Shloka 17
Gokula’s Wonder, Kṛṣṇa’s Bhakta-vaśyatā, the Move to Vṛndāvana, and the Slaying of Vatsāsura and Bakāsura
प्रतीक्षतेत्वां दाशार्ह भोक्ष्यमाणो व्रजाधिप: । एह्यावयो: प्रियं धेहि स्वगृहान्यात बालका: ॥ १७ ॥
pratīkṣate tvāṁ dāśārha bhokṣyamāṇo vrajādhipaḥ ehy āvayoḥ priyaṁ dhehi sva-gṛhān yāta bālakāḥ
O Dāśārha, Nanda Mahārāja, the lord of Vraja, is waiting to take his meal and is waiting for You. Dear Balarāma, come back and please us; and all the boys who play with Kṛṣṇa should now go to their own homes.
It appears that Nanda Mahārāja regularly took his food with his two sons, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Yaśodā told the other boys, “Now you should go to your homes.” Father and son generally sit together, so mother Yaśodā requested Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to return, and she advised the other boys to go home so that their parents would not have to wait for them.
FAQs
This verse shows Yaśodā’s intimate, motherly devotion—she affectionately orders Krishna to come for Nanda’s meal, treating the Supreme Lord as her dependent child.
In the Vraja household setting, she is managing family duties: Nanda is ready to eat, Krishna is to be brought home, and the cowherd boys are respectfully dismissed to their own homes.
It teaches that bhakti is personal and practical—serve God with loving attention in daily responsibilities, offering one’s home and routine as a space for devotion.