• kāla-traya — the three phases of time
  Compound: kāla + traya (triplet). Past, present, future. Bhagavān's janma-karma is co-extensive with all of time, because (verse 19) He is Time. Vaiṣṇava metaphysics: the avatāra's life happens in time, but His person stands outside it.
• upapannāni — occurring
  Past participle of upa-√pad — to fall to, occur. Bhagavān's deeds 'fall to' all three times — they have happened, are happening, will happen. The avatāras are not single-event; they are cyclic and continual.
• parama-ṛṣayaḥ — the greatest sages
  Compound: parama (greatest) + ṛṣayaḥ (sages). Vyāsa, Nārada, Vasiṣṭha, Śuka. Even these cannot reach the end. Gauḍīyas read this as the structural reason for the Bhāgavata being twelve cantos rather than complete — paramparā never finishes.
• anukramantaḥ — enumerating
  Present participle of anu-√kram — to step after, enumerate one-by-one. The same root as Anu-kramaṇī (the indices that summarize Vedic texts). Even the great enumerators are inadequate to Bhagavān.
• antam — the end
  From anta. There is no antam. The bhakti-attitude embraces this; the speculator wearies of it. Gauḍīyas read endlessness not as frustration but as the structural ground of perpetual rasa.

• Where do you want closure on what is designed to remain open?
• Could you take joy in the inquiry itself rather than waiting for the end?

The greatest sages enumerate Bhagavān's birth and deeds across past, present and future — and still do not reach the end. The Bhāgavata is itself an instance of this enumeration; it confesses, mid-recital, its own incompletability. A holy text that knows it cannot end is a Vaiṣṇava text.