10.69 · Nārada Muni Visits Lord Kṛṣṇa's Palaces in Dvārakā

• didṛkṣuḥ — wanting to see
  Desiderative of √dṛś. The exact disposition of the devotee: not wanting to argue, prove, or possess — only to behold. Gauḍīya darśana begins from didṛkṣā, the eye's longing for Bhagavān.
• ekena vapuṣā — with a single body
  Compound (joined from the synonyms): one body — yet sixteen thousand simultaneous unions. The verse sets up the whole chapter's wonder: not many forms multiplying, but one Bhagavān whose svarūpa-śakti is unbounded.
• yugapat — simultaneously
  The technical word for Bhagavān's non-sequential acting. Acintya-bhedābheda permits Him to be wholly present in many places at once without division — a property no jīva possesses, marking the verse as ontological, not merely magical.
• citram — wonderful, astonishing
  From √cit (to perceive vividly). Nārada's own word for what he is about to witness. The Bhāgavatam uses citra repeatedly for Kṛṣṇa-līlā — the proper response is not analysis but wonder.
• dvāravatīm — to Dvārakā
  Dvārakā is one of the four dhāmas (with Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, Ayodhyā). Gauḍīyas distinguish Dvārakā-līlā (aiśvarya-mayī, opulent) from Vraja-līlā (mādhurya-mayī, sweet) — both eternal, both Kṛṣṇa, with Vraja held topmost.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-69-01-06 - The Degress of love in the spiritual world - 2007-10-21 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2007-10-21· English
• KavichandraSw SB 10-69-01-06 - 2013-07-17 Singapore
  His Holiness Kavichandra Swami· 2013-07-17· English

• What aspect of Kṛṣṇa's līlā do I find puzzling, and could that puzzlement become reverent inquiry?
• Where might my doubts actually be unrecognized invitations to look more closely?

A traveler approaches a great kingdom and first sees the outer signs — flowering parks, the cries of swans, jewel-bright palaces — and only then the King. Śuka begins this chapter the same way: before Nārada can witness Kṛṣṇa's sixteen-thousand-fold self, the poet must show that Dvārakā itself is fit to hold such a wonder. Bhagavān's līlā is always framed by His dhāma.

• antaḥ-puram — the private royal precinct
  Compound: antaḥ (inner) + pura (city). The inmost residential quarter — where Bhagavān is approached not as world-ruler but as gṛhastha. The chapter's whole reversal turns on this word: even Kṛṣṇa's inner apartments are not 'private' in the worldly sense, since each one holds Him in full.
• tvaṣṭrā — by Tvaṣṭā (Viśvakarmā)
  Tvaṣṭā / Viśvakarmā is the architect of the devas. That he is summoned for Dvārakā — and shown completely (kārtsnyena darśitam) — signals that this dhāma exceeds anything in the heavenly planets. The devas serve, the Lord is served.
• ṣoḍaśabhiḥ — with sixteen thousand
  The fixed number rescued from Bhaumāsura (SB 10.59). Each palace is a complete residence with a complete Kṛṣṇa — Gauḍīyas read the number as a marker of Bhagavān's unbounded svarūpa-śakti, not as a folkloric exaggeration.
• hareḥ — of Lord Hari
  Hari — He who takes away (√hṛ). Even surrounded by sixteen thousand consorts and the opulence of Dvārakā, Bhagavān remains Hari, the one whose proximity removes anarthas. Aiśvarya does not eclipse the saving function.

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  His Grace Tamohara Prabhu· 2015-07-07· English

• Where do I confuse austerity with spirituality, missing the beauty of full devotion?
• What in my home or life reflects the abundance of Kṛṣṇa's world?

A jeweler's master craftsman works to the limit of his art when commissioned by his king; Viśvakarmā, architect of the devas, is given Dvārakā as the one place where he may show his entire kauśalam. The setting is not incidental — it is the visible shape of Bhagavān's aiśvarya, the opulent register of Kṛṣṇa's līlā.

• vaidūrya — vaidūrya gem (cat's-eye)
  One of the navaratna stones. Bhāgavata lists of palace materials are not jeweler's catalogues — they are theology in concrete form: every surface of the dhāma is non-different from Bhagavān, made of cit-śakti, even when described in the language of carbon and silica.
• muktā-dāma — strands of pearls
  Compound: muktā (pearl, lit. 'released') + dāma (rope, garland). The same word-field as mokṣa: even the décor of Dvārakā carries the suggestion of liberation. Gauḍīyas note that in the dhāma, every object is a doorway.
• śikhaṇḍinaḥ — peacocks
  Peacocks belong to Kṛṣṇa's iconography — His crown bears the mayūra-piccha. Here they dance on the palace roofs, mistaking aguru-incense for monsoon clouds — Vraja-bhāva leaking into Dvārakā's opulence. The poet refuses to let Dvārakā forget Vṛndāvana.
• ratna-pradīpa — jewel-bedecked lamps
  Compound: ratna (jewel) + pradīpa (lamp). In the dhāma, light has no external source; jewels themselves are luminous. A theological note: in cit-jagat, illumination is intrinsic — no sun, no fire, only Bhagavān's own effulgence (cf. Bhagavad-gītā 15.6).

• How does the physical setting of my life support — or undermine — my spiritual mood?
• What small detail of beauty could I add today as an offering?

Imagine entering a temple built entirely of jewels — coral pillars, sapphire walls, ivory beds, peacocks calling from the eaves at the smell of aguru incense — and finding that this is not the sanctum but only one of sixteen thousand. The opulence is real, but its function is to humble the eye before the One who lives inside it: the architecture is preface, not point.

