Verse 1

¹While the cowherds were taken up with their games, their cows strayed far off, grazing as they pleased, and went into a thicket for the grass in it. ²Goats, cows and buffaloes, passing from wood to wood, went into a stand of reeds, lowing, made thirsty by the heat. ³Then the cowherds, Krsna and Rama and the rest, not seeing the animals, were sorry, and though they searched they could not tell where the cows had gone. ⁴By the grass their hooves and teeth had broken and by the cow-prints left in the ground they all followed the road, their living lost and their wits with it. ⁵In the reed thicket they came upon their own cattle, off the path and lowing, and thirsty and worn out themselves they turned them back from there.

⁶Called by the Bhagavan in a voice as deep as a cloud, and hearing the sound of their own names, the cows answered him, thrilled with gladness.