10.56 · The Syamantaka Jewel

• satrājitaḥ — King Satrājit
  The father of Satyabhāmā and devotee of Sūrya. His name (sat-rājit, 'conqueror of truth') is ironic — only after losing the jewel and his good name does he meet the real Satya in Kṛṣṇa.
• kṛta-kilbiṣaḥ — having committed offense
  Compound: kṛta (done) + kilbiṣaḥ (sin, especially against a brāhmaṇa or the Lord). The verse opens with the offense already in the past tense — the whole chapter is the working-out of one bad thought against Bhagavān.
• syamantakena — with the Syamantaka jewel
  The famous gem given by Sūrya, producing eight bhāras of gold daily. In the chapter's logic the jewel is a test object — wealth held tightly becomes a curse, given freely to Kṛṣṇa it becomes prasāda.
• udyamya — striving, taking up with effort
  From ud + √yam, to lift up with exertion. Atonement is never passive in the Bhāgavata frame — Satrājit must personally carry both daughter and jewel to Kṛṣṇa. Real prāyaścitta has feet.

• NRM SB 10-56-01-45
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-01 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
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  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
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• DMS SB 10-56-01 - 2012-10-22 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Holiness Devamrita Swami· 2012-10-22· English
• JAS SB 10-56-01-11 - Seek The Real Jewel Krishna - 2015-01-14 ISKCON Chowpatty
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  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English

• Where do you offer words when material reparation is what's actually needed?
• What specific gift could atone for a specific offense you've named?

A stained cloth cannot wash itself; the offender must bring the stain to the very feet he soiled. Satrājit's daughter and jewel, carried back to Kṛṣṇa, are the cloth and the soap together — the offense itself becomes the offering when laid at Bhagavān's feet.

• akarot — committed
  Imperfect of √kṛ. Parīkṣit assumes responsibility lies with the human side — Bhagavān is never the offender. Gauḍīya hermeneutics: when reading kṛṣṇa-līlā, locate the kilbiṣa in the jīva, never in the Lord.
• kṛṣṇasya — against Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Genitive. The grammar marks Kṛṣṇa as the offended party, but the chapter will reveal that 'offense against Kṛṣṇa' is a logical impossibility from His side — He turns each offense into an occasion for marriage and gift.
• hareḥ — to Lord Hari
  Hari — 'He who takes away' — both sins and hearts. The closing word of the question already names the resolution: when the daughter is given to Hari, the kilbiṣa is taken.

• Where do you accept a conclusion without asking the full backstory?
• What three questions would unlock a current situation in your life?

Parīkṣit's question is the question every śravaṇa-attentive heart eventually asks: not 'what happened?' but 'how did this small human stumble entangle Bhagavān?' He is asking to be shown the seam where līlā touches our pettiness — and Śuka will show it.

• bhaktasya — of his devotee
  Even sūrya-bhakti is bhakti — and even a demigod rewards his bhakta. The Bhāgavata frame is generous: it acknowledges devotion at every tier, while always ranking viṣṇu-bhakti above deva-bhakti.
• sakhā — friend, well-wisher
  Sūrya behaves as a friend to his devotee. Note: sakhya here is between deva and bhakta — the same word will later name the highest rasa of the cowherd boys with Kṛṣṇa. Same syllables, two universes apart.
• tuṣṭaḥ — satisfied
  Past passive participle of √tuṣ. Satisfaction in the deity is the precondition of prasāda. Gauḍīya emphasis: kṛṣṇas tuṣṭi (Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction) is the only sukṛti worth chasing — Satrājit settled for Sūrya's.

• Where does your demigod worship include the possibility of material reward?
• How do you receive such rewards without forgetting the source?

Sūrya gives Satrājit a jewel that produces gold — the highest gift a demigod can make. Yet a single direct request from Kṛṣṇa will soon eclipse this gift, the way a lamp pales when the master of the house enters with his torch.

• bhrājamānaḥ — shining brilliantly
  Present participle of √bhrāj. The verb of borrowed effulgence — used elsewhere of stars that shine only because the sun lends them light. A precise word for Satrājit's predicament.
• tejasā — by his effulgence
  Instrumental of tejas. The same word will be used in the Gītā for Kṛṣṇa's own splendor (BG 10.36, 11.30). Here it is on loan; in Kṛṣṇa it is svarūpa-tejas, intrinsic.
• na upalakṣitaḥ — not recognized
  The opening hint of the chapter's central pun: men carrying loaned light are mistaken for the gods themselves; only Kṛṣṇa, who never advertises, will be correctly recognized — and only by one who first fights Him to a standstill (Jāmbavān).

• Where does material brilliance you've acquired hide who you actually are?
• How could you let identity show through ornament?

The borrowed brilliance of a jewel can make a man look like a god from a distance — but step close, and the lender's light only reveals how little of it belongs to him. Satrājit shines with Sūrya's effulgence, not his own.

