Srimad Bhagavata Purana

Venu Gita - The Gopis on the Song of Krishna's Flute

वेणु गीता

श्रीवेणुगीतम्

20 versesChapter 1

Themes

Verses · श्लोक

Verses 1–5

The Sound of Liberation

Mokṣa-Dhvani

Verse 1

setting the scenesharat ritucompany named firstacyutathe entrance

श्रीशुक उवाच । इत्थं शरत्स्वच्छजलं पद्माकरसुगन्धिना । न्यविशद्वायुना वातं सगोगोपालकोऽच्युतः ॥२१-१॥

śrī-śuka uvāca | itthaṁ śarat-svaccha-jalaṁ padmākara-sugandhinā | nyaviśad vāyunā vātaṁ sa-go-gopālako 'cyutaḥ ||21-1||

Sukadeva said: Krishna entered the Vrindavan forest with his cows and cowherd boys. The forest was full of clear autumn water and cooled by a breeze that carried the fragrance of the lotus pond.

Modern Reflection

The opening verse is by Sukadeva, not the gopis. He is setting the scene. The season is sharat, autumn, the season Indian Sanskrit poetry uses when the air is clear and the heart can hear small sounds. The verse names every element in the right order: water, fragrance, breeze, cows, boys, and only at the end, Krishna. The scene is finished by the one walking into it. Indian narrative often saves the central figure for last, and this verse is a textbook example.

Verse 2

cukūjaanukūlajoining not announcingmadhu patimusic into music

कुसुमितवनराजिशुष्मिभृङ्ग- द्विजकुलघुष्टसरःसरिन्महीध्रम् । मधुपतिरवगाह्य चारयन्गाः सहपशुपालबलश्चुकूज वेणुम् ॥२१-२॥

kusumita-vanarāji-śuṣmi-bhṛṅga- dvija-kula-ghuṣṭa-saraḥ-sarin-mahīdhram | madhu-patir avagāhya cārayan gāḥ saha-paśu-pāla-balaś cukūja veṇum ||21-2||

The lakes, rivers, and hills were full of the sound of intoxicated bees in the flowering trees and the calls of flocks of birds. Krishna, the lord of Madhu, with the cowherd boys and Balarama, herded the cows into the forest and made his flute sound.

Modern Reflection

The Sanskrit verb cukūja is unusual. It is normally used for the call of a bird, a peacock, or a koel. Sukadeva is saying that Krishna did not play the flute. He cooed it. The verse places the flute-sound in the same register as the bird-cries that were already filling the forest. Krishna's music does not interrupt the forest. It joins it. Indian aesthetic theory has a name for this: anukula, the favourable, in which an addition does not disturb but completes.

Verse 3

parokṣaspeaking in absencesmara udayamvipralambha shringaralove not in the room

तद्व्रजस्त्रिय आश्रुत्य वेणुगीतं स्मरोदयम् । काश्चित्परोक्षं कृष्णस्य स्वसखीभ्योऽन्ववर्णयन् ॥२१-३॥

tad vraja-striya āśrutya veṇu-gītaṁ smarodayam | kāścit parokṣaṁ kṛṣṇasya sva-sakhībhyo 'nvavarṇayan ||21-3||

Hearing that flute-song, which raises love in the listener, some of the women of Vraja began to describe Krishna to their friends. He was not before them. They spoke of him in his absence.

Modern Reflection

The Sanskrit word parokṣam is the key. It literally means beyond-the-eye, out of sight. Indian grammar uses parokṣa as a technical term for the past-tense narration of events the speaker did not witness. The verse is using the vocabulary of grammar to describe a state of mind. The gopis are speaking in parokṣa because the beloved is in parokṣa. The Venu Gita is, structurally, a parokṣa-stuti, praise of one not present. This is the chapter's organizing form.

