yaḿ vai muhuḥ pitṛ-sarūpa-nijeśa-bhāvās
tan-mātaro yad abhajan raha-rūḍha-bhāvāḥ
citraḿ na tat khalu ramāspada-bimba-bimbe
kāme smare 'kṣa-viṣaye kim utānya-nāryaḥ
yam -- whom; vai -- indeed; muhuh -- repeatedly; pitri -- His father; sa-rupa -- who exactly resembled; nija -- as their own; isa -- master; bhavah -- who thought of Him; tat -- His; matarah -- mothers; yat -- inasmuch as; abhajan -- they worshiped; raha -- in privacy; rudha -- full-blown; bhavah -- whose ecstatic attraction; citram -- amazing; na -- not; tat -- that; khalu -- indeed; rama -- of the goddess of fortune; aspada -- of the shelter (Lord Krishna); bimba -- of the form; bimbe -- who was the reflection; kame -- lust personified; smare -- Cupid; aksha-vishaye -- when He was before their eyes; kim uta -- what then to speak of; anya -- other; naryah -- 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 Krishna, 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 Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti explains, whenever the palace women saw Sri Pradyumna, they immediately remembered their Lord, Sri Krishna. Srila Prabhupada comments as follows in Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead: "Srila Sukadeva Gosvami has explained that in the beginning all the residents of the palace, who were all mothers and stepmothers of Pradyumna, mistook Him to be Krishna and were all bashful, infected by the desire for conjugal love. The explanation is that Pradyumna's personal appearance was exactly like Krishna'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 Krishna's that He was mistaken to be Krishna even by His mother."
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to the Tenth Canto, Fifty-fifth Chapter, of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, entitled "The History of Pradyumna."
