Verse 2.1.112-112

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 2.1.112-112:

गोपाल-वृत्तेर् वैश्यस्य गोवर्धन-विलासिनः ।
पुत्रोऽहम् इदृशो बालः पुरा गाश् चारयन् निजाः ॥ १११ ॥
तस्मिन् गोवर्धने कृष्णा-तीरे वृन्दावनेऽत्र च ।
माथुरे मण्डले बालैः समं विप्र-वर स्थितः ॥ ११२ ॥

gopāla-vṛtter vaiśyasya govardhana-vilāsinaḥ |
putro'ham idṛśo bālaḥ purā gāś cārayan nijāḥ || 111 ||
tasmin govardhane kṛṣṇā-tīre vṛndāvane'tra ca |
māthure maṇḍale bālaiḥ samaṃ vipra-vara sthitaḥ || 112 ||

gopāla-vṛtteḥ–having the livelihood of a cowherd; vaiśyasya–of a mercantile community; govardhana-nivāsinaḥ–of a resident of Govardhana Hill; putraḥ–son; aham–I; īdṛśaḥ–like; bālaḥ–a child; purā–before; gāḥ–cows; cārayan–tending; nijāḥ–my own; tasmin–there; govardhane–on Govardhana; kṛṣṇā-tīre–on the bank of the Yamunā; vṛndāvane–in Vṛndāvana; atra–here; ca–and; māthure maṇḍale–within the area of Mathurā-manḍala (Vraja); bālaiḥ–with boys; samam–together; vipra-vara–O best of the brāhmaṇas; sthitaḥ–situated.

O best of the brāhmaṇas! I am a resident of Govardhana and my father, a cowherder, belonged to the mercantile community that is occupied in tending cows. Just as I am a child now, similarly, even in my childhood in the past, I used to graze the cows with other boys the same age. We took them pasturing within the Mathurā area: on the banks of Śrī Yamunā at Śrī Govardhana and also here in Śrī Vṛndāvana.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

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

This story begins here in verse 111 of this chapter with the words gopāla-vṛtteḥ, and it continues to the end of Chapter Six.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.24.21) states: “kṛṣi-vāṇijya-go-rakṣā kusīdaṃ tūryam ucyate–four occupational duties are appropriate for the mercantile class, known as vaiśyas: agriculture, commerce, cow protection, and money lending.”

Śrī Gopa-kumāra says, “My vaiśya father made his living tending cows. As his son, I grazed the cows in areas such as Śrī Govardhana. How you see me now is how I looked in my childhood when I tended the cows with boys of my own age.” This reveals that Gopa-kumāra’s body had not changed with the passage of time. Later, Gopa-kumāra himself discloses his guru’s benediction (Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 2.1.191).

He says, “My guru’s blessing was as follows.”

त्वम् एतस्य प्रभावेण चिर-जीवी भवान्व्-अहम्
ईदृग् गोपार्भ-रूपश् च तत्-फलाप्त्य्-अर्ह-मानसः

tvam etasya prabhāveṇa cira-jīvī bhavānv-aham
īdṛg gopārbha-rūpaś ca tat-phalāpty-arha-mānasaḥ

“I bless you that by the power of chanting the mantra you will become immortal. Moreover, always appearing in this way as a cowherd boy, you will obtain the special vision you need to receive the indescribable fruit of directly seeing Śrī Madana-gopāla-deva.”

The adjective nija, meaning ‘own,’ in the original verse alludes to Gopa-kumāra’s independence and wealth of cows. He says, “I tended cows on the world-famous Govardhana Hill, my previous place of residence, as well on the river Yamunā’s banks, and here in Vṛndāvana.” The word tasmin, meaning ‘there,’ is used in reference to Govardhana, and atra, meaning ‘here,’ is used in reference to Vṛndāvana. This is because Gopa-kumāra is narrating this account while sitting in Śrī Vṛndāvana. Mathurā-maṇḍala, which measures twenty yojanas [160 miles], is a vast tract that includes twelve forests such as Mahāvana, as well as the places where Gopa-kumāra tended the cows–Śrī Govardhana, Śrī Vṛndāvana, and the banks of Śrī Yamunā. There is no place as beneficial as the charming Gokula of Mathurā-maṇḍala. Gopakumāra addressed the brāhmaṇa as ‘vipra-vara–O best of brāhmaṇas’ because he had taken birth in Mathurā-maṇḍala.