Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.63.40
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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māyā-mohita-dhiyaḥ
—
those whose intelligence is bewildered by māyā
Compound: māyā + mohita (bewildered) + dhī (intelligence). The standard Gauḍīya diagnosis of the bound jīva. The illness is in the dhī, not in the world; bhakti repairs the dhī and the world's seductions lose their hook.
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putra-dāra-gṛha-ādiṣu
—
in son, wife, home and so on
Compound: putra (son) + dāra (wife) + gṛha (home) + ādi (etc.). The Bhāgavata's recurring catalogue of attachments. Gauḍīyas note: the verse does not forbid family — it forbids prasakti (clinging), the next word.
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vṛjina-arṇave
—
in the ocean of misery
Compound: vṛjina (suffering, sin) + arṇava (ocean). The Bhāgavatam's recurring image for saṁsāra — the same arṇava Caitanya invokes when describing the bound soul's plight in CC Madhya. Bhakti is the bridge across this ocean.
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unmajjanti nimajjanti
—
they rise and sink
Paired verbs of ud-√majj and ni-√majj. The bobbing motion of saṁsāra — temporary highs and lows. Gauḍīyas note: even the highs are part of the sinking pattern; only stepping out of the water (śaraṇāgati) breaks the cycle.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that “rising in the ocean of misery” indicates elevation to higher species, such as demigods, and that “being submerged” refers to degradation to lower species — even to immobile forms of life such as trees. As stated in the Vāyu Purāṇa, viparyayaś ca bhavati brahmatva-sthāvaratvayoḥ: “The living being rotates between the position of Brahmā and that of an unmoving creature.” Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī points out that Śiva, having glorified the Lord, now pursues his original intention of securing the Lord’s grace for Bāṇāsura. Thus in this and the following four verses, Lord Śiva instructs Bāṇa on his actual position in relation to the Lord. Śiva’s appeal to the Lord for compassion toward Bāṇa appears in text 45.
"Being merciful, you appear in this world to deliver the jivas, but the jivas remain fallen in the ocean of samsara."
After indicating the Lord’s profound glories, Śiva gives information to teach Bāṇa who is full of pride, by making him ashamed, in order to give him mercy, in five verses. The glories of the Lord are not astonishing. But generally everyone is bewildered. This verse describes the bewilderment. Their intelligence is bewildered by your māyā.
You reveal mercy to the devotees only and not the non-devotees. The non-devotees suffer Their intelligence is bewildered by your māyā.
- Which of my cherished attachments is currently steering me without my awareness?
- What would it look like to love my family while not pinning my liberation on them?
Like swimmers in a stormy sea who keep breaking the surface only to be pulled under again, persons fixed on putra, dāra, gṛha rise and fall in saṁsāra's vṛjina-arṇava. The ocean is Bhagavān's māyā; only His hand from outside it lifts a swimmer onto the shore.
Gajendra's lake is the literal version of this verse's metaphor — a beautiful pool that became a graha's grip, holding the elephant down for a thousand celestial years (SB 8.2-3). The elephant's calls to wife and herd produced no rescue.
Only Bhagavān's direct descent lifted him out. Gauḍīyas read every verse on the vṛjina-arṇava as a cue to remember Gajendra: the sea of saṁsāra cannot be swum across by attachment to those drowning in the same sea.
My note
Source: vedabase.io