Text 26] Brahma Stealing the Boys and Calves 27

go-gopinadm matrtdsminn
asit snehardhikam vind

purovad dsv api hares
tokata madyaya vind

go-gopinam—for both the cows and the gopis, the elderly cowherd
women; mdtrta—motherly affection; asmin—unto Krsna; dsit—there
ordinarily was; sneha—of affection; rdhikdm—any increase; vind—
without; purah-vat—like before; dsu—there was among the cows and
gopis; api—although; hareh—of Krsna; tokata—Krsna is my son;
mayaya vind—without maya.

TRANSLATION

Previously, from the very beginning, the gopis had motherly
affection for Krsna. Indeed, their affection for Krsna exceeded
even their affection for their own sons. In displaying their affec-
tion, they had thus distinguished between Krsna and their sons,
but now that distinction disappeared.

PURPORT

The distinction between one’s own son and another’s son is not un-
natural. Many elderly women have motherly affection for the sons of
others. They observe distinctions, however, between those other sons and
their own. But now the elderly gopis could not distinguish between their
own sons and Krsna, for since their own sons had been taken by Brahma,
Krsna had expanded as their sons. Therefore, their extra affection for
their sons, who were now Krsna Himself, was due to bewilderment
resembling that of Brahma. Previously, the mothers of Sridama,
Sudama, Subala and Krsna’s other friends did not have the same affec-
tion for one another’s sons, but now the gopis treated all the boys as their
own. Sukadeva Gosvami, therefore, wanted to explain this increment of
affection in terms of Krsna’s bewilderment of Brahma, the gopis, the
cows and everyone else.

TEXT 26
aaa AATAy PATTI |
TAA TIT IM FU AAT |RAl
