FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.5.21

तं द‍ृष्ट्वा सहसोत्थाय देह: प्राणमिवागतम् । प्रीत: प्रियतमं दोर्भ्यां सस्वजे प्रेमविह्वल: ॥ २१ ॥
taṁ dṛṣṭvā sahasotthāya
[tam drishtvaa sahasotthaaya]
dehaḥ prāṇam ivāgatam
[dehah praanam ivaagatam]
prītaḥ priyatamaṁ dorbhyāṁ
[preetah priyatamam dorbhyaam]
sasvaje prema-vihvalaḥ
[sasvaje prema-vihvalah]
Word-for-word
tam — him (Vasudeva) dṛṣṭvā — seeing sahasā — suddenly utthāya — getting up dehaḥ — the same body prāṇam — life iva — as if āgatam — had returned prītaḥ — so pleased priya - tamam — his dear friend and brother dorbhyām — by his two arms sasvaje — embraced prema - vihvalaḥ — overwhelmed with love and affection .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
taṁ dṛṣṭvā sahasotthāya
tam
him (Vasudeva)
dṛṣṭvā
seeing
sahasā
suddenly
utthāya
getting up
dehaḥ prāṇam ivāgatam
dehaḥ
the same body
prāṇam
life
iva
as if
āgatam
had returned
prītaḥ priyatamaṁ dorbhyāṁ
prītaḥ
so pleased
priya - tamam
his dear friend and brother
dorbhyām
by his two arms
sasvaje prema-vihvalaḥ
sasvaje
embraced
prema - vihvalaḥ
overwhelmed with love and affection .
Important Words
  • dṛṣṭvā — seeing
    Gerund of √dṛś. Darśana is the technical word for the meeting of Vaiṣṇavas (and of devotees with the deity). Nanda's response is not to greet but to see — the sight itself is the first act of relationship.
  • sahasā — suddenly
    Adverb. Vaiṣṇava-prema does not deliberate. The body rises before the mind has decided to rise — Nanda's getting up is sahasā precisely because love has bypassed reflection.
  • prāṇam-iva-āgatam — as if life had returned
    Prāṇa ('vital breath') + iva ('as if') + āgata ('come'). The simile names a fact: until Vasudeva walked in, Nanda was less alive. Vaiṣṇava-saṅga is not pleasant — it is constitutive of being alive at all.
  • priya-tamam — most dear
    Superlative of priya. Vasudeva is not 'a dear friend' but 'the dearest.' The grammar refuses gradation; Vaiṣṇava-prema operates in superlatives, not degrees.
  • sasvaje — embraced
    Perfect of sam + √svaj ('to embrace'). The same verb the śāstras use for Kṛṣṇa's embrace of Sudāmā, of Arjuna at the end of the Gītā, of Caitanya's embraces of Rāmānanda Rāya. The verb itself carries rasa.
  • prema-vihvalaḥ — overwhelmed with love
    Prema + vihvala ('agitated, overwhelmed'). Prema in Gauḍīya rasa-theory is the topmost stage of bhakti — beyond bhāva. To call Nanda prema-vihvala at sight of Vasudeva is to identify him as a devotee in the very highest stage of love.
When Nanda Mahārāja heard that Vasudeva had come, he was overwhelmed with love and affection, being as pleased as if his body had regained its life. Seeing Vasudeva suddenly present, he got up and embraced him with both arms.
Purport

Nanda Mahārāja was older than Vasudeva. Therefore Nanda Mahārāja embraced him, and Vasudeva offered him namaskāra.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
When Nanda Mahārāja heard that Vasudeva had come, he was overwhelmed with love and affection, being as pleased as if his body had regained its life. Seeing Vasudeva suddenly present, he got up and embraced him with both arms.
Commentary

When Nanda saw Vasudeva, he embraced him (sasvaje), but did not pay obeisances, because he was elder to Vasudeva.

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Though it was impossible for Vasudeva to come because of fear of Kaṁsa, Nanda saw him suddenly coming. Or suddenly he rose up. Overcome with bliss displaying ecstatic symptoms because of prema, since Vasudeva was dear to him, he embraced him. Or for a moment he became out of control because of prema. He rose up as if his life airs returned because of Vasudeva’s arrival (since Vasudeva was his very life). It does not mean “seeing him as if his life airs returned,” since it would be impossible to see him if he life airs were not functioning. Nanda did not prostrate himself before Vasudeva because he was elder than Vasudeva. This is understood from verse 23 where Vasudeva says that Nanda was without a child even in old age. Or he did not offer prostrations because he was overcome with prema.

Related values & verses
Related values
Vairagya (Detachment / Dispassion)Tejas (Inner Radiance / Vigour)Anahankarah (Freedom from False Ego)Discriminative WisdomDaksya (Resourcefulness / Skill)
Related verses
SB 10.5.18 SB 10.5.19 SB 10.5.20 SB 10.5.22 SB 10.5.23 SB 10.5.24 BG 6.4 BG 1.21 BG 15.9 BG 10.1 BG 12.3 BG 12.6
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
When a Vaiṣṇava arrives, the body itself revives — receive devotees as Nanda received Vasudeva, with prema and proper honor by age.
Practical Applications
  • When a senior devotee or elder enters the room today, rise immediately and greet them with full attention — let your body show the prema your heart feels.
  • Notice the small calculations that delay your warmth toward another devotee, and refuse them — embrace (in spirit or in person) without that hesitation.
  • Offer namaskāra to someone older in Kṛṣṇa-consciousness today, honoring the order Prabhupāda points to: the elder embraces, the younger bows.
Analogy

When the lamp that has burned alone for a long winter sees its companion flame approach, the wick leaps without prompting — the bodies of two intimate friends in long separation are like this. Nanda's body, on seeing Vasudeva, leaps up as if prāṇa itself had returned to it. Love is what makes the body remember it is alive.

Stories
Rāma and Sugrīva at Ṛśyamūka

In the Kiṣkindhā Kāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa, when Rāma and Sugrīva first meet, Hanumān describes the encounter as the meeting of fire with fire, of friend long-awaited with friend just-arrived. The grief-burdened Rāma and the exiled Sugrīva embrace and recognize each other as eternal mitras.

The shape of the embrace is the same in SB 10.5.21: prema-vihvala, body overwhelmed before the mind catches up. Vaiṣṇava friendship in the śāstras has this physiology — the body knows before reason does that the beloved has come.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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