Verse 4

speech fails before lovesmara vegavikṣipta manasaḥthe pause before the songmemory flood

तद्वर्णयितुमारब्धाः स्मरन्त्यः कृष्णचेष्टितम् । नाशकन्स्मरवेगेन विक्षिप्तमनसो नृप ॥२१-४॥

tad varṇayitum ārabdhāḥ smarantyaḥ kṛṣṇa-ceṣṭitam | nāśakan smara-vegena vikṣipta-manaso nṛpa ||21-4||

O king, the gopis began to describe Krishna's deeds, but remembering him, the rush of love and memory scattered their minds. They could not speak.

Modern Reflection

The verse names a precise moment that anyone who has tried to praise someone deeply loved has met. Speech begins. Memory floods. Speech fails. The Sanskrit phrase vikṣipta-manasaḥ, with minds thrown out, is exact. The mind is not absent. It is dispersed. The verse marks the pause before the actual Venu Gita begins. The whole song is happening on the other side of this pause. The first thing to know about the Venu Gita is that it almost did not happen at all.

Verse 5THE FAMOUS image of Krishna entering Vrindavan with flute

naṭa vara vapuḥsva pada ramaṇamthe iconographic versefamous imagefootprints make the land

बर्हापीडं नटवरवपुः कर्णयोः कर्णिकारं बिभ्रद्वासः कनककपिशं वैजयन्तीं च मालाम् । रन्ध्रान्वेणोरधरसुधयापूरयन्गोपवृन्दैर् वृन्दारण्यं स्वपदरमणं प्राविशद्गीतकीर्तिः ॥२१-५॥

barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ bibhrad vāsaḥ kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīṁ ca mālām | randhrān veṇor adhara-sudhayāpūrayan gopa-vṛndair vṛndāraṇyaṁ sva-pada-ramaṇaṁ prāviśad gīta-kīrtiḥ ||21-5||

A peacock feather crowned his head. A karnikara flower sat on each ear. He wore the gold-yellow garment and the vaijayanti garland. He filled the flute-holes with the nectar of his lips. The cowherd boys sang his praises. He entered the Vrindavan forest, and his footprints made it beautiful. The dancer's body moved through the trees.

Modern Reflection

This is one of the most painted verses in the history of Indian art. Every Pichwai, every Pahari miniature of Krishna in the forest, every temple mural in Nathdwara or Vrindavan, has this verse as its source text. The details are exact. The peacock feather. The karnikara flower. The yellow garment. The vaijayanti garland. The flute lifted to the lips. The Sanskrit compound naṭa-vara-vapuḥ, the body of the best of dancers, is the verse's central description. Krishna is named here not as a god, not as a cowherd, but as a dancer. The verse supplies the iconography that every later century painted.

Verses 6–10

The Envy of Inanimate Nature

Nirjaḍa-Prakṛti-Īrṣyā

Verse 6

holding before speakingabhirebhirecircle of womenmano haramchorus before song

इति वेणुरवं राजन्सर्वभूतमनोहरम् । श्रुत्वा व्रजस्त्रियः सर्वा वर्णयन्त्योऽभिरेभिरे ॥२१-६॥

iti veṇu-ravaṁ rājan sarva-bhūta-manoharam | śrutvā vraja-striyaḥ sarvā varṇayantyo 'bhirebhire ||21-6||

O king, hearing that sound of the flute, which steals the mind of every living being, all the women of Vraja began to describe him to one another, and they embraced.

Modern Reflection

The verse names the moment the Venu Gita actually begins: with a holding. The gopis have just been struck speechless in verse 4. Then they recover. The first thing they do is hold one another. The Sanskrit verb abhirebhire is plural and reciprocal. They held each other. This is important. The Venu Gita is not a solo song. It is sung by a circle of women holding one another while they speak. The grammar of the verse builds in the chorus before a single word of the chorus is spoken.