• gṛhiṇyā — together with His wife
  From gṛha (home). Gṛhiṇī is the one who makes the house a home — not merely a wife but the co-bearer of household dharma. The chapter is about gṛhastha-dharma at the highest pitch, and the word announces it.
• sātvata-patim — the Lord of the Sātvatas
  Sātvata = the devotees, the Yādava-Sātvata clan; pati = Lord, husband, master. A title that braids three relations at once: clan-chief, devotee-master, husband. Each palace shows Him fulfilling all three to a single queen.
• cāmara-vyajanena — with a yak-tail fan
  The cāmara is a standard royal/temple article — what attendants offer to deities and kings. That Rukmiṇī wields it herself rather than having a maid do so is a Vaiṣṇava signature: aiśvarya is real, but personal sevā outranks rank.
• samāna-guṇa-rūpa-vayaḥ — equal in quality, beauty, and age
  Compound (joined from synonyms): samāna (equal) + guṇa + rūpa + vayaḥ. The maids are Rukmiṇī's peers, not subordinates — the dhāma admits no inferiors. Gauḍīyas read this as a glimpse of Vaikuṇṭha's nitya-siddha sakhīs.

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  His Holiness Bhakti Vikas Swami· 2002-10-19· Hindi

• Where might I be delegating what only my own loving attention can offer?
• What personal service to the Lord would deepen my relationship with Him?

A queen attended by a thousand maids equal to her in beauty puts the cāmara into her own hand and fans her Lord herself — because no proxy can substitute for the touch of one's own service. Rukmiṇī's hand on the gold-handled fan is the very signature of aiśvarya-yoked-mādhurya: she is queen, He is King, and yet between them only personal sevā will do.

• dharma-bhṛtām variṣṭhaḥ — the best of upholders of religion
  Compound: dharma + bhṛt (bearer) + variṣṭha (most senior, best). Kṛṣṇa does not stand outside dharma but at its summit — He keeps the rules He gave, more perfectly than any rule-keeper, demonstrating that lokavat tu līlā-kaivalyam (Vedānta-sūtra 2.1.33).
• kirīṭa-juṣṭena — fitted with a crown
  Compound: kirīṭa (crown) + juṣṭa (fitted, possessed of). The poet underlines that the head being lowered is a crowned head — sovereignty does not abstain from praṇāma. Highest aiśvarya bowing to brāhmaṇa is the chapter's recurring image.
• sa-añjaliḥ — with joined palms
  Añjali — the cupped-palm greeting. Kṛṣṇa adopts the disciple's posture before the sage. Gauḍīyas read this as the Lord's own teaching of vidhi: even the supreme guru (jagad-guru-tama, next verse) honors the guru-form when it arrives.
• śrī-paryaṅkataḥ — from the bed of Śrī (Rukmiṇī)
  Compound: śrī (the goddess of fortune, here Rukmiṇī) + paryaṅka (bed). To rise from Lakṣmī's bed for Nārada's sake is to publicly rank brāhmaṇa-honor above conjugal repose — the order of values is being taught visibly.

• Whom in my life do I bow to with my whole attention?
• Where could I model genuine respect for the spiritual teachers in my community?

A senior judge rising to his feet for a visiting student — the higher honoring the lower — is not weakness but the deepest expression of dharma. Bhagavān, who has all glories, rises from Śrī's bed and bows His crowned head at Nārada's feet because the highest upholder of dharma is the one who keeps it most completely, even when none of His subjects could compel Him to.

• brahmaṇya-devaḥ — the Lord who favors the brāhmaṇas
  Compound: brahmaṇya (related to brahman / favoring brāhmaṇas) + deva. A standing name of Viṣṇu (Viṣṇu-sahasra-nāma). The verse argues that even paradoxical acts of self-abasement become fitting when they enact a name the Lord has eternally borne — guṇa-nāma-yuktam.
• guru-tamaḥ — the supreme spiritual master
  Superlative of guru. Kṛṣṇa is jagad-guru-tama — yet He performs the disciple's act of foot-washing. Gauḍīyas: the highest guru is the one who has not stopped being a śiṣya at heart.
• aśeṣa-tīrtham — the complete holy shrine
  Compound: aśeṣa (without remainder, complete) + tīrtha (ford, holy place). All tīrthas reside in the water that washes Kṛṣṇa's feet. The verse's tension: the source of all tīrthas pours Himself out as a tīrtha-receiver, dignifying His brāhmaṇa-guest above the conventions of His own metaphysics.
• satām patiḥ — the master of the saintly devotees
  Compound: sat (the saintly) + pati (master, protector). Kṛṣṇa is owner-of-devotees, yet He insists on serving them. The Gauḍīya paradox: bhakta-vatsala means the Master who behaves like a servant of His servants.

• Where does my disregard for the form of respect cost me the substance of it?
• What outward gesture of honor toward a holy person could become my inner practice?

A king pours holy water on his own head from the cup that washed a beggar's feet, and the courtiers are scandalized — until they remember the king's name is 'lover of beggars.' Kṛṣṇa's name Brahmaṇya-deva is not decorative; it is descriptive, and this verse shows the description in action.

