Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.19.7
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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dava-dhūmaketuḥ
—
terrible forest fire (lit. forest-fire-with-smoke-as-its-banner)
Compound: dava (forest fire) + dhūma-ketu (one whose banner is smoke — a standing epithet for fire). The Bhāgavatam's iconography: the fire marches like a king under a smoke-flag. Vraja's līlās constantly translate metaphysical realities into vivid pictures.
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kṣaya-kṛt
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threatening destruction
Compound: kṣaya (destruction) + kṛt (maker). The fire is figured as an active agent of dissolution — a small-scale pralaya. Kṛṣṇa's swallowing of it (verse 12) is correspondingly a small-scale display of His role as the in-drawer of universes.
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sārathinā
—
by its chariot driver (the wind)
The wind is figured as the fire's charioteer — Vraja's poetic precision. Where the Gītā has Kṛṣṇa as Arjuna's chariot driver, Iṣīkāṭavī has the wind as the fire's. The contrast is theological: who drives the chariot decides where the journey ends.
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ulmukaiḥ
—
with meteorlike sparks, with firebrands
Sparks that fly like meteors. The detail underlines the boys' real terror — this is not a poetic fire but a physical one with shooting embers — which makes the rescue concrete, not metaphorical.
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sthira-jaṅgamān
—
all moving and nonmoving creatures
Compound: sthira (unmoving) + jaṅgama (moving). A standard Sanskrit dvandva for the whole creaturely order. The fire spares nothing; only Bhagavān's intervention will.
Just as Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and the cowherd boys were about to take their cows back home, the forest fire previously mentioned raged out of control and surrounded all of them.
After reuniting with the cows and wanting to leave that place, suddenly they found themselves surrounded by fire (dhuma ketu) in the forest (dava). It is said that this fire was actually a friend of Pralambha. The fire was stirred by the wind (sarathina) and blazing with fierce flames.
At that time (tataḥ), suddenly (yadṛcchayā) there arose (abhūt) a forest fire. Some say that this fire was a demon friend of Pralamba, since actual forest fires are forbidden from appearing in Vṛndāvana. It has sparks like meteors (ulbaṇolmukair). It fiercely burned (vilelihānaḥ) all beings because it spread everywhere (mahān).
After that (tataḥ) the forest fire which had started previously now spread in the eight directions (samantāt). Or at that time or place (tataḥ) the fire arose suddenly (yadṛcchayā) or by some fate. Some say that this fire demon was a friend of Pralamba. It seemed to destroy the inhabitants of Vraja. Or, it seemed to want to live among the people of Vraja since it entered Kṛṣṇa’s mouth later. Instead of vrajaukasām sometimes vanaukasām is seen. It destroyed with flames like a firebrand all the trees and animals since it spread everywhere (mahān).
- What 'fire' has erupted around me just as I was completing a recovery?
- Am I reading the new trial as failure or as continuation of the same pastime?
A great forest fire arises out of nowhere, driven by the wind like a chariot driver, its sparks licking everything that moves or stands still — the Bhāgavatam's standing image for saṁsāra-dāvānala, the blazing wildfire of material existence, which surrounds every embodied creature on all sides until the Lord of Vraja steps forward to swallow it.
The traditional ārati song Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka opens saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka — "The people of the world are scorched by the wildfire of material existence" — and praises the spiritual master as the cloud of mercy that puts it out.
Gauḍīyas read the present Bhāgavatam scene as the original of that image: the dāva-agni of Iṣīkāṭavī is the literal form of the saṁsāra-fire, and Kṛṣṇa's mouth that swallows it (verse 12) is the original of the guru's mercy that quenches it.
My note
Source: vedabase.io