Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.64.36
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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rāja - lakṣmyā andhāḥ
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blinded by royal opulence
Rāja (royal) + lakṣmī (fortune) + andha (blind). Aiśvarya itself is the blinder. Gauḍīyas note: this is precisely the disease the chapter was staged to diagnose — Kṛṣṇa's own family had grown ānandha with rāja-lakṣmī, and the lesson is for them first.
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na ātma - pātam vicakṣate
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do not foresee their own fall
Na (not) + ātman (self) + pāta (fall) + vi-√cakṣ (to perceive). The exact diagnosis: a king cannot see his own coming fall. The chapter's whole apparatus — Nṛga's testimony — exists to lend such a king the eyes he lacks.
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nirayam
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hell
From ni-√i. Paired in the verse with abhimanyante (from abhi-√man, 'to consider with desire'). The grammar is unusually strong: the kings do not merely 'fall into' hell but 'long for' it. The implication: the brāhmaṇa-property they crave is, in śāstric reality, identical with the hell that follows it.
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bāliśaḥ
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childish
From bāla (child). The kings are diagnosed as bāliśa — children playing with fire. Kṛṣṇa, addressing actual young boys (the Yadu kumāras), reverses the metaphor: real children should not be as childish as opulence-blinded kings.
Those who desire brahmana's property for themselves also desire hell. They are foolish, not seeing their own falldown.
The king, his family, servants and others (rājānaḥ), blinded by royal wealth, who are foolish, who strongly (sādhu) desire the property of a brāhmaṇa, do not see their fall to hell. Sādhu can also modify bāliśāḥ: they are extremely foolish.
One should not say that there is no fault if the guardians of a brāhmaṇa’s property enjoys it. Those blinded by the wealth of a king or by taking up a king’s post fail to see their downfall. Those who thoroughly (ṣadhu) desire to enjoy the brāhmaṇa’s property fail to see their downfall. Or those who are most foolish (sadhu bāliśāḥ) and desire to enjoy the brāhmaṇa’s property fail to see their downfall.
- Where is my current opulence blinding me to a consequence I should be foreseeing?
- What desire have I named 'success' that is actually pointing toward inner ruin?
Royal opulence dazzles the very eyes that should see clearly — and a king blinded by his own crown reaches for what will plunge him into hell, mistaking it for one more pleasant possession. The opulence is the cataract.
My note
Source: vedabase.io