• muṣṭa-dṛṣṭayaḥ — whose sight was stolen
  Compound: muṣṭa (stolen) + dṛṣṭayaḥ (sights). A jewel can rob the eyes; the chapter quietly contrasts this with Kṛṣṇa, whose darśana never blinds but bestows sight.
• dīvyate akṣaiḥ — (He) who was playing with dice
  Kṛṣṇa at leisure with His associates. The Bhāgavatam loves these domestic glimpses — Bhagavān at dice — because they show His aiśvarya never erases His madhurya. The Lord plays.
• bhagavate — to the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa
  Dative of Bhagavān — the full ṣaḍ-aiśvarya. The citizens instinctively bring the puzzle to Bhagavān, not to a sage or a king. Right reflex of a city of devotees.

• Where have you mistaken bright humans for divine beings?
• How does distance distort discernment in your community?

A small, beloved scene: Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of the universe, is playing dice with His friends, and the city runs to Him with a problem about an unknown god. Even in His casual rolls, He is the address to which every confusion eventually comes.

• nārāyaṇa — O Lord Nārāyaṇa
  The cosmic name — He whose abode is the waters (nāra-ayana) and whose abode is the living beings (nāra-ayana). The opening invocation reaches for the largest of the Lord's names first.
• dāmodara — O Dāmodara
  He whose belly (udara) was bound by a rope (dāma) — the Vraja-līlā name from chapter 10.9. Even in Dvārakā the citizens reach for the Vraja name, signalling that the same Bhagavān bound by Yaśodā stands before them.
• aravinda-akṣa — O lotus-eyed one
  Compound: aravinda (lotus) + akṣa (eye). The name that most distinguishes Kṛṣṇa across the canto — eyes wide as lotus petals. Gauḍīya iconography fixes on these eyes as the entry point into mādhurya.
• govinda — O Govinda
  He who gives pleasure to the cows, the senses, and the earth. The Brahmā-saṁhitā's mahā-mantra name. Even in Dvārakā the cowherd identity is the heart's name.
• yadu-nandana — O darling son of the Yadus
  Compound: yadu (the dynasty) + nandana (delight, son). The citizens' final word reminds the Lord — and themselves — that He has chosen Yadu-kula as His family. He is theirs.

• Where could your ordinary speech to Kṛṣṇa become more layered with proper names?
• What casual address have you allowed to drift toward informality?

When something dazzling appears, the people of Dvārakā do not analyze it — they chant the holy names. Their prayer is a rosary of Kṛṣṇa's names strung onto a moment of fear, and the fear dissolves into the names.

• didṛkṣuḥ — wanting to see
  Desiderative of √dṛś. The grammar of desire-to-see. Gauḍīya emphasis: dṛśyate is the goal of every jīva and every demigod — and only Kṛṣṇa is fully draṣṭavya. The citizens project this rightly.
• jagat-pate — O Lord of the universe
  Compound: jagat (universe) + pate (master, vocative). Naming the Lord by his cosmic title precisely when a cosmic deity is supposedly approaching — emphasising that Sūrya answers to Kṛṣṇa, not the reverse.
• muṣṇan — stealing
  Present participle of √muṣ. The same root as muṣṭa-dṛṣṭayaḥ in verse 5. Borrowed light steals sight; Kṛṣṇa's darśana gives it. The chapter's vocabulary is patiently building the contrast.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-07 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where does your best theology mis-narrate visible events?
• How do you correct misreadings without humiliating the readers?

The citizens read Sūrya as a visiting petitioner come to see Kṛṣṇa — and they have the order exactly right. Even the sun is a darśana-seeker; Kṛṣṇa is the darśana. This is the Bhāgavata reversal in one breath.

• gūḍham — disguised, hidden
  Past participle of √guh. The technical Bhāgavata term for Bhagavān's chosen concealment among His devotees. His aiśvarya is veiled by mādhurya — the very point of the avatāra.
• yaduṣu — among the Yadus
  Locative plural. The hiding place is a family. Gauḍīya doctrine: Bhagavān's 'disguise' is never solitary — He hides inside relationships (Vraja, Yadu, Mathurā), which is precisely why bhakti is relational, not solitary.
• tri-lokyām — in the three worlds
  Compound: tri (three) + lokyām (in the world). The cosmos searches for what one Yadu home holds. Hierarchy of value reversed — domestic over cosmic.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-08 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where do you hide yourself spiritually and still attract visitations?
• How does Kṛṣṇa's hiding redefine what 'hidden' means?

The citizens have intuited the deepest fact: Kṛṣṇa has hidden Himself among the Yadus, and even the highest demigods come searching. Like children sure the king is in the kitchen because the smell of feasting reaches them, they know Bhagavān is here by the rasa that spills from this household.

• bāla-vacanam — childish words
  Compound: bāla (child) + vacanam (speech). The Lord names His devotees' over-eager praise as bāla — and this is praise, not censure. Bhakti is consistently called bāla-bhāva in the Bhāgavatam; childlike, not childish.
• prahasya — smiling broadly
  Gerund of pra + √has. The Bhāgavatam's signature verb for Kṛṣṇa's mood with devotees. He laughs often in this canto — at Brahmā, at Yaśodā, at Indra. Here at His own citizens. The smile is the answer.
• ambuja-locanaḥ — He whose eyes are like lotuses
  Compound: ambuja (water-born, lotus) + locanaḥ (whose eyes). Returns to the eye-imagery of verse 6 — the eyes that the citizens just praised are now smiling at them. Their darśana is being returned.