• nārāyaṇaḥ nara-sakhaḥ — Lord Nārāyaṇa, the friend of Nara
  Compound title joined from synonyms. Identifies Kṛṣṇa with His Badarī-form. Gauḍīyas read every form of Bhagavān as fully Kṛṣṇa — nārāyaṇa-nara-sakha is one of His eternal modes, not a separate person.
• amṛta-miṣṭayā — sweet as nectar
  Compound: amṛta (nectar, immortality) + miṣṭa (sweet). Kṛṣṇa's speech is amṛta — its quality is part of His svarūpa, not a rhetorical achievement. Hearing Him is itself liberating; the medium is the message.
• ṛṣiḥ purāṇaḥ — the primeval sage
  Adjective + noun pair. Kṛṣṇa is the original sage — the one who teaches sages how to be sages. The verse stages the irony of the primeval ṛṣi worshiping a derived ṛṣi, dignifying the form of brāhmaṇa-honor.
• prabho — O master
  Vocative of prabhu. Kṛṣṇa addresses Nārada as prabho — the disciple's word for the guru. This is the reversal upon which the entire chapter pivots: at every moment Bhagavān is enacting the courtesies of an exemplary householder before the very sage who could have learned them from Him.

• UM SB 10-69-16 - Doing one%27s own Duty - 2019-04-14 Houston
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2019-04-14· English
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  His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami· 2015-09-27· English
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  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2007-10-23· English

• When did I last ask a saintly person how I could serve them?
• What changes when I lead with 'What can I do for you?'

Imagine the source of all rivers asking a single river, 'What can I bring you to drink?' The question contains its own answer in reverse — and the irony is the courtesy. Kṛṣṇa, the original ṛṣi Nārāyaṇa, asks Nārada, 'What may We do for you?' The līlā of human courtesy is Bhagavān's chosen mode here.

• svaira-avatāraḥ — descent by His own sweet will
  Compound: svaira (freely chosen, by one's own will) + avatāra. The Gauḍīya doctrine of līlā: Kṛṣṇa descends not from karma, not from compulsion, but svairam — by His own choice. The avatāra is grace's free movement, not necessity.
• uru-gāya — O You who are widely praised
  Compound: uru (vast, wide) + gāya (sung, praised). A standing epithet of Viṣṇu in the Bhāgavatam. To call Kṛṣṇa uru-gāya is to lean into the chapter's later refrain — Nārada will leave singing His pastimes, fulfilling the very name.
• maitrī — friendship
  From mitra (friend). Bhagavān's relation to all beings is maitrī — He is suhṛt-sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29). The verse pairs maitrī (toward all) with damaḥ (toward the envious), showing that both faces are kindness in different forms.
• niḥśreyasāya — for the highest benefit
  Compound: niḥ (without) + śreyas (better) — that than which there is nothing better. The Vedānta term for the supreme good (mokṣa, prema). Nārada locates Kṛṣṇa's descent in this category: the avatāra is for niḥśreyasa, not for adjustments within saṁsāra.

• How do I hold the Lord's friendship and His firmness as a single love?
• Where am I afraid of His firmness in a way that distorts my friendship with Him?

When a king travels among his people in plain clothes, his kindness to all and his strictness with thieves is no surprise — both flow from the same kingship. Nārada's first response to Kṛṣṇa's hospitality is not awe but recognition: this is exactly how the avatāra has always behaved, and the world is praised in His praise.

• saṁsāra-kūpa — the well of material existence
  Compound: saṁsāra (cyclical existence) + kūpa (well). A standing Bhāgavata image — saṁsāra as a deep dark well into which the soul has fallen. Kṛṣṇa's feet are the rope dropped down. Gauḍīyas read this verse as the kernel of śaraṇāgati: the awareness of being fallen is the first half of being lifted.
• smṛtiḥ — remembrance
  From √smṛ. Smaraṇa is one of the nine limbs of bhakti (śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇam, SB 7.5.23). Nārada's request is the request: not power, not knowledge, not even sight again — only the unbroken chain of remembering.
• apavargam — the source of liberation
  From apa + √vṛj (to turn away from). The cessation of varga — the categories that trap. Kṛṣṇa's feet are apavarga because resting attention there severs the categorizing mind. The chapter will return to apavarga-mārga in the final verse.
• agādha-bodhaiḥ — by those of unfathomable intelligence
  Compound: agādha (unfathomable, bottomless) + bodha (intelligence, awareness). Even great ṛṣis like Brahmā can only meditate on these feet within the heart. Nārada has seen them in person — a privilege whose only fitting use is to ask for their constant memory.

• If I could ask the Lord for one thing today, would it be this — to keep remembering Him?
• What small practice helps me remember Kṛṣṇa even amid distraction?

A pilgrim who has finally reached the high temple does not ask for treasure on his way out — he asks only that the memory of the deity travel with him. Nārada has seen Kṛṣṇa's feet; his only petition is that he never afterwards forgets them.

• yoga-māyā — the spiritual power of bewilderment
  Compound: yoga (union, mystic potency) + māyā (the power that conceals and reveals). Gauḍīyas distinguish yoga-māyā (Bhagavān's internal potency that arranges līlā) from mahā-māyā (the external potency that binds conditioned souls). What Nārada wants to see is yoga-māyā at work, not mahā-māyā.
• yoga-īśvara-īśvarasya — of the supreme master of the masters of mystic power
  Compound: yoga-īśvara (master of yoga) + īśvara (master) in genitive. A double superlative — the īśvara of yoga-īśvaras. The same title returns at verse 38 from Nārada's mouth: he is verifying empirically what he names theoretically.
• vivitsayā — with the desire to know
  From √vid (to know). Vivitsā — the disposition of inquiry. Nārada's research is not skeptical; it is devotional. He moves through the palaces not to test whether the Lord is there, but to taste in how many modes He is there at once.
• kṛṣṇa-patnyāḥ — of a wife of Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Compound: kṛṣṇa + patnī (wife) in genitive. The verse uses patnī (lawful wife) rather than any softer term — Gauḍīyas underline that all sixteen thousand are full queens, not subordinates. The aiśvarya-līlā extends to every consort equally.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-69-19 - Krishna%27s special mercy on Narada Muni - 2007-10-24 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2007-10-24· English

• Where am I content with the spiritual understanding I have rather than seeking more?
• What 'next palace' is the Lord inviting me into?

