10.63 · Lord Kṛṣṇa Fights with Bāṇāsura

• aniruddham — Aniruddha
  The grandson of Kṛṣṇa, fourth member of the catur-vyūha (Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha) in Pāñcarātra theology. Gauḍīyas read the Aniruddha-Ūṣā episode as Bhagavān recovering His own kin from the realm of an asura-bhakta of Śiva.
• bandhūnām — of the relatives
  Genitive plural of bandhu (kinsman). The Yadu clan are not just neighbors but Kṛṣṇa's own sambandhi — the verse turns on the special anguish of those who share blood with the missing devotee.
• vārṣikaḥ — of the rainy season
  Adjective from varṣa (rain). Cāturmāsya: four months when motion is suspended, traditionally devoted to extra vrata and bhajana. Viśvanātha and Jīva Gosvāmī note this places the rescue in Mārgaśīrṣa — Kṛṣṇa's own month (Gītā 10.35).
• anuśocatām — who were lamenting
  Present participle of anu-√śuc — sustained, sequential grieving. The same root that names the first word of the Bhagavad-gītā's first verse; Gauḍīyas hear the echo of viraha-bhāva that opens every Vaiṣṇava recovery.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-01 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Tamohara Pr SB 10-63-01-06 - 2015-03-30 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Tamohara Prabhu· 2015-03-30· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-63-01 - Pastimes are to increase Bliss of the Supreme Lord and Devotees - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

• Whose absence am I quietly grieving right now, and have I named it to anyone?
• How can I let unresolved waiting deepen rather than deaden my faith?

Like Yaśodā counting Kṛṣṇa's footsteps when He is late from the pasture, Aniruddha's relatives count the rainy months one by one. Separation from a beloved Vaiṣṇava sets a different clock — each missed day weighs as much as the one before.

• nāradāt — from Nārada
  Ablative — the news comes from the parama-vaiṣṇava ṛṣi. The Bhāgavatam's own narrator-of-narrators; in Gauḍīya lineage, the dīkṣā-guru of Vyāsa and a founding link in the Brahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya paramparā.
• kṛṣṇa-daivatāḥ — having Kṛṣṇa as their personal Deity
  Compound: kṛṣṇa + daivatāḥ (those whose iṣṭa-deva). The Yadus' identity is given here as ananya-bhakti — Kṛṣṇa is not their kinsman first and Lord second; He is their Lord first. The verse models sambandha-jñāna for the household devotee.
• śoṇita-puram — to Śoṇitapura
  'Blood-city' — Bāṇāsura's capital. The toponym already carries the rasa: Kṛṣṇa enters a city named for blood to recover His own grandson, prefiguring the cutting of Bāṇa's thousand arms.
• vṛṣṇayaḥ — the Vṛṣṇis
  Kṛṣṇa's own clan. The Vṛṣṇis are the human household into which Bhagavān has descended; their lament moves Him because the Lord, having accepted nara-līlā, accepts also the bonds and obligations of family.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-02 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Whose word in my life carries enough authority to move me to act?
• Where am I stalled because I have not sought reliable spiritual counsel?

When a watchman finally names the dungeon, the rescue can begin. Nārada speaks the name 'Śoṇitapura' and the Yadus, who already worship Kṛṣṇa as their iṣṭa-devatā, simply move where their Lord is going.

• rāma-kṛṣṇa-anuvartinaḥ — following Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa
  Compound: rāma + kṛṣṇa + anuvartinaḥ (those who follow after). The Sātvatas are defined by anuvṛtti — following, not leading. Bhakti's grammar: the devotee's place is behind the Lord, never in front.
• sātvata-ṛṣabhāḥ — the bulls of the Sātvata clan
  Compound: sātvata (the devotee clan, from sat-vat, 'possessing truth') + ṛṣabha (bull, chief). The Sātvatas are the prototype of the bhakta-vaṁśa; Gauḍīyas trace their own sampradāya's name 'Bhāgavata' to this same root-cluster.
• akṣauhiṇībhiḥ dvādaśabhiḥ — with twelve military divisions
  An akṣauhiṇī is a complete fourfold army (Mahābhārata's standard unit). Twelve here equals the Pāṇḍava-Kaurava combined strength at Kurukṣetra — the verse signals that recovering one bhakta's grandson is treated with the gravity of cosmic war.
• rurudhuḥ — they besieged
  Perfect plural of √rudh (to obstruct, surround). The same verb-field as nirodha (restraint). Bhagavān's army puts an asura's city under the kind of nirodha that bhakti puts on the wayward senses.

• What concern in my life am I trying to address with half my strength?
• Where am I called to assemble all my resources around something that truly matters?

When the head of a household goes to recover a stolen child, every brother and son walks behind him. Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa take the lead, and Pradyumna, Sātyaki, Sāmba and the rest follow — twelve akṣauhiṇīs of a single family arrayed in one ring around Bāṇa's gates.

• prākāra — ramparts
  The defensive wall around a fortified city. Gauḍīya commentators read the asura's prākāra as the outer shell of false security the conditioned soul builds against Bhagavān — the very thing that must fall before śaraṇāgati can begin.
• ruṣā-āviṣṭaḥ — filled with anger
  Compound participle: ruṣā (with rage) + āviṣṭa (entered, possessed). Anger does not arise in Bāṇa; it enters him — the asura is occupied by his own krodha as a deity occupies a temple. The Gītā's diagnosis (2.62–63) made flesh.
• abhiniryayau — he went out
  Aorist of abhi + nis + √yā (to march out against). Bāṇa's mistake is to come out: as long as he stayed inside the city of his own pride, the wall sheltered him; the moment he steps out to meet Bhagavān as an equal, the loss has already been recorded.
• tulya-sainyaḥ — with an equal-sized army
  Compound: tulya (equal) + sainya (army). The asura's calculus is parity — twelve akṣauhiṇīs to twelve. Bhagavān will not be matched by counting; the verse sets up the lesson that numerical equality means nothing against the wielder of Śārṅga.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-05 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What outer 'walls' of mine have recently come down, and was their fall really my enemy?
• How might I distinguish loss of ego-structures from real harm?

An asura's pride is built like a city wall — gardens, ramparts, watchtowers, gateways, each course of stone a fortification of false ego. When Kṛṣṇa's army cracks one stone, the demon roars; Bāṇa's anger here is the sound of ahaṅkāra being demolished from outside.

