Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 9.24.65

yasyānanam makara-kundala-cāru-karna-

bhrājat-kapola-subhagam savilāsa-hāsam

nityotsavam na tatripur driśibhih pibantyo

nāryo narāś ca muditāh kupitā nimeś ca

SYNONYMS

yasya — whose; ānanam — face; makara-kundala-cāru-karna — decorated by earrings resembling sharks and by beautiful ears; bhrājat — brilliantly decorated; kapola — forehead; subhagam — declaring all opulences; sa-vilāsa-hāsam — with smiles of enjoyment; nitya-utsavam — whenever one sees Him, one feels festive; na tatripuh — they could not be satisfied; driśibhih — by seeing the form of the Lord; pibantyah — as if drinking through the eyes; nāryah — all the women of Vrindāvana; narāh — all the male devotees; ca — also; muditāh — fully satisfied; kupitāh — angry; nimeh — the moment they are disturbed by the blinking of the eyes; ca — also.

TRANSLATION

Krishna's face is decorated with ornaments, such as earrings resembling sharks. His ears are beautiful, His cheeks brilliant, and His smiling attractive to everyone. Whoever sees Lord Krishna sees a festival. His face and body are fully satisfying for everyone to see, but the devotees are angry at the creator for the disturbance caused by the momentary blinking of their eyes.

PURPORT

As stated by the Lord Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.3):

manushyānām sahasreshu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānām

kaścin mām vetti tattvatah

"Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth." Unless one is qualified to understand Krishna, one cannot appreciate the presence of Krishna on earth. Among the Bhojas, Vrishnis, Andhakas, Pāndavas and many other kings intimately related with Krishna, the intimate relationship between Krishna and the inhabitants of Vrindāvana is especially to be noted. That relationship is described in this verse by the words nityotsavam na tatripur driśibhih pibantyah. The inhabitants of Vrindāvana especially, such as the cowherd boys, the cows, the calves, the gopīs and Krishna's father and mother, were never fully satisfied, although they saw Krishna's beautiful features constantly. Seeing Krishna is described here as nitya-utsava, a daily festival. The inhabitants of Vrindāvana saw Krishna almost every moment, but when Krishna left the village for the pasturing grounds, where He tended the cows and calves, the gopīs were very much afflicted because they saw Krishna walking on the sand and thought that Krishna's lotus feet, which they dared not place on their breasts because they thought their breasts not soft enough, were being pierced by broken chips of stone. By even thinking of this, the gopīs were affected, and they cried at home. These gopīs, who were therefore the exalted friends of Krishna, saw Krishna constantly, but because their eyelids disturbed their vision of Krishna, the gopīs condemned the creator, Lord Brahmā. Therefore the beauty of Krishna, especially the beauty of His face, is described here. At the end of the Ninth Canto, in the Twenty-fourth Chapter, we find a hint of Krishna's beauty. Now we are proceeding to the Tenth Canto, which is considered Krishna's head. The entire Śrīmad-Bhāgavata Purāna is the embodiment of Krishna's form, and the Tenth Canto is His face. This verse gives a hint of how beautiful His face is. Krishna's smiling face, with His cheeks, His lips, the ornaments in His ears, His chewing of betel nuts — all this was minutely observed by the gopīs, who thus enjoyed transcendental bliss, so much so that they were never fully satisfied to see Krishna's face, but instead condemned the creator of the body for making eyelids that obstructed their vision. The beauty of Krishna's face was therefore much more appreciated by the gopīs than by His friends the cowherd boys or even by Yaśodā Mātā, who was also interested in decorating the face of Krishna.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness