Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.58.7
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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pṛthām
—
to Queen Kuntī
Kuntī's birth name — daughter of Śūrasena, sister to Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa's paternal aunt (pitṛ-svasā). The relationship matters: Kṛṣṇa visits her not as Bhagavān visiting a devotee but as nephew visiting aunt, and the rasa of vātsalya-tinged-by-reverence opens.
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abhivādanaḥ
—
His obeisances
The Lord bows to His aunt. Gauḍīyas read this as the doctrinal pattern: Kṛṣṇa Himself models reverence to elders. Devotion does not abolish family dharma; it perfects it.
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hārda
—
of heart
From hṛd (heart). Used in the compound hārda-ārdra — softened with the heart's moisture. The Bhāgavatam locates the eye's wetness in the heart's softness, not in the eye itself.
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snuṣām
—
daughter-in-law
Draupadī, by marriage to her sons, is now also Kuntī's. Kṛṣṇa inquires about both women together — Gauḍīya etiquette: bhakti honours the household lattice, not just individuals.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura envisions that as Lord Kṛṣṇa was sitting on His seat, He saw His aunt Kuntī approaching in great eagerness to see Him. He then rose at once, quickly went up to her and offered His obeisances. Her eyes moistened with extreme love, she embraced Him and smelled His head.
Seeing Kunti approaching with great eagerness, Krsna rose from his seat and greeted her, whose eyes were moist with affection (hardena). She embraced him saying , "I worship your face with millions of lamps of my pranas." She smelled his head, and asked about Vasudeva and others.
Draupadī lived in a separate part of the palace as the one wife of all the Pāṇḍavas. When Kṛṣṇa suddenly arrived, he met with the Pāṇḍavas and later met Draupadī. Going within the rooms attached to the palace, he then met Kuntī. He offered respects while announcing his name (abhivadanaḥ). He asked her in detail (āpṛṣṭavān) since she was his aunt. They asked him about his relatives such as Balarāma. Kṛṣṇa did not ask Draupadī questions since she was newly married and bashful. He instead asked Kuntī.
- Whose aunt or uncle have you not seen in too long?
- Where could mutual inquiry replace one-way courtesy calls?
A son returns from a distant kingdom and his aunt, who has carried his absence in her body for years, finds her eyes wet before her words come. Kuntī weeping over Kṛṣṇa is the bodily form of smaraṇa — remembrance condensed into tears.
When Kṛṣṇa finally departs for Dvārakā after the war (SB 1.8), Kuntī delivers the famous prayers — vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat (let there be calamities at every step, that we may see You again).
The seed of those prayers is in this small verse: her eyes already moist, already grasping that His coming and going is itself the form of her bhakti.
My note
Source: vedabase.io