यदि च प्रीतये तेषां तत्र यामि वसामि च ।
तथापि किमपि स्वास्थ्यं भाव्यं नालोचयाम्यहम् ॥
मदीक्षणादेव विगाढभावो-
दयेन लब्धा विकला विमोहम् ।
न दैहिकं किञ्चन ते न देहं
विदुर्न चात्मानमहो किमन्यत् ॥
yadi ca prītaye teṣāṁ tatra yāmi vasāmi ca |
tathāpi kim api svāsthyaṁ bhāvyaṁ nālocayāmy aham ||
mad-īkṣaṇād eva vigāḍha-bhāvo-
dayena labdhā vikalā vimoham |
na daihikaṁ kiñcana te na dehaṁ
vidur na cātmānam aho kim anyat ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.94–95)
“And if I go and reside there
For their pleasure,
I still do not consider
That their well-being will occur at all.
Becoming overwhelmed
And seized by intense stupor
Because of the arising of very deep bhāva
Just by the sight of me,
They know neither the bodily,
Nor the body,
Nor even themselves whatsoever.
Aho!
What [to speak] of anything else?”
Commentary
Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmīpāda explains in his commentary on these verses that Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa speaks them in response to a suggestion from Satyabhāmā Devī that the people of Vraja would feel satisfaction if Śrī Kṛṣṇa went and stayed there with them for some time. Śrī Sanātanapāda explains that as Śrī Kṛṣṇa replies, he uses the pronoun “they” (te) to refer to the people of Vraja in general, or, to the gopas and gopīs of Vraja collectively, or, to only the gopīs specifically, and in the case of this last interpretation, the gopīs are spoken of by Śrī Kṛṣṇa using the masculine gendered pronoun te because of their being most highly confidential (te Vraja-janāḥ, yad vā te gopās tāś ca gopya ity eka-śeṣatvena te iti, yad vā te gopī-janā eva tatas tāsāṁ nāmādy-agrahaṇaṁ tā iti strītvenānuktiś ca parama-gopyatamatvāt), meaning, he uses the masculine gendered pronoun, which is customarily used to refer to persons of all genders, to conceal who he is specifically speaking about. Śrī Sanātanapāda also explains that the stupor (moham) they fall into is said to be “intense” (viśiṣṭam) because of their perceptions of manifestations (sphūrtis) of Śrī Bhagavān along with his companions even in the midst of their stupor, which indicates that the “very deep bhāva” (vigāḍha-bhāva) that arises in them produces a state that differs from the state of samādhi attained by yogīs, since in yogīs’ samādhi there is total voidness (vimohaṁ viśiṣṭaṁ mohaṁ sa-parikarasya Śrī-Bhagavatas tatrāpi sphūrteḥ, na tu samādhivat sarva-śūnyatāpādanād apakṛṣṭam). Śrī Sanātanapāda clarifies import of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s response to Satyabhāmā Devī here, in which he explains why even his personally going to Vraja would not help the people of Vraja, as follows:
ataḥ kiñcid anusandhānābhāvān na kiñcid api teṣāṁ bahiḥ-svāsthyam āpādayituṁ mayā śakyaṁ syāt, pratyuta mad-īkṣaṇād eva parama-prema-viśeṣodayena te vaikalyaṁ mūrcchāṁ labhanta iti teṣāṁ tad-duravasthā-darśanād varaṁ me tatrāgamanādikam iveti bhāvaḥ |
“Therefore, because of the absence of any [external] awareness [on their part, as a result of their falling into intense stupor at the sight of me], their external well-being shall not be able to be accomplished by me at all. Rather, as a result of the arising [in them] of a special form of paramount prema just by the sight of me, they become overwhelmed and faint. Thus, out of consideration of this predicament of theirs, it is [only] as though my going there and so on is better. This is the purport [i.e., Śrī Kṛṣṇa considers that it is not actually best that he simply going in person to Vraja as it appeared to be to Satyabhāmā Devī since this will cause all the people of Vraja to fall into an intense state of stupor and thus not actually result in their reaching a state of external awareness in which they are peaceful and happy].”