Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.61.2
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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acyutam
—
Lord Kṛṣṇa (the infallible)
a-cyuta, 'never fallen.' One of Kṛṣṇa's intimate names. Here it carries irony — the queens see Him as never falling away from their own palace, while the deeper sense is that Bhagavān never falls from His own svarūpa.
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preṣṭham
—
most dear
Superlative of priya. Each queen reads Kṛṣṇa's constant presence as proof she is His preṣṭha. In Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra preṣṭha is a technical term for the Lord's dearmost — a status the queens claim by feeling, even while their understanding of His tattva is incomplete.
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tattva
—
the truth
From √tan, 'thatness.' Bhāgavatam's signature word for ontological reality — sambandha-tattva, kṛṣṇa-tattva. Śuka stresses that the queens lacked tattva-jñāna of Kṛṣṇa even while enjoying full prema-bhakti, a Gauḍīya-friendly hint that bhāva precedes and exceeds analytical knowledge.
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vidaḥ
—
knowing
From √vid. The queens are 'na tat-tattva-vidaḥ' — not knowers of His tattva. The verse subtly distinguishes the queens' rāga-mārga absorption from jñāna-mārga comprehension, both legitimate but operating on different planes.
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striyaḥ
—
the women
The Bhāgavatam frequently uses striyaḥ for women whose love overruns śāstric calculation — a category Gauḍīyas read positively, e.g. Rūpa Gosvāmī citing the gopīs' 'ignorance' as the highest realization.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura notes that Lord Kṛṣṇa would leave the palaces only with the permission of His wives, and thus each one considered herself His favorite.
Each queen, seeing that Krsna did not go to other queens' palaces, except on occasion invitations, thought herself the most fortunate among all the queens. But by the inconceivable yoga maya potency of the Lord, the queens did not know that he had made every queen the most fortunate.
This verse rejects the impossibility that he could produce so many sons in each of his queens by showing something even more difficult to do. The verse shows strong attachment of each of them to him. Each thought that he was staying with her alone—everyday at the appropriate time he would leave but then return to her palace. Each thought definitely (vi—īkṣya) that he did not go to any other queen’s palace. Most were princesses but some were daughters of devatās and others (like Kālindī and Jāmbavatī). Each thought that she was the favorite of Kṛṣṇa. They did not know his nature as ātmārāma (tat-tattva-vidaḥ) or they did not know that he was in all the palaces (tat-tattva-vidaḥ) since they could not investigate the matter because of being bewildered by the intensity of pastimes in their own palace.
Describing the attachment of the Lord for his wives and his wives for him, first the cause is described. They each thought they he did not leave their house, because he was personally present there at all times. They thought like this because they were princesses, the best among all daughters and the most important among all women. He never took leave from any house (acyutam). They each thought like this constantly to themselves (svam svam). But they did not know the truth: that he was in one house, but also in the other houses, because they were women (śtriyaḥ), bewildered by intense prema.
- Where in my life do I confuse Kṛṣṇa's personal attention with an exclusive claim on Him?
- How does humility before the Lord's mystery deepen, rather than diminish, my intimacy with Him?
Like sixteen thousand windows each catching the sun at noon, every queen sees Kṛṣṇa never leaving her palace and thinks the sun shines for her alone — each is right about the radiance but unaware of the Lord's vibhuti, that the same Kṛṣṇa is wholly present in every other window too.
In SB 10.69 Nārada Muni, doubting how Kṛṣṇa could manage 16,108 households at once, walked from palace to palace and found the Lord fully present in each — dining here, gambling there, bathing elsewhere, instructing a son in a fourth, never absent, never duplicated by illusion.
That episode is the necessary commentary on this verse: the queens' belief that 'He never leaves my palace' is literally true of each of them, and yet none of them grasps the tattva — that Bhagavān's expansions sustain every household simultaneously.
My note
Source: vedabase.io