Verse 7THE FAMOUS opening of the gopi-song - the fruit of having eyes

fruit of having eyesakṣaṇvatām phalamanurakta kaṭākṣathe purpose of eyesfamous verse

श्रीगोप्य ऊचुः । अक्षण्वतां फलमिदं न परं विदामः सख्यः पशूननुविवेशयतोर्वयस्यैः । वक्त्रं व्रजेशसुतयोरनवेणुजुष्टं यैर्वा निपीतमनुरक्तकटाक्षमोक्षम् ॥२१-७॥

śrī-gopya ūcuḥ | akṣaṇvatāṁ phalam idaṁ na paraṁ vidāmaḥ sakhyaḥ paśūn anuviveśayator vayasyaiḥ | vaktraṁ vrajeśa-sutayor anaveṇu-juṣṭaṁ yair vā nipītam anurakta-kaṭākṣa-mokṣam ||21-7||

The gopis said: Friends, we know no other fruit of having eyes than this. The two sons of Vraja's king walk the cows into the forest with their friends. Their faces are graced by the flute. From those faces a stream of loving sidelong glances is released, and is drunk.

Modern Reflection

This is one of the most quoted verses in Vaishnava literature. The Sanskrit phrase akṣaṇvatāṁ phalam idam, this is the fruit of having eyes, is the opening line of the actual Venu Gita. The argument is sharp. Eyes are an organ. Like any organ they have a purpose. The purpose, the gopis claim, is to see Krishna's face when the flute is on his lips. Anything less is not the use eyes were made for. The verse turns the body's anatomy into theology. The phrase has been the title of devotional books, of paintings, of festival songs.

Verse 8

naṭa varauraṅgathe stagewearing the forestdual divine

चूतप्रवालबर्हस्तबकोत्पलाब्ज- मालानुपृक्तपरिधानविचित्रवेशौ । मध्ये विरेजतुरलं पशुपालगोष्ठ्यां रङ्गे यथा नटवरौ क्वच गायमानौ ॥२१-८॥

cūta-pravāla-barha-stabakotpalābja- mālānupṛkta-paridhāna-vicitra-veśau | madhye virejatur alaṁ paśu-pāla-goṣṭhyāṁ raṅge yathā naṭa-varau kvaca gāyamānau ||21-8||

Mango sprouts, peacock feathers, flower-clusters, lotuses of blue and white touched their garments. Krishna and Balarama, the two of variegated dress, shone in the middle of the cowherd boys. They looked like the best of dancers on a stage. Sometimes they sang.

Modern Reflection

The verse compares Krishna and Balarama to naṭa-varau, two best dancers, on a raṅga, a stage. The simile is exact. The cowherd boys are the supporting cast. The forest is the stage. Sanskrit aesthetic theory, written down later by Bharata in the Natyashastra, will use raṅga as a technical term. The verse is older than the Natyashastra and already using the term. The gopis are watching, in their mind's eye, a performance. Indian art has rarely separated the religious from the theatrical, and this verse is one reason why.

Verse 9THE FAMOUS verse - what good deeds did the flute do?

what did the flute dokim ācarad veṇuḥthe empty vesselgrace not meritfamous verse

गोप्यः किमाचरदयं कुशलं स्म वेणुर् दामोदराधरसुधामपि गोपिकानाम् । भुङ्क्ते स्वयं यदवशिष्टरसं ह्रदिन्यो हृष्यत्त्वचोऽश्रु मुमुचुस्तरवो यथार्याः ॥२१-९॥

gopyaḥ kim ācarad ayaṁ kuśalaṁ sma veṇur dāmodarādhara-sudhām api gopikānām | bhuṅkte svayaṁ yad avaśiṣṭa-rasaṁ hradinyo hṛṣyat-tvaco 'śru mumucus taravo yathāryāḥ ||21-9||

Gopis, what good deeds must this flute have done? It enjoys, alone, the nectar of Damodara's lip, which is ours by right. We get the leftover taste. The rivers, their skin standing on end, are weeping. The trees are weeping like elders.

Modern Reflection

This is one of the two or three most quoted verses of the Venu Gita. The Sanskrit question 'gopyaḥ kim ācarad ayaṁ kuśalaṁ sma veṇuḥ', what good deed did this flute do, becomes a refrain in later Vaishnava poetry. The argument is theological. The flute is bamboo, hollow, empty. It has done no austerities, no devotion, no mantra-japa. Yet it has won what the gopis cannot win. The verse's answer is silent. The gopis do not say what the flute did. They leave the question open, because the answer is that the flute did nothing. It was simply hollow enough to be filled. That is the Bhagavata's quiet teaching on grace.