A scholar studying a master illusionist's performance does not stop after the first trick — he goes to a different theater each night to watch the same magician under different conditions. Nārada moves from palace to palace not because the first was incomplete, but because each new palace is another angle on the one inexhaustible Kṛṣṇa.

• aviduṣā iva — as if by one in ignorance
  aviduṣā = by one who does not know; iva = as if. Bhagavān is sarva-jña; the chapter says iva — the ignorance is performed. Gauḍīyas treat this iva as one of the central markers of mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam: the Lord adopts human limitations as a līlā-veil, not as a real limitation.
• pūrṇānām apūrṇaiḥ — for the full by the not-full
  Genitive plural + instrumental plural pair. The full ones (pūrṇa) are devotees like Nārada; the not-full ones (apūrṇa) is Kṛṣṇa's playful self-description. The inversion is the chapter's signature: Bhagavān positions Himself as needy before the one He sustains.
• uddhavena — with Uddhava
  Uddhava — Kṛṣṇa's cousin, minister, and intimate friend. He is the receiver of the Uddhava-gītā (SB 11.6-29). His presence at the dice game places this scene firmly in sakhya-territory even inside the aiśvarya-bound Dvārakā setting.
• vismitaḥ — astonished
  Past participle of vi + √smi (to wonder, smile). Nārada — who has seen Bhagavān across yugas — is still vismita. Gauḍīyas hold this as proof that wonder is not the disposition of beginners but the permanent texture of darśana; the deeper the bhakta, the more easily astonished.

• Where am I half-present, mentally jumping to the next thing?
• What would it mean to be fully where I am, like Kṛṣṇa in each palace?

A teacher who has been seated all day suddenly stands when a student enters the room and asks, 'When did you arrive?' as if the meeting were the student's gift to him. The reversal is the teaching. Kṛṣṇa playing dice with His beloved and Uddhava rises for Nārada and speaks as if He, the full one, were the one in need.

• lālayantam — coddling, fondling
  Present participle of √lal (to caress, to pamper). The verb of vātsalya — the same root behind Yaśodā's lālana of baby Kṛṣṇa. Here it flips: Kṛṣṇa is the lālayitṛ, the caresser. Gauḍīyas: vātsalya is bidirectional in His person.
• śiśūn — infants
  Plural — small children. Bhagavān surrounded by His own infants is a tender image; the chapter alternates between scenes of grandeur (palace, dice game, war counsel) and scenes of domestic intimacy, refusing any hierarchy between them.
• govindam — Kṛṣṇa, the cowherd
  From go (cow, land, senses) + vid (knower) or vinda (one who pleases). One of Kṛṣṇa's primary names — the gopāla. Even in a Dvārakā palace coddling His sons, the poet names Him Govinda — Vraja-identity travels with Him everywhere.
• majjanāya kṛta-udyamam — preparing to take bath
  Compound: majjana (bathing) + dative + kṛta (made) + udyama (effort). A homely detail — Bhagavān engaged in the everyday ritual of bathing. Gauḍīyas savor these details: they are precisely the ones a mere theophany would omit, and their inclusion authenticates the gṛhastha-līlā.

• Which of my daily roles — parent, worker, friend — could I inhabit with Kṛṣṇa's wholehearted presence?
• Where am I holding back from a role I'm in, as if it were beneath my 'real' self?

A father bouncing his small children on his knees and then, in the next room, stepping into the bath he has prepared for his evening sandhyā — the same man, two roles, one love. Nārada moves between palaces and finds Kṛṣṇa moving between roles, the affection of fatherhood and the discipline of ritual held inside one continuous person.

• vitāna-agnīn — the sacrificial fires
  Compound: vitāna (spread, extended) + agni (fire). The arrayed sacrificial fires of the Vedic ritualist. Kṛṣṇa, who is Himself the agni (BG 9.16: ahaṁ kratur ahaṁ yajñaḥ), offers oblations into agni — Bhagavān worshipping His own form to teach the practice.
• pañcabhiḥ makhaiḥ — with the five obligatory rituals
  Compound: pañca (five) + makha (sacrifice). The pañca-mahā-yajñas — daily duties of a Vedic householder: deva-yajña, pitṛ-yajña, bhūta-yajña, manuṣya-yajña, brahma-yajña. Kṛṣṇa performs them not because He owes them but to model gṛhastha-dharma.
• bhojayantam dvijān — feeding the brāhmaṇas
  Causative participle of √bhuj + dvija (twice-born, brāhmaṇa). Feeding brāhmaṇas is one of the householder's central duties. Kṛṣṇa, brahmaṇya-deva (cf. v.15), enacts the duty by which all householders gain merit.
• bhuñjānam avaśeṣitam — eating remnants
  Present participle of √bhuj + avaśeṣita (left over). The śāstric ideal: the gṛhastha eats only what remains after guests and dependents are fed. Bhagavān, source of all food, eats brāhmaṇa-leftovers — the chapter's reversal repeated at the table.

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  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2013-09-01· Telugu
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  His Holiness Bhakti Sundar Goswami· English

• Which of the five daily sacrifices is most neglected in my householder life?
• What small daily yajña could I begin this week?

A householder who simultaneously kindles the sacred fire, performs the five daily yajñas, feeds visiting brāhmaṇas, and then eats only what they have left — is exhibiting the textbook of gṛhastha-dharma all at once. Kṛṣṇa is teaching the textbook by being it: in different palaces, every page of householder ritual is being lived in parallel.