• Where do you correct with severity what could be corrected with a smile?
• How does humor make truth easier to receive?

Kṛṣṇa's broad smile at the citizens' theology is the smile of a father correcting a beloved child's grammar — not the smile of a teacher mocking error. He prefers their over-eager devotion to any cool accuracy. Then He tells them the truth.

• deva-sadane — in the temple room
  Compound: deva (deity) + sadane (in the seat, locative of sadana). Satrājit installs the jewel where the deity should be — the chapter's quiet diagnosis. Misplaced enthronement is the structure of every fallen bhakti.
• vipraiḥ — by learned brāhmaṇas
  Instrumental plural. The ritual is correct; the object is wrong. Vedic procedure cannot redeem a misdirected heart — a key Gauḍīya theme echoed throughout Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
• nyaveśayat — had installed
  Causative aorist of ni + √viś. The same family of words used for prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā in temple installation. Satrājit performs the formal pratiṣṭhā of a stone — and refuses it for the Lord.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-10 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Romapada Sw SB 10-56-10-12 - 2014-12-10 ISKCON Alachua
  His Holiness Romapada Swami· 2014-12-10· English

• What 'treasure' in your home is currently enshrined as object of worship?
• Whom would you call to install it properly?

A man builds a temple inside his house, but for the wrong deity — he enthrones the jewel where Bhagavān should sit. The architecture of bhakti is exact; an inch off centre and the gold-producing gem still cannot save the house.

• abhyarcitaḥ — properly worshiped
  Past participle of abhi + √arc. The jewel's power activates only when worshiped — even mundane wealth follows the law of arcanā. But the Gauḍīya correction: arcanā of objects, not Bhagavān, multiplies the obstacle.
• māyinaḥ — deceivers, cheats
  From māyā (illusion, trickery). The jewel keeps māyāvīs out — yet the holder of the jewel will himself become the chapter's most prominent māyāvī, accusing Kṛṣṇa of theft. The protection cannot reach inward.
• ariṣṭāni — catastrophes
  Plural of ariṣṭa. The same word used in Canto 10 for the bull-demon Ariṣṭāsura. In Kṛṣṇa's presence ariṣṭas are slain; under a jewel's protection they are merely deflected — not destroyed at the root.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-11 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where does your worship of a treasure produce ongoing yield?
• How does honoring create ongoing return that misuse destroys?

The jewel banishes famine, disease, snake bite — but cannot banish the greed that holds it. It is the perfect mirror of dharmic dharma without bhakti: tidy outcomes, blocked heart.

• yācitaḥ — requested
  Past participle of √yāc, to beg. The Supreme Lord places Himself in the posture of a supplicant — and is refused. Gauḍīya theology lingers on this: Bhagavān stoops to ask because love is consensual, never coerced.
• yācñā-bhaṅgam — the breaking of the request
  Compound: yācñā (begging, request) + bhaṅgam (breaking). A formal Sanskrit offense category — to break a yācñā is a recognized sin. Satrājit commits the textbook offense and does not even register it.
• artha-kāmukaḥ — greedy for wealth
  Compound: artha (wealth) + kāmukaḥ (lustful). The exact diagnosis. Kāma displaced onto artha — the modern condition named in one Sanskrit compound.
• atarkayan — not considering
  Present participle of negated √tark. Satrājit does not even think. The Bhāgavatam takes thoughtlessness as a moral category — to fail to weigh an offense to Bhagavān is itself an offense.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-12 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-12 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where have you refused a request that the Lord (through a guru or devotee) actually made?
• What greed currently prevents redirecting a resource?

When Kṛṣṇa Himself asks, the answer must be 'yes' — to refuse Bhagavān a small thing is to claim ownership of something that was never yours. Satrājit hoards the gem; he loses the gem, his brother, and his reputation. The accountant of bhakti is exacting.

• prasenaḥ — Prasena
  Satrājit's brother. The proper name will become an accusation — 'Kṛṣṇa killed Prasena' — in three verses. Names in the Bhāgavatam are never decorative; this one is being set up for misuse.
• mahā-prabham — greatly effulgent
  Compound: mahā (great) + prabham (effulgence). The same prabha that lit Satrājit; now it lights Prasena into a target. The jewel's light is a magnet for trouble — borrowed brightness always draws something.
• mṛgāyām — for hunting
  From √mṛg, to chase. Hunting in the Mahābhārata and Bhāgavata frame is rarely innocent; it is the activity that costs Pāṇḍu his life, that costs Daśaratha Śravaṇa's curse. Prasena follows the pattern.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-13 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Sesa Pr SB 10-56-13-22 - 2014-12-11 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Sesa Prabhu· 2014-12-11· English

• Where do consequences of refusal land first on the people closest to you?
• How could honoring a request protect a brother you weren't even thinking about?

A jewel meant for the temple is taken into the forest by a younger brother on horseback — wealth not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa eventually rides out alone into wild places, where the predator waits.

