• vṛndāvana-śriyam — the beauty of Vṛndāvana
  Compound: Vṛndāvana + śrī (beauty, splendor). The boys mistake the demon for vana-śobhā — they read everything in Vraja as beautiful. Gauḍīyas: this is the rasika eye, the antithesis of Aghāsura's envious one.
• ajagara-tuṇḍena — by a python's mouth
  Compound: ajagara (python) + tuṇḍa (snout, beak, mouth). Even when they correctly read the form, they treat it as art — a model python — not a threat. Sakhya-rasa has no fear because its support is Kṛṣṇa.
• utprekṣante — they imagine, they fancifully suppose
  From ut + prekṣ- (to look up, imagine). The technical term for poetic fancy. Śuka tells us the boys are doing poetry as they walk into the demon's mouth — the entire līlā runs at the level of alaṅkāra.
• līlayā — as play
  From līl- (to play). Everything in Vraja is līlā. The boys treat the demon as part of their game — and from Kṛṣṇa's perspective, that is exactly what it is.

• Is my trust in Kṛṣṇa rooted in His personal care, or am I being innocently reckless in His name?
• Where could I use a senior devotee's perspective to see the difference between scenery and a snake's mouth?

Picture children walking into what they think is a stage-prop cave at a temple festival — painted lips, painted teeth, all part of the décor. Their unawareness is not stupidity; it is the structural sweetness of Vraja, where nothing can actually harm them and everything is interpreted as Kṛṣṇa's play. The cowherd boys' fearlessness is the proof of where they are.