• sandhyām upāsīnam — performing the sandhyā worship
  Sandhyā = the juncture (dawn, noon, dusk); upāsīna from upa + √ās (to sit near). The thrice-daily worship of the dvija. Kṛṣṇa, the upāsya, sits in upāsanā — Bhagavān worships the form by which He is worshipped, perfecting the cycle.
• japantam — quietly chanting
  Present participle of √jap. Japa is repeated quiet recitation. Gauḍīyas: even Bhagavān performs japa — the practice of nāma-japa is not beneath divinity but the highest practice the divinity Himself models. Here He chants brahma (the Gāyatrī mantra) — the Lord chants the Veda He authored.
• asi-carmābhyām — with sword and shield
  Dvandva: asi (sword) + carma (shield), instrumental dual. Kṣatriya weapons. The same Lord whose mouth holds the Gāyatrī holds the sword in another palace — the dharma of varṇa is not abandoned; it is fulfilled at every register simultaneously.
• vāk-yatam — controlling speech
  Compound: vāk (speech) + yata (restrained, controlled). The vrata of mauna during sandhyā. Gauḍīyas: vāk-saṁyama is the discipline that makes japa possible — without restraint of speech, the mantra cannot fully take its seat.

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  His Grace Dina Bandhu Prabhu· 2024-12-10· English
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  His Holiness Bhakti Sundar Goswami· English

• Do my days have hours set aside for silence and hours for action, or do they blur?
• What discipline of timing would deepen both my contemplation and my work?

A monarch interrupts his swordsmanship at dusk, falls silent, and chants the Gāyatrī — and at the same hour, in another palace, the same monarch is still swinging his blade through the practice corridors. Kṛṣṇa is teaching that brahminical contemplation and kṣatriya discipline are not opposites; in Him they run in parallel, both at full intensity.

• gada-agrajam — Kṛṣṇa, elder brother of Gada
  Compound: Gada (a Yādava prince, Vasudeva's son by Sunāmā) + agraja (elder brother). A less common name of Kṛṣṇa — used here to anchor Him in the Yādava family network. Even in the cosmic display, He is a brother first.
• stūyamānam — being praised
  Present passive participle of √stu (to praise). Bards (vandins) praise the Lord at His bedside. Gauḍīyas: kīrtana surrounds Him even in repose — His paryaṅka is also a kīrtana-maṇḍapa.
• paryaṅke — on the bed
  Paryaṅka — a couch or bed. The same word for Anantaśeṣa's coils on which Viṣṇu reclines in the milk ocean. The Dvārakā paryaṅka is a localized echo of that cosmic paryaṅka — Bhagavān at rest is never inactive; rest is one of His līlā-modes.
• vicarantam — riding, moving about
  Present participle of vi + √car (to move). Pairs with śayānam (lying) — together they map the full range of bodily action, from full motion to full stillness. Bhagavān fills the range from end to end at the same instant.

• What do I let into my ears during rest — what fills my downtime?
• How could I make rest itself a form of remembrance?

A general who rides at the head of his cavalry by day and is sung to sleep by court poets at night — both the action and the rest belong to the same man's office. In one palace Kṛṣṇa is on horseback; in another He reclines while bards recite His glories. The chapter refuses any split between energy and repose.

• mantrayantam — consulting, deliberating
  Present participle of √mantr (to take counsel). The root of mantra and mantrin (minister). Kṛṣṇa as deliberator with ministers like Uddhava — Bhagavān is the source of all wise counsel, yet conducts cabinet meetings as if the counsel emerged in dialogue.
• jala-krīḍā — watery sports
  Compound: jala (water) + krīḍā (play). A standard Kṛṣṇa-līlā motif — water-sports recall the Yamunā līlās of Vraja. Gauḍīyas read the jala-krīḍā in Dvārakā as a faint echo of Vraja's Yamunā-vihāra, transposed into the aiśvarya key.
• vāra-mukhyā — royal dancing girls
  Compound: vāra (best, chosen) + mukhyā (chief). The chief court entertainers. Their presence does not stain the līlā; in the Bhāgavata frame, all who serve Bhagavān are uplifted by the contact — the same principle that lifts the women of Mathurā in earlier chapters.
• uddhava-ādibhiḥ — with Uddhava and others
  Compound + plural: Uddhava heads the list of councilors. Gauḍīyas treat Uddhava as one of the most intimate bhaktas in Dvārakā-līlā — his presence in the council scenes anchors the chapter's sakhya-overtone even at the height of aiśvarya.

• Where do I treat my recreation as guilty rather than as part of a whole life?
• What balance of consultation and refreshment is right for me?

In one palace the chief minister and the Lord are bent over maps; in another the Lord laughs in the river with His queens. The chapter refuses the divorce we keep proposing — between counsel and play, gravitas and lightness. In Bhagavān both are unwaveringly Himself.

• gāḥ su-alaṅkṛtāḥ — well-ornamented cows
  gāḥ (cows) + su (well) + alaṅkṛta (ornamented). Go-dāna is one of the most meritorious gifts in śāstra. Kṛṣṇa, the gopāla, gives cows to brāhmaṇas — a perfect circuit, the Cowherd dignifying both ends of the cow-economy.
• itihāsa-purāṇāni — epic histories and Purāṇas
  Compound: itihāsa (it happened thus — Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa) + purāṇa (ancient narrative). Kṛṣṇa listens to the works that recount His own deeds. Gauḍīya signature: Bhagavān is the listener as well as the spoken-of; śravaṇa is enjoyed even by its subject.
• maṅgalāni — auspicious
  From maṅgala (auspiciousness). The narratives are maṅgala because they bear Kṛṣṇa's name. Gauḍīyas: śravaṇa-yogyam tad eva — that alone is fit to be heard which carries the Lord's pastimes.
• dvija-mukhyebhyaḥ — to excellent brāhmaṇas
  Compound: dvija (twice-born) + mukhya (chief, excellent), dative plural. The recipients of the gift are not any brāhmaṇas but the mukhyas — those whose qualifications are complete. Bhagavān-pratiṣṭhā goes to where dharma is most fully embodied.