• keśarī — lion
  Lit. 'maned one'. The same Sanskrit term that names Hanumān's father Kesarī — quietly anticipating Jāmbavān's later recognition that this is Rāma returned. The forest of this chapter is haunted by the Rāmāyaṇa.
• jāmbavatā — by Jāmbavān
  Instrumental. The king of the bears (ṛkṣa-rāja), Hanumān's friend at the building of the bridge. His name enters the chapter as a killer of lions; he will exit as Kṛṣṇa's father-in-law and confessor. The longest narrative arc per character in the Bhāgavatam.
• icchatā — who wanted
  Present participle of √iṣ. Even Jāmbavān, the great devotee, begins this chapter as one who wants — the gem. The Bhāgavatam will gently strip every desire from him except darśana of his Lord.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-14 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-14 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What resource in your life has begun a chain of takings because it was withheld from rightful use?
• How do you stop a 'jewel-chain' before it kills more carriers?

A chain of greed: man wants gem, lion wants man, bear wants gem from lion. Every link except the last is killed by the next. The Bhāgavatam diagrams saṁsāra in a single forest scene.

• krīḍanakam — a toy, plaything
  From √krīḍ, to play. The Bhāgavata's favourite verb-cluster — līlā, krīḍā — names Kṛṣṇa's whole activity. The jewel finally enters the krīḍā-frame, no longer an investment. It has been redeemed by becoming a toy.
• bile — in the cave
  Locative of bila. Caves in the Bhāgavatam are sites of revelation — Hiraṇyākṣa's, Kapila's, now Jāmbavān's. Going deep underground is the iconography of going deep within.
• paryatapyata — became deeply troubled
  Imperfect of pari + √tap. The same root tapas — but here tap is suffering, not austerity. The two are continuous: Satrājit's hoarding has caused his own tapas — only the wrong kind.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-15 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where has someone in your life made a 'toy' of what was given as serious responsibility?
• What worry has begun in your circle that you've not yet acknowledged?

The most precious jewel in the three worlds becomes a baby's rattle in a bear-cave — a tableau worth its own dhyāna. What humans hoard, the children of devotees use as toys. The jewel's career has dignified itself only now.

• karṇe karṇe ajapan — they whispered in one another's ears
  Repetition of karṇa (ear) + ajapan (from √jap). Jap normally means silent recitation of a mantra; here perverted into gossip. The Bhāgavatam uses the same root for the highest practice and its shadow — choose which jap fills your karṇa.
• prāyaḥ — probably
  The single most damning syllable in the chapter. The accusation is hedged — 'probably' — and yet it spreads as if certain. Suspicion masquerading as caution is the texture of vaiṣṇava-aparādha.
• kṛṣṇena nihataḥ — killed by Kṛṣṇa
  Instrumental + past participle. The grammatical form of slander. The Lord who killed Pūtanā and Kaṁsa is now accused of killing a man over a gem — the same verb, the same agent, the offense is in the imputed motive.

• Where have you accused the Lord (or His representatives) when your own offense was the cause?
• How does honest acknowledgment of your offense replace blaming others?

A whispered accusation against Bhagavān travels faster than truth — and lodges in the public ear, where it festers. The chapter shows that even Kṛṣṇa's reputation among His own citizens is not auto-protected; bhakti must be actively defended, and only by Bhagavān Himself.

• duryaśaḥ — infamy, bad reputation
  Compound: duḥ (bad) + yaśas (fame). The opposite of yaśas, which the Bhāgavatam treats as one of Bhagavān's six aiśvaryas. To smear yaśas is to attack svarūpa — and yet the Lord chooses to address it with feet and patience.
• liptam ātmani — smeared upon Himself
  Compound idea: lipta (smeared) + ātmani (upon Himself, locative). The poetics suggests dirt on a cloth. The Lord whose nature is pure does not pretend the smear isn't there — He goes to wash it.
• mārṣṭum — to clean away
  Infinitive of √mṛj, to wipe clean. The same family of words used in 40-42 (mṛjāmi). The chapter pivots on this verb — Kṛṣṇa cleans His own name; Satrājit must clean his.

• Where do you neglect to clear your name when truth would benefit your mission?
• What 'tracing the path' is yours to do?

Bhagavān could clear His name with a word — but He chooses the slow path: walk the actual forest, follow the actual hoof-prints. The Lord defends His glory by becoming a detective. Even His apologetics is līlā.

• ṛkṣeṇa — by Ṛkṣa (Jāmbavān)
  Instrumental of ṛkṣa, 'bear'. Jāmbavān is repeatedly called ṛkṣa-rāja, king of the bears. Bears in the Rāmāyaṇa fought alongside Hanumān's monkeys for Rāma — the same species now fights Rāma's later avatāra. The text is layering identity.
• vīkṣya — seeing
  Gerund of vi + √īkṣ. The Lord and citizens together see — public witness, not private claim. The Bhāgavatam consistently legitimates dharma through shared darśana.
• janāḥ — the people
  Nominative plural. The citizens themselves see the evidence — the rumour cannot survive their eyes. Bhakti restored by saṅkīrtana-style public witness.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-18 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where do you stop at the first dead body and miss the second?
• How does patient investigation reveal what one stop wouldn't?