• bhagavān rudraḥ — Lord Rudra
  Rudra is given the epithet bhagavān — a designation reserved for those possessing the six opulences. Gauḍīyas read this carefully: Śiva is a śaktyāveśa-avatāra and the topmost Vaiṣṇava, deserving of bhagavān, yet always subordinate to Kṛṣṇa as the chapter's stuti will confirm.
• nandi-vṛṣabham — the bull Nandi
  Compound: nandi (the joyful one) + vṛṣabha (bull). Śiva's vāhana, dharma personified as bull. He rides his own carrier of dharma into a battle that dharma itself will end by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa.
• sa-sutaḥ — with his son
  Compound: sa (with) + sutaḥ (son), i.e. Kārtikeya/Skanda. The family of Kailāsa moves as one, the way the family of Dvārakā moves as one — two households of devotion meet on the same field.
• pramathaiḥ — with the Pramathas
  Śiva's intimate gaṇa — fierce attendants. The verse stages a confrontation of associates: Śiva's pramathas versus Kṛṣṇa's Sātvatas, the comparison itself instructing on the difference between aiśvarya-bhakti and śuddha-bhakti.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-06 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where in scripture do I see senior devotees apparently in opposition — and what does it teach me about divine play?
• How do I keep faith when great souls appear to disagree on what is right?

A guru who has accepted a vow to protect a disciple will appear at the doorway of any battle that disciple has entered — even one he should not have started. Rudra rides Nandi to Śoṇitapura not because Bāṇa is right, but because Bāṇa is his.

• kṛṣṇa-śaṅkarayoḥ — of Kṛṣṇa and Śaṅkara
  Dual genitive. Gauḍīya commentators (Jīva, Viśvanātha) consistently read this dual as the doctrinal anchor of the chapter: the two are paired in narrative, but the stuti to come (vv. 34–44) will resolve the pairing as servant-and-served, not peer-and-peer.
• adbhutam — wonderful, astonishing
  From √abhū (to come to be, beyond ordinary becoming). The battle is adbhuta-rasa: marvel arises because both combatants are loved by the spectator, and the spectator (Brahmā and company, v. 9) is waiting to see which way the line of subordination will resolve.
• roma-harṣaṇam — hair-raising
  Compound: roman (body hair) + harṣaṇa (causing to stand on end). The same bodily sign Gauḍīyas count among the eight sāttvika-bhāvas — what the verse names as the audience's thrill is also the somatic signature of bhāva-bhakti.
• pradyumna-guhayoḥ — of Pradyumna and Kārtikeya (Guha)
  Dual genitive. Pradyumna — Kāma reborn as Kṛṣṇa's son — meets Guha, Skanda. Gauḍīyas note: the Lord's own sons fight the demigods' sons; the upper layer of the war mirrors the lower layer.

• Janmastami Pr SB 10-63-07-21 - 2015-04-01 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Janmastami Prabhu· 2015-04-01· English
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-07 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• BVijnanaGS SB 10-63-07-10 - 2024-08-28 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Bhakti Vijnana Goswami· 2024-08-28· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-63-07-25 - Krsna is the Soul of Everyone - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

• What aspect of scripture have I tried to flatten into a moral I can handle?
• How might wonder be a more honest response than verdict?

When the sun and the moon stand opposite in the same sky, neither is diminished — both shine and one bows to the other in season. Kṛṣṇa and Śaṅkara meeting bow-to-trident is exactly this kind of cosmic alignment, not a contest of equals.

• balena saha — with Balarāma
  Bala — strength itself personified. Gauḍīyas read Balarāma as ādi-guru, the first expansion of Kṛṣṇa as Saṅkarṣaṇa; here He confronts the asura ministers because the guru-tattva is what dismantles the asura-vṛtti.
• kumbhāṇḍa-kūpakarṇābhyām — with Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa
  Bāṇa's ministers — pot-belly and pit-ears. The Bhāgavatam names them with grotesque body-compounds to mark their tāmasa-quality; their bodies are the visible distortion of their inner state.
• sāmbasya — Sāmba's
  Kṛṣṇa's son by Jāmbavatī. He fights Bāṇa's son — the lineages mirror each other. Sāmba's later story (SB 11) carries cautionary weight; here he is still in his glorious phase, fighting at his father's flank.
• sātyakeḥ — Sātyaki's
  Yuyudhāna — Kṛṣṇa's dear sakha and disciple of Arjuna in archery. The verse pairs him with the chief asura because sakhya-bhakti is the rasa that does not flinch from confrontation on the Lord's behalf.

• What battle in front of me is exactly sized to my current spiritual strength?
• Where am I trying to take on a fight that the Lord has not assigned to me?

When the master's army arrives at a fort, each lieutenant is given his own opponent and the master keeps the head of the household for Himself. Balarāma to Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa, Sāmba to Bāṇa's son, Sātyaki to Bāṇa — and Kṛṣṇa, of course, takes Śiva.

• brahma-ādayaḥ — Brahmā and others
  Compound: brahmā + ādayaḥ (and so on). Brahmā heads the list of celestial spectators — appropriate, since vv. 35–36 of this chapter will name him as Bhagavān's dhiṣaṇā (intelligence). The grandfather of the universe attends to learn the grammar of subordination.
• siddha-cāraṇāḥ — Siddhas and Cāraṇas
  Compound: siddha (perfected beings, masters of mystic siddhi) + cāraṇa (celestial bards). Gauḍīyas note that even those who have attained the eightfold siddhis come merely to watch — siddhi is for spectating; bhakti is for participating.
• vimānaiḥ — in celestial airplanes
  Instrumental plural of vimāna. The vimāna is the standard Purāṇic vehicle of devas; the verse stresses that this battle is staged for the upper realms to witness, not concealed — Bhagavān's victories are public theology.
• draṣṭum — to see
  Infinitive of √dṛś. Darśana — the same word that names the goal of every Vaiṣṇava pilgrimage. Bhagavān always provides darśana, even in the form of a battlefield; the upper worlds know this and come for it.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-09 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What detail of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes have I been treating as background that the demigods would gather to witness?
• How would my hearing change if I imagined heaven watching alongside me?

When two great kings prepare to meet on a field, every wise man in the kingdom postpones business to watch. Brahmā, the sages, the Siddhas — the heavens empty into airplanes because the question being settled below is not 'who will win' but 'what is the order of the worlds'.

• śaṅkara-anucarān — the followers of Śaṅkara
  Compound: śaṅkara + anucara (one who follows after). The same anucara-pattern that names the Vaiṣṇava's place behind Kṛṣṇa — here applied to Śiva's gaṇa. Gauḍīyas note the parallel: every personality has His own train, but the trains themselves are subordinate.
• śauriḥ — Kṛṣṇa, descendant of Śūra
  From Śūra, Kṛṣṇa's paternal grandfather (and Vasudeva's father). The patronymic anchors Bhagavān in the Yadu kula even as He acts cosmically — Gauḍīyas prize this constant grounding of the universal in the household.
• bhūta-pramatha — Bhūtas and Pramathas
  Compound: bhūta (ghostly beings) + pramatha (Śiva's churning attendants). The tāmasa fringe of Śiva's retinue — appropriate to him as Lord of cremation grounds, but not equipped to face the wielder of Śārṅga.
• śārṅga-dhanuḥ-cyutaiḥ — discharged from the bow Śārṅga
  Compound: śārṅga (made of horn) + dhanu (bow) + cyuta (fallen from, released). Kṛṣṇa's own bow, paired with Sudarśana and Pāñcajanya among His personal weapons. Each arrow carries the will of Bhagavān, not the malice of a warrior.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-10 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What disturbing presences in my mind need to be cleared before I can meet Kṛṣṇa directly?
• How can chanting and devotional service serve as Kṛṣṇa's arrows in my own inner battlefield?

