Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.40.19
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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adbhuta-siṁhāya
—
to the amazing lion
Compound: adbhuta (wonderful) + siṁha (lion). The Lord's form 'never seen before, never to be seen again' (SB 7.8). Gauḍīyas treat adbhuta-rasa as a real rasa in bhakti, and Nṛsiṁha is its mūrti.
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sadhu-loka-bhaya-apaha
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remover of the fear of the saintly people
Compound: sadhu (saintly, variant of sādhu) + loka (community) + bhaya (fear) + apaha (removing). Why Nṛsiṁha came — not just to kill Hiraṇyakaśipu, but to remove the sādhu Prahlāda's fear. Prabhupāda highlights this: Nṛsiṁha's wrath is Prahlāda's peace.
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krānta-tri-bhuvanāya
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to Him who stepped over the three worlds
Compound: krānta (stepped) + tri (three) + bhuvana (world). Vāmana's three-step trivikrama. Gauḍīyas hold this as the cosmic measure of Bhagavān's reach — what looks small can step over all three lokas.
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vāmanāya
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to Vāmana, the dwarf
From √vam — diminished, small. The Lord chooses a small form to humble a large ego. Gauḍīyas read Vāmana's smallness as a teaching: bhakti is small in worldly measure, infinite in trivikrama-reach.
I offer respects to astonishing Nṛsiṁha. Though you are astonishing, you have other qualities. O remover of fear for all the devotees!
He is astonishing because he is half man and half lion. He destroys fears of all persons of proper conduct. He also destroys the opposite types of people (ca). Instead of bhayāpaha sometimes abhayāya is seen. I offer respects to Vāmana who stepped over the three worlds. He also gave mercy to Bali (ca).
- Do you need Nṛsiṁha's fierceness, Vāmana's surprising reach, or both right now?
- Where does Kṛṣṇa's range of forms answer fears you can't articulate?
A father, hearing his small son call out from a corner of the house, becomes lion-fierce and dwarf-tender by turn — bursting through a pillar to tear apart what threatens, then stepping with childlike grace to reclaim what is rightfully His. Nṛsiṁha and Vāmana are one Person's two answers to His devotees' cries.
When five-year-old Prahlāda was thrown into snake pits, off cliffs, and into fires by his asura father, he kept naming the name of Hari (SB 7.5). When Hiraṇyakaśipu finally challenged whether the Lord was in a particular pillar, Prahlāda said yes — and Nṛsiṁha burst out (SB 7.8).
Akrūra calls Him sadhu-loka-bhaya-apaha — remover of the saintly people's fear. Prahlāda is the first sadhu in that name. The lion came for him; the lion still comes for everyone who lives with Prahlāda's fearlessness.
Bali, grandson of Prahlāda, had conquered the three worlds. The Lord came as a tiny brāhmaṇa boy — Vāmana — and asked for three steps of land. Granted, He grew and stepped over heaven, earth, and Bali's own head (SB 8.18–23).
Gauḍīyas read Vāmana's third step as mercy, not punishment: Bali kept the kingdom of pātala and a personal audience with the Lord — kingdom lost, Lord gained. Akrūra honors both forms in one verse for one reason: each is Bhagavān answering His devotee.
My note
Source: vedabase.io