Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.44.50
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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mocayitvā
—
having released
Gerund of the causative of √muc — 'having caused to be free'. The same √muc that names mokṣa. Bhagavān releases His parents from bandhana (chains) — a literal mokṣa, foreshadowing the cosmic mokṣa He grants to all bhaktas.
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vavandāte
—
the two offered obeisance
Dual perfect of √vand. The verb of bowing — same root as vandana, one of the nine limbs of bhakti. Bhagavān Himself, in this verse, performs vandana to His parents. The Lord teaches the limb by doing it.
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śirasā spṛśya pādayoḥ
—
touching the feet with the head
Compound clause: śiras (head) + spṛś (touch) + pāda (feet). The lowest-touching-of-the-highest gesture: head to feet. The same head that Cāṇūra and Kaṁsa tried to harm now bows to Vasudeva's feet. The Bhāgavatam closes the body's arc.
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kṛṣṇa - rāmau
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Kṛṣṇa and Rāma (Balarāma)
Dual compound. The brothers, named together for the act. Gauḍīya theology: Saṅkarṣaṇa (Balarāma) always acts in sevā of Vāsudeva (Kṛṣṇa) — but in this verse, both equally bow. Filial dharma absorbs even the doctrinal asymmetry.
Krsna and Balarama touched their heads prominently (asprsya a = samyak completely) ) to the feet of Vasudeva and Devaki.
They released their parents and later (atha) offered respects. Unable to tolerate others grief, he was first eager to make arrangements for the wives with their deceased husband. When all people had left, the noise subsided. The two boys then touched their heads completely (āspṛśya) to their parents’ feet.
After that (atha), after making arrangements for Kaṁsa’s body, because he could not tolerate others suffering, he freed first his mother out of extreme affection and to please Vasudeva, and then freed Vasudeva, his father, since he could not tolerate their bondage. The two boys touched their heads to their feet, showing great devotion to them. Kṛṣṇa is mentioned first since he was filled with compassion and did this first. Balarāma followed his actions.
- Where could you bow more deeply to parents whose chains your devotion has already unlocked?
- How do filial gestures complete spiritual victories?
Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma free Their mother and father from chains and bow at their feet — the climactic image of the chapter, the Purāṇa, perhaps the whole avatāra. The hand that broke Kaṁsa now unlocks the shackles that Kaṁsa had locked. The same head that knocked off the crown is now lowered to the parents' feet.
In the Rāmāyaṇa, after fourteen years of forest exile, Rāma at last returns to Ayodhyā — His father Daśaratha already dead, but the throne and the family restored. Rāma immediately performs śrāddha for His father and prostrates before His elders.
Kṛṣṇa here echoes Rāma exactly: the killing of the antagonist is followed not by self-coronation but by the touching of the parents' feet. Gauḍīyas read both episodes as enunciating the same doctrine — Bhagavān's avatāra-līlā always ends in the restoration of family-dharma, never in personal triumph. He kills demons in order to bow to His parents.
My note
Source: vedabase.io