Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.6.7
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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praticchanna
—
covered
Past participle — His effulgence is deliberately concealed, not absent. Gauḍīya doctrine: Kṛṣṇa's avatāra-līlā depends on selective veiling by Yoga-māyā so that human-style affection (vātsalya, sakhya, mādhurya) can develop. If His full aiśvarya were visible, no mother would dare embrace Him.
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nija - uru - tejasam
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whose unlimited power (was covered)
Compound — nija (own) + uru (great) + tejas (power, brilliance). The tejas is His, not lent; the verse insists that infant Kṛṣṇa is svayaṁ-bhagavān in full, not a graduated incarnation that 'becomes' divine later.
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asat - antakam
—
destroyer of the demons (asat)
Compound — asat (the demoniac, the false) + antaka (ender). One of the avatāra-purposes named in the Gītā (paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ, vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām). Pūtanā is unknowingly bringing herself to the very form whose business is to end the asat-line.
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bāla - grahaḥ
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the witch whose business was to kill small babies
Compound — bāla (child) + graha (seizer, malefic planet). Bhāgavata uses graha-vocabulary because in Vedic culture certain demoniac forces 'seize' children the way malefic grahas afflict horoscopes. Verses 27–29 will name many such grahas — Pūtanā is their archetype.
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yadṛcchayā
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independently / by (the Lord's) will
Ablative-instrumental of yadṛcchā — 'as it happened' on the surface, but the purport reads it as the higher arrangement of Kṛṣṇa's potency. Nothing 'just happens' in Vraja-līlā; even Pūtanā's free movement is the rope Yoga-māyā pays out to bring her into Kṛṣṇa's reach.
Demons are always busy creating disturbances and killing. But the child lying on the bed in the house of Nanda Mahārāja was meant to kill many demons.
Putana, the killer of children (bala graha -baby catcher) saw the child (balam) who, though the killer of the wicked (asad antakam), appeared easy to kill. At that time he appeared like a fire covered by ash, hiding his powers.
This verse continues the description from verse 4. The word bāla-grahaḥ is not in the feminine since it belongs to a class of words which retain their original gender when used as an adjective (even if the person is female.) She searched out babies in Gokula, without having to make effort (yadṛcchayā), since she was inspired by the līlā-śakti. Sudden coming to Nanda’s house while searching, she saw Kṛṣṇa on the bed. Yadṛcchayā means independently according to Amara-koṣa. Thought the child was the death to demons, he manifested his sweetness at this time. She saw him on the bed, while he hid his powers in front of her. An example is given. He was like a fire covered by ashes. That she attracted all the people of Vraja is the action of the līlā-śakti.
Searching for children in Gokula, she saw the child, who was performing childhood pastimes (bālam), who puts an end to demons, and who was sleeping (āhitam) on a bed. This also excludes Balarāma as the child described, since he sometimes overlooks the demons. Balarāma was in Rohiṇī’s house. Bālam indicates that Kṛṣṇa was performing bāla pastimes as his nature or it expresses Śukadeva’s special bhakti. Kṛṣṇa caused the great power of Pūtanā to be destroyed (praticchanna-nijoru-tejasamur). This indicates his great power. An example is given. It was like fire hidden in charcoal. The charcoal can manifest the intense burning of fire. Did she not become fearful? Why was such an evil person able to see the Lord? It was because of the manifestation of the Lord’s powers (yadṛcchayā). This reason is also apparent later. She also dressed up attractively as a cowherd women so the women thought she was Lakṣmī. Thus they did not prevent her from approaching.
- Notice today where Kṛṣṇa is acting quietly in your life under the 'ashes' of ordinary circumstance, and thank Him by name for that hidden protection.
- Refuse the demonic strategy of Pūtanā — masquerading affection that feeds on the innocent — and audit one influence (a feed, a friendship, a habit) that wears a mother's face but poisons your bhakti.
- Speak Kṛṣṇa's holy name aloud before sleep tonight, entrusting your household and dependents to the same Lord who let no demon touch the cradle in Gokula.
Baby Kṛṣṇa lying on the bed with His tejas veiled is fire banked under a heap of ashes in a village kitchen — to the casual eye, only a soft pile; to the one who lifts the ashes, an inferno that will burn the hand off the demon. Pūtanā walks straight up to the fireplace thinking it has gone out.
When Lord Vāmana approached King Bali's sacrifice (SB 8.18–22), He came as a small brahmacārī boy carrying a water pot. Śukrācārya saw through the disguise, but Bali, generous and devotional, gave his promise anyway. Only when Vāmana began to step did the tejas unveil — three worlds covered in two strides.
The Pūtanā encounter is the reverse motion of the same līlā: a demon walks confidently up to the 'small boy' on the bed, having no idea that the same banked fire of Vāmana lies under the ashes of infancy.
My note
Source: vedabase.io