Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.64.3
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
kṛkalāsam
—
a lizard
A reptile that lives in dry places, can change colour, and clings to walls. Gauḍīya commentators read the form as fit punishment for a king who 'clung' to brāhmaṇa-property he should not have touched.
-
giri - nibham
—
resembling a hill
Giri (mountain) + nibha (resembling). The size of the form preserves the size of the piety beneath it. Nṛga's past charity has not vanished — it has been stuck inside an inappropriate body.
-
vismita - mānasāḥ
—
whose minds were astonished
Vismita (amazed) + mānasa (mind). The Yadu boys' first response is wonder, not judgement. Gauḍīyas commend this: before instruction, the heart must first be opened by adbhuta-rasa.
-
kṛpayā anvitāḥ
—
filled with compassion
Kṛpā (mercy) + anvita (endowed with). The boys' compassion is genuine but limited — they can pity, not deliver. Only Kṛṣṇa's hand will lift him; this verse is the contrast that makes verse 5 shine.
Looking at the creature, a huge lizard, the boys were astonished.
Because it had been living in that manner for a very long time, it was as huge as a mountain. This means the well was also very large. Seeing it directly, they were astonished. They became compassionate. Instead of vismita-mānaṣaḥ sometimes vismsita-cetasaḥ is seen.
- Whose plight is currently summoning my pity, and am I letting it move me to act?
- How does responding to a stranger's distress prepare me to meet the Lord?
A hill-sized lizard trapped in a dry well is the exact silhouette of a great soul brought low by a small offence — the bulk of his past piety still visible, but the form mocking it. Compassion alone cannot lift him; he must wait for the hand of the Lord.
Ajāmila was a learned brāhmaṇa who lost everything for one wrong glance at a śūdrāṇī; for years afterward, his outward shape no longer matched his real inheritance (SB 6.1–2). At the hour of death, naming his son Nārāyaṇa, the holy name itself reached down and lifted him out.
Nṛga in the well is the visible companion-image: piety on the scale of a mountain, reduced to the form of a lizard by a single misstep, waiting for the Lord's hand.
My note
Source: vedabase.io