Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.38.5
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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adhamasya
—
of one who is most fallen
Genitive of adhama (lowest). Akrūra applies the strongest possible term to himself — the same vocabulary devotees from Nārada to Bhaktivinoda use of themselves. Gauḍīya humility is structural: the closer the devotee comes, the lower he stands.
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acyuta
—
the infallible one
a- (not) + cyuta (fallen). The Name names what Akrūra is not. Gauḍīyas hold this contrast tightly: Bhagavān never falls; the jīva does, and the verse pivots on this asymmetric pairing of acyuta and adhama.
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kāla
—
time
Time as devourer. The Bhāgavata's recurring image of saṁsāra as a river of time appears here in miniature. Time is not neutral; it is the current that drowns. The shore exists, but only by another current — kṛpā.
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nadyā
—
by the river
Instrumental of nadī. The river-image returns through Caitanya-caritāmṛta and the Six Gosvāmīs whenever saṁsāra is described. Akrūra speaks it casually, but it is one of the tradition's load-bearing metaphors.
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tarati
—
crosses to the shore
From √tṝ — to cross. The same root as tāraka (deliverer) and avatāra (one who crosses down). Crossing is what Kṛṣṇa does for the soul; the soul's part is to stop swimming against Him.
"No this cannot be." Using his intelligence he overcame his miserable condition. "Though I am low, it is possible for me to see the Lord (syad eva)."
He speaks with mati (scriptural reference) and dhṛti (steadiness). He thinks he is devoid of sādhana for seeing the Lord, and completely unqualified (adhamasya). But the Lord never deviates (acyuta) from his glorious qualities like mercy in order to respond to his feeble worship. He will see the Lord because of the Lord’s great qualities. The possibility of seeing is expressed by the potential verb form syāt. He gives an example. Though wandering in the waves of enjoyment arising from karma (kāla), some person, by chanting accidently like Ājamila, crosses over saṁsāra to the shore, who is the Lord. Or persons who simply approach the Lord, like Pūtanā, attain this result. In the example of the river, sometimes a piece of grass, because of favorable wind, reaches the shore.
He thinks he is devoid of sādhana for seeing the Lord, and completely unqualified (adhamasya). But the Lord never deviates (acyuta) from his glorious qualities like mercy in order to respond to a person’s feeble worship. He will see the Lord because of the Lord’s great qualities. The possibility of seeing is expressed by the potential verb form syāt. An example is given. Some person without ability, controlled by others, at some time or at some pure place, can cross saṁsāra. Just as that is possible by the Lord’s mercy, so my seeing him now is by his mercy. Since seeing him is possible, he thinks of offering respects, and by that considers himself successful.
- Where are you letting self-criticism become its own form of avoidance?
- What 'shore' might be closer to you than your inner narrative admits?
A leaf swept along by a river will sometimes, by no plan of its own, eddy into a backwater near the shore. Akrūra catches himself in his despondency — yes, I am a leaf; but Kṛṣṇa's mercy is the eddy that swings even a leaf to the bank.
Ajāmila — the fallen brāhmaṇa, drunk on a low-caste woman, indifferent to dharma — cried out "Nārāyaṇa!" at the hour of death, meaning his youngest son, and was rescued by the Lord's messengers (SB 6.1–3).
Gauḍīyas treasure this episode as the canonical proof of Akrūra's intuition: even a soul swept along by the river of time can, by an accidental eddy, touch the shore. Mercy does not consult merit.
My note
Source: vedabase.io