Verse 10

second order effectsmatta mayūrathe chain of responsegovindahalt and watch

वृन्दावनं सखि भुवो वितनोति कीर्तिं यद्देवकीसुतपदाम्बुजलब्धलक्ष्मि । गोविन्दवेणुमनु मत्तमयूरनृत्यं प्रेक्ष्याद्रिसान्ववरतान्यसमस्तसत्त्वम् ॥२१-१०॥

vṛndāvanaṁ sakhi bhuvo vitanoti kīrtiṁ yad devakī-suta-padāmbuja-labdha-lakṣmi | govinda-veṇum anu matta-mayūra-nṛtyaṁ prekṣyādri-sānv-avaratānya-samasta-sattvam ||21-10||

Friend, Vrindavan is spreading the earth's reputation. It has the wealth of the lotus feet of Devaki's son. When the peacocks hear Govinda's flute, they dance like mad. All the other creatures on the hill-slopes stop and watch.

Modern Reflection

The verse names the second-order effect of the flute. The first effect is that the peacocks dance. The second is that every other animal stops to watch the peacocks. The Sanskrit compound avarata-anya-samasta-sattvam, all the other creatures coming to a halt, is a precise observation. The flute is the cause. The dance is the response. The halt is the response to the response. Indian theology of shakti, divine force, works in this chain: the original act produces a wave, and the wave produces other waves.

Verses 11–14

The Ecstasy of Animals

Paśu-Ānanda

Verse 11

looking as worshipdṛṣṭi pradakṣiṇathe husbands came toono qualification neededpraṇaya avalokaiḥ

धन्याः स्म मूढगतयोऽपि हरिण्य एता या नन्दनन्दनमुपात्तविचित्रवेशम् । आकर्ण्य वेणुरणितं सहकृष्णसाराः पूजां दधुर्विरचितां प्रणयावलोकैः ॥२१-११॥

dhanyāḥ sma mūḍha-gatayo 'pi hariṇya etā yā nanda-nandanam upātta-vicitra-veśam | ākarṇya veṇu-raṇitaṁ saha-kṛṣṇa-sārāḥ pūjāṁ dadhur viracitāṁ praṇayāvalokaiḥ ||21-11||

Look at these doe. They are blessed, even though they were born as animals. Hearing the flute of the son of Nanda in his variegated dress, they have come with their husbands the bucks, and offer him a careful worship of loving looks.

Modern Reflection

The gopis turn to the doe. Two things matter in the verse. First, the deer come with their husbands. The bucks are not jealous. The gopis themselves, married to other men, cannot leave their homes without conflict. The deer can. Second, the deer offer prayer with their eyes. Indian worship has a name for this kind of silent offering: dṛṣṭi-pradakṣiṇa, the circumambulation done by the look. The deer do not chant, sing, or move. They look. The verse calls that look a finished, ordered worship.

Verse 12

sajātīya darśanathe sky and the yarddemigoddesses toovanitā utsavawe are not alone

कृष्णं निरीक्ष्य वनितोत्सवरूपशीलं श्रुत्वा च तत्क्वणितवेणुविविक्तगीतम् । देव्यो विमानगतयः स्मरनुन्नसारा भ्रश्यत्प्रसूनकबरा मुमुहुर्विनीव्यः ॥२१-१२॥

kṛṣṇaṁ nirīkṣya vanitotsava-rūpa-śīlaṁ śrutvā ca tat-kvaṇita-veṇu-vivikta-gītam | devyo vimāna-gatayaḥ smara-nunna-sārā bhraśyat-prasūna-kabarā mumuhur vinīvyaḥ ||21-12||

Look at Krishna, whose form and character make a festival for all women. The demigoddesses, riding overhead in their flying chariots, hear the clear song of his flute. The god of love presses against their hearts. Flowers slip from their hair. Their belts loosen. They lose their composure mid-flight.

