sarvam nara-vara-sresthau

 sarva-vidya-pravartakau

sakrn nigada-matrena

 tau sañjagrhatur nrpa

 

aho-ratrais catuh-sastya

 samyattau tavatih kalah

guru-daksinayacaryam

 chandayam asatur nrpa

 

Translation: 

 

O King, those best of persons, Krsna and Balarama, being Themselves the original promulgators of all varieties of knowledge, could immediately assimilate each and every subject after hearing it explained just once. Thus with fixed concentration They learned the sixty-four arts and skills in as many days and nights. Thereafter, O King, They satisfied Their spiritual master by offering him guru-daksina.

 

Purport: 

 

The following list comprises the sixty-four subjects mastered by Lord Krsna and Lord Balarama in sixty-four days. Additional information may be found in Srila Prabhupada’s Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

 

The Lords learned (1) gitam, singing; (2) vadyam, playing on musical instruments; (3) nrtyam, dancing; (4) natyam, drama; (5) alekhyam, painting; (6) visesaka-cchedyam, painting the face and body with colored unguents and cosmetics; (7) tandula-kusuma-bali-vikarah, preparing auspicious designs on the floor with rice and flowers; (8) puspastaranam, making a bed of flowers; (9) dasana-vasananga-ragah, coloring one’s teeth, clothes and limbs; (10) mani-bhumika-karma, inlaying a floor with jewels; (11) sayya-racanam, covering a bed; (12) udaka-vadyam, ringing waterpots; (13) udaka-ghatah, splashing with water; (14) citra-yogah, mixing colors; (15) malya-grathana-vikalpah, preparing wreaths; (16) sekharapida-yojanam, setting a helmet on the head; (17) nepathya-yogah, putting on apparel in a dressing room; (18) karna-patra-bhangah, decorating the earlobe; (19) sugandha-yuktih, applying aromatics; (20) bhusana-yojanam, decorating with jewelry; (21) aindrajalam, jugglery; (22) kaucumara-yogah, the art of disguise; (23) hasta-laghavam, sleight of hand; (24) citra-sakapupa-bhaksya-vikara-kriyah, preparing varieties of salad, bread, cake and other delicious food; (25) panaka-rasa-ragasava-yojanam, preparing palatable drinks and tinging draughts with red color; (26) suci-vaya-karma, needlework and weaving; (27) sutra-krida, making puppets dance by manipulating thin threads; (28) vina-damarukavadyani, playing on a lute and a small x-shaped drum; (29) prahelika, making and solving riddles; (29a) pratimala, capping verses, or reciting poems verse for verse as a trial of memory or skill; (30) durvacaka-yogah, uttering statements difficult for others to answer; (31) pustaka-vacanam, reciting books; and (32) natikakhyayika-darsanam, enacting short plays and writing anecdotes.

 

Krsna and Balarama also learned (33) kavya-samasya-puranam, solving enigmatic verses; (34) pattika-vetra-bana-vikalpah, making a bow from a strip of cloth and a stick; (35) tarku-karma, spinning with a spindle; (36) taksanam, carpentry; (37) vastu-vidya, architecture; (38) raupya-ratna-pariksa, testing silver and jewels; (39) dhatu-vadah, metallurgy; (40) mani-raga-jñanam, tinging jewels with various colors; (41) akara-jñanam, mineralogy; (42) vrksayur-veda-yogah, herbal medicine; (43) mesa-kukkuta-lavaka-yuddha-vidhih, the art of training and engaging rams, cocks and quails in fighting; (44) suka-sarika-pralapanam, knowledge of how to train male and female parrots to speak and to answer the questions of human beings; (45) utsadanam, healing a person with ointments; (46) kesa-marjana-kausalam, hairdressing; (47) aksara-mustika-kathanam, telling what is written in a book without seeing it, and telling what is hidden in another’s fist; (48) mlecchita-kutarka-vikalpah, fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry; (49) desa-bhasa-jñanam, knowledge of provincial dialects; (50) puspa-sakatika-nirmiti-jñanam, knowledge of how to build toy carts with flowers; (51) yantra-matrka, composing magic squares, arrangements of numbers adding up to the same total in all directions; (52) dharana-matrka, the use of amulets; (53) samvacyam, conversation; (54) manasi-kavya-kriya, composing verses mentally; (55) kriya-vikalpah, designing a literary work or a medical remedy; (56) chalitaka-yogah, building shrines; (57) abhidhana-kosa-cchando-jñanam, lexicography and the knowledge of poetic meters; (58) vastra-gopanam, disguising one kind of cloth to look like another; (59) dyuta-visesam, knowledge of various forms of gambling; (so) akarsa-krida, playing dice; (61) balaka-kridanakam, playing with children’s toys; (62) vainayiki vidya, enforcing discipline by mystic power; (63) vaijayiki vidya, gaining victory; and (64) vaitaliki vidya, awakening one’s master with music at dawn.