Like a strong wind that scatters fog without injuring the field beneath, Kṛṣṇa's Śārṅga-arrows do not crush Śiva's followers — they merely drive them away. The Lord clears a path to His real interlocutor; the supporting host is dispersed, not destroyed.

• piṇākī — the wielder of Pināka
  Śiva's epithet — Pināka is his bow. The verse names him by his weapon to parallel Kṛṣṇa as Śārṅga-pāṇi; the two are framed as bow-wielders, equals in posture, unequal in metaphysical rank.
• śārṅga-pāṇiḥ — the bearer of Śārṅga in His hand
  Compound: śārṅga + pāṇi (hand). One of Viṣṇu's standard epithets; the hand-and-weapon-compound (cakra-pāṇi, padma-pāṇi, śaṅkha-pāṇi) marks the deity by what He holds. Bhagavān is identified by what He carries for His devotees' sake.
• prati-astraiḥ — with counter-weapons
  Compound: prati (against, in reply) + astra (weapon). The verb-field of bhakti's response-grammar: every śakti has its corresponding counter; Bhagavān's hand is always already holding the answer.
• avismitaḥ — not at all astonished
  Compound: a (not) + vi-smita (astonished). Śiva's astras astonish the worlds; they do not astonish their source. Gauḍīyas read this as the precise sign of Bhagavān-tattva: He is the one for whom nothing else is wonderful.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-12 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What incoming pressure in my life is asking for a specific, intelligent counter rather than a generic response?
• Where is my composure being trained by the very disturbances I resent?

When a master swordsman fights a student, every cut is met with its exact counter — not because the master is straining, but because he is teaching. Kṛṣṇa meets each of Śiva's astras with the appointed reply, and the lesson being taught is who is teacher and who is student.

• brahma-astrasya — of the brahmāstra
  The highest mantra-weapon, invoked by brahma-mantras. Kṛṣṇa neutralizes it with another brahmāstra: same family, same potency. Gauḍīyas note that even the Veda's own most fearful astra is in His drawer.
• pāśupatasya — of the pāśupata weapon
  Śiva's personal supreme astra — the one Arjuna received after the Kirāta encounter. Even this, the asset of asset-holders, is matched here. Kṛṣṇa's reply is nārāyaṇāstra, His own personal weapon — Viṣṇu-tattva trumps Pāśupata-tattva.
• naijam — His own
  From nija — one's very own. Bhagavān deploys His nija-astra against Śiva's nija-astra. The chapter teaches by parallel structure: each side brings what is most personal; on the Viṣṇu side, the personal weapon is sovereign.
• pārjanyam — the rain weapon
  From Parjanya, the rain-cloud deity. Cited in Gītā 3.14 — annād bhavanti bhūtāni, parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ. The cosmic order of element-against-element is in Kṛṣṇa's hand even on a battlefield.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-13 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What in my life needs not more of the same medicine but a different kind?
• Where is excess in me asking to be balanced rather than fed?

Fire is quenched not by argument but by rain; wind is stilled not by another wind but by mountain. So each of Śiva's weapons is met by the element appointed to receive it. Kṛṣṇa is the ledger in which every śakti's opposite is already written.

• mohayitvā — having bewildered
  Causative absolutive of √muh (to be deluded). Mohana is one of Kṛṣṇa's signature actions — He bewilders Brahmā in SB 10.13, Arjuna at Gītā 11. Here even Śiva is briefly bewildered; the verse establishes the asymmetry the stuti will articulate.
• giriśam — the lord of the mountain (Śiva)
  Compound: giri (mountain) + īśa (lord). Kailāsa's resident. The mountain-lord is given a brief lapse — Gauḍīyas read this not as Śiva's defeat but as Bhagavān's gentleness in not engaging him fully.
• jṛmbhaṇa-astreṇa — with the yawning weapon
  Compound: jṛmbhaṇa (yawning) + astra. Even the names of Kṛṣṇa's weapons carry līlā-flavor; He could end Śiva but instead He yawns him. The form of victory is itself the proof of supremacy.
• jaghāna — He struck down
  Perfect tense of √han (to slay). Reserved here for Bāṇa's army, not for Śiva or Bāṇa himself. The verb's distribution in the verse is theology: Bhagavān slays the army; He bewilders the deity; He will eventually spare the bhakta-asura.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-14 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where in my own life is the Lord using gentle interruptions to redirect me?
• What small 'yawning weapon' is Kṛṣṇa using to pause me long enough to be reshaped?

Even a great warrior, set to yawning at the wrong moment, drops his bow. Kṛṣṇa does not defeat Śiva by force; He bewilders him for one breath with a yawning astra and turns to dispose of Bāṇa's army during the gap. Līlā, not violence.

• skandaḥ — Skanda (Kārtikeya)
  From √skand (to leap, jet forth) — named for the manner of his birth from Śiva's tejas. Commander of the deva-army, lord of war. Even his retreat here is honorable: he yields to a higher power, not to a peer.
• pradyumna-bāṇa-oghaiḥ — by the flood of Pradyumna's arrows
  Compound: pradyumna + bāṇa (arrows) + ogha (flood). The same word bāṇa names both arrows and the demon; the verse plays on this: the demon Bāṇa's domain is being struck down by Pradyumna's bāṇas (arrows).
• śikhinā — on his peacock
  Instrumental of śikhin (one with a crest, i.e. peacock). Skanda's vāhana. The peacock, Kṛṣṇa's own ornament (mayūra-piccha), here serves the retreating son of Śiva — the symbol itself bows toward Vraja.
• apākramat — he retreated
  Aorist of apa-√kram (to step away). Honorable withdrawal, not flight. Gauḍīyas note: Skanda's retreat is the demigod-pattern — when faced with Bhagavān's expansion, the demigod yields without dishonor.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-15 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where in my life would honorable retreat serve devotion better than stubborn fight?
• How do I tell the difference between cowardice and wise withdrawal?

Even Skanda, born of Śiva's tejas to slay Tāraka, retreats before Kṛṣṇa's son. Pradyumna — Kāma-deva reborn in Dvārakā — reminds the cosmos that Kṛṣṇa's family contains every śakti the demigod-family contains, in fuller measure.

