Text 43
vraja-striyo yad vāñchanti
pulindyas tṛṇa-vīrudhaḥ
gāvaś cārayato gopāḥ
pada-sparśaṁ mahātmanaḥ
vraja — of Vraja; striyaḥ — the women; yat — as; vāñchanti — they desire; pulindyaḥ — the women of the aborigine Pulinda tribe in Vraja; tṛṇa — from the grass; vīrudhaḥ — and plants; gāvaḥ — the cows; cārayataḥ — who is grazing; gopāḥ — the cowherd boys; pāda — of the feet; sparśam — the touch; mahā-ātmanaḥ — of the Supreme Soul.
We desire the same contact with the Supreme Lord’s feet that the young women of Vraja, the cowherd boys and even the aborigine Pulinda women desire — the touch of the dust He leaves on the plants and grass as He tends His cows.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī reminds us of the jealous rivalry that always existed between the queens of Dvārakā and the gopīs of Vraja. The gopīs considered the sophisticated women of Dvārakā the most serious threat to their hold on Śrī Kṛṣṇa, confessing their anxiety to Uddhava: kasmāt kṛṣṇa ihāyāti prāpta-rājyo hatāhitaḥ/ narendra-kanyā udvāhya.
“Why should Kṛṣṇa come back here after winning a kingdom, killing His enemies and marrying the daughters of kings?” (Bhāg. 10.47.45)
Rukmiṇī and her seven chief co-wives considered themselves so fortunate in their relationship with Kṛṣṇa as He appeared in Dvārakā that they did not especially desire to see Him as He is in Vṛndāvana. But the sixteen thousand lesser queens, after hearing Uddhava describe Śrī Rādhā’s superexcellent qualities, became attracted to touch the dust that falls from Kṛṣṇa’s feet onto the grass and plants of Vṛndāvana. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī indicates that some commentators give this as the reason why, after the mauṣala-līlā, these sixteen thousand queens were stolen from Arjuna on the road by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in the disguise of sixteen thousand cowherds, who then took them away to Gokula.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Tenth Canto, Eighty-third Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “Draupadī Meets the Queens of Kṛṣṇa.”