yaá¹ vai muhuḥ pitá¹›-sarÅ«pa-nijeÅ›a-bhÄvÄs
tan-mÄtaro yad abhajan raha-rÅ«á¸ha-bhÄvÄḥ
citraá¹ na tat khalu ramÄspada-bimba-bimbe
kÄme smare 'ká¹£a-viá¹£aye kim utÄnya-nÄryaḥ
yam - whom; vai - indeed; muhuḥ - repeatedly; pitá¹› - His father; sa-rÅ«pa - who exactly resembled; nija - as their own; Ä«Å›a - master; bhÄvÄḥ - who thought of Him; tat - His; mÄtaraḥ - mothers; yat - inasmuch as; abhajan - they worshiped; raha - in privacy; rÅ«á¸ha - full-blown; bhÄvÄḥ - whose ecstatic attraction; citram - amazing; na - not; tat - that; khalu - indeed; ramÄ - of the goddess of fortune; Äspada - of the shelter (Lord Kṛṣṇa); bimba - of the form; bimbe - who was the reflection; kÄme - lust personified; smare - Cupid; aká¹£a-viá¹£aye - when He was before their eyes; kim uta - what then to speak of; anya - other; nÄryaḥ - women.
It is not astonishing that the palace women, who should have felt maternal affection for Pradyumna, privately felt ecstatic attraction for Him as if He were their own Lord. After all, the son exactly resembled His father. Indeed, Pradyumna was a perfect reflection of the beauty of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the shelter of the goddess of fortune, and appeared before their eyes as Cupid Himself. Since even those on the level of His mother felt conjugal attraction for Him, then what to speak of how other women felt when they saw Him?
As ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« explains, whenever the palace women saw ÅšrÄ« Pradyumna, they immediately remembered their Lord, ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa. ÅšrÄ«la PrabhupÄda comments as follows in Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead: “ŚrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« has explained that in the beginning all the residents of the palace, who were all mothers and stepmothers of Pradyumna, mistook Him to be Kṛṣṇa and were all bashful, infected by the desire for conjugal love. The explanation is that Pradyumna’s personal appearance was exactly like Kṛṣṇa’s, and he was factually Cupid himself. There was no cause of astonishment, therefore, when the mothers of Pradyumna and other women mistook him in that way. It is clear from the statement that Pradyumna’s bodily characteristics were so similar to Kṛṣṇa’s that he was mistaken to be Kṛṣṇa even by His mother.â€
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupÄda to the Tenth Canto, Fifty-fifth Chapter, of the ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, entitled “The History of Pradyumna.â€