• muṣala-arditau — tormented by the club
  Compound: muṣala (Balarāma's club) + ardita (afflicted). The muṣala is Balarāma's signature weapon, paired with His plough (hala). Gauḍīyas read the muṣala as the implement of the ādi-guru striking down ignorance at its root.
• petatuḥ — the two fell
  Perfect dual of √pat (to fall). The same root that gives 'patita' — fallen. The asura-generals fall in the literal sense the conditioned soul falls in the figurative; Balarāma's club ends both falls when wielded with grace.
• hata-nāthāni — whose leaders were killed
  Compound: hata (slain) + nātha (lord, protector). The asura army's nātha is mortal; the bhakta's Nātha is eternal. The verse contrasts the two protections without naming the contrast — the reader is meant to feel it.
• dudruvuḥ — they fled
  Perfect of √dru (to run). When the false shelter falls, the dependents scatter — the inverse picture of śaraṇāgati, where the true Shelter never falls and the surrendered never need to flee.

• What 'leader' habit, if dismantled, would scatter many smaller ones in my life?
• Where am I working on symptoms when the root commander is still standing?

A tree falls and the birds in its branches scatter. When Kumbhāṇḍa and Kūpakarṇa drop under Balarāma's club, the soldiers who had been roosting on their leadership take wing in every direction. Bhakti-grounded leadership stands; tāmasa-leadership collapses underfoot.

• viśīryamāṇam — being torn apart
  Present passive participle of vi-√śṝ (to break, scatter). The army does not collapse all at once; it is being torn apart in real time. The verse marks the moment Bāṇa sees his structure dissolve.
• ati-amarṣitaḥ — extremely intolerant
  Compound: ati (very) + amarṣita (unable to tolerate). Amarṣa is the asura's reflex — what bhakti calls titikṣā (forbearance) the asura cannot perform. Bāṇa's intolerance is the inverse of the Vaiṣṇava's chief virtue.
• abhyadravat — rushed toward
  Imperfect of abhi-√dru (to run at). The same root as dudruvuḥ in the previous verse — his soldiers ran away, he runs toward. Both motions end in his loss; the asura cannot stay still long enough to surrender.
• hitvā eva sātyakim — abandoning Sātyaki
  Bāṇa's mistake is to break engagement with his appointed opponent to challenge the Lord directly. Gauḍīyas read this as the conditioned soul's typical leap: skipping the guru (here, Sātyaki, who would have ended him in due course) to confront Bhagavān unprepared.

• Where is my own wounded pride pushing me into a confrontation I am not ready for?
• How might that very confrontation actually be the Lord drawing me close?

An asura's logic is escalation: when the periphery breaks, charge the center. Bāṇa abandons Sātyaki and rushes Kṛṣṇa — exactly the wrong direction, the way a moth charges the very flame that is already consuming its kin.

• yugapat — simultaneously
  Adverb — at one and the same time. Bāṇa's pride is in the simultaneity; verse 19 will reuse the same word against him when Kṛṣṇa cuts all his bows yugapat. Bhagavān answers simultaneity with simultaneity.
• śarau dvau dvau — two arrows each
  Distributive: two-two on each string. The repetition stages the asura's frantic doubling; Bhagavān's reply will be a single Sudarśana. One cakra against a thousand bows is the lesson of bhakti's economy.
• raṇa-durmadaḥ — intoxicated by battle
  Compound: raṇa (battle) + durmada (badly intoxicated). Mada — pride and intoxication together — is one of the six enemies (kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya). Bāṇa is its perfect specimen, intoxicated on the very combat that is about to end him.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-18 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What spectacular show of strength in my life is masking a deeper anxiety?
• Where might quiet trust serve me better than impressive display?

Five hundred bows in a thousand hands, two arrows on each string — Bāṇa offers a parody of devotion's many-handed serving. The same arithmetic that could have served the Lord, turned against Him, becomes nothing but a noisy preparation for amputation.

• ciccheda — He cut
  Perfect of √chid (to cut, split). Will recur in verse 32 when Bāṇa's own arms are cut. The verb carries the chapter's tactile signature: Bhagavān is the cutter of false structures, from bow-strings to arms to ahaṅkāra itself.
• śaṅkham apūrayat — He sounded His conchshell
  Pāñcajanya, blown by Kṛṣṇa at every decisive turn in Mahābhārata and Bhāgavatam. The conch is the auditory mūrti of Bhagavān's voice; its sound is meant to be heard by the relatives back in Dvārakā as much as by the asura on the field.
• yugapat — simultaneously
  The same yugapat Bāṇa used in v. 18 to boast of his simultaneous draw is now used against him. The verse's grammar is the chapter's verdict: whatever the asura claims to do all-at-once, Bhagavān undoes all-at-once.
• sārathim ratham aśvān ca hatvā — having struck down driver, chariot and horses
  The serial list strips Bāṇa of his three supports in succession. Gauḍīyas note: chariot, driver, horses correspond to body, intellect, senses (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.3) — Bhagavān is dismantling the asura at every layer of the self before sparing the core.

• What in my life has Kṛṣṇa dismantled that I am still trying to reassemble?
• What conchshell of fresh direction might He be sounding that I have not paused to hear?

When the master decides the lesson is over, He does not argue point by point — He removes the chalk, the slate, the desk, all at once. Five hundred bows, charioteer, chariot, horses: Kṛṣṇa empties Bāṇa's platform in one breath and blows His conch to mark the silence.

• koṭarā nāma — named Koṭarā
  Koṭarā — literally 'hollow of a tree'. Bāṇa's mother. The Bhāgavatam names her by a hollow because her stratagem is to create a hollow in Bhagavān's gaze, a momentary inattention through which her son can escape.
• nagnā — naked
  The desperate maternal weapon — Koṭarā weaponizes her own body's exposure to compel Kṛṣṇa's modesty. Gauḍīyas read this as proof that Bhagavān, having accepted nara-līlā, accepts also its proprieties; He could see through it but chooses to honor them.
• putra-prāṇa-rirakṣayā — with the desire to protect her son's life
  Compound: putra (son) + prāṇa (life) + rirakṣayā (with intent to protect). Maternal vātsalya in the asura register — even on this side of the line, a mother's wish to save her son moves the cosmos. The Lord will honor that wish in the larger frame by sparing Bāṇa entirely (v. 47).
• avatasthe — she stood before
  Perfect of ava-√sthā (to stand near, present oneself). The same root that gives sthāyī-bhāva — standing-emotion. Koṭarā's standing forces a counter-standing from Bhagavān: He averts His face. Bhakti's grammar acknowledges even an opponent's standing.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-20 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where in my life has someone humbled themselves to protect me, and have I honored it?
• What would I be willing to lay aside, including self-image, to advocate for a soul I love?

