Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.66.17
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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ārdayat
—
tormented
Imperfect of √ard (to crush, to afflict). Strong verb — not just defeating but grinding down. Kṛṣṇa fights with the same intensity He showed at Mathurā against Jarāsandha's seventeen attacks. He gives the imitator a real war.
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yuga-ante
—
at the end of an age
Compound: yuga (age) + anta (end), locative. Bhāgavata-cosmology's word for cyclic dissolution. The simile is doctrinally heavy: Kṛṣṇa is not behaving like an ordinary warrior; He is behaving like Time at the close of an age. Pauṇḍroaka has summoned not a duel but an eschaton.
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cakra
—
disc
Sudarśana. The first appearance of the word in its weapon-sense in this chapter; it will return in verse 21 to cut Pauṇḍraka's head, and in verses 38–42 to burn Kāśī. Cakra is the engine of the chapter's second half.
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bhṛśam
—
fiercely
Adverb. Echoes the bhṛśam of verse 15 (vijahāsa bhṛśam) — Kṛṣṇa first laughed strongly, now He strikes strongly. Same intensifier, different mode of expression; one Person, full presence in each.
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patti-mat
—
consisting of infantry
Compound: patti (foot-soldier) + mat (suffix 'possessing'). The catalog of the four limbs of an army (caturaṅga) — elephants, chariots, horses, infantry. Pauṇḍraka has the textbook complete army; Kṛṣṇa has Sudarśana. The asymmetry is the verse's quiet teaching.
Śrīla Prabhupāda comments as follows in Kṛṣṇa: “The soldiers on the side of King Pauṇḍraka began to shower their weapons upon Kṛṣṇa. The weapons, including various kinds of tridents, clubs, poles, lances, swords, daggers and arrows, came flying in waves, and Kṛṣṇa counteracted them. He smashed not only the weapons but also the soldiers and assistants of Pauṇḍraka, just as during the dissolution of this universe the fire of devastation burns everything to ashes. The elephants, chariots, horses and infantry belonging to the opposite party were scattered by the weapons of Kṛṣṇa.”
Krsna attacked them like the fire of annihilation (huta bhuk) attacks all types of living entities without discriminating (prthak prajah).
The word tu indicates that though the enemies attacked they could do nothing. Kṛṣṇa on the other hand completely destroyed their armies.
The word tu indicates that though the enemies attacked they could do nothing or it can mean “then.” Kṛṣṇa then completely destroyed their armies. He afflicted them terribly. Elephants to infantry are in decreasing order of power of the troops. And his club etc. are in order of decreasing power of inflicting pain.
- Where do I imagine my struggles are evenly matched when they really are not?
- What in me wants to dissolve in the fire of Kṛṣṇa's clarity?
When the fire of pralaya rises, the species of the world dissolve — not by malice but by the structural unwinding of an age. Kṛṣṇa among Pauṇḍraka's troops is that fire walking, with chariot for hearth and cakra for tongue.
My note
Source: vedabase.io