The forensic line of the forest tells its own story: a body, a horse, a dead lion. Truth left to itself leaves a trail; the Lord need only walk it slowly to expose the whisper. Saṁsāra is loud, but the actual evidence is quiet.

• bhīmam — terrifying
  From √bhī, to fear. The cave is named by its affect on entrants. The Lord enters fear willingly — a Bhāgavata sūtra of grace: He goes where His devotee is not yet able to follow.
• andhena tamasā — by blinding darkness
  Compound: andha (blind) + tamasā (by darkness). The very phrase used in the Iśopaniṣad for the result of avidyā. Kṛṣṇa entering andha-tamas is the iconography of avatāra into ignorance to retrieve a soul.
• ekaḥ — alone
  Even with all of Dvārakā with Him, Bhagavān enters alone. The decisive encounter is always one-to-one — Jāmbavān will meet Bhagavān without an audience, as every soul ultimately must.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-19 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where could you enter a difficult cave alone while having companions wait?
• What truth is yours to seek without spectators?

Bhagavān leaves the city outside and enters the dark cave alone. This is every interior crisis of the devotee — the noise outside cannot enter; only Kṛṣṇa Himself goes into the dark place. Even rescue is private.

• maṇi-preṣṭham — the most precious of jewels
  Compound: maṇi (jewel) + preṣṭha (most beloved). Preṣṭha is a charged Gauḍīya word — usually used for Kṛṣṇa Himself or His most beloved devotees. Here it is used for the gem; the chapter quietly winks at the displacement.
• kṛta-matiḥ — deciding, with mind set
  Compound: kṛta (made) + matiḥ (mind). Even the Lord's actions are decisional — He does not seize on impulse. Bhakti reflects this: surrender is a kṛta-mati, a chosen orientation, not a mood.
• arbhaka-antike — near the child
  Compound: arbhaka (child) + antike (near, locative). Bhagavān places Himself near a child — His characteristic location across the canto. The chapter quietly reasserts vātsalya geography even in Dvārakā exile.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-20 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where could you go directly to the current holder of something misplaced?
• How do you handle the awkwardness of asking back what is rightfully yours?

Kṛṣṇa walks into a bear-cave and sees a child playing with the universe's most precious jewel — the same Kṛṣṇa who once let cowherd boys mistake gems for berries. He recognises the scene; He has been on the child's side of it before.

• apūrvam — never before (seen)
  Compound: a (not) + pūrvam (before). The nurse intuits what Jāmbavān cannot yet — this person has never been seen because He is not a person of the seen order. The Bhāgavatam often gives the deeper recognition to the lowliest character.
• balinām varaḥ — the best of the strong
  Compound: balinām (of the strong, genitive plural) + varaḥ (best). Jāmbavān's epithet from the Rāmāyaṇa — strongest of bears who lifted Hanumān and counselled the army. Bhāgavata reuses Rāmāyaṇa diction to remind us who this is.
• kruddhaḥ — angry
  From √krudh. The first emotion of the great devotee toward his Lord — wrong recognition produces krodha. The Bhāgavatam will spend twenty-eight days draining it; only then comes jñāna.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-21 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Whose protector responds when you go to claim what someone is misusing?
• How do you manage the protector while the negotiation happens with the principal?

A nurse's cry is the small alarm by which the great devotee is woken — Jāmbavān does not recognise Bhagavān yet; he hears only that a stranger is near the child. Many a sādhaka first meets Bhagavān as 'an intruder near my project'.

• puruṣam prākṛtam — a mundane person
  Compound idea: puruṣa (person) + prākṛtam (made of prakṛti, mundane). The exact category-error the Gītā warns against (BG 9.11). Mistaking Bhagavān for prākṛta puruṣa is the root mūrkhatā of every age.
• svāmīnā — with (his) master
  Instrumental. The narrator's correction inside the verse itself — Jāmbavān fights, but the Bhāgavata reminds us he fights his own svāmī. The grammar holds the truth even when the character cannot.
• anubhāva-vit — aware of His position
  Compound: anubhāva (glory, position) + vit (knower) — negated by 'na'. Anubhāva is the technical term for the manifest signs of Bhagavān's identity. Jāmbavān is, for the moment, anubhāva-blind. The fight is the means of restoration.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-22 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where might you be fighting the Lord without recognizing Him?
• What unexpected form has He recently taken that you've resisted?

A servant of Rāma, not knowing this is the same Rāma, raises arms against Him. Jāmbavān has been waiting for his Lord for an age — and almost misses Him because the form is different. The Bhāgavatam's quiet teaching: the form may change, but the offer of conflict is always misrecognition.

