Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.66.40
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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kṛtyā
—
produced by mystic power
From √kṛ (to make). The technical term for a conjured being — 'a made-thing.' Atharva-veda hymns invoke and counter kṛtyās. Gauḍīyas treat kṛtyā as the visible form of will-stuff: what was wished, walking. When the wish encounters Bhagavān's protection, the kṛtyā has nowhere to discharge but back to its source.
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pratihataḥ
—
frustrated
Past participle of prati-√han (to strike back, to repel). The kṛtyā is struck back by Sudarśana. Gauḍīyas note the precise word: not 'defeated' but 'struck back' — the violence of the kṛtyā is returned to it in mirror-image, which is exactly the principle of abhicāra-virodha in the Atharva-veda.
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bhagna-mukhaḥ
—
turning away (lit. with face broken)
Compound: bhagna (broken) + mukha (face). The kṛtyā's face — which had threatened Dvārakā — is now turned the other way. Gauḍīyas read the bhagna-mukha as a structural emblem: hostile attention to Bhagavān cannot sustain its forward orientation under His disc.
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ṛtvik-janam
—
the priests
Compound: ṛtvij (officiating priest) + jana (person). Sudakṣiṇa burns; so do his ṛtviks. Gauḍīyas note: the priests cooperated in the ritual and share in its return. Hari-bhakti-vilāsa warns priests not to officiate at abhicāras against Vaiṣṇavas precisely because of this verse's mechanism.
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vārānasīm
—
the city of Vārāṇasī
Accusative of Vārāṇasī (the form-name of Kāśī between the Varuṇā and Asī streams). The city receives back its own fire. Gauḍīyas note: Kāśī herself was not the offender — but the city had sheltered the offender and its rituals; karma is geographic as well as personal.
Śrīla Prabhupāda comments as follows: “Having failed to set fire to Dvārakā, the fiery demon went back to Vārāṇasī, the kingdom of Kāśirāja. As a result of his return, all the priests who had helped instruct the black art of mantras, along with their employer, Sudakṣiṇa, were burned into ashes by the glaring effulgence of the fiery demon. According to the methods of black-art mantras instructed in the tantra, if the mantra fails to kill the enemy, then, because it must kill someone, it kills the original creator. Sudakṣiṇa was the originator, and the priests assisted him; therefore all of them were burned to ashes. This is the way of the demons: the demons create something to kill God, but by the same weapon the demons themselves are killed.”
Kṛṣṇa was the holder of the cakra (rathāṅa-paneḥ). This shows that it was always in his hand. The cakra is thus glorified. The fire turned around and went back to Vārānasī and burned up completely (sam—adahat) Sudakṣiṇa along with the Pramathas, till they were only ashes. The fire was Sudakṣiṇa’s creation (sva-kṛtaḥ). This phrase produces astonishment and bliss.
- What destructive intentions am I sending into the world that may return to me?
- What inner shift would replace those intentions with something life-giving?
An arrow shot into the wind comes back to the archer's chest. The kṛtyā, defeated by Sudarśana, walks home to its summoner and consumes him in his own fire. Abhicāra against Bhagavān is the cleanest case of self-immolation by intention.
In SB 6.9, Tvaṣṭā performs a sacrifice intending the destruction of Indra and, through a slip of accent (indra-śatru, meaning 'destroyer of Indra' or 'destroyed by Indra'), produces Vṛtra — who is killed by Indra. The śāstra's lesson: ritual against a Vaiṣṇava (or against one whom Bhagavān protects) misfires at the speaker.
Sudakṣiṇa's case is the cleaner version: no slip of accent, just a wrong target. The fire returns because the target (Kṛṣṇa) was un-burnable by definition. Gauḍīyas warn: any sādhana, mantra, or ritual aimed at a devotee or at Bhagavān is karmically a suicide.
My note
Source: vedabase.io