Modern Reflection

The gopis turn from the forest floor to the sky. The demigoddesses in this verse are not the women of Vraja. They live in higher worlds. They are married to gods. And yet the flute reaches them too. The argument is consoling. The gopis are saying: even women whose status we cannot imagine become as we are when the flute plays. We are not the only ones losing our composure. Indian philosophy has a term for this kind of consolation: sajātīya-darśana, seeing one's own kind. The verse is the gopis finding their own kind in the highest places.

Verse 13

tasthuḥstill as samadhiear as cupthe middle of an actionātmani spṛśantyaḥ

गावश्च कृष्णमुखनिर्गतवेणुगीत- पीयूषमुत्तभितकर्णपुटैः पिबन्त्यः । शावाः स्नुतस्तनपयःकवलाः स्म तस्थुर् गोविन्दमात्मनि दृशाश्रुकलाः स्पृशन्त्यः ॥२१-१३॥

gāvaś ca kṛṣṇa-mukha-nirgata-veṇu-gīta- pīyūṣam uttabhita-karṇa-puṭaiḥ pibantyaḥ | śāvāḥ snuta-stana-payaḥ-kavalāḥ sma tasthur govindam ātmani dṛśāśru-kalāḥ spṛśantyaḥ ||21-13||

The cows have raised their ears like cups, drinking the nectar of the flute-song that comes from Krishna's mouth. The calves stand still with their mouthfuls of milk flowing from their mothers. Through tear-filled eyes, they are touching Govinda inside themselves.

Modern Reflection

Two images, exact and small. The cow's ear shaped like a cup. The calf's mouth full of milk that it has stopped swallowing. The flute has paused both bodies in the act of their most ordinary functions. The Sanskrit verb tasthuḥ, they stood still, is the same verb the Bhagavata uses for yogis in samadhi. The verse is saying: the cows and calves are doing what the meditators try to do. Not by effort. By accident. The flute has done what years of practice are meant to do.

Verse 14

the birds are sagesmīlita dṛśaḥmunibehaviour over speciesspontaneous meditation

प्रायो बतांब विहगा मुनयो वनेऽस्मिन् कृष्णेक्षितं तदुदितं कलवेणुगीतम् । आरुह्य ये द्रुमभुजान्रुचिरप्रवालान् शृण्वन्ति मीलितदृशो विगतान्यवाचः ॥२१-१४॥

prāyo batāmba vihagā munayo vane 'smin kṛṣṇekṣitaṁ tad-uditaṁ kala-veṇu-gītam | āruhya ye druma-bhujān rucira-pravālān śṛṇvanti mīlita-dṛśo vigatānya-vācaḥ ||21-14||

Friend, surely these birds in the forest are sages. They have climbed the branches with their fresh sprouts and are sitting there, eyes closed, looking at Krishna, listening to his sweet flute, and they have given up every other sound.

Modern Reflection

The gopis make their boldest claim of the chapter here. The birds are sages. The Sanskrit muni means one who has taken a vow of silence and inner observation. The gopis see the silent, attentive birds on the branches and decide that what looks like a bird is in fact a sage in the body of a bird. Indian tradition allows this without difficulty. Forms are not fixed. A muni can be a bird. A bird can be a muni. The qualification is the behaviour, not the species. The verse opens an Indian epistemology: you know a sage by the silence, the closed eye, the abandoned other speech.