• dvandva-yuddham — single combat
  Compound: dvandva (pair, duality) + yuddham (fight). The same word dvandva names the dualities of saṁsāra (heat/cold, pleasure/pain) in the Gītā. Jāmbavān's combat is the bodily form of all dvandva — and Kṛṣṇa is on the other side of every pair.
• vijigīṣatoḥ — of the two desiring to win
  Desiderative dual genitive of √ji. Both want to win; only one can — and the loser will discover that losing to Kṛṣṇa is the only true victory. Gauḍīya doctrine: parājaya before Bhagavān is the highest jaya.
• śyenayoḥ iva — like two hawks
  Dual of śyena (hawk) + iva (like). Hawks fighting over kravya (carrion) — the Bhāgavatam's mock-heroic frame for the conflict. The cosmic struggle has the dignity, and the absurdity, of a roadside scrap.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-23 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
• BKG SB 10-56-23 - Jambavan under the spell of yoga maya - 2024-11-07 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2024-11-07· English
• VedavyasaPSW SB 10-56-23-44 - 2024-04-21 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Vedavyasa Priya Swami· 2024-04-21· English

• Where have you used everything and gone to bare arms in a conflict?
• How do you discern when to keep going and when to lay down weapons?

Two hawks fighting over a piece of meat — the Bhāgavata's chosen image for Bhagavān and devotee locked in misrecognized combat. Even this fight is recorded with a smile, because Kṛṣṇa Himself supplied the simile.

• aṣṭā-viṁśa — twenty-eight
  Compound: aṣṭā (eight) + viṁśa (twenty). The same number that names this very Canto (10) and chapter (56) sequence in some reckonings; 28 ahas of fight is a deliberate, almost ritual count — long enough to exhaust the great devotee fully.
• muṣṭibhiḥ — with fists
  Instrumental plural of muṣṭi. Bare fists — no weapons, no māyā. This is the simplest possible combat, body to body. Kṛṣṇa engages His devotee with no trick, no aiśvarya — only steady contact.
• vajra-niṣpeṣa — like the blows of lightning
  Compound: vajra (lightning, also Indra's weapon) + niṣpeṣa (crushing blow). The same vajra that Indra wielded against Vṛtra in the Bhāgavatam. Jāmbavān throws Indra-grade blows; Kṛṣṇa receives them as if they were rose-petals — until Jāmbavān realises whom he is hitting.
• aviśramam — without pause
  Compound: a (not) + viśrama (rest). Bhagavān's tirelessness in receiving the devotee's confusion — this is one of the chapter's most tender doctrinal images. He never tires of being mistaken; He simply waits.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-24 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What 28-day inner battle are you currently in?
• How do you sustain without rest until resolution arrives?

Twenty-eight days of fists like lightning — Bhagavān could end this in a syllable, but He lets the devotee tire himself completely. Sometimes grace's longest mercy is to outlast our resistance until we collapse into recognition.

• kṣīṇa-sattvaḥ — whose strength is diminished
  Compound: kṣīṇa (diminished) + sattva (strength, also the guṇa of clarity). The exhaustion of one's own balam is the opening of another seeing. Gauḍīya emphasis: bhakti often begins where self-strength ends — exactly the Bhāgavatam's repeated pattern (Gajendra, Draupadī, Bhīṣma).
• svinna-gātraḥ — whose limbs are perspiring
  Compound: svinna (perspiring) + gātra (limb). Sweat as the body's white-flag. The bodily sign of effort and surrender at once — the Bhāgavatam will use the same word-field for the gopīs' rasa-laden labour.
• vismitaḥ — astonished
  Past participle of vi + √smi. Astonishment is the rasa that marks the breaking-in of Bhagavān's true form. Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra calls vismaya the foundational rasa of adbhuta — the wonder that turns into worship.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-25 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What exhaustion is preparing recognition in your current battle?
• Where could surrender follow honest pummeling?

The great bear's body finally remembers its limits — and in that exhaustion, jñāna rises like a deferred dawn. The Bhāgavatam is unsentimental: the bear had to be emptied of his strength before he could be filled with his Lord.

• prāṇaḥ — the life air
  From √an (to breathe). Bhagavān is named first as the breath of every living being — the most intimate possible recognition. Gauḍīya pranāma-mantras begin from this fact: He is closer than the breath.
• viṣṇum — Lord Viṣṇu
  Accusative of Viṣṇu — 'He who pervades'. Jāmbavān names Him not 'Kṛṣṇa' first but 'Viṣṇu' — reaching for the most cosmic name his Rāmāyaṇa-era memory can supply. The chapter's tattva-pivot.
• purāṇa-puruṣam — the primeval Person
  Compound: purāṇa (ancient, original) + puruṣam (Person). The same epithet the Vedānta-sūtra and Gītā use for the Supreme. Jāmbavān is reciting standard tattva because he has finally tasted it — vedānta breaks out of his mouth.
• adhīśvaram — the supreme controller
  Compound: adhi (over, supreme) + īśvaram (controller). Above all īśvaras — devas, rulers, demigods. Jāmbavān places Kṛṣṇa above the very Sūrya whose jewel started this entire chapter.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-26 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• 01 - RGS SB 10-56-26-45 - Krishna ki Vivah Leela-Samatak Mani Leela-01
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English

• Where does losing teach you about the source of strength better than winning would?
• What confession has been waiting at the end of long combat?

Jāmbavān recognises Bhagavān as the very prāṇa of his own breath — the one he has been fighting was the one breathing him through the fight. Every blow he gave was lent its force by the recipient. The recognition is total.

