Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.6.33
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
paraśubhiḥ
—
with axes
Instrumental plural of paraśu (axe). The everyday tool of Vraja's woodcutters does the work; the verse refuses high-tech weaponry. Even gross-level removal of māyā in our lives is honest, ordinary labor with simple instruments — japa-beads, simple vows, a deleted account.
-
avayavaśaḥ
—
piece by piece
Adverb — limb by limb. Total dismemberment. Vaiṣṇava counsel: a viṣaya defeated must be unmade limb by limb — the contacts, the apps, the lingering screenshots — or its 'limbs' will reassemble.
-
kāṣṭha - veṣṭitam
—
covered by wood
Compound — kāṣṭha (firewood) + veṣṭita (covered). Vedic cremation: the body is laid under wood before fire. Bhāgavata locates Pūtanā's exit within ordinary funerary rites — even she gets a proper antyeṣṭi at Kṛṣṇa's hands.
-
nyadahan
—
(they) burned to ashes
Imperfect plural of ni-dah (to burn down). Complete combustion. The verse insists on completion: not 'they buried,' not 'they hid' — they burned, until nothing remained but ash. Vairāgya is fire-grade or it is not yet vairāgya.
-
vraja - okasaḥ
—
the inhabitants of Vraja
Compound — vraja + okas (dweller). The same Vrajavāsīs who were charmed in verses 5–6 are now performing the executioner's cleanup. Bhāgavata gives no embarrassment over their earlier error — they correct it by completing the disposal Kṛṣṇa began.
It is the practice that after a snake has been killed, its body is cut into various pieces for fear that it may come to life again simply by interacting with air. Merely killing a serpent is not sufficient; after it is killed, it must be cut to pieces and burned, and then the danger will be over. Pūtanā resembled a great serpent, and therefore the cowherd men took the same precautions by burning her body to ashes.
At the order of Upananda and others, lower rank men (vrajaukasa) burned up the body completely , for fear that it would come to life again. The influence of poisonous creatures is extinguished when their bodies are burned up.
As soon as Nanda and others came close, Upananda and others who had stayed to protect Vraja engaged some lower caste inhabitants of Vraja in burning the body. They completely burned (nyadahan) the body, fearing it would again come to life. Another version has nirdehuh.
Those cowherds engaged by Nanda to protect Gokula or all the people of Vraja, frightened by seeing the body of Pūtanā, burned the body completely (nyadahan), fearing she would come to life again.
- Identify one habit Kṛṣṇa's mercy has already weakened in you, and today cut off its remaining 'limbs' — the contacts, apps, or settings that let it regrow.
- Refuse the comfort of partial vairāgya: when you renounce a viṣaya, also burn the kindling around it so it cannot rejoin with air and revive.
- Before sleep, name one rajas/tamas tendency you 'killed' this week and ask honestly whether you have truly burned it or merely buried it shallow.
Cutting Pūtanā's body into pieces with axes, throwing the pieces far, covering them with wood, and burning them to ash is the surgeon cutting out the tumor and the orderly carrying the parts to the incinerator — the work is gross because the disease was. The Vrajavāsīs do not romanticize her removal; they finish what Kṛṣṇa started, because partial vairāgya lets the same demoniac form re-grow.
After Rāvaṇa's death, when Vibhīṣaṇa offered to send Sītā back to Rāma in Rāvaṇa's own chariot (Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha-kāṇḍa), She refused to be carried even one step in a vehicle of the demon. The defilement was finished only by total separation from his every relic.
Vrajavāsīs in 10.6.33 carry the same logic — Pūtanā's body cannot be left for any cremation-ground crow to scatter. Burn, scatter, ash. The verse models how thoroughly the devotee removes the residue of a viṣaya already defeated.
My note
Source: vedabase.io