Verses 15–20

The Melting of Elements

Tattva-Pighalanā

Verse 15The rivers hold Krishna's feet - a famous image

ūrmi bhujaiḥarms made of wavesbody adapts to desiremukunda and murarithe river stops

नद्यस्तदा तदुपधार्य मुकुन्दगीतम् आवर्तलक्षितमनोभवभग्नवेगाः । आलिङ्गनस्थगितमूर्मिभुजैर्मुरारेर् गृह्णन्ति पादयुगलं कमलोपहाराः ॥२१-१५॥

nadyas tadā tad upadhārya mukunda-gītam āvarta-lakṣita-manobhava-bhagna-vegāḥ | āliṅgana-sthagitam ūrmi-bhujair murārer gṛhṇanti pāda-yugalaṁ kamalopahārāḥ ||21-15||

When the rivers hear Mukunda's song, their currents break. Whirlpools form on the surface, and those whirlpools are the marks of love-desire rising inside them. They reach with arms made of waves, clasp Murari's two feet, and offer lotuses.

Modern Reflection

The verse is one of the great images of Sanskrit literature. The river, which always moves, has stopped. The current is broken because the river's mind has been broken. The Sanskrit word manobhava means the love-feeling that arises in the mind. The whirlpools are the visible sign of the invisible state. Then the river, which has no arms, makes arms out of its waves. Indian poetics has a special name for this kind of figure: the metaphor where the body adapts to the desire. The river clasps what it could not clasp before. The verse has been painted, sung, and quoted for fifteen centuries.

Verse 16

sakhya bhavathe friend as cloudsva vapuṣāātma pradānadependable love

दृष्ट्वातपे व्रजपशून्सह रामगोपैः सञ्चारयन्तमनु वेणुमुदीरयन्तम् । प्रेमप्रवृद्ध उदितः कुसुमावलीभिः सख्युर्व्यधात्स्ववपुषांबुद आतपत्रम् ॥२१-१६॥

dṛṣṭvātape vraja-paśūn saha rāma-gopaiḥ sañcārayantam anu veṇum udīrayantam | prema-pravṛddha uditaḥ kusumāvalībhiḥ sakhyur vyadhāt sva-vapuṣāmbuda ātapatram ||21-16||

Seeing Krishna leading the animals of Vraja with Balarama and the cowherd boys in the heat, the flute still playing, the cloud above rose up, swollen with love. With rows of flower-like droplets of its own body it became an umbrella for its friend.

Modern Reflection

The verse identifies the cloud as Krishna's sakha, friend, in the same age-class. Indian rhetoric on friendship has a specific category called sakhya-bhava, the mood of friend with friend, distinct from mother-with-child or lover-with-lover. The cloud is dark blue like Krishna. The gopis, watching from below, see the visual rhyme. The verse names what the cloud does as a friendly act: shading the friend from his own heat. The Sanskrit verb vyadhāt, made, is the same verb used for ritual fabrication. The cloud is performing a ritual for a friend.

Verse 17

the pulindastransferred kunkumprasada theologyādhi relieflove through contact with the touched

पूर्णाः पुलिन्द्य उरुगायपदाब्जराग- श्रीकुङ्कुमेन दयितास्तनमण्डितेन । तद्दर्शनस्मररुजस्तृणरूषितेन लिम्पन्त्य आननकुचेषु जहुस्तदाधिम् ॥२१-१७॥

pūrṇāḥ pulindya urugāya-padābja-rāga- śrī-kuṅkumena dayitā-stana-maṇḍitena | tad-darśana-smara-rujas tṛṇa-rūṣitena limpantya ānana-kuceṣu jahus tad-ādhim ||21-17||

The tribal women, troubled by the love-pain of having seen him, find the kunkum that adorned the breasts of his beloveds. It had reddened his lotus feet and then transferred to the grass where his feet had walked. They smear that kunkum on their own faces and breasts, and their pain is relieved.

Modern Reflection

The verse describes the most explicit moment in the Venu Gita. The tribal women, the Pulindas, find on the forest grass the red kunkum that had originally been on the breasts of Krishna's beloveds, transferred via his feet to the ground. They apply that traceback kunkum to their own bodies. The Sanskrit verb jahuḥ, they gave up, names the relief. Indian devotional theology has a name for this: prasada, the leftover that becomes sacred. The tribal women cannot meet Krishna directly. They take what his presence has touched. The verse honours this kind of love as complete on its own terms.

