Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.6.18
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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akutobhayam
—
without fear (from any quarter)
Compound — a (not) + kutas (from where) + bhaya (fear). 'Fearless from any direction.' Used for the liberated soul in śruti and for Kṛṣṇa Himself here. Gauḍīya reading: jīva attains akutobhaya only by taking shelter of Bhagavān; Kṛṣṇa is akutobhaya by His own svarūpa.
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krīḍantam
—
engaged in playing
Present participle of krīḍ (to sport). The Bhāgavatam's signature word for divine līlā. Even on a corpse, He plays — līlā is His mode, not His mood. Sets up Govinda's protection of 'while playing' in verse 25.
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gopyaḥ
—
the cowherd women
Nominative plural. The Vraja gopīs as cradle-mothers — in Gauḍīya rasa-vicāra these are the proto-mātṛkās of vātsalya-rasa, distinct from (and in a sense the maternal background to) the future mādhurya-rasa of the same gopīs as Kṛṣṇa's parā-prakāśa lovers.
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jāta - sambhramāḥ
—
(picked Him up) with great care and reverence
Compound — jāta (arisen) + sambhrama (loving reverential agitation). Bhāgavata catches their bhāva exactly: not panic, not casual delight, but the trembling tenderness that arises when the unbearably precious has just been seen to be in danger. Pure vātsalya-rasa.
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tasyāḥ urasi
—
on her (Pūtanā's) chest
Adjacent locative — tasyāḥ (her, genitive) + urasi (on the chest, locative). The verse foregrounds the location: He plays on what was meant to kill Him. Gauḍīya commentators read this as His personal seal on what verses 35–36 will declare — that her chest, by His having lain on it, has become a Vaikuṇṭha-aṅga.
Here is the Supreme Personality of Godhead — Kṛṣṇa. Although the Rākṣasī Pūtanā could increase or decrease her bodily size by her mystic abilities and thus gain proportionate power, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is equally powerful in any transcendental form. Kṛṣṇa is the real Personality of Godhead because whether as a child or as a grown-up young man, He is the same person. He does not need to become powerful by meditation or any other external endeavor. Therefore when the greatly powerful Pūtanā expanded her body, Kṛṣṇa remained the same small child and fearlessly played on the upper portion of her breast. Ṣaḍaiśvarya-pūrṇa. Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always full in all potencies, regardless of whether He is present in this form or that. His potencies are always full. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. He can display all potencies under any circumstances.
Putana’s chest was raised like a hill, suitable for playing on. Entering the maternity ward, the gopis could not see Krsna there (Yasoda and Rohini had fainted). Desiring to see him they went outside the house, and saw him playing on Putana.
The gopīs around Yaśodā, understanding that the demon killed children, left Yaśodā and Rohiṇī who had fainted and ran, took the child from the dead body, and returned to the house. Their affection for him increased on seeing that he was playing happily on her breast. Because he was child he had no fear. But actually he made others have no fear as well. Seeing him moving his hands and legs as if dancing while situated on her breast, they became astonished or overjoyed (jāta-sambhramāḥ). They then went directly (samabhyetya) and climbed up on the huge corpse lying on the ground and took the child away. Since they all had natural affection for Kṛṣṇa, they developed great power to do this. It will be described that they knew how to perform protective rituals with nyāsa. It should be understood that these gopīs were the same age as Yaśodā since they protected Kṛṣṇa with the affection of a mother.
- Notice today where you try to manufacture abhaya through preparation or control, and instead take one small action grounded in dependence on Kṛṣṇa's protection.
- When a 'Pūtanā' arrives in disguise — a sweet-seeming offer that would poison your sādhana — refuse it on the spot, trusting that Kṛṣṇa's presence inside you sees through it.
- Before sleep, recall one moment from your day when you were 'small' and the situation was 'large,' and offer that moment to Kṛṣṇa as proof that His potency, not yours, carried you.
Baby Kṛṣṇa playing fearlessly on the corpse-mountain that terrifies all of Vraja is the small, royal lamp left burning on the cremation ground at midnight — a single point of cheer that the cremation cannot put out. He is abhaya by His own constitution; ours is borrowed and only as bright as the wick of remembrance.
When the asura-emperor placed Prahlāda on his own lap with murder in his eyes (SB 7.5), the boy showed not a trace of fear. He even smiled. His abhaya did not come from confidence in his strength; it came from the Lord he had already taken shelter of.
Kṛṣṇa on Pūtanā's chest in 10.6.18 is the source of Prahlāda's abhaya appearing in His own Person. The boy mirrored what the Lord shows here: fearlessness rooted in the constitutional fact that Bhagavān cannot be touched.
My note
Source: vedabase.io