S'rî
S'uka said: 'With the gopas being absorbed in their
games wandered their cows far off and entered they, grazing on
their own, hungry for grass the thickets.
S'ukadeva
Gosvâmî said: While the cowherd boys were
completely absorbed in playing, their cows wandered far
away. They hungered for more grass, and with no one to watch
them they entered a dense forest. (Vedabase)
Text
2
The
goats, cows and buffalo going from one part of the forest to
the other entered a cane-forest and complained loudly being
thirsty of the heat.
Passing
from one part of the great forest to another, the goats,
cows and buffalo eventually entered an area overgrown with
sharp canes. The heat of a nearby forest fire made them
thirsty, and they cried out in distress. (Vedabase)
Text
3
The
gopas led by Krishna and Râma not seeing the
animals then regretted it not to have kept an eye on them and
searched out the cows their trail.
Not
seeing the cows before them, Krishna, Râma and Their
cowherd friends suddenly felt repentant for having neglected
them. The boys searched all around, but could not discover
where they had gone. (Vedabase)
Text
4
All
anxious about the loss of their livelihood followed they the
hoofprints of the cows on the path from the blades of grass
broken by the hooves and the teeth of the cows.
Then
the boys began tracing out the cows' path by noting their
hoofprints and the blades of grass the cows had broken with
their hooves and teeth. All the cowherd boys were in great
anxiety because they had lost their source of livelihood.
(Vedabase)
Text
5
In
the Muñjâ forest they found their cows and other
animals who, having lost their way, were tired crying of
thirst, whereupon they all turned back.
Within
the Muñjâ forest the cowherd boys finally found
their valuable cows, who had lost their way and were crying.
Then the boys, thirsty and tired, herded the cows onto the
path back home. (Vedabase)
Text
6
They,
when they heard the sound of their names shouted by the Supreme
Lord with a voice aloud as the rumbling clouds, answered
overjoyed.
The
Supreme Personality of Godhead called out to the animals in
a voice that resounded like a rumbling cloud. Hearing the
sound of their own names, the cows were overjoyed and called
out to the Lord in reply. (Vedabase)
Text
7
Then
all of a sudden, appeared on all sides a huge and terrible
conflagration that licking threatened all beings in the forest
moving and non-moving with a gruesome storm of sparks driven by
their charioteer, the wind.
Just
as Krishna, Balarâma and the cowherd boys were about
to take their cows back home, the forest fire previously
mentioned raged out of control and surrounded all of them.
(Vedabase)
Text
8
That
forest fire falling upon them from all sides made the
gopas and the cows, looking about in fear, address
Krishna and His strength Balarâma for shelter, the way
all people troubled by the fear of death seek the Supreme
Personality:
As
the cows and cowherd boys stared at the forest fire
attacking them on all sides, they became fearful. The boys
then approached Krishna and Balarâma for shelter, just
as those who are disturbed by fear of death approach the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. The boys addressed Them as
follows. (Vedabase)
Text
9
'Krishna,
o Krishna, o Greatest Hero, o Râma of a never failing
power, please save us who are of surrender from being scorched
by the forest fire.
[The
cowherd boys said:] O Krishna! Krishna! Most powerful
one! O Râma! You whose prowess never fails! Please
save Your devotees, who are about to be burned by this
forest fire and have come to take shelter of You!
(Vedabase)
Text
10
We
Your friends, o Krishna, having You, the perfect knower of all
nature for our Lord, surely can never deserve it to be let down
in case we suffer?!'
Krishna!
Certainly Your own friends shouldn't be destroyed. O knower
of the nature of all things, we have accepted You as our
Lord, and we are souls surrendered unto You!
(Vedabase)
Text
11
S'rî
S'uka said: 'The Supreme Lord Hari hearing the pitiable words
of His friends thus said: 'Don't be afraid, just close your
eyes'.
S'ukadeva
Gosvâmî said: Hearing these pitiful words from
His friends, the Supreme Lord Krishna told them, "Just close
your eyes and do not be afraid." (Vedabase)
Text
12
'All
right', they said and having closed their eyes delivered the
Supreme Lord, the Controller of Yoga, them from the danger by
taking the terrible fire in with His mouth.
"All
right," the boys replied, and immediately closed their eyes.
Then the Supreme Lord, the master of all mystic power,
opened His mouth and swallowed the terrible fire, saving His
friends from danger. (Vedabase)
Text
13
And when they
then opened their eyes again were they amazed that, with
themselves and the cows being saved, they had been transported
to Bhândîra [the banyan, see
10.18:
22, that was
ten miles away so one says].
The
cowherd boys opened their eyes and were amazed to find not
only that they and the cows had been saved from the terrible
fire but that they had all been brought back to the
Bhândîra tree. (Vedabase)
Text
14
Witnessing the
deliverance of themselves from the burning forest as a
consequence of the yogic power of Krishna His internal control
over the deluding material energy, thought they of Him as being
an immortal.
When
the cowherd boys saw that they had been saved from the
forest fire by the Lord's mystic power, which is manifested
by His internal potency, they began to think that Krishna
must be a demigod. (Vedabase)
Text
15
Krishna who
together with Râma and the cows on their way sounded His
flute while He was praised by the gopas, returned late
that afternoon to the cowherd village.
It
was now late in the afternoon, and Lord Krishna, accompanied
by Balarâma, turned the cows back toward home. Playing
His flute in a special way, Krishna returned to the cowherd
village in the company of His cowherd friends, who chanted
His glories. (Vedabase)
Text
16
The young
cowherd girls were exited to the greatest state of bliss to see
Govinda present again, because it for them seemed to take a
hundred ages to be without Him for but a moment.'
The
young gopîs took the greatest pleasure in seeing
Govinda come home, since for them even a moment without His
association seemed like a hundred ages. (Vedabase)