• viśva-sṛjām sraṣṭā — creator of the creators of the universe
  Compound: viśva (universe) + sṛj (create), genitive plural + sraṣṭā (creator). Above Brahmā, above all demiurges. Gauḍīya: even Brahmā is a sṛj; only Kṛṣṇa is the sṛṣṭā of the sṛṣṭā.
• kālaḥ kalayatām — the subduer of subduers
  Compound idea: kāla (time) + kalayatām (of those who measure/devour, genitive plural participle). The same line Bhīṣma echoes in his death-prayer to Kṛṣṇa. Time devours all; only the Lord of Time devours Time.
• paraḥ ātmā — the Supreme Soul
  Compound: paraḥ (supreme) + ātmā (Self). The Paramātmā doctrine in one breath — same Self as the jīva's ātman but supreme. Jāmbavān is reciting Upaniṣadic vedānta to the very Lord of the Upaniṣads.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-27 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where does a single recognition unleash a flood of accurate naming in your devotional speech?
• What confession of His titles would mark your next turning point?

Time consumes everything, but Time has a Lord — and that Lord is the one I have been hitting. Jāmbavān's stuti walks the chain of beings upward and finds, at the top, the figure standing in front of him.

• kaṭā-akṣa — sidelong glance
  Compound: kaṭa (side) + akṣa (eye). The famous kaṭākṣa of Rāma against the ocean — and of Kṛṣṇa against the gopīs. Same eye, two rasas. Jāmbavān names the kaṭākṣa that built the bridge — the same eye now looks at him.
• setuḥ kṛtaḥ — made a bridge
  Compound idea: setu (bridge) + kṛta (made). The Setu of Rāmeśvaram — the bridge Jāmbavān himself helped build. The verse contains his own autobiographical proof: this is the Lord I served.
• laṅkā — the city of Laṅkā
  Laṅkā — burned by Hanumān, conquered by Rāma. Jāmbavān cites the very city he helped to besiege, from his own friend Hanumān's exploit. Memory of līlā is itself a stuti.
• rakṣaḥ-śirāṁsi — the demon's heads
  Compound: rakṣas (demon, here Rāvaṇa) + śirāṁsi (heads, plural). Rāvaṇa's ten heads. The chapter quietly confirms Rāma-Kṛṣṇa-aikya — one Bhagavān across two avatāras.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-28 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What past life of service might suddenly inform your recognition of the Lord?
• How does collective memory across time deepen worship?

Mid-stuti, Jāmbavān slips and names Rāmacandra — the bridge, Laṅkā, Rāvaṇa's heads. He cannot quite tell whether he is praising Rāma or Kṛṣṇa. He is, in fact, praising both — and the Bhāgavatam lets the slip stand as doctrine.

• vijñāta-vijñānam — who had understood the truth
  Compound: vijñāta (understood) + vijñānam (realised knowledge). Vijñāna in Bhāgavata usage is jñāna ripened into anubhava — known in the body, not just the head. Jāmbavān has earned this word with twenty-eight days of fists.
• śam-kareṇa — by the hand which bestows auspiciousness
  Compound: śam (auspiciousness, peace) + karaḥ (giver, doer). The same compound-shape that names Lord Śiva (Śaṅkara). Kṛṣṇa's hand carries the very meaning of Śiva's name — auspiciousness embodied in touch.
• megha-gambhīrayā girā — with a voice deep like a cloud
  Compound: megha (cloud) + gambhīrā (deep) + girā (voice, instrumental). The Bhāgavatam's signature image for Bhagavān's voice — deep as a cloud, dark as a cloud, full of rain. Speech and grace fall together.
• bhaktam — to His devotee
  Accusative of bhakta. The Bhāgavatam's most decisive naming. Once Jāmbavān recognises, Kṛṣṇa names him 'devotee' — and the entire combat is reclassified, retroactively, as bhakti.
• kṛpayā parayā — with great compassion
  Compound idea: kṛpā (compassion) + parā (supreme, instrumental). The defining word of Gauḍīya soteriology — kṛpā, mercy. The Lord's first response to recognition is not reward but compassion.

• Where could the hand that fought you actually be the hand that blesses?
• How do you receive blessing through what looked like combat?

The same hand that struck Jāmbavān for twenty-eight days now touches him with auspiciousness. The Lord's contact has two modes — combat and benediction — and they are the same hand. The Bhāgavatam closes the loop: misrecognition healed by touch.

• maṇi-hetoḥ — for the sake of the jewel
  Compound: maṇi (jewel) + hetoḥ (cause, ablative). The Lord names His pretext — and Gauḍīya commentators love this: Bhagavān's stated cause is always partial; the real cause is always the devotee. The gem is hetu; Jāmbavatī is phala.
• mithyā abhiśāpam — false accusation
  Compound: mithyā (false) + abhiśāpa (curse, accusation). The Bhāgavatam names slander as an abhiśāpa — a curse-class speech act. Spoken false words about Bhagavān have weight, and must be cleared by deed, not by counter-word.
• pramṛjan — to dispel, wipe clean
  Present participle of pra + √mṛj. Same root family as mārṣṭum (v.17) and mṛjāmi (v.40). The chapter's verb of cleaning recurs at each pivot — Bhagavān cleans His name, Jāmbavān cleans his confusion, Satrājit cleans his greed.

