Verse 35

²⁸Hearing this word of Govinda's, which was not what they wanted, the cowherd women were cast down; their purpose was broken, and a grief came on them that they could not get past. ²⁹Their faces went down in sorrow, their red lips drying with their breathing; they scratched at the ground with a foot; their tears carried off the black from their eyes and washed the saffron from their breasts; and they stood there silent under the great weight of it. ³⁰Krsna, whom they loved best, was speaking to them as though he were not their beloved; and to him, for whose sake they had turned back from every other wanting, they spoke, loving him, wiping their eyes a little that the crying had spoiled, their voices breaking in their agitation.

³¹Not so, mighty one; you should not speak so cruelly. We have let go of everything the senses want and given ourselves to the soles of your feet. Turn to us, you who are hard to hold; do not throw us off, as the god, the first Person, turns to those who want release. ³²Dear one, you who know dharma have told us that a woman's own duty is to follow her husband, her children and her friends. Let it be so, and let it hold of you, Lord, who are the very ground of that teaching: for you are the dearest of all to those who wear bodies, their kinsman and their self. ³³Those who are skilled take their delight in you, who are their own self and dear always. What are husbands and children and the rest, who bring only pain? So be kind to us, supreme Lord; do not cut off the hope we have held in you so long, you whose eyes are lotuses.

³⁴You have taken away, and easily, the mind that used to go into the work of the house, and our hands with it. Our feet will not move one step from your feet. How are we to go to Vraja, and what would we do there? ³⁵Pour on us, dear one, the flood of nectar from your lip and put out the fire in our hearts that your smiles and your glances and your sweet singing have lit. If you will not, we shall give our bodies to the fire that separation makes, and come by meditation to the place of your feet, friend.