Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.13.34

tataḥ pravayaso gopās

tokāśleṣa-sunirvṛtāḥ

kṛcchrāc chanair apagatās

tad-anusmṛty-udaśravaḥ

SYNONYMS

tataḥ — thereafter; pravayasaḥ — elderly; gopāḥ — cowherd men; toka-āśleṣa-sunirvṛtāḥ — became overjoyed by embracing their sons; kṛcchrāt — with difficulty; śanaiḥ — gradually; apagatāḥ — ceased from that embracing and returned to the forest; tat-anusmṛti-uda-śravaḥ — as they remembered their sons, tears began to roll down from their eyes.

TRANSLATION

Thereafter the elderly cowherd men, having obtained great feeling from embracing their sons, gradually and with great difficulty and reluctance ceased embracing them and returned to the forest. But as the men remembered their sons, tears began to roll down from their eyes.

PURPORT

In the beginning the cowherd men were angry that the cows were being attracted by the calves, but when the men came down from the hill, they themselves were attracted by their sons, and therefore the men embraced them. To embrace one's son and smell his head are symptoms of affection.

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