FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.58.46

बद्ध्वा तान् दामभि: शौरिर्भग्नदर्पान् हतौजस: । व्यकर्षल्ल‍ीलया बद्धान् बालो दारुमयान् यथा ॥ ४६ ॥
baddhvā tān dāmabhiḥ śaurir
[baddhvaa taan daamabhih shaurir]
bhagna-darpān hataujasaḥ
[bhagna-darpaan hataujasah]
vyakarsal līlayā baddhān
[vyakarsal leelayaa baddhaan]
bālo dāru-mayān yathā
[baalo daaru-mayaan yathaa]
baddhvā — tying up tān — them dāmabhiḥ — with ropes śauriḥ — Lord Kṛṣṇa bhagna — broken darpān — their pride hata — lost ojasaḥ — their strength vyakarṣat — He dragged līlayā — playfully baddhān — tied up bālaḥ — a boy dāru — of wood mayān — made yathā — as .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
baddhvā tān dāmabhiḥ śaurir
baddhvā
tying up
tān
them
dāmabhiḥ
with ropes
śauriḥ
Lord Kṛṣṇa
bhagna-darpān hataujasaḥ
bhagna
broken
darpān
their pride
hata
lost
ojasaḥ
their strength
vyakarsal līlayā baddhān
vyakarṣat
He dragged
līlayā
playfully
baddhān
tied up
bālo dāru-mayān yathā
bālaḥ
a boy
dāru
of wood
mayān
made
yathā
as .
  • dāmabhiḥ — with ropes
    Instrumental plural of dāma — rope. The Dāmodara-word. Gauḍīya: the rope-vocabulary deliberately reverses SB 10.9; the rope that could not bind Him here binds at His pleasure.
  • śauriḥ — Lord Kṛṣṇa (descendant of Śūrasena)
    From Śūrasena, Kṛṣṇa's paternal grandfather. The clan-name surfaces in a moment of warrior valour. Gauḍīya: the Bhāgavatam selects names by rasa — Śauri for the bull-binding episode signals martial register.
  • dāru - mayān — like a child with wooden bulls
    Compound phrase bāla (child) + dāru-maya (made of wood). The Bhāgavatam likens His handling of these terrible bulls to a child dragging wooden toys. Gauḍīya: vātsalya-rasa quietly tints even the kṣatriya scene; Kṛṣṇa is always the child of Vraja somewhere beneath.
  • līlayā — playfully
    Repeated from verse 45 — the act remains līlā. Gauḍīya: the adverb is the doctrine; bhakti's whole answer to 'why does Bhagavān do this?' is līlayā.
Lord Śauri tied up the bulls, whose pride and strength were now broken, and pulled them with ropes just as a child playfully pulls wooden toy bulls.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
Lord Śauri tied up the bulls, whose pride and strength were now broken, and pulled them with ropes just as a child playfully pulls wooden toy bulls.
Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

They were like wooden toys pulled by strings by a child.

Concepts
Jiva
Lord Śauri ties the bulls — pride and strength broken — and pulls them with ropes like a child plays with wooden toy bulls. What was vicious is now toy; the Lord plays with what defeated others.
Reflection Questions
  • What 'vicious bulls' in your life would be toys to Kṛṣṇa?
  • How does this image steady you facing what others called impossible?

What broke the pride of every other suitor now becomes a wooden toy in a child's hands — the same animals, the same ropes, but the agent has changed. The dāmodara who could not be tied is here the binder.

Dāmodara at the mortar

In SB 10.9, Yaśodā tried to bind her toddler to the mortar with cord after cord, and every rope fell two fingers short — until her exhaustion itself became the rope that bound Him. Hence His name Dāmodara: 'rope-bellied'.

Here the rope-grammar reverses: He who could not be bound easily binds wild bulls and pulls them like wooden toys. Gauḍīyas read the two scenes as one koan — Bhagavān is bound by love alone; nothing else binds Him, and nothing resists Him.

📝 My note

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