then, while Lord BrahmÄ looked on, all the calves and the boys tending them immediately appeared to have complexions the color of bluish rainclouds and to be dressed in yellow silken garments.
Text 47-48: All those personalities had four arms, holding conchshell, disc, mace and lotus flower in Their hands. They wore helmets on Their heads, earrings on Their ears and garlands of forest flowers around Their necks. On the upper portion of the right side of Their chests was the emblem of the goddess of fortune. Furthermore, They wore armlets on Their arms, the Kaustubha gem around Their necks, which were marked with three lines like a conchshell, and bracelets on Their wrists. With bangles on Their ankles, ornaments on Their feet, and sacred belts around Their waists, They all appeared very beautiful.
Text 49: Every part of Their bodies, from Their feet to the top of Their heads, was fully decorated with fresh, tender garlands of tulasÄŤ leaves offered by devotees engaged in worshiping the Lord by the greatest pious activities, namely hearing and chanting.
Text 50: Those Viᚣášu forms, by Their pure smiling, which resembled the increasing light of the moon, and by the sidelong glances of Their reddish eyes, created and protected the desires of Their own devotees, as if by the modes of passion and goodness.
Text 51: All beings, both moving and nonmoving, from the four-headed Lord BrahmÄ down to the most insignificant living entity, had taken forms and were differently worshiping those viᚣášu-mĹŤrtis, according to their respective capacities, with various means of worship, such as dancing and singing.
Text 52: All the viᚣášu-mĹŤrtis were surrounded by the opulences, headed by aášimÄ-siddhi; by the mystic potencies, headed by AjÄ; and by the twenty-four elements for the creation of the material world, headed by the mahat-tattva.
Text 53: Then Lord BrahmÄ saw that kÄla (the time factor), svabhÄva (oneâs own nature by association), saášskÄra (reformation), kÄma (desire), karma (fruitive activity) and the guášas (the three modes of material nature), their own independence being completely subordinate to the potency of the Lord, had all taken forms and were also worshiping those viᚣášu-mĹŤrtis.
Text 54: The viᚣášu-mĹŤrtis all had eternal, unlimited forms, full of knowledge and bliss and existing beyond the influence of time. Their great glory was not even to be touched by the jĂąÄnÄŤs engaged in studying the Upaniᚣads.
Text 55: Thus Lord BrahmÄ saw the Supreme Brahman, by whose energy this entire universe, with its moving and nonmoving living beings, is manifested. He also saw at the same time all the calves and boys as the Lordâs expansions.
Text 56: Then, by the power of the effulgence of those viᚣášu-mĹŤrtis, Lord BrahmÄ, his eleven senses jolted by astonishment and stunned by transcendental bliss, became silent, just like a childâs clay doll in the presence of the village deity.
Text 57: The Supreme Brahman is beyond mental speculation, He is self-manifest, existing in His own bliss, and He is beyond the material energy. He is known by the crest jewels of the Vedas by refutation of irrelevant knowledge. Thus in relation to that Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead, whose glory had been shown by the manifestation of all the four-armed forms of Viᚣášu, Lord BrahmÄ, the lord of SarasvatÄŤ, was mystified. âWhat is this?â he thought, and then he was not even able to see. Lord KášášŁáša, understanding BrahmÄâs position, then at once removed the curtain of His yoga-mÄyÄ.
Text 58: Lord BrahmÄâs external consciousness then revived, and he stood up, just like a dead man coming back to life. Opening his eyes with great difficulty, he saw the universe, along with himself.
Text 59: Then, looking in all directions, Lord BrahmÄ immediately saw VášndÄvana before him, filled with trees, which were the means of livelihood for the inhabitants and which were equally pleasing in all seasons.
Text 60: VášndÄvana is the transcendental abode of the Lord, where there is no hunger, anger or thirst. Though naturally inimical, both human beings and fierce animals live there together in transcendental friendship.
Text 61: Then Lord BrahmÄ saw the Absolute Truth â who is one without a second, who possesses full knowledge and who is unlimited â assuming the role of a child in a family of cowherd men and standing all alone, just as before, with a morsel of food in His hand, searching everywhere for the calves and His cowherd friends.
Text 62: After seeing this, Lord BrahmÄ hastily got down from his swan carrier, fell down like a golden rod and touched the lotus feet of Lord KášášŁáša with the tips of the four crowns on his heads. Offering his obeisances, he bathed the feet of KášášŁáša with the water of his tears of joy.
Text 63: Rising and falling again and again at the lotus feet of Lord KášášŁáša for a long time, Lord BrahmÄ remembered over and over the Lordâs greatness he had just seen.
Text 64: Then, rising very gradually and wiping his two eyes, Lord BrahmÄ looked up at Mukunda. Lord BrahmÄ, his head bent low, his mind concentrated and his body trembling, very humbly began, with faltering words, to offer praises to Lord KášášŁáša.