Verse 1.7.37-38

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 1.7.37-38:

श्री-परीक्षिद् उवाच—
तथा वदन्तीं सुस्निग्धां रोहिणीं चाभिवाद्य सः ।
स्थितं कर-तले मातुर् नवनीतं शनैर् हसन् ॥ ३७ ॥
चौर्येणैव समादाय निज-ज्येष्ठं समाह्वयन् ।
अप्राप्याग्रे गवां सङ्गे गतं न बुभुजे घृणी ॥ ३८ ॥

śrī-parīkṣid uvāca—
tathā vadantīṃ susnigdhāṃ rohiṇīṃ cābhivādya saḥ |
sthitaṃ kara-tale mātur navanītaṃ śanair hasan || 37 ||
cauryeṇaiva samādāya nija-jyeṣṭhaṃ samāhvayan |
aprāpyāgre gavāṃ saṅge gataṃ na bubhuje ghṛṇī || 38 ||

Mahārāja Śrī Parīkṣit said: Hearing these words from the most affectionate Śrī Rohiṇī-devī, Śrī Kṛṣṇa offered praṇāma to his mother and gently smiling, stole the butter from the hands of the figurine of Mother Yaśodā. Then He began to call out for his elder brother Baladeva. However, he had already gone ahead with the cows, thus not seeing him, soft-hearted Śrī Kṛṣṇa also did not eat the butter.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

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

After hearing the most affectionate Śrī Rohiṇīdevī’s words, Śrī Kṛṣṇa considered the pratimā-rūpā or figurine of Yaśodā to be His actual mother. In other words, it is evident by this that He trusted the words of mātā Śrī Rohiṇī just like the words of Śrī Yaśodā-devī. After this, Śrī Kṛṣṇa greeted Śrī Rohiṇī-devī, that is, He offered praṇāma at her lotus feet, and gently stole away with the butter from the hands of the figurine of Mother Śrī Yaśodā. In other words, while smiling, He committed the theft in such a way that Mother Yaśodā would not understand, and in order to eat it with His elder brother Baladeva, He began to call Him.

Nevertheless, only Śrī Baladeva along with the cowherd boys had gone ahead with the cows, so Śrī Kṛṣṇa kindly did not eat the butter himself. For her dear son who loved butter, mātā Śrī Yaśodā always used to keep butter in her hands. Therefore Viśvakarma also kept butter in the hands of the pratimā-rūpā of Śrī Yaśodā. Considering his younger brother Śrī Kṛṣṇa to be unwell, Śrī Baladeva had gone to the forest even before taking lunch; this is evident. The essential meaning here is that the gopīs should be able, amongst other things, to converse with Śrī Kṛṣṇa without any hesitation. Therefore Śrī Baladeva had gone to the forest with the cows in advance. This was the custom in Vraja previously. This is the general line of thought.