Texts 18-19
maṇi-dharaḥ kvacid āgaṇayan gā
mālayā dayita-gandha-tulasyāḥ
praṇayino ’nucarasya kadāṁse
prakṣipan bhujam agāyata yatra
kvaṇita-veṇu-rava-vañcita-cittāḥ
kṛṣṇam anvasata kṛṣṇa-gṛhiṇyaḥ
guṇa-gaṇārṇam anugatya hariṇyo
gopikā iva vimukta-gṛhāśāḥ
maṇi — (a string of) gems; dharaḥ — holding; kvacit — somewhere; āgaṇayan — counting; gāḥ — the cows; mālayā — with a flower garland; dayita — of His beloved; gandha — having the fragrance; tulasyāḥ — the tulasī flowers upon which; praṇayinaḥ — loving; anucarasya — of a companion; kadā — at some time; aṁse — on the shoulder; prakṣipan — throwing; bhujam — His arm; agāyata — He sang; yatra — when; kvaṇita — vibrated; veṇu — of His flute; rava — by the sound; vañcita — stolen; cittāḥ — their hearts; kṛṣṇam — Kṛṣṇa; anvasata — they sat down beside; kṛṣṇa — of the black deer; gṛhiṇyaḥ — the wives; guṇa-gaṇa — of all transcendental qualities; arṇam — the ocean; anugatya — approaching; hariṇyaḥ — the does; gopikāḥ — the gopīs; iva — just like; vimukta — having given up; gṛha — for home and family; āśāḥ — their hopes.
Now Kṛṣṇa is standing somewhere counting His cows on a string of gems. He wears a garland of tulasī flowers that bear the fragrance of His beloved, and He has thrown His arm over the shoulder of an affectionate cowherd boyfriend. As Kṛṣṇa plays His flute and sings, the music attracts the black deer’s wives, who approach that ocean of transcendental qualities and sit down beside Him. Just like us cowherd girls, they have given up all hope for happiness in family life.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that in the afternoon Śrī Kṛṣṇa dressed Himself in new clothing and then went out to call the cows home. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī gives the following information about the transcendental cows of Vṛndāvana: “For each of the four colors of cows — white, red, black and yellow — there are twenty-five subdivisions, making a total of one hundred colors. And such qualities as being colored like sandalwood-pulp tilaka [speckled] or having a head shaped like a mṛdaṅga drum create eight further groups. To count these 108 groups of cows, distinguished by color and form, Kṛṣṇa is using a string of 108 jewel-beads.…
“Thus when Kṛṣṇa calls out ‘Hey Dhavalī [the name of a white cow],’ a whole group of white cows come forward, and when He calls ‘Haṁsī, Candanī, Gaṅgā, Muktā‘ and so on, the twenty-four other groups of white cows come. The reddish cows are called Aruṇī, Kuṅkuma, Sarasvatī, etc., the blackish ones Śyāmalā, Dhūmalā, Yamunā, etc., and the yellowish ones Pītā, Piṅgalā, Haritālikā, etc. Those in the group with tilaka marks on their foreheads are called Citritā, Citra-tilakā, Dīrgha-tilakā and Tiryak-tilakā, and there are groups known as Mṛdaṅga-mukhī [mṛdaṅga-head], Siṁha-mukhī [lion-head] and so on.
“Thus being called by name, the cows are coming forward, and Kṛṣṇa, thinking that when it is time to bring them back from the forest none should be forgotten, is counting them on His jewel-beads.”