gopyaḥ saá¹spṛṣá¹a-salilÄ
aṅgeṣu karayoḥ pṛthak
nyasyÄtmany atha bÄlasya
bÄ«ja-nyÄsam akurvata
gopyaḥ - the gopÄ«s; saá¹spṛṣá¹a-salilÄḥ - touching a cup of water and drinking; aá¹…geá¹£u - on their bodies; karayoḥ - on their two hands; pá¹›thak - separately; nyasya - after placing the letters of the mantra; Ätmani - on their own; atha - then; bÄlasya - of the child; bÄ«ja-nyÄsam - the process of mantra-nyÄsa; akurvata - executed.
The gopÄ«s first executed the process of Äcamana, drinking a sip of water from the right hand. They purified their bodies and hands with the nyÄsa-mantra and then applied the same mantra upon the body of the child.
NyÄsa-mantra includes Äcamana, or first drinking a sip of water kept in the right hand. There are different viṣṇu-mantras to purify the body. The gopÄ«s, and in fact any householders, knew the process for being purified by chanting Vedic hymns. The gopÄ«s executed this process first to purify themselves and then to purify the child Kṛṣṇa. One executes the process of aá¹…ga-nyÄsa and kara-nyÄsa simply by drinking a little sip of water and chanting the mantra. The mantra is preceded with the first letter of the name, followed by anusvÄra and the word namaḥ: oá¹ namo ’jas tavÄá¹…ghrÄ« avyÄt, maá¹ mano maṇimÄá¹s tava jÄnunÄ« avyÄt, and so on. By losing Indian culture, Indian householders have forgotten how to execute the aá¹…ga-nyÄsa and are simply busy in sense gratification, without any advanced knowledge of human civilization.
