Shloka 43
एवमेतेषु भेदेषु चिरं ध्यात्वा स आत्मभू: । सत्या: के कतरे नेति ज्ञातुं नेष्टे कथञ्चन ॥ ४३ ॥
evam eteṣu bhedeṣu ciraṁ dhyātvā sa ātma-bhūḥ satyāḥ ke katare neti jñātuṁ neṣṭe kathañcana
Thus Brahmā pondered for a long time over the differences between the two separately existing sets. He tried to discern who was real and who was not, but he could not understand it at all.
Brahmā was puzzled. “The original boys and calves are still sleeping as I have kept them,” he thought, “but another set is here playing with Kṛṣṇa. How has this happened?” Brahmā could not grasp what was happening. Which boys were real, and which were not real? Brahmā was unable to come to any definite conclusion. He pondered the matter for a long while. “How can there be two sets of calves and boys at the same time? Have the boys and calves here been created by Kṛṣṇa, or has Kṛṣṇa created the ones lying asleep? Or are both merely creations of Kṛṣṇa?” Brahmā thought about the subject in many different ways. “After I go to the cave and see that the boys and calves are still there, does Kṛṣṇa go take them away and put them here so that I come here and see them, and does Kṛṣṇa then take them from here and put them there?” Brahmā could not figure out how there could be two sets of calves and cowherd boys exactly alike. Although thinking and thinking, he could not understand at all.
FAQs
In this verse, Brahmā—though the self-born creator—cannot discern which calves and cowherd boys are real, showing Krishna’s inconceivable supremacy that even Brahmā cannot measure.
Because in the Brahmā-vimohana līlā, Krishna manifested identical forms, and Śukadeva highlights that Brahmā’s intellect and mystic power were insufficient before Krishna’s divine potency.
It teaches humility: spiritual truth is not conquered by ego or mere analysis; one should approach Krishna and scripture with devotion, sincerity, and reverence.