Study a Verse

• The words of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the greatest authority, herein clearly indicate that one becomes pious simply by keeping cows and protecting them.
• People generally consider cowherd men lowly members of society, but herein Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirms that they are so pious that in their next lives they are going to be brāhmaṇas.
• There is no loss in serving the cows and calves, but modern human society has become so degraded that instead of giving protection to the cows and serving them, people are killing them.

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

Public courage and ecstatic joy. The saṅkīrtana movement confronts opposition and moves toward recognition and expansion.

The mood of Ādi 17 as a whole, an editorial reading, not the text itself. See the emotional atlas

Ādi 17: The Pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His Youth

From Śrīla Prabhupāda's chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

The same Absolute Truth who enjoys as Kṛṣṇa, Śyāmasundara, who plays His flute and dances with the gopīs, sometimes takes birth in a brāhmaṇa family and plays the part of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, accepting the renounced order of life. It appears contradictory that the same Kṛṣṇa accepted the ecstasy of the gopīs, and of course this is very difficult for an ordinary person to understand.