Study a Verse

• Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this verse as follows: “The wanton aborigine girls also became fully satisfied when they smeared their faces and breasts with the dust of Vṛndāvana, which was reddish from the touch of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet.
• His lotus feet were held by the gopis on their breasts, which were also smeared with kuṅkuma powder, but when Kṛṣṇa travelled in the Vṛndāvana forest with Balarāma and His boy friends, the reddish powder fell on the ground.
• So the lusty aborigine girls, while looking toward Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, saw the reddish kuṅkuma on the ground and immediately took it and smeared it over their faces and breasts.

The purport's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Attraction and threat → Joy and trust. The pastoral world becomes the setting for protection and love.

Chapters 20–28 of Canto 10: Forest seasons, flute and Govardhana. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 21: The Gopīs Glorify the Song of Kṛṣṇa’s Flute

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

The aborigine women of the Śabara race, seeing the grass stained by the red kuṅkuma adorning the Lord’s lotus feet, smear this vermilion powder upon their breasts and faces to alleviate the distress created by Cupid. Govardhana Hill offers grass and various kinds of fruits and bulbous roots in worship of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.