Canto 10: The Summum BonumChapter 47: The Song of the Bee

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.47.61

āsām aho caraṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaḿ syāḿ

vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām

yā dustyajaḿ sva-janam ārya-pathaḿ ca hitvā

bhejur mukunda-padavīḿ śrutibhir vimṛgyām

SYNONYMS

āsam — of the gopīs; aho — oh; caraṇa-reṇu — the dust of the lotus feet; juṣām — devoted to; aham syām — let me become; vṛndāvanein Vṛndāvana; kim api — any one; gulma-latā-oṣadhīnām — among bushes, creepers and herbs; — they who; dustyajam — very difficult to give up; sva-janam — family members; ārya-patham — the path of chastity; ca — and; hitvā — giving up; bhejuḥ — worshiped; mukunda-padavīm — the lotus feet of Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa; śrutibhiḥ — by the Vedas; vimṛgyāmto be searched for.

TRANSLATION

The gopīs of Vṛndāvana have given up the association of their husbands, sons and other family members, who are very difficult to give up, and they have forsaken the path of chastity to take shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa, which one should search for by Vedic knowledge. Oh, let me be fortunate enough to be one of the bushes, creepers or herbs in Vṛndāvana, because the gopīs trample them and bless them with the dust of their lotus feet.

PURPORT

The word meanings and translation for this verse are taken from Śrīla Prabhupāda's English rendering of Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya 7.47).

Śrī Uddhava here shows the perfect Vaiṣṇava attitude of humility. He does not pray to be equal to the gopīs in their exalted stage of love, but rather to take birth as a bush or creeper in Vṛndāvana so that when they walk upon him he will get the dust of their feet and thus be blessed. The shy gopīs would never agree to give such blessings to a great personality like Uddhava; therefore he cleverly sought to get such mercy by taking birth as a plant in Vṛndāvana.

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