• What sacred narrative am I hearing regularly enough to be shaped by it?
• Where could my charity be more deliberate and more dignified?

Two acts of one household: gifting decorated cows to brāhmaṇas, and listening in silence as the Purāṇas are recited at evening. The first is hand-charity, the second is ear-charity — and a fully formed gṛhastha keeps both open at once.

• hāsa-kathayā — with joking conversation
  Compound: hāsa (laughter, jest) + kathā (talk). Conjugal banter. Gauḍīyas read the verse as proof that hāsya — the laughter-rasa — has its proper place inside dāmpatya, the husband-wife rasa, when both are anchored in Bhagavān.
• dharmam sevamānam — practicing religiosity
  dharma + present participle of √sev (to serve). Bhagavān doesn't merely uphold dharma intellectually; He serves it (sevā) — bows to it as one bows to a guru. The Lord's relationship to His own dharma is service, not ownership.
• artha-kāmau — economic development and sense gratification
  Dvandva: artha + kāma. Two of the four puruṣārthas. Kṛṣṇa engages both — not because He needs them, but to authorize gṛhasthas to engage them under regulation. The fourth (mokṣa) is implicit in His person.
• kadācit — at one time
  Adverb of indefinite time. The chapter uses kva api, kvacit, kadācit, kutracit — a deliberate cascade of indefinites that paint the scene as endlessly multiple. No single palace exhausts Him; in 'one time' He is always already in another time too.

• Where do I separate 'sacred' and 'ordinary' in a way that impoverishes both?
• How can my economic and family life become part of my offering?

A husband teases his wife, then performs vrata with her, then balances the accounts of the estate, then keeps the regulations of the gṛhastha-āśrama — and each room of the same house shows one face of one householder. Kṛṣṇa is teaching the whole curriculum of gṛhastha-dharma by living all of it at once.

• puruṣam prakṛteḥ param — the Supreme Person transcendental to material nature
  puruṣa (Person) + prakṛti (material nature) + para (beyond). Bhagavān meditates on Bhagavān — Kṛṣṇa meditates on Paramātmā-Kṛṣṇa, modeling the antar-yāmin-meditation for those who would learn it. Gauḍīyas: the Lord teaching dhyāna is the Lord teaching what He is.
• śuśrūṣantam gurūn — rendering menial service to elders
  Desiderative of √śru (to hear, here: to wish to hear and obey) + guru (elder, teacher). Śuśrūṣā is the disciple's posture par excellence. Kṛṣṇa, jagad-guru, performs śuśrūṣā to His gurus — Sāndīpani, Vasudeva, Devakī — teaching the principle by enacting it.
• dhyāyantam ekam — meditating alone
  Present participle of √dhyai + eka (alone). Solitary meditation. Bhagavān models the antarmukha mode of dhyāna for those who would practice it. Even the all-active Lord knows the discipline of inward stillness.
• saparyayā — with worship
  Saparyā — formal honorific worship, treating elders with the offerings due to deities. The verse pairs kāma (desirable objects) + bhoga (enjoyments) + saparyā: the elders are served with the same care a temple deity receives, an essential lesson in gṛhastha-conduct.

• BSG SB 10-69-30 - Dallas
  His Holiness Bhakti Sundar Goswami· English

• Where could menial service to elders restore something my pride has obscured?
• What inner meditation balances my outer service?

Imagine a master who in one room sits alone before a flame, drawing his attention inward, and in the next room is on his knees serving his elders by hand. Both are sevā: one to the Self within, one to the elders without. Kṛṣṇa does both because in Him they are one act.

• satām śivam — the welfare of the saintly
  Compound: sat (saintly) + śiva (welfare, auspicious). The whole purpose of Kṛṣṇa's consultations with Balarāma. Gauḍīyas: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ (BG 4.8) — the avatāra exists for the protection of devotees, and the planning happens in the inner chamber.
• keśavam — Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Keśava = ka (Brahmā) + īśa (Śiva) + va (one who controls), or 'fine-haired one,' or 'slayer of Keśī.' Vaiṣṇava grammarians cite the name as proof that even Brahmā and Śiva are dependent on Kṛṣṇa — the name itself is a śāstra.
• vigraham — war, conflict
  From vi + √grah (to take apart, separate). The kṣatriya's operation of war, paired in the verse with sandhi (treaty). Kṛṣṇa performs both vigraha and sandhi — not from preference for either but because both are tools in service of satām śivam.
• rāmeṇa — with Lord Balarāma
  Balarāma is Saṅkarṣaṇa — the first expansion of Bhagavān, ādi-guru in Caitanya theology. Gauḍīyas: every act of Kṛṣṇa-līlā implicitly contains Balarāma; their conversation in this verse is the prototype of the guru-Bhagavān dialogue.

• UM SB 10-69-31-34 - Right Time for Everything - 2014-07-02 Soho Street
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2014-07-02· English

• Where in my life am I asked to hold readiness for conflict and active concern for others' welfare?
• How do I keep the welfare of the pious in mind amid practical decisions?

Same Lord, two cabinets — in one He plans a campaign, in another He brokers peace; and somewhere a third room, where He and Balarāma alone weigh the welfare of the saintly. The chapter keeps demonstrating that no public role exhausts Him; behind every public act is a smaller, more intimate council that the public never sees.

