Verse 1.6.73-75

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 1.6.73-75:

त्वयानुतप्यते कृष्ण कथं मन्-मन्त्रितं शृणु ।
यद् एकादशभिर् वर्षैर् नन्द-गोपस्य मन्दिरे ॥ ७३ ॥
द्वाभ्यां युवाभ्यां भ्रातृभ्याम् उपभुक्तं हि वर्तते ।
तत्र दद्यान् न दद्याद् वा गोरक्षा-जीवनं स ते ॥ ७४ ॥
सर्वं तद् गर्ग-हस्तेन गणयित्वा कणाणुशः ।
द्विगुणीकृत्य मद्-भर्त्रा तस्मै देयं शपे स्वयम् ॥ ७५ ॥

tvayānutapyate kṛṣṇa kathaṃ man-mantritaṃ śṛṇu |
yad ekādaśabhir varṣair nanda-gopasya mandire || 73 ||
dvābhyāṃ yuvābhyāṃ bhrātṛbhyām upabhuktaṃ hi vartate |
tatra dadyān na dadyād vā gorakṣā-jīvanaṃ sa te || 74 ||
sarvaṃ tad garga-hastena gaṇayitvā kaṇāṇuśaḥ |
dviguṇīkṛtya mad-bhartrā tasmai deyaṃ śape svayam || 75 ||

Padmāvatī said: O Kṛṣṇa, why are You repenting? Listen to my advice. Whatever You two brothers have eaten, drunk, worn and enjoyed by remaining in the house of Nanda-gopa, whether they may or may not give you some remittance for grazing and protecting the cows, I am not concerned with that.

Nevertheless, the king of the Yadus would have Śrī Gargācārya account for every single farthing of that remuneration and even double it. He would have Śrī Gargācārya grant it to the king of the gopas–I tell this by taking a vow.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

(By Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī himself including a deep purport of that commentary)

Śrī Padmāvatī said, “O Kṛṣṇa, why are you repenting? Whatever You two brothers enjoyed in the house of Śrī Nanda-gopa, whatever you have eaten, drunk and worn, twice that expenditure will be granted to the king of the gopas, Śrī Nanda, by my husband Śrī Ugrasena. However, whatever You enjoyed in their house from that the king of the gopas may or may not give You two brothers anything, not even a wage for grazing and protecting the cows. Moreover, if Nanda would not ask anything more than this, then it is not our duty to display our insistence in that subject matter. The king of the Yadus, Śrī Ugrasena himself would estimate the payment for every farthing through Gargācārya and grant it to him, Śrī Nanda Mahārāja. Padmāvatī has thus made known the charitable nature of her husband. Gargācārya is the best among all astrologers; therefore, the accounts made by him would be accurate and not even a farthing would be unaccounted for. Therefore, the king of the gopas, Nanda, would receive everything.”

In fact, the hidden intention of Padmāvatī is that because Gargācārya would do the proper accounting, there is no chance of Nanda Mahārāja receiving anything in excess. The purpose of calling “goparāja, the king of the gopas,” is that there is nothing valuable in his house other than the milk of the cows;therefore, what more can he receive? The intent of saying “Whatever the two brothers have enjoyed,” is that whatever Śrī Rohiṇī-devī has enjoyed by staying in the house of Śrī Nanda with her maidservants, it is not our duty to grant anything for that, because before this Rohiṇī had disrespected the words of Padmāvatī.

Therefore, Padmāvatī has angrily decided not to give anything in exchange for the enjoyment of Śrī Rohiṇī who resided in the house of Nanda Mahārāja for eleven years. These words are seen in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (3.2.26), ekādaśa samās tatra, gūḍhārciḥ sa-balo’vasat: “Śrī Kṛṣṇa with His brother Śrī Baladeva remained secretly in the house of Śrī Nanda for eleven years.” In the current śloka the word gūḍhārci indicates that they resided for eleven years in a hidden manner. However, after this they resided openly for a long time. The description of this is given in the Tenth Canto (Śrīmad-Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.44.8), jva cātisukumārāṅgau, kiśorau nāpta-yauvanau: “Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma are of youthful age and Their complexions are blackish and white respectively. They are beauty personified. Their arms are very long, reaching down to their knees.”

At the time of the wrestling competition, the ladies of the city of Mathurā took the darśana of only those youthful forms.

This is also described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.45.3):

नास्मत्तो युवयोस् तातस् नित्योत्कण्ठितयोर् अपि
बाल्य-पौगण्ड-कैशोराः पुत्राभ्याम् अभवन् क्वचित्

nāsmatto yuvayos tātas nityotkaṇṭhitayor api
bālya-paugaṇḍa-kaiśorāḥ putrābhyām abhavan kvacit

Both these brothers had tender kaiśora bodies, they had not yet entered yauvana age of youth.

The word kaiśora indicates the age of eleven years. In the age of eleven years only, the sacred thread ceremony of the kṣatriya class people is conducted. Therefore Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma had taken the sacred thread only after killing Kaṃsa. Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in the wrestling arena told Śrī Devakī and Vasudeva, “We are your sons, although you were very eager for Us, you could not become happy by experiencing childhood, early boyhood and later boyhood pastimes.”

The purport is that They are your sons; however, you could not experience the pastimes of childhood, early boyhood and later boyhood. Śrī Vasudeva and Devakī could not obtain happiness by experiencing the later boyhood pastimes, because in the wrestling arena of Mathurā the great opulence of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma was manifest; therefore, it was impossible to manifest the sweetness of these later boyhood pastimes completely. Although in that condition a behavior like a youth is heard, even in the childhood-like stage of later boyhood, the beauty of older age is also seen. Therefore, when They appeared in the wrestling arena their age could not have been too much. Śrī Kṛṣṇa takes the nitya-kaiśora, eternal later-boyhood form. He should always be considered to be in the kaiśora stage, laterboyhood condition. In the last year of later boyhood (kaiśora) or at the age of fifteen, Bhagavān came from Gokula to Madhu-purī. There can be also reconciliation by accepting this truth also, because the age of fifteen is the last stage of the kaiśora or later boyhood age.

Great personalities like Śrī Bilvamaṅgala also accept the truth about the appearance of the youth (yauvana) of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Vraja. In Vraja itself, the prauḍha-bhāva līlā, a grown-up sentiment of the kaiśora stage, are also recited about. Although in the childhood (bālya) stage, due to the show of bodily strength, it is not possible to have prauḍhabhāva, the sentiment of mature grown-ups, still in the prauḍha or mature stage, there is an awakening of the mellows of śṛṅgāra, so due to the prospects of heart-stealing beauty, the form of fifteen years receives the most respect. Therefore, even if one concludes the age as fifteen years, there is no chance of inappropriateness. In this way, Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma resided in Vraja untill the age of fifteen years.

Among those years, until the age of four, they drank the breast-milk of their mother and during the last eleven years they enjoyed the cow’s milk that was offered by Śrī Nanda Mahārāja. With this intent, Padmāvatī speaks about having enjoyed cow’s milk for eleven years in the house of Śrī Nanda.