Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.43.13
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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bhagavān
—
the Supreme Lord
The first time in this combat-sequence that Śuka uses the full title Bhagavān — six aiśvaryas in one word (jñāna, vīrya, yaśas, śrī, vairāgya, aiśvarya). Placed exactly at the killing-stroke to remind the reader that what looks like a wrestler-trick is a Bhagavān-act.
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madhu-sūdanaḥ
—
the killer of the demon Madhu
An ancient title rolled forward into the Canto 10 līlā. Gauḍīya bhakti reads such names as portable testimony: every name of Kṛṣṇa carries an episode of protection, and chanting them invokes that protection now. A contiguous-token join of synonyms 'madhu' and 'sūdanaḥ'.
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nigṛhya
—
firmly seizing
Active grasp — the verb shifts. Earlier Kṛṣṇa slipped from the elephant's grip (vigalitaḥ, 43.6); now He does the gripping. Bhagavān's hand on the demon is the hand of Yamarāja in disguise.
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bhū-tale
—
onto the ground
The same earth on which the tusks struck two verses ago now receives the elephant himself. Bhū-devī, who has waited the whole Canto, takes the body of her tormentor at last. A contiguous-token join of synonyms 'bhū' and 'tale'.
Krsna saw that time was passing and playing with the elephant was about to end. With one hand, the left hand, he casually caught the elephant’s trunk.
Though he was Svayam Bhagavān, and could kill the Madhu demon, by his portion, in a human form according to pastimes for wrestling, he grasped the elephant’s trunk with his hand.
He had killed Madhu the first demon. Thus he was very strong. By his will he could kill the elephant. But he is described as most astonishing with sweetness. He displayed his powers as the Lord in fighting (bhagavān). Or though he was the killer of Madhu, he was bhagavān. Thus with his hand he held the elephant’s truck constantly, or held it tightly and threw the elephant to the ground. This was greater than killing Madhu.
- What single decisive throw has been delayed by extended maneuvering in your life?
- Where is the moment for one-hand action arriving?
Kṛṣṇa is here named Madhusūdana — slayer of the demon Madhu — and the name appears at the precise moment His one hand brings down the elephant. Whatever demon stood at the dawn of creation, the same Lord stands at the gate of Mathurā; the hand is one hand, the work one work.
At the start of a cosmic cycle, while Lord Brahmā was about to receive the Veda, the asuras Madhu and Kaiṭabha emerged from Viṣṇu's ear-wax and tried to steal the Vedas away. Mahā-Viṣṇu, lying on the causal ocean, rose and destroyed them — earning the name Madhusūdana.
The Bhāgavatam (and Mahābhārata Śānti-parva) carries the title forward into every avatāra. The same Lord who once protected the Vedas from primordial asuras now protects the dharma of Mathurā from Kuvalayāpīḍa. The Gauḍīya reading: there is one Madhusūdana across all yugas — and Kṛṣṇa, svayaṁ-bhagavān, is His source, not His instance.
My note
Source: vedabase.io