• kalpayantam — arranging, ordaining
  Present participle of √kḷp (to arrange, make fit). The verb of orderly assembly. Kṛṣṇa kalpayati — He fits the suitable bride to the suitable bridegroom, exercising the cosmic ordering function on the domestic scale.
• vidhi-upayāpanam — marriage according to scripture
  Compound: vidhi (rule, scripture) + upayāpana (causing to marry). Marriage is performed by śāstric rule, not by personal choice. Gauḍīyas: even Bhagavān's own children are married vidhi-pūrvakam, dignifying scripture above sentiment.
• sadṛśaiḥ — compatible, suitable
  From sa + √dṛś (to look). Like-with-like. Marriages are matched for compatibility — kula, varṇa, guṇa. Kṛṣṇa as paterfamilias respects the same calculus śāstra prescribes for any householder.
• vibhūtibhiḥ — with opulences, pomp
  Vibhūti — manifestation of glory. Compare BG 10's vibhūti-yoga: Kṛṣṇa's opulence is itself sevā when offered up in dharmic ceremony. The marriages are vibhūti-yukta — performed with grandeur, but the grandeur is offered, not displayed.

• What duty of mine has been waiting for the right time and the right celebration?
• How can ordinary obligations be lifted into joyful occasion?

A father presiding over the betrothal of his children to suitable spouses — checking lineage, age, character, the auspicious muhūrta — is not a ceremonial figurehead; he is the chief architect of two new dharmic households. Kṛṣṇa, even at the head of the universe, takes that office seriously enough to do it Himself.

• yoga-īśvara-īśasya — of the supreme master of yoga masters
  Compound: yoga-īśvara (master of mystic power) + īśa (master) in genitive. The repeated title (cf. v.19, v.38) — anchoring every domestic action in Bhagavān's status as the source of all mystic potency. Even the family festivals are yoga-īśvara-līlā.
• mahā-utsavān — great festivals
  Compound: mahā (great) + utsava (festival, lifting up). Utsava is celebration that lifts everyone present. Gauḍīyas: every Vaiṣṇava utsava in Caitanya-tradition (Jhulan, Janmāṣṭamī, Rathayātrā) is a continuation of Dvārakā's mahā-utsava grammar.
• visismire — they were amazed
  Past tense of vi + √smi (to be astonished). The citizens' astonishment mirrors Nārada's vismita at v.22 and v.42 — astonishment is the chapter's recurring affective signature, marking every threshold of Bhagavān's yoga-māyā.
• apatyānām — of the children
  From apatya (offspring). Kṛṣṇa's children — pradyumna, Sāmba, Aniruddha and the rest. Gauḍīyas: Bhagavān's own family is structured exactly as a model human family, so that human families have a divine template to emulate.

• What family transitions could become occasions of remembrance rather than routine?
• How does festivity weave devotion into family life?

Whole cities gather to watch the family of a great king celebrate the comings and goings of its daughters and sons-in-law — because in such a family every household event becomes a public lesson. Kṛṣṇa's domestic calendar is the world's holiday calendar.

• pūrtayantam — fulfilling (by public works)
  Causative of √pṝ (to fill, complete). Pūrta-dharma — works of public benefit (wells, parks, maṭhas, alms-houses) — is a classical category of householder duty paired with iṣṭa (Vedic sacrifices). Kṛṣṇa does both, modeling iṣṭāpūrta-dharma in its entirety.
• kūrpa-ārāma-maṭha — wells, public parks, monasteries
  Compound: kūrpa (well) + ārāma (pleasure garden, rest-house) + maṭha (monastery). The canonical list of pūrta-works. Gauḍīyas note: maṭhas — institutions of sevā — figure here, and the same tradition is continued through Mahāprabhu's followers building maṭhas in Bengal and Vraja.
• kratubhiḥ ūrjitaiḥ — with full-blown sacrifices
  Compound: kratu (Vedic sacrifice) + ūrjita (powerful, full-blown). Aśvamedha-class sacrifices. Bhagavān, who is Himself the yajña-puruṣa (BG 9.16), conducts yajñas — the recipient performs the offering, dignifying the form.
• sakalān devān — all the demigods
  sakala (all, complete) + deva. Kṛṣṇa worships the devas — His own portions and energies — to teach proper respect for Vedic hierarchy. Gauḍīyas: this is not henotheism but pedagogy; the Lord shows that recognising deva-tattva is part of being a proper Vaiṣṇava.

• Where could my religion become more visible in service to public welfare?
• What 'well' could I help dig — material or spiritual — for the benefit of many?

A great householder digs wells where there are no rivers, plants public gardens where there are no shade-trees, builds maṭhas where there are no teachers — and in another room offers the great Vedic sacrifices to the devas. The same dharma feeds the village and the gods; Kṛṣṇa keeps both fires lit.

• mṛgayām — hunting expedition
  From mṛga (deer, beast). Mṛgayā is the classical kṣatriya pastime. Śāstra permits it only under restrictions — here Kṛṣṇa kills medhyān paśūn, animals offerable in yajña, refusing the prohibited kinds. Bhagavān-conducted mṛgayā is itself a model of dharmic restraint.
• saindhavam — of the Sindh country
  From Sindhu — the Indus region, famed for its warhorses. Kṛṣṇa rides the best of breeds. Gauḍīyas: even the Lord's mount is described — every detail of līlā is significant, because nothing in līlā is incidental.
• medhyān — fit for sacrifice
  From medha (sacrifice). Only paśus that are medhya — qualified for the altar — are killed. The qualifier limits the hunt strictly: dharmic mṛgayā has yajña as its only valid telos, distinguishing it from cruelty.
• yadu-puṅgavaiḥ — by the most heroic Yadus
  Compound: Yadu + puṅgava (bull, leader). The bulls-of-Yadus accompany Him. Gauḍīyas read the Yadu retinue as Bhagavān's eternal sakhya-pariṣad in the Dvārakā key, paralleling the cowherd-friends of Vraja.