When all weapons fail, the asura mother throws the only weapon left — shame. Koṭarā appears naked before Kṛṣṇa to force His eyes away, knowing the Lord's own grace will use up His attention for one breath and give her son a chance to run.

• tiryak-mukhaḥ — with face turned aside
  Compound: tiryak (sideways, obliquely) + mukha (face). The Bhāgavatam's iconography of Bhagavān's chastity. Gauḍīyas read this gesture as Kṛṣṇa's natural ācāra; the master of the gopīs' rasa is also the model of dṛṣṭi-saṁyama.
• gadāgrajaḥ — the elder brother of Gada
  Compound: gada (Kṛṣṇa's younger brother by Rohiṇī's co-wife Devakī's sister) + agraja (elder). A relational name. Even in the climax of cosmic battle, the Bhāgavatam reaches for a household epithet — bhakti always remembers family.
• chinna-dhanvā — with broken bow
  Compound: chinna (cut) + dhanu (bow). Bāṇa is now without his characteristic weapon — and yet still called 'Bāṇa' (arrow). The verse's irony: he carries the name of the weapon he no longer possesses.
• āviśat puram — entered the city
  Aorist of ā-√viś (to enter). The same root as āveśa. Bāṇa retreats into his city — the temporary shelter — when his real, permanent shelter (Bhagavān's mercy) is one verse away from being granted through Śiva's stuti.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-21 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where can looking away rather than confronting be the more spiritually mature response?
• How does restraint of my own gaze create room for grace in others' lives?

Bhagavān will not stare at what should not be stared at, even to win a battle. Kṛṣṇa turns His face and Bāṇa, his chariot gone and bow broken, slips back into his city. The Lord's modesty buys the demon one more breath — and that breath turns out to be the breath in which Śiva will plead for him.

• jvaraḥ — fever
  Personified Śiva-jvara — a deity weapon, not a metaphor. Gauḍīyas read the verse's literalism as theology: even disease has a person; even fever serves a master. Bhagavān will return the favor in v. 23 by deploying His own Vaiṣṇava-jvara.
• tri-śirāḥ tri-pāt — three-headed and three-footed
  Compound: tri (three) + śiras (head) / pāda (foot). Standard iconography of the Śiva-jvara — three heads for cold/heat/sweating, three feet for movement in all phases. The grotesque body marks the tāmasa quality of fever as Śiva-tattva's lesser servant.
• abhyadhāvata — rushed toward
  Imperfect of abhi-√dhāv (to run at). The same direction-verb the asura used in v. 17 — running toward Bhagavān is what every Śiva-loyal force does in this chapter, and each one will end up taking shelter (v. 24).
• diśaḥ daśa — the ten directions
  Eight cardinal/intercardinal + up + down. The cosmographic completeness of the Śiva-jvara's burn: he sets all space alight. Bhagavān's reply will not match scale but rank: one Vaiṣṇava-jvara sufficient against ten directions of Māheśvara-jvara.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-63-22 Oriya - 2022
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What inner fever am I trying to use against my own life right now?
• Where would I rather let an intensity scorch me than examine where it comes from?

When ordinary weapons fail, Śiva sends his personified fever — three heads, three feet, burning ten directions — a walking heat-stroke. The image of an unbearable temperature given limbs is exactly what saṁsāra feels like to the bhakta still bound to material desire (v. 28).

• nārāyaṇaḥ devaḥ — Lord Nārāyaṇa
  The verse names Kṛṣṇa as Nārāyaṇa precisely at the moment of dispatching the Vaiṣṇava-jvara — the form-name and the weapon-name match. Gauḍīyas hear the equation: Nārāyaṇa-tattva is Kṛṣṇa-tattva acting through a Viṣṇu-mode.
• vyasṛjat — He released
  Imperfect of vi-√sṛj (to send forth, emit). The same root as visarga (emission, creation). Bhagavān's deployment is creative, not destructive — He emits the Vaiṣṇava-jvara the way He emits worlds: as an expression of His will, not as effort.
• vaiṣṇavaḥ — the Vaiṣṇava (jvara)
  The fever 'belonging to Viṣṇu'. Even Bhagavān's secondary weapons take the adjective vaiṣṇava — Gauḍīyas read this as a small but pointed proof that the highest theological adjective in Sanskrit takes Viṣṇu as its root, not Śiva or any other deity.
• yuyudhāte jvarau ubhau — the two fevers fought
  Dual aorist of √yudh. The duel within the duel: the chapter's larger Kṛṣṇa-Śiva structure is mirrored at the fever level. Form mirrors form all the way down — the Bhāgavatam's standard fractal procedure.

• PSarasvati Sw SB 10-63-23-24 - 2024-08-29 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami· 2024-08-29· English

• Where in my life is Kṛṣṇa sending heat to neutralize a heat I could not cool on my own?
• How do I receive a difficult experience as the Lord's targeted counter rather than a random misfortune?

When a great fire approaches, the master does not pour water from the same well — He sends his own fire, of higher temperature and finer source, and the two consume each other while the master stands untouched. The Viṣṇu-jvara is dispatched not to harm but to outrank.

• alabdhvā abhayam anyatra — not finding fearlessness elsewhere
  Absolutive + accusative. The structural condition of true śaraṇāgati: only when every other shelter has been examined and rejected does the soul turn to Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas read this as the necessary preliminary to genuine prapatti.
• śaraṇa-arthī — seeking shelter
  Compound: śaraṇa (shelter) + arthin (one seeking). The technical Gauḍīya term for the prapanna-jīva. Even a Śiva-weapon, on becoming śaraṇārthī of Kṛṣṇa, becomes momentarily a model for every bound soul.
• hṛṣīkeśam — the master of the senses
  Compound: hṛṣīka (senses) + īśa (master). Kṛṣṇa as controller of the senses — Gītā 1.21 and onward. The address is chosen for the situation: the Śiva-jvara, a sensory-affliction-deity, surrenders to the lord of senses, the only one with jurisdiction.
• prayata-añjaliḥ — with joined palms restrained
  Compound: prayata (self-controlled) + añjali (joined palms). The bodily posture of stuti. Gauḍīyas note: prayata is more than 'folded' — it implies inner saṁyama; añjali without prayata is just hand-folding.

• What suffering in my life is pointing me beyond familiar shelters to a deeper refuge?
• Where am I still hoping a partial shelter will hold what only Kṛṣṇa can?

Even Śiva's own weapon, when overwhelmed, runs not back to Śiva but forward to Kṛṣṇa. The Māheśvara-jvara discovers what every conditioned soul discovers — abhaya is found nowhere but in Bhagavān's hand. With joined palms the fever does what asuras rarely do: he begins to praise.