Verse 18THE FAMOUS Govardhana verse - 'best of Hari's servants'

hari dāsa varyaḥgovardhanathe host as devoteematerial care as bhaktifamous verse

हन्तायमद्रिरबला हरिदासवर्यो यद्रामकृष्णचरणस्परशप्रमोदः । मानं तनोति सहगोगणयोस्तयोर्यत् पानीयसूयवसकन्दरकन्दमूलैः ॥२१-१८॥

hantāyam adrir abalā hari-dāsa-varyo yad rāma-kṛṣṇa-caraṇa-sparaśa-pramodaḥ | mānaṁ tanoti saha-go-gaṇayos tayor yat pānīya-sūyavasa-kandara-kandamūlaiḥ ||21-18||

Look, friends. This hill is the best of all Hari's servants. Joyful at the touch of Rama and Krishna's feet, it offers them honour, and the cows too, by providing drinking water, soft grass, caves, and edible roots.

Modern Reflection

Hari-dāsa-varyaḥ, the best of Hari's servants. This is the Sanskrit title Govardhana Hill receives in the Bhagavata. It is one of the most quoted phrases in Pushti Marg and Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. The Govardhana Hill near Mathura is a low ridge of stones. Pilgrims still circle it daily. The Bhagavata's argument is that the hill is the best devotee not because it has done austerities, but because it has given the essentials of life. Water. Grass. Shelter. Food. The verse defines servanthood as the providing of bodies' needs to those one loves. Indian devotional theology centres material care.

Verse 19

the inversionvicitrammoving things stopniryoga pāśathe rope and the flute

गा गोपकैरनुवनं नयतोरुदार- वेणुस्वनैः कलपदैस्तनुभृत्सु सख्यः । अस्पन्दनं गतिमतां पुलकस्तरूणां निर्योगपाशकृतलक्षणयोर्विचित्रम् ॥२१-१९॥

gā gopakair anu-vanaṁ nayator udāra- veṇu-svanaiḥ kala-padais tanu-bhṛtsu sakhyaḥ | aspandanaṁ gati-matāṁ pulakas tarūṇāṁ niryoga-pāśa-kṛta-lakṣaṇayor vicitram ||21-19||

Friends, see what is wonderful. Those two, who can be told apart by the cow-binding ropes on their bodies, lead the cows with the cowherd boys from forest to forest. The generous flute-tones play in sweet measures. The creatures that move stop moving. The trees that do not move stand their hair on end.

Modern Reflection

The verse ends with a precise inversion. The moving things stand still. The unmoving things show ecstasy. The Sanskrit aspandanam gati-matām, no-motion of the motion-having ones, and pulakaḥ tarūṇām, the hair-rising of the trees, are designed to mirror each other. The gopis are not just listing reactions. They are noticing that the flute reverses the categories of nature. What should move stops. What cannot move shivers. The world is being remade in the gopis' description. The Sanskrit word vicitram, wonderful, names this remaking.

Verse 20THE CLOSING - absorbed in the one they were describing

tan mayatāabsorbed in the describedkatha as practicethe side effectfamous closing

एवंविधा भगवतो या वृन्दावनचारिणः । वर्णयन्त्यो मिथो गोप्यः क्रीडास्तन्मयतां ययुः ॥२१-२०॥

evaṁ-vidhā bhagavato yā vṛndāvana-cāriṇaḥ | varṇayantyo mitho gopyaḥ krīḍās tan-mayatāṁ yayuḥ ||21-20||

Describing such play-acts of the Lord wandering Vrindavan to one another, the gopis became absorbed in him.

Modern Reflection

The Venu Gita closes with one of the most quoted half-lines in Vaishnava literature. Tan-mayatām yayuḥ, they attained absorption in him. The Sanskrit suffix maya means consisting of, made of. Tan-mayatā is the state of having become made of him. The gopis began the chapter trying to describe Krishna. They end the chapter having become what they were describing. The verse is the entire Bhagavata teaching on katha, sacred speech, in one line: tell the story long enough, accurately enough, with love enough, and the storyteller turns into the story.

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