Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.68.37
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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aṅghri - paṅkaja - rajaḥ
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the dust of the lotus feet
Pāda-padma-rajas is the Gauḍīya devotee's most cherished thing — Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Six Gosvāmīs, and Prabhupāda all sought it. It is the single substance from which all tīrthas borrow holiness.
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tīrtha - tīrtham
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the source of holiness of holy places
Tīrtha-tīrtha — 'the holiness of the holy.' Every river, kuṇḍa, and kṣetra borrows from this dust. The phrase is one of the Bhāgavatam's signature definitions of the Lord.
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brahmā bhavaḥ aham
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Brahmā, Śiva, and I (Balarāma)
Balarāma names Himself in the same line as Brahmā and Śiva, all as kalāḥ — portions of a portion. Astonishing self-presentation: He is Kṛṣṇa's own viṣṇu-tattva expansion, yet here speaks as a servant of His brother's glory. Pure Gauḍīya tone.
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kalāḥ kalāyāḥ
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portions of a portion
Kalā = a fragment, 1/16th. Kalā of kalā = a fragment of a fragment. The cosmic logic that places even Mahā-Lakṣmī as a kalā among kalās of Kṛṣṇa.
The above translation is based on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, the place of pilgrimage especially referred to here is the Ganges River. The Ganges water is inundating the whole world, and since it is emanating from Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, its banks have turned into great places of pilgrimage.
Krsna, the dust of whose feet, the tirtha for the best of yogis who are personified tirthas, are held by loka palas on their excellent crowns, and which even Brahma, your creator, whose power is greater than Indra’s or other devatas’, and even Siva, and even I, all of whom are but his expansions or expansions of expansions, and even Laksmi, his internal sakti with more opulence that any of us, carefully carry on our heads, must obtain his throne by begging from them and getting their mercy. This is a sarcastic statement.
He is worshipped by the wealth of all beings. The singular rajaḥ is used to express a type, and to indicate that even on particle of dust from his feet is worshipped. Is such a person not fit for the throne? He laughs in anger. Kva expresses the lowest position.
Balarāma repeats what he has said out of great anger. One particle of dust from his lotus feet is attained by Indra and others devatās. Having stating that he bestows powers, it is then stated that he bestows liberation. The particle of dust is the source of purity for all places of pilgrimage. He also bestows bhakti. Brahmā and even I, who have appeared as his elder brother at this time, carry the dust on our heads. “Why would you, being his sons etc. being equal to him, carry his dust?” We are portions of his cit śakti, his eternal servants. Is he not qualified for the royal throne? He laughs in anger.
- Whose head-bowing reverence inspires my own?
- What small act of bowing could I offer Kṛṣṇa today?
Even the helmets of Brahmā and Śiva are dusted with the same particles that fall from Kṛṣṇa's footsteps. Balarāma, Kṛṣṇa's own elder, names Himself a portion-of-a-portion of that splendor — humility from the Lord's own mouth, while He stands inches from cracking the city open.
When Bhīṣma lay on the bed of arrows (SB 1.9), he prayed to Kṛṣṇa in verses very near in spirit to this one — recognizing the dust of the Lord's lotus feet as the very tīrtha of all tīrthas.
The same Bhīṣma sits in this Kuru sabhā having sanctioned Sāmba's capture (verse 5). The verses he later sings at Kurukṣetra are already implicit in Balarāma's words here. Devotion will catch up with him; for now, he is silent in a hall full of pride.
My note
Source: vedabase.io