Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.54.36
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
saṅkarṣaṇaḥ
—
Balarāma
The name He bears as second of the catur-vyūha (Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha). Gauḍīyas worship Him as the support of all life — every breath, every embodied jīva, is sustained by His function. Hence His compassion toward an embodied enemy.
-
vibhuḥ
—
the omnipotent / all-pervading
From vi-√bhū, 'to pervade.' Used here of Balarāma — emphasizing that the elder Self has the same all-pervading capacity as Kṛṣṇa. The Bhāgavatam refuses any subordination of Balarāma to mere humanity.
-
karuṇaḥ
—
compassionate
Second occurrence in two verses (v. 34 of Kṛṣṇa, here of Balarāma). The doubled karuṇa-attribution is the chapter's secret: not only do the Lord and His brother both possess compassion, they possess it interchangeably.
-
hata-prāyam
—
practically dead
Hata (killed) + prāya (almost). 'Almost killed.' Rukmī has been brought to the edge but not past it — exactly the condition that bhakti often produces: the false self practically dead, the new self about to begin (cf. CC Madhya 8.71).
-
vimucya
—
releasing
Gerund of vi-√muc. The same verb-family as mukti. Balarāma's bodily 'release' of Rukmī foreshadows the soteriological release Bhagavān grants. Familial gesture and theological gesture are the same shape.
Balarama took in his own hand the cloth that Krsna was holding in his left hand, and let Rukmi loose from his noose.
The Yadu heroes saw Rukmī in that disfigured condition, almost dead from shame. “But it is not proper to release such an offender.” Balarāma was omniscient (bhagavān) and like Rukmiṇī he knew the suffering of Rukmī and the future pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he showed mercy since Rukmī was related to Kṛṣṇa’s first wife. Seeing both Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī, Balarāma, filled with shame, spoke to them both. Kṛṣṇa only is mentioned, since Balarāma spoke to him mainly.
They saw Rukmī with his shaved heard. Balarāma had a different bhāva from Kṛṣṇa since he was the elder brother (vibhuḥ). Thus he released him with affectionate words. “But it is not proper to release such an offender.” He was merciful. He was omniscient (bhagavān). He knew that if he spoke to Kṛṣṇa roughly and spoke to Rukmī with affection he would relieve Rukmiṇī of lamentation.
- Where does compassion arrive when shame has done its corrective work?
- How do you know when humiliation has been sufficient?
Balarāma is the elder brother who steps between siblings — for Kṛṣṇa's sake, for Rukmiṇī's sake, for even Rukmī's sake. Like a grown-up untying a knot a younger sibling has made too tight, the Lord's elder Self loosens what the Lord's younger Self has bound.
Throughout the Bhāgavatam, Saṅkarṣaṇa is the gentle counterweight to Kṛṣṇa's sharper līlās — He carries the milk-pails when Kṛṣṇa steals butter; He stays in Vraja when Kṛṣṇa leaves for Mathurā; here He releases Rukmī when Kṛṣṇa has bound him.
Gauḍīyas understand Balarāma as bhakti-svarūpa Himself — the very personification of devotion, who acts always to extend the līlā into more bhakti, never less. His untying of Rukmī is theological as much as fraternal.
My note
Source: vedabase.io