• Where do I judge another's path by the rules of mine rather than its own?
• What looks rough in my life that is actually serving a higher discipline?

A king on a Sindh-bred warhorse, surrounded by his bravest companions, hunts only those animals fit for the altar. The hunt is not sport but yajña-procurement; the kṣatriya's mṛgayā is dharmic when its target is sacrificial.

• avyakta-liṅgam — with hidden identity
  Compound: avyakta (unmanifest, hidden) + liṅga (mark, identifying sign). A standard Bhāgavata phrase for incognito līlā. Gauḍīyas: Bhagavān's identity is always avyakta to those who lack the eye of bhakti — the verse externalizes that inner fact in the form of a literal disguise.
• bhāva-bubhutsayā — with desire to know the mentalities
  Compound: bhāva (mental disposition, sentiment) + bubhutsā (desire to know). The exact word Gauḍīyas reserve for highest bhakti — bhāva-bhakti. The Lord wants to know His servants' bhāva not to police it but to honor and answer it.
• yoga-īśam — the Lord of mystic power
  Compound: yoga + īśa, accusative. The third use of this title in the chapter (v.19, 33, 36). The poet drumbeats the title every time Bhagavān is doing something only Yoga-īśa can do — disguise included.
• prakṛtiṣu — among His ministers
  From prakṛti — here meaning the king's officers (the eight prakṛtis of the kingdom). Kṛṣṇa moves among His own administrative limbs. Gauḍīyas: the same word that means 'material nature' here means 'royal ministers' — Bhagavān is the antaryāmin of both.

• Where in my work or family am I depending on reports when direct contact would serve better?
• What 'disguise' — humble presence — could open ears that titles close?

A king who walks his own city after dark, hood up, listening at doorways — not to entrap, but to know what his people are actually thinking — is the king they can trust. Kṛṣṇa, the Yoga-īśa, goes among His ministers in disguise, taking the temperature of every heart that serves Him.

• yoga-māyā-udayam — the unfolding of His spiritual potency
  Compound: yoga-māyā + udaya (rising, unfolding). The technical name for the chapter's whole spectacle. Gauḍīyas: yoga-māyā is the internal potency that arranges Bhagavān's līlā; what Nārada sees rising up is the eternal potency at work, not a temporary trick.
• hṛṣīkeśam — Lord of the senses
  Compound: hṛṣīka (the senses) + īśa (master). One of Kṛṣṇa's primary names — He who is the master of every sense in every being. Gauḍīyas: precisely because He is hṛṣīkeśa, He can be present to sixteen thousand senses-of-queens at once; the title is the explanation.
• mānuṣīm — human (way)
  Feminine accusative of mānuṣa — the human mode (gati). Echoes BG 9.11: avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam. Bhagavān has chosen the human mode; the chapter demonstrates that the choice is līlā, not limitation.
• prahasan iva — mildly laughing
  Pra + √has (to laugh) + iva (as if). The 'as if' is precise — Nārada's laughter is delicate, not derisive. Gauḍīyas: hāsya-rasa in the bhakta is always reverent; the smile of recognition before līlā is itself an act of devotion.

• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-69-37 Telugu Translation - 2013-09-02 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2013-09-02· Telugu

• Is my devotion too solemn to share Nārada's gentle laughter?
• What in Kṛṣṇa's līlā delights me into a smile?

A magician's student who has watched every trick from the front row finally laughs softly — not because the magic is small, but because he has begun to see how vast it is. Nārada's mild laughter is the laughter of recognition: this is yoga-māyā, and the human face He wears for it is the most beautiful part.

• bhavat-pāda-niṣevayā — by service to Your feet
  Compound: bhavat (Your) + pāda (feet) + niṣevā (service) — instrumental. The exact Gauḍīya thesis: jñāna of Bhagavān's tattva arises not from analysis but from sevā. Bhakti is epistemology — only the served Lord is the seen Lord.
• durdarśāḥ — impossible to see
  From dur (difficult) + √dṛś (to see). Kṛṣṇa's yoga-māyāḥ are durdarśā — even great mystics cannot see them. The verse pivots on the contrast: durdarśā to the māyin, nirbhāta to the niṣevin. Service makes visible what skill cannot.
• māyinām — of great mystics
  Genitive plural of māyin — those who command māyā, accomplished yogins. Kṛṣṇa's potencies are hidden even from them. Gauḍīyas: the māyin sees only mahā-māyā; yoga-māyā is reserved for the bhakta.
• yoga-īśvara ātman — O Lord of mystic power, O Supreme Soul
  Double vocative — yoga-īśvara (Lord of yoga) + ātman (Supreme Self). Nārada names Bhagavān both as the cosmic Yoga-master and as the inmost antaryāmin in one breath: the outer pageant and the inner indweller are the same Person.

• Akuti Mataji SB 10-69-38-40 - 2015-07-15 ISKCON Alachua
  Her Grace Akuti Mataji· 2015-07-15· English
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-69-38-39 Telugu Translation - 2013-09-04 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2013-09-04· Telugu
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-69-38 - 2007-10-25 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2007-10-25· English

• Where am I trying to grasp Kṛṣṇa's nature through thinking when serving would reveal more?
• What act of service today might open my eyes?

A senior magician at last sees the master's trick from inside — not because he is more clever, but because he has been serving the master long enough that the curtain has fallen on its own. Nārada knows yoga-māyā now, and he names the cause: bhavat-pāda-niṣevayā, by service at Your feet.