• sādhvi — O saintly lady
  Feminine vocative of sādhu. Balarāma honors Rukmiṇī by the strongest dharma-title even as He corrects her grief. The Bhāgavatam shows that loving rebuke must begin with honorific address.
• sva-kṛta-bhuk — the sufferer of his own deeds
  Sva (own) + kṛta (done) + bhuj (experience). 'One who eats his own cooking.' The compound is karma-doctrine in three syllables. Cf. BG 5.15: 'na ādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ.' The Lord does not assign sin or virtue; the soul harvests its own.
• asūyethāḥ — (please do not) feel inimical / envious
  Aorist optative of √sūy with a- prefix. Asūyā is one of the six enemies of the soul in Gauḍīya catalogues. Balarāma asks Rukmiṇī not to fall into even momentary asūyā — the verse's tenderness disguises a rigorous spiritual point.
• sukha-duḥkha-daḥ — bestower of happiness and unhappiness
  Sukha (joy) + duḥkha (misery) + da (giver). Compound. Balarāma denies any 'other' as the bestower — but the Bhāgavatam reading is that the Lord, working through karma, is the bestower-through-justice. There is no third party.
• pumān — a man / person
  Puruṣa-singular. The same word as the cosmic Puruṣa. The jīva is a tiny puruṣa within the big Puruṣa, accountable for his own actions in the field He shares with the Lord.

• BVinodaSw SB 10-54-38 - 2013-02-13
  His Holiness Bhakti Vinoda Swami· 2013-02-13· English
• BKG SB 10-54-38 - Who do we blame - 2024-09-19 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2024-09-19· English

• Where do you blame circumstances when your karma is the actual author?
• How do you console someone with karma-truth without sounding dismissive?

Each man is the sole bestower of his own joy and sorrow — a sentence as Vedic as the Upaniṣads and as Buddhist-sounding as the Dhammapada. The Gauḍīya wrinkle: the doer-of-actions remains the soul, but the supplier-of-results is the Lord. Karma is real; impersonal karma is not.