Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.55.14
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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jahi
—
kill, please kill
Imperative of √han. The same verb Kṛṣṇa uses to Arjuna at BG 11.34 (tvayā jitāḥ … jahi mā vyathiṣṭhāḥ). Rati commands the Lord's son the way Kṛṣṇa commands His friend: dharma-yuddha requires the imperative.
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durdharṣam-durjayam
—
difficult to approach and difficult to conquer
Compound: dur-dharṣa (hard to assail) + dur-jaya (hard to defeat). Both formed with dur (difficult) + verbal root. The doubling acknowledges Śambara's real power; the Bhāgavatam never makes its demons paper villains.
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māyā-śata-vidam
—
who knows a hundred magic spells
Compound: māyā (magic, illusion) + śata (hundred) + vidam (knower). Śambara is a master of māyā but not of Mahā-māyā — the distinction the next two verses turn on. Quantity of magic does not survive contact with the Lord's own potency.
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māyābhiḥ-mohana-ādibhiḥ
—
by bewildering magics and such
Instrumental plural: māyābhiḥ (by magics) + mohana (bewilderment) + ādibhiḥ (etc.). Rati prescribes counter-māyā — the Lord defeats illusion with illusion's own grammar wielded by Mahā-māyā, His own internal potency.
You should kill Śambara, who is now here (imam). He is difficult to bewilder (durdharṣam) and therefore difficult to conquer. He is suitable to be killed. He is your enemy. Ādbhiḥ refers to weapons to dry him up or burn him.
- What 'Śambara' awaits decisive action from your awakened identity?
- Where could specific technique combine with deepest identity?
Rati hands Pradyumna a strategy: 'He knows a hundred magics; You must answer with bewildering magic.' The wife as war-counselor — Sītā prepared by Anasūyā, Draupadī advising the Pāṇḍavas, here Rati equipping Kāmadeva. Bhakti is not passivity; it puts weapons into the Lord's hand at the right hour.
When Rāvaṇa first threatens Sītā in Aśoka-vana, she replies not with despair but with a precise prediction of his death at Rāma's hands. She is the wife who informs her Lord of the enemy's nature even from captivity.
Gauḍīyas read Rati's speech here in the same register: a wife-bhakta supplies the husband-Lord with intelligence on the enemy and exhortation to act. The relation is not erotic-private; it is dharmic-public.
My note
Source: vedabase.io