• ananta-śaktim — of unlimited potencies
  Compound: ananta (unending) + śakti (potency). Gauḍīya theology centers on Bhagavān's śaktis (parā, aparā, jīva; svarūpa, taṭasthā, bahiraṅgā). The fever's first word names Bhagavān not as an attribute-set but as the locus of unlimited śakti — correct sambandha-jñāna in three syllables.
• sarva-ātmānam — the Supersoul of all beings
  Compound: sarva (all) + ātman (self). Paramātmā-tattva — the second of the three realizations (Brahman, Paramātmā, Bhagavān). The Śiva-jvara correctly addresses Kṛṣṇa as the indwelling Self of all, not as one self among others.
• jñapti-mātram — pure consciousness only
  Compound: jñapti (knowing) + mātra (only, sheer). Bhagavān is consciousness itself, not consciousness-possessing. Gauḍīyas distinguish this from Advaitin jñāna-mātra by holding that jñapti here is the svarūpa-jñāna of a Person, not impersonal awareness.
• brahma-lingam — indirectly pointed to by the Vedas
  Compound: brahma + liṅga (sign, indicator). Gauḍīya commentators (Jīva in Bhāgavata-sandarbha) lean on this phrase: the Vedas point indirectly at Brahman, but the full Person Kṛṣṇa is the destination they point toward. Brahman is sign; Kṛṣṇa is the signified.
• praśāntam — perfectly peaceful
  Past participle of pra-√śam. Bhagavān's śānti is not exhaustion-after-effort; it is svarūpa-śānti, peace as His native condition. The fever, agitation personified, names Kṛṣṇa by His opposite — the technique of stuti.

• What truth about Kṛṣṇa has my own suffering forced me to admit?
• How do prayers of glorification rearrange my inner relationship with the Lord?

Even fever, when it surrenders, becomes a theologian. The Śiva-jvara begins his stuti by naming Kṛṣṇa unlimited in śakti, Supreme Soul of all, pure consciousness, cause of creation-maintenance-dissolution — the very Tattva the Vedas indirectly point toward. The chapter's doctrinal heart begins here.

• kālaḥ — time
  Time as Bhagavān's own form (Gītā 10.30 — kālaḥ kalayatām aham). Gauḍīyas read kāla as a śakti directly, not an independent reality; the Śiva-jvara correctly places it inside the māyā-list.
• jīvaḥ — the living being
  The conditioned soul. Note where the verse places jīva: inside the list of māyā-effects, not outside. Gauḍīyas read this as the jīva's adhyāsa — he is mistakenly inside saṁsāra; bhakti is the procedure for stepping back out (acintya-bhedābheda).
• bīja-roha-pravāhaḥ — the flow of seed and plant
  Compound: bīja (seed) + roha (sprouting) + pravāha (stream). The Bhāgavatam's signature image of saṁsāra's self-replication. Gauḍīyas cite this phrase in describing why karma alone cannot end karma — only Bhagavān, the negator (tat-niṣedham), can break the loop.
• tat-niṣedham prapadye — I surrender to the negation of that
  Compound: tat (that) + niṣedha (negation) + prapadye (I take shelter). Prapadye is the technical Gauḍīya verb of śaraṇāgati (Gītā 18.66, BhP 11.5.41). The fever names Bhagavān as the very stopper of the cycle — not by absorption, but by sheltering the surrendered.

• Chaitanya Charan Pr SB 10-63-26 - 2024-09-01 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Grace Chaitanya Charan Prabhu· 2024-09-01· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-63-26 - Purpose of Scriptures - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• JAS SB 10-63-26 - 2015-04-03 ISKCON Alachua
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2015-04-03· English

• Which link in the chain of māyā am I currently most entangled in?
• How does even one act of surrender break the seed-and-plant cycle Kṛṣṇa describes?

A seed becomes a plant, the plant drops seeds, those seeds become plants — the cycle runs without an outside push. Saṁsāra is exactly this self-perpetuating crop. Kāla, karma, jīva, the senses, the subtle body — all of it, the Śiva-jvara confesses, is Your māyā, and I shelter in You as its negation.

• līlayā — by pastime
  Instrumental of līlā. Bhagavān's actions are not exertion (yatna) but līlā — play. Gauḍīyas insist that even slaying demons is līlā for Kṛṣṇa; the same word covers Vraja's butter-stealing and Mathurā's wrestler-killing.
• sādhūn — the saintly
  Accusative plural of sādhu. The technical Gauḍīya term for those whose conduct is shaped by bhakti — sat (truth) + suffix. Kṛṣṇa's avatāra protects sādhus; the same word fixes who counts as the protected class.
• loka-setūn — the boundaries (bridges) of the worlds
  Compound: loka (world) + setu (bridge, embankment). Dharma maintains the embankments that prevent the worlds from flooding into each other. Bhagavān maintains setus the way an engineer maintains levees — for the lokas' habitability.
• bhāra-hārāya bhūmeḥ — for removing the burden of the earth
  Compound: bhāra (burden) + hāra (remover) + bhūmi (earth). The standard Bhāgavata-Mahābhārata phrase explaining Kṛṣṇa's descent (SB 1.1.23, Bhīṣma at Mahābhārata Karṇa-parva). Gauḍīyas note: the earth's burden is asura-multiplication; Kṛṣṇa's cakra is its removal.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-63-27 - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• JAS SB 10-63-27 - 2015-04-06 ISKCON Alachua
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2015-04-06· English

• Where am I asking for mercy without consenting to correction?
• How can I align with what Kṛṣṇa's descent is actually doing in my time?

A king walks the city in disguise — feeding the loyal, lifting the saintly, watching over the borders, and quietly removing the bandits who live by violence. Kṛṣṇa's avatāra is exactly this circuit: He sustains devotees and dharmic boundaries; the slaying of demons is the same gesture, only the other side of it.

• śānta-ugreṇa — cold yet burning
  Compound: śānta (cool, peaceful) + ugra (fierce, hot). The phenomenology of a real fever — and a precise image of saṁsāra: peaceful-seeming and terrible at once. Gauḍīyas read this dvandva-compound as the fingerprint of māyā's double-action.
• duḥsahena — unbearable
  Compound: duḥ (difficult) + saha (bearable). The Vaiṣṇava-jvara is unbearable not because Bhagavān is cruel but because His śakti, applied directly, is incompatible with material āśā. The same śakti, accepted, becomes prema.
• aṅghri-mūlam — the soles of Your feet
  Compound: aṅghri (foot) + mūla (root, base). The Gauḍīya devotional anchor — the soles of Bhagavān's feet are the iṣṭa-sthāna of the bhakta, the place where śaraṇa is taken. Cf. Rūpa Gosvāmī's caraṇa-meditation throughout Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.
• āśā-anubaddhāḥ — bound by hope (for material things)
  Compound: āśā (desire, hope) + anubaddha (bound after, tied to). The fever names the cause of suffering precisely: not the body itself but the binding-to-material-desire. Gauḍīyas distinguish āśā from spṛhā (longing for Kṛṣṇa) — āśā binds, spṛhā liberates.

