Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.53.35
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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yathā vīryam yathā vayaḥ yathā balam yathā vittam
—
according to power, age, strength, wealth
Fourfold compound — the four mundane standards by which kṣatriya society ranks people. Gauḍīyas note: every one of these is irrelevant to Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu's rankings, where only bhāva and rasa matter.
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sametānām
—
who had assembled
Genitive plural participle of sam-√i. The same kings who in verse 17 came to support Śiśupāla. Bhīṣmaka honors them like a good host; the next chapter will see them humiliated. Form and outcome diverge.
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kāmaiḥ
—
with desirable things
Instrumental plural of kāma. Material desirables, distinguished sharply in Gauḍīya literature from prema. Bhīṣmaka has only kāma to offer the kings; Kṛṣṇa will offer Rukmiṇī something else entirely.
Vīryam means strength. Balam means armies. Sarva-kāmaiḥ means “with all enjoyments.”
He offered valuables to the kings who had gathered to see the wedding (evam), along with their armies or all together (sam-etānām) according to their strength (vīryam), their armies (balam). Those who had more power and armies received more goods. He worshipped all to satisfy their minds fully. In the list of strength, age, armies and wealth the former are greater causes for worship.
- Where do you flatten everyone equally when calibrated honoring would actually be just?
- How do you measure and meet each guest in their actual scale?
A host doles out honor in proportion to political weight — exactly the wrong scale for Bhagavān's company, who measures only bhakti. Bhīṣmaka's protocol is impeccable in this verse and irrelevant in the next: the actual hierarchy of Vidarbha is being rewritten by what is about to happen.
My note
Source: vedabase.io