Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.61.33
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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nabhaḥ
—
in the sky
From √nabh, 'to be open, void.' Nabhas names ether, the openness above. Sanskrit cosmology places the deva-voices in nabhas — what the gods say comes from above-everything.
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vāṇī
—
a voice
Same root as Sarasvatī's name Vāgdevī. A vāṇī is speech personified, often divine. The Bhāgavata uses it for revealed pronouncement — what the rishis hear is also vāṇī.
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dharmataḥ
—
fairly, by dharma
Adverbial -taḥ from dharma. The voice repeats the very word from verse 32, making the cosmic verdict echo the narrator's: yes, by dharma, Balarāma won.
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mṛṣā
—
duplicitous, falsely
From √mṛṣ in the sense 'to overlook, to lie.' Names the act of speaking what one knows is not. Bhāgavata-Sanskrit's standard term for falsehood — Kapila uses mṛṣā for the lie at the root of saṁsāra.
Since the sinful kings would act as witnesses and tell a lie, a voice spoke from the sky in order to increase Balarāma’s fury so that he would kill sinful Rukmī. Balarāma has won the wager according to the rules (dharmataḥ) because he made a statement (vacanena) that he would accept the bet. Rukmī speaks falsely. Viṣṇu Purāṇa describes Rukmī’s words: tvayokto 'yaṁ glahaḥ satyaṁ na mayaiṣo ‘numoditaḥ / evaṁ tvayā ced vijitaṁ vijitaṁ na mayā katham // I do not accept it as true that you have won the wager. If you won, how is it that I did not win? In Viṣṇu Purāṇa, the voice in the sky spoke as follows: vijitaṁ baladevena rukmiṇā bhāṣitaṁ mṛṣā / anuktvāpi vacaḥ kiñcit kṛtam bhavati karmaṇā // The wager has been won by Balarāma. Rukmī speaks falsely. Even if words are not spoken, what is done is accomplished by the action.
- What truth keeps trying to break through in my life that I keep silencing?
- Whose voice from beyond my usual circle is Kṛṣṇa sending to correct me?
Like the same sky-voice that named Kṛṣṇa's birth and Kaṁsa's doom, an unseen tongue declares the truth no human in the hall will dare speak — the heavens themselves act as prāśnika when the mortal judges are bought.
The first āśarīrī vāṇī (bodiless voice) of Canto 10 came as Kaṁsa drove his sister Devakī home after her wedding: 'O fool, the eighth child of this woman will kill you' (SB 10.1). That voice set Kṛṣṇa's whole avatāric līlā in motion.
The same voice now speaks in this assembly — once announcing the descent of dharma, now announcing its enforcement. Gauḍīyas read these sky-voices as Brahmā or the demigods speaking; either way they are the Bhāgavata's signal that 'kāla' has rendered a verdict the humans cannot.
My note
Source: vedabase.io