• What material ambition is currently binding me, and have I named it honestly?
• How does aversion to the Lord's feet show up as everyday suffering in my life?

A fever can be cold and burning at once — the body shakes under blankets while the forehead glows. The Vaiṣṇava-jvara's torture of the Śiva-jvara is the perfect emblem of bound-state suffering: cold and ugra, pleasant-seeming and terrible together, ending only when the soul drops material āśā for service to Bhagavān's feet.

• prasannaḥ asmi — I am pleased
  Prasanna — the technical Gauḍīya term for Bhagavān's grace-state. The same word that names His prasāda. Gauḍīyas note: Bhagavān's prasannatā is the only ground of liberation; the fever's stuti earned it in twenty lines.
• smarati saṁvādam — remembers (our) conversation
  Smaraṇa — one of the nine limbs of bhakti (BhP 7.5.23). Kṛṣṇa makes the very memory of this stuti a śakti: anyone who recites it becomes protected. Gauḍīyas treat this as a mantra-like phala-śruti embedded in the narrative.
• tri-śiraḥ — O three-headed one
  Compound: tri (three) + śiras (head). Kṛṣṇa addresses the Śiva-jvara by his iconographic feature. The form of address itself dignifies — Bhagavān names His former opponent by the body He kept; the body becomes the badge of the surrender.
• vyetu — let it depart
  Optative of vi-√i (to go away). The fever of fear is told to leave. Bhagavān does not just suppress fear; He instructs it to vacate. Gauḍīyas read the imperative-grade verb as exactly fitting: bhaya is a thing the Lord can command to go.

• NRM SB 10-63-29-34 - 2024-09-05 ISKCON Vrindavan
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· 2024-09-05· English
• BSS SB 10-63-29 - Judging our Spiritual Advancement - 2007-08-23 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhaktisiddhanta Swami· 2007-08-23· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-63-29-34 - The Hidden meaning in vedic texts and the mercy of vaishnava acharyas - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

• What former 'enemy' force in my life has Kṛṣṇa transformed into an unexpected ally?
• How does hearing Kṛṣṇa's pastimes itself function as a daily protection in my world?

When the Lord is pleased, He gives more than relief — He gives a permanent name. 'Whoever remembers our conversation here will have no fear of you.' Kṛṣṇa converts the Śiva-jvara from weapon to mantra: smaraṇa of his stuti becomes a guard-charm for every later devotee.

• acyutam — the infallible one
  From a (not) + cyuta (fallen, lapsed). Kṛṣṇa as never-falling — the standard Bhāgavata epithet. The fever bows to the infallible because his own lapse has just been forgiven; the name carries the rasa of the moment.
• ānamya — having bowed
  Absolutive of ā-√nam. Praṇāma is the bodily expression of śaraṇāgati; the Śiva-jvara's praṇāma seals the stuti into action. Gauḍīyas distinguish ānamya (bow + then act) from namaskara as a closing gesture — the fever bows and continues.
• māheśvaraḥ jvaraḥ — the Maheśvara-jvara
  Compound: māheśvara (belonging to Maheśvara, Śiva) + jvara. He keeps Śiva's name even after surrendering to Viṣṇu — Gauḍīyas note: surrendered service to Bhagavān does not erase the prior identity; it reorders the loyalty.
• janārdanam — the agitator of the wicked
  Compound: jana (people) + ardana (agitator, tormentor). Kṛṣṇa as the one who afflicts the wicked. Bāṇa marches against the very name that describes what is about to happen to him. The Bhāgavatam's nomenclature warns him; he ignores it.

• Sesa Pr SB 10-63-30-34 - 2015-04-09 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Sesa Prabhu· 2015-04-09· English
• DMS SB 10-63-30-34 - Integrated Approach of Living - 2015-06-07 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Holiness Devamrita Swami· 2015-06-07· English

• What persistent inner Bāṇa keeps mounting his chariot for another assault in my life?
• How do I keep faith when an old habit returns one more time even after victories?

When one shelter is granted, the next opponent steps forward. The Śiva-jvara bows and leaves; Bāṇa, reconstituted on a new chariot, comes to fight Janārdana. Saṁsāra's queue is long, but each opponent eventually arrives at the same window.

• bāhu-sahasreṇa — with a thousand arms
  Compound: bāhu (arm) + sahasra (thousand). Bāṇa's defining feature — earned by tapas to Śiva. The thousand-arms motif is the asura's parody of Viṣvarūpa-darśana (Gītā 11): many limbs without the Person to govern them.
• nānā-āyudha-dharaḥ — wielder of various weapons
  Compound: nānā (various) + āyudha (weapon) + dhara (holder). Bāṇa's variety is horizontal — many different weapons in many hands. Kṛṣṇa's variety is vertical — He holds a few weapons, each containing the rest.
• cakra-āyudhe — at the wielder of the disc weapon
  Compound: cakra + āyudha. Kṛṣṇa named here by the very weapon He will use in the next verse. The Bhāgavatam announces His instrument before deploying it; the asura is firing at a name that already contains his amputation.
• parama-kruddhaḥ — extremely angry
  Compound: parama (supreme) + kruddha (angered). Bāṇa is parama-kruddha; Kṛṣṇa is parama-praśānta. The Bhāgavatam's grammar pairs them: same adverb, opposite states. Anger's supremacy is no match for peace's supremacy.

• Where am I marshaling many resources against what is actually for my own good?
• How might I redirect that thousand-armed energy from opposition to service?

A thousand-armed asura with weapons in every hand is the picture-perfect form of false multiplicity. Bāṇa fires from a thousand directions; Bhagavān is one and undivided, and the cakra in one hand will be enough.

• cakreṇa kṣura-neminā — with the razor-edged cakra
  Compound: cakra + kṣura-nemi (razor-rim). Sudarśana — 'beautiful to see' — is named here by its sharpness. Gauḍīyas note the chiastic theology: the most beautiful thing in Vaikuṇṭha is also the most cutting against pride.
• śākhāḥ iva vanaspateḥ — like branches of a tree
  Simile: arms as branches. The Bhāgavatam's stock image for false expansion that has overgrown its trunk. The asura's thousand arms had no Person beneath them; pruning them does not reduce a self, only relieves a surplus.
• asakṛt — repeatedly
  Adverb: not just once. Bāṇa keeps firing; Kṛṣṇa keeps cutting. The asura's resilience is itself part of the līlā — Bhagavān gives him many chances to be foolish before pruning the last arm and sparing his life.
• bāhūn — the arms
  Accusative plural of bāhu. Bāṇa's arms — the iconographic feature of his asura-supremacy — are now the object of Kṛṣṇa's cakra. The same noun returns at v. 49 reduced to four; the chapter's arc is the journey of this word.

