FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.9.33

त्रिभुवनकमनं तमालवर्णं रविकरगौरवराम्बरं दधाने । वपुरलककुलावृताननाब्जं विजयसखे रतिरस्तु मेऽनवद्या ॥ ३३ ॥
tri-bhuvana-kamanaṁ tamāla-varṇaṁ
[tri-bhuvana-kamanam tamaala-varnam]
ravi-kara-gaura-vara-ambaraṁ dadhāne
[ravi-kara-gaura-vara-ambaram dadhaane]
vapur alaka-kulāvṛtānanābjaṁ
[vapur alaka-kulaavritaananaabjam]
vijaya-sakhe ratir astu me ’navadyā
[vijaya-sakhe ratir astu me ’navadyaa]
tri-bhuvana — three statuses of planetary systems kamanam — the most desirable tamāla-varṇam — bluish like the tamāla tree ravi-kara — sun rays gaura — golden color varāmbaram — glittering dress dadhāne — one who wears vapuḥ — body alaka-kula-āvṛta — covered with paintings of sandalwood pulp anana-abjam — face like a lotus vijaya-sakhe — unto the friend of Arjuna ratiḥ astu — may attraction be reposed upon Him me — my anavadyā — without desire for fruitive results.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
tri-bhuvana-kamanaṁ tamāla-varṇaṁ
tri-bhuvana
three statuses of planetary systems
kamanam
the most desirable
tamāla-varṇam
bluish like the tamāla tree
ravi-kara-gaura-vara-ambaraṁ dadhāne
ravi-kara
sun rays
gaura
golden color
varāmbaram
glittering dress
dadhāne
one who wears
vapur alaka-kulāvṛtānanābjaṁ
vapuḥ
body
alaka-kula-āvṛta
covered with paintings of sandalwood pulp
anana-abjam
face like a lotus
vijaya-sakhe ratir astu me ’navadyā
vijaya-sakhe
unto the friend of Arjuna
ratiḥ astu
may attraction be reposed upon Him
me
my
anavadyā
without desire for fruitive results.
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the intimate friend of Arjuna. He has appeared on this earth in His transcendental body, which resembles the bluish color of the tamāla tree. His body attracts everyone in the three planetary systems [upper, middle and lower]. May His glittering yellow dress and His lotus face, covered with paintings of sandalwood pulp, be the object of my attraction, and may I not desire fruitive results.

When Śrī Kṛṣṇa by His own internal pleasure appears on earth, He does so by the agency of His internal potency. The attractive features of His transcendental body are desired in all the three worlds, namely the upper, middle and lower planetary systems. Nowhere in the universe are there such beautiful bodily features as those of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore His transcendental body has nothing to do with anything materially created. Arjuna is described here as the conqueror, and Kṛṣṇa is described as his intimate friend. Bhīṣmadeva, on his bed of arrows after the Battle of Kurukṣetra, is remembering the particular dress of Lord Kṛṣṇa which He put on as the driver of Arjuna’s chariot. While fighting was going on between Arjuna and Bhīṣma, Bhīṣma’s attraction was drawn by the glittering dress of Kṛṣṇa, and indirectly he admired his so-called enemy Arjuna for possessing the Lord as his friend. Arjuna was always a conqueror because the Lord was his friend. Bhīṣmadeva takes this opportunity to address the Lord as vijaya-sakhe (friend of Arjuna) because the Lord is pleased when He is addressed conjointly with His devotees, who are related with Him in different transcendental humors. While Kṛṣṇa was the charioteer of Arjuna, sun rays glittered on the dress of the Lord, and the beautiful hue created by the reflection of such rays was never forgotten by Bhīṣmadeva. As a great fighter he was relishing the relation of Kṛṣṇa in the chivalrous humor. Transcendental relation with the Lord in any one of the different rasas (humors) is relishable by the respective devotees in the highest ecstasy. Less intelligent mundaners who want to make a show of being transcendentally related with the Lord artificially jump at once to the relation of conjugal love, imitating the damsels of Vrajadhāma. Such a cheap relation with the Lord exhibits only the base mentality of the mundaner because one who has relished conjugal humor with the Lord cannot be attached to worldly conjugal rasa, which is condemned even by mundane ethics. The eternal relation of a particular soul with the Lord is evolved. A genuine relation of the living being with the Supreme Lord can take any form out of the five principal rasas, and it does not make any difference in transcendental degree to the genuine devotee. Bhīṣmadeva is a concrete example of this, and it should be carefully observed how the great general is transcendentally related with the Lord.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
Let me have pure prema for Kṛṣṇa, the friend of Arjuna, who possesses a body desired by all the inhabitants of the three worlds, which is clothed with intense yellow garments shining in the sun, whose complexion is dark like the tamāla tree, and whose lotus face is surrounded by locks of hair.
Commentary

“What is the nature of your thoughts?”

Let me have pure prema (ratiḥ) without desire for results, for the friend of Arjuna (vijaya-sakhe), who accepts a body which is desired by all persons in the upper, middle and lower planets, which is clothed in garments golden in the sun’s rays. I saw that intense yellow from his upper and lower cloth sparkling in the sun’s rays as he stood on the chariot of Arjuna. My thoughts take the form of a prayer to have this prema for the most beautiful Kṛṣṇa as the charioteer of Arjuna. In the prayers of following verses also there is no use of the second person, though Kṛṣṇa was present before him This indicates his attraction for the sweetness of the Lord absorbed in vīra-rasa during the battle, and his absorption in relishing it.

Kṛṣṇa, intimate friend of Arjuna, has appeared on this earth with His transcendental body, blue as tamāla tree, attractive to all three planetary systems. The Lord's beauty itself is captured for contemplation.
Reflection Questions
  • What part of the Lord's beauty do I dwell on most easily?
  • Where could contemplation of form replace anxiety in my mind?
📝 My note

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