Text 12
bhramaṇair laṅghanaiḥ kṣepair
āsphoṭana-vikarṣaṇaiḥ
cikrīḍatur niyuddhena
kāka-pakṣa-dharau kvacit
bhramaṇaiḥ — with whirling about; laṅghanaiḥ — jumping; kṣepaiḥ — throwing; āsphoṭana — slapping; vikarṣaṇaiḥ — and dragging; cikṛīḍatuḥ — They (Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma) played; niyuddhena — with fighting; kāka-pakṣa — the locks of hair on the sides of Their heads; dharau — holding; kvacit — sometimes.
Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma played with their cowherd boyfriends by whirling about, leaping, hurling, slapping and fighting. Sometimes Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma would pull the hair on the boys’ heads.
The ācāryas have explained this verse as follows: The word bhramaṇaiḥ indicates that the boys, pretending they were machines, would sometimes whirl about until they became dizzy. They would also sometimes jump about (laṅghanaiḥ). The word kṣepaiḥ indicates that sometimes they would hurl objects like balls or stones and that sometimes they would grab each other by the arms and throw one another about. Āsphoṭana means that sometimes they would slap one another’s shoulders or backs, and vikarṣaṇaiḥ indicates they would drag one another about in the midst of their play. By the word niyuddhena arm wrestling and other types of friendly fighting are indicated, and the word kāka-pakṣa-dharau means that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma would sometimes grab the hair on the other boys’ heads in a playful manner.