• What 'arms' of mine has Kṛṣṇa pruned, and was it actually destruction or liberation?
• Where might I be praying to keep instruments that are quietly making me proud?

Like a gardener pruning a tree that has grown wildly into the road, Kṛṣṇa cuts Bāṇa's arms as branches — neither malice nor mercy, just the work of returning a structure to its useful size. The disc that prunes is the same disc that protects Sudāmā and Ambarīṣa.

• bhagavān bhavaḥ — Lord Bhava (Śiva)
  Bhava — 'existence', one of Śiva's eight names (aṣṭa-mūrti). Pairs with bhagavān. The verse pointedly applies bhagavān to Śiva even as he comes to plead — Gauḍīyas read this as upholding Śiva's high rank while clarifying his subordination in the same breath.
• bhakta-anukampī — compassionate to His devotee
  Compound: bhakta (devotee) + anukampin (one who feels with). Śiva is anukampin to his own devotee Bāṇa. Gauḍīyas note: this is the topmost demigod's defining quality — he never abandons his bhaktas, even when their cause is doomed.
• upavrajya — having approached
  Absolutive of upa-√vraj (to approach). The same root as vraja itself. Śiva enters Kṛṣṇa's vicinity to speak — and the moment of approach already encodes the resolution: anyone who steps near Bhagavān to speak ends up reciting His glories.
• cakra-āyudham — the wielder of the cakra
  Compound: cakra + āyudha. Kṛṣṇa is named at this hinge-moment by His pruning weapon — Śiva addresses the cutter to ask him to stop cutting. The form of address is itself the petition.

• Whose intercession have I unknowingly received from a senior devotee in my life?
• For whom am I called to speak compassionately when they are being justly corrected?

Even when a disciple has lost the fight, the guru does not abandon him — he steps forward and pleads for his student before the higher authority. Śiva does precisely this for Bāṇa, approaching Cakrāyudha not as an opponent but as a guarantor speaking on his ward's behalf.

• brahma param — the supreme Brahman
  Compound: brahma + para (highest). Gauḍīyas (Jīva, Bhāgavata-sandarbha 1) cite this exact verse-cluster: Śiva himself names Kṛṣṇa as paraṁ brahma — the Lord of the Bhāgavatam is the same paraṁ brahma the Veda points toward, and Śiva is the witness.
• jyotiḥ — light, luminous
  Bhagavān as svayaṁ-jyotiḥ — self-luminous. The Upaniṣadic technical term (tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti, Kaṭha 2.2.15). Gauḍīyas read jyotiḥ here as referring not to impersonal brahma-jyoti but to its source — the personal Lord whose effulgence the jyoti is.
• gūḍham brahmaṇi vāk-maye — hidden in the Brahman of words (the Veda)
  Compound: gūḍha (hidden) + brahmaṇi (in Brahman) + vāk-maye (made of speech). Bhagavān is hidden inside the Veda — His Person is the secret the Veda is for. Gauḍīyas read this as the foundation-claim of the Bhāgavatam itself: the Veda's hidden meaning is Kṛṣṇa.
• amala-ātmānaḥ — those whose hearts are spotless
  Compound: amala (spotless) + ātman (self/heart). Only the amala-ātmā sees Kṛṣṇa. Gauḍīyas treat this as the chapter's epistemology: Bhagavān is not hidden by ontological remoteness but by stain in the seer; bhakti cleans the stain.
• ākāśam iva kevalam — like the sky, uncontaminated
  Compound: ākāśa (sky, ether) + iva (like) + kevala (alone, pure). The classic upādhi-comparison: Bhagavān is in everything as ākāśa is, without taking on the qualities of anything. Gauḍīyas read kevala as 'unmixed' — not as Advaitin 'sole' — preserving personalism.

• What spot in my heart most obstructs my direct vision of Kṛṣṇa?
• How am I cooperating with the cleansing that scripture and association are offering me?

Like the sky, which holds everything without being colored by anything, Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth — the supreme light, hidden inside the Veda's verbal manifestation, seen only by hearts cleared of stain. Śiva's stuti opens with the image of ākāśa to teach: presence without limit is what Bhagavān's transcendence looks like.

• puruṣaḥ loka-kalpaḥ — the original person, creator of the worlds
  Compound: puruṣa (Person) + loka-kalpa (world-fashioner). Śiva names Kṛṣṇa as ādi-puruṣa — the Person from whom the universal form (Viṣvarūpa, Gītā 11) issues. Gauḍīyas read this as Śiva himself testifying to Kṛṣṇa's primacy.
• ātmā aham — I am Your ego
  Śiva places himself in the cosmic puruṣa as ahaṅkāra-tattva. The verse stages a precise theological humility: the lord of Kailāsa names his own ontological coordinates as a limb of Bhagavān's form. Gauḍīyas cite this when answering Śiva-Viṣṇu-aikya questions.
• viriñcaḥ dhiṣaṇā — Brahmā is the intelligence
  Compound apposition: Viriñca (Brahmā) = dhiṣaṇā (intelligence). Brahmā as the buddhi-organ of the Virāṭ-puruṣa. The Gauḍīya hierarchy is named in body-language: Brahmā is buddhi, Śiva is ahaṅkāra, both are organs — Kṛṣṇa is the puruṣa.
• hṛdayam yasya dharmaḥ — whose heart is dharma
  Compound: hṛdaya (heart) + dharma. Dharma sits in Bhagavān's hṛdaya — the verse's most fragile and central claim. Gauḍīyas note: dharma is not external rule for Kṛṣṇa, it is His own heartbeat; this is why bhakti is dharma's deepest expression.
• samudraḥ jaṭharam — the ocean is the abdomen
  Compound apposition. The cosmic geography mapped onto Bhagavān's body. Gauḍīyas read this catalogue (Puruṣa-sūkta's expansion) as proof of acintya-bhedābheda — the worlds are simultaneously one with the puruṣa (His limbs) and different (mappable as objects).

• RCP SB 10-63-35-36 Telugu - 2013-03-12 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Rupeshwar Caitanya Prabhu· 2013-03-12· Telugu

• Which element of nature, when contemplated, draws me closest to remembering Kṛṣṇa?
• How would my day shift if I treated the natural world as the Lord's own body?

Like a king whose dominion is so total that every river, every wind, every star can be mapped onto a limb of his body, Kṛṣṇa is the puruṣa of the worlds — sky as navel, sun as eye, Brahmā as intelligence. Śiva names himself the Lord's ahaṅkāra: even ego, properly placed, is one of His organs.