• What 'jewel' have you been pursuing that is actually about clearing someone's name?
• Where does the small object carry the large message?

Bhagavān tells His devotee plainly: I came for this jewel — not for the gem itself, but to disprove the slander against Me. The Lord cares about His yaśas in His devotees' world, because the slander wounds the bhaktas, not Him.

• jāmbavatīm — named Jāmbavatī
  Accusative of Jāmbavatī, daughter of Jāmbavān. She will become one of Kṛṣṇa's eight principal queens. Her name carries her father's — a daughter who is, ontologically, the gift of the bear-king's resolved bhakti.
• arhaṇa-artham — as a respectful offering
  Compound: arhaṇa (worship, honor) + artham (purpose). Daughter as upahāra. The Bhāgavatam frames matrimony as worship — kanyā as the highest dakṣiṇā a father can offer the Lord.
• mudā — happily
  Instrumental of mud (joy). After twenty-eight days of fighting, the verse simply says 'happily'. The Bhāgavata's economy: reconciliation with Bhagavān is recorded with a single ablative of joy.
• upajahāra ha — presented
  From upa + √hṛ (to offer); ha is the emphatic particle. The same verb-family as the offerings made in yajña. Giving the daughter is structured grammatically as a yajña-offering. Bhakti is yajña, even in family matters.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-32 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What does Jāmbavān-style surrender — offering family alliance — look like in your life?
• Where do you withhold what defeat by the Lord would invite you to give?

Jāmbavān gives his daughter to the Lord — the only fitting upahāra a great devotee can offer his Lord, beyond gems. Bhakti's full ledger turns at this verse: hostility resolved into kanyā-dāna. The Bhāgavatam writes its sweetest reconciliations in matrimony.

• dvādaśa ahāni — twelve days
  Compound: dvādaśa (twelve) + ahas (day, accusative plural). The citizens' wait. Inside the cave Jāmbavān has fought for twenty-eight; outside the wait was twelve. Time in līlā is non-uniform — a devotee's interior week may be a city's day.
• duḥkhitāḥ — unhappy
  Past participle of √duḥkh. Even the citizens of Dvārakā grieve when they cannot see Kṛṣṇa. The Bhāgavata makes duḥkha in Kṛṣṇa's absence the structural opposite of sukha in His presence — same root as the gopīs' viraha.
• yayuḥ — they went
  Perfect of √yā. The verb of return — the citizens go home. Even faith has fatigue. The Bhāgavatam treats this honestly; it is not a failure, only a phase that the Lord's return will dissolve.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-33 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where have you interpreted the Lord's absence as loss after twelve days of waiting?
• How could you wait longer when scripture grants Him longer in caves?

The citizens wait twelve days outside the cave and finally return, grieving. The Bhāgavatam quietly notes that even devotees lose hope — and the Lord lets them, sometimes, that He may return with a bride and a jewel and turn grief into festival.

• devakī — Devakī
  The mother. Once she lost six sons to Kaṁsa; now she fears she has lost her seventh. The Bhāgavatam never lets her vātsalya rest — every absence reopens that wound.
• rukmiṇī — Rukmiṇī
  The chief queen, Lakṣmī Herself. Her name appears before the new wife Satyabhāmā even arrives — the Bhāgavatam establishes that no new wife displaces Rukmiṇī's primacy. Gauḍīya commentators read her here as patient sovereignty.
• aśocan — they lamented
  Imperfect of √śuc. The same verb the Gītā opens with — Arjuna's śoka. The chapter uses identical vocabulary to mark that even the Lord's intimates pass through Gītā-class grief in His absence.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-56-34 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Whose absence in your community shapes everyone's grief at once?
• How do you grieve in community without amplifying despair?

Devakī mourns; Rukmiṇī mourns; Vasudeva mourns. The Lord's absence is felt first in the mothers and the wives — those whose love is hourly. Cosmic disappearance is registered most precisely in the kitchens of the women who feed Him.

• śapantaḥ — cursing
  Present participle of √śap. The citizens curse Satrājit — the slanderer of the previous arc is now the cursed. Vaiṣṇava sociology: the body politic of devotees protects Bhagavān's yaśas even before He returns to defend it.
• durgām — Durgā
  Accusative of Durgā — the Lord's external energy in protective form. Gauḍīya theology positions Durgā as Bhagavān's servant — citizens worship her to obtain Kṛṣṇa, not Kṛṣṇa to obtain her. The grammar holds the hierarchy.
• kṛṣṇa-upalabdhaye — in order to obtain Kṛṣṇa
  Compound: kṛṣṇa + upalabdhi (obtaining, dative). The whole motive of Durgā-worship, in the Vaiṣṇava reading, is kṛṣṇa-upalabdhi. Any other use of Durgā is a category error.

• Where could honest cursing of the cause coexist with sincere prayer for return?
• How do you direct grievance and petition at the right addresses?

When Bhagavān seems lost, the devotee turns to His śakti — the citizens go to Candrabhāgā Durgā, who exists to point back to Hari. The Bhāgavata frame: even the demigoddess's purpose is to return Kṛṣṇa.