Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.46.41
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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bhramarikā
—
because of whirling around
From √bhram (to whirl). The technical word for spinning-induced dizziness. Uddhava picks a child's-play image to illustrate a deep Sāṅkhya point. Gauḍīya: the chapter never abandons the cowherd vocabulary even at the height of doctrine — the analogy itself is rural.
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bhrāmyati-iva
—
(the ground) seems to whirl
Verbal phrase: bhrāmyati (whirls) + iva (as if). The 'as if' marks the illusion. The earth is stationary; only perception spins. Gauḍīya: kartā-bhāva is similarly an 'as-if,' not a reality.
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citte-kartari
—
while the mind is the doer
Locative absolute: when the mind is the actor. The agent is the mind, not the self. Gauḍīya bhakti-psychology: the sādhana of nāma-saṅkīrtana works precisely by reassigning the mind's activity to Kṛṣṇa, leaving the ātmā at rest as servant, not master.
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kartā-iva
—
(the self appears) as if the doer
Substantive + iva: doer + 'as if.' The self appears to be doing what the mind is doing. Gauḍīya: this is the precise illusion that bhakti dismantles — not by denying the self but by removing the false attribution.
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aham - dhiyā
—
because of false ego
Compound: aham (I) + dhī (thought, intellection), instrumental. The 'I-thought' — the technical name in Sāṅkhya-yoga for ahaṅkāra. Gauḍīya: this aham-dhī is precisely what the gopīs have lost; they think only kṛṣṇa-dhī.
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ātmā
—
the self
Nominative of ātman. The same ātmā Kṛṣṇa called Himself in verse 4 (mām eva … ātmānam manasā gatāḥ). The verse threads its way back: the self that the gopīs found in Kṛṣṇa is the very self that, in false ego, mistakes itself for doer.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī gives a parallel idea: Although our happiness and distress are caused by our own interaction with the material qualities, we perceive the Lord to be their cause.
Why does it appear that the Lord is absorbed in the guṇas? This verse answers. The ground appears to turn around by the impressions left after a person is turned around like a potter’s wheel. Though the mind is the doer, the jīva, thinking that he is the mind, concludes that the ātmā with its pure svarūpa is the doer. Similarly the Lord appears to be absorbed in creation and destruction.
Why does it appear to common people that the Lord is absorbed in the guṇas? It is a perception based on their point of view.
- Where are you 'whirling' and accusing the ground of moving?
- Could a moment of stillness reveal who is actually acting?
Like a child spinning who sees the ground spin, the false ego sees itself as doer when only the mind is moving. The kartā-bhāva is a perceptual illusion — and the gopīs, who have surrendered all doership, are simply the ones who have stopped spinning.
My note
Source: vedabase.io