Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.64.22
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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etasmin antare
—
at this juncture
Etasmin (in this) + antara (interval). The poet marks a hinge moment. The earthly dharma-court has dissolved; the next court is Yama's. The interval is the death itself, passed over in a half-line.
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yāmaiḥ dūtaiḥ
—
by the messengers of Yama
Yāma (of Yama) + dūta (messenger). The same dūtas who appeared to Ajāmila. Bhāgavata cosmology is precise: there are formal officers of post-mortem judgement; they do not appear for petty cases.
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deva - deva jagat - pate
—
O Lord of lords, O master of the universe
Nṛga, mid-narrative, breaks into vocatives. The pattern is bhakti's: the more dreadful the memory, the higher the form of address he reaches for. Gauḍīyas read these interruptions as the soul re-orienting itself toward shelter as it remembers fear.
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yamena pṛṣṭaḥ
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questioned by Yamarāja
Yama himself, not a subordinate, conducted the interview. The case warranted the chief judge's attention — the poet's quiet signal that brāhmaṇa-aparādha is at the top of Yama's docket.
According to the ācāryas, the King’s performance of fruitive activities had previously been flawless. But now an inadvertent discrepancy had arisen, and so when the King died the Yamadūtas took him to the abode of Yamarāja, called Saṁyamanī.
This description in this verse took place after Nrga died. Yamaraja brought him to his city Samyamani (yamaksayam).
At the opportunity provided by his death at the end of my allotted lifespan, he fell to Yama’s abode. As will be stated later, he was a pious person and therefore went to Yama’s abode above Mānasa in the south (not hell). This place was not located on earth. In that place, Yama personally questioned him out of respect. O Kṛṣṇa, you are worshipped by Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, since you are the protector of the universe (jagat-pate)! In order to protect the universe you have appointed Yama to be in charge of dharma but none of them can trespass your rules. For this reason Yama questioned the king.
- What unaddressed fault from my past will eventually be questioned somewhere?
- How might I bring such matters to Kṛṣṇa now rather than later?
The Yama-dūtas come not for the wicked but for the man whose accounts have one unsettled line. Nṛga's ledger was vast and his sins were few — but the one line of brāhmaṇa-aparādha pulled him before the judge of the dead, opulence and crown notwithstanding.
Ajāmila, dying in fear, saw three terrifying Yama-dūtas come for his soul (SB 6.1). They had genuine śāstric authority over him — and were repelled only by the Viṣṇu-dūtas who came when he chanted the name of Nārāyaṇa.
The Yama-dūtas are real and legal; they came for Ajāmila with proper warrant, and they came for Nṛga the same way. The Bhāgavatam is consistent: an offence on the ledger is not erased by piety elsewhere — only by the holy name or the offended one's mercy.
My note
Source: vedabase.io