Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.7.31
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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hiṁsraḥ
—
one who is envious, violent
From hiṁs — to harm. The hiṁsraka is one whose intrinsic disposition is to harm others. The Gītā (16.18) names hiṁsā as one of the principal āsurī-sampad. The verse's logic: hiṁsā is its own punishment, by the law of nature; the devotee need not retaliate, only take shelter.
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sva-pāpena
—
by his own sinful activities
Sva (own) + pāpa (sin). The instrumental case is doctrinally precise: the demon is destroyed by his own sin, not by Kṛṣṇa's hand directly. The Bhāgavatam consistently teaches: the Lord's role in destroying the demon is mostly to allow the demon's own actions to ripen — Kṛṣṇa is the occasion of the fruit, not its inventor.
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sādhuḥ
—
any person who is innocent and free from sinful life
Sādhu — one who walks straight, one accomplished in dharma. In Gauḍīya usage, sādhu more specifically means a Vaiṣṇava, one whose life is yoked to Kṛṣṇa. Caitanya's prescription — sādhu-saṅga — rests on this verse's claim: the sādhu is fundamentally bhaya-mukta, free of fear, because the Lord has personally taken responsibility for him.
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samatvena
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being equal to everyone
Sama-tva (equality). The sādhu's protection follows from his sama-darśana — his equal vision toward all beings (Gītā 5.18). The verse names the Vaiṣṇava qualification by its inner trait, not by external behavior. Equality of vision is itself the magnet for the Lord's protection.
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vimucyate
—
is liberated
Vi-muc — to be freed. The passive voice is the key: the sādhu does not free himself from fear; he is freed. Gauḍīya theology insists that liberation is a gift granted by the Lord (kṛṣṇa-prasāda), not an achievement extracted by the jīva.
Kṛṣṇa conscious life means innocent devotional life, and a sādhu is one who is fully devoted to Kṛṣṇa. As confirmed by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (9.30) , bhajate māṁ ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ: anyone fully attached to Kṛṣṇa is a sādhu. Nanda Mahārāja and the gopīs and other cowherd men could not understand that Kṛṣṇa was the Supreme Personality of Godhead playing as a human child and that His life was not in danger under any circumstances. Rather, because of their intense parental love for Kṛṣṇa, they thought that Kṛṣṇa was an innocent child and had been saved by the Supreme Lord. In the material world, because of intense lust and desire for enjoyment, one becomes implicated in sinful life more and more ( kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ ). Therefore the quality of fear is one of the aspects of material life ( āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca ). But if one becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, the process of devotional service, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, diminishes one’s polluted life of material existence, and one is purified and protected by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ . In devotional life, one has faith in this process. Such faith is one of the six kinds of surrender. Rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāsaḥ ( Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 11.676). One of the processes of surrender is that one should simply depend on Kṛṣṇa, convinced that He will give one all protection. That Kṛṣṇa will protect His devotee is a fact, and Nanda Mahārāja and the other inhabitants of Vṛndāvana accepted this very simply, although they did not know that the Supreme Lord Himself was present before them. There have been many instances in which a devotee like Prahlāda Mahārāja or Dhruva Mahārāja has been put in difficulty even by his father but has been saved under all circumstances. Therefore our only business is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and depend fully on Kṛṣṇa for all protection.
Though only a small, delicate child, Krsna clearly manifested the power to kill a great demon. But this did not decrease the affection of Nanda and others, rather it increased it. This idea is expressed in three verses. This was more astonishing than the astonishing, and more astonishing than even that (adi adbhutam etad). That was because the baby had approached his end (nivrti). The word marana (death) is not used because of its inauspicious connotations. Though he neared death, he again returned (abhi agat). He returned to his friends (bandhunam abhimukham) . One among them then said, "But what is so astonishing? Because of his sin, stealing an innocent child (sva papena), the cruel demon was destroyed. Though he is only a child, he is saintly, regarding enemy and friend equally (samatvena), and thus he was released from danger."
In joy they speak to each other, unaware of Kṛṣṇa’s powers as the Lord, so that their affection for him would increase. They speak with astonishment or joy (aho). It is astonishing that the tender child (eṣaḥ) could not be harmed by the demon at all. Though he was taken away he has come back in front of us (abhi agāt) or he has come back without fear (abhi). This is not astonishing since the demon was killed. This demon was a cheater (khalaḥ) and violent without reason (hiṁsraḥ). Thus he died because of his sins. The person without faults like violence is freed of fear by seeing others happiness and distress as his own. One should not worry about the disturbances caused by evil Kaṁsa. Or the verse gives a specific instance since the cowherds denote Nanda by the word sādhuḥ. Nanda is free of fear whereas another person, attacked by others, suffers because of his sins.
- DKP SB 10-07-31 - 2016-11-17 Los Angeles
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- Revati Raman Pr SB 10-07-31 - 2009-06-30 ISKCON Tirupati
- Tamohara Pr SB 10-07-31 - 2012-04-12 ISKCON Alachua
- BKG SB 10-07-31 - What is there to see as beautiful as Krishna - 2019-05-22 New Goloka
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- PrahladAnS SB 10-07-31 - 2016-11-02 Bhaktivedanta Manor
- PrahladAnS SB 10-07-31 Slovenian Translation - Odnosi so nujni za duhovni napredek - 2023-09-30 ISKCON Slovenia
- Begin the day by audibly entrusting your safety to Kṛṣṇa with the conviction rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāsaḥ — He will protect me — and refuse to renegotiate that trust when fear arises.
- Notice one situation today where you are scheming to engineer your own protection, and replace the scheming with śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam — hear or chant about Kṛṣṇa for ten focused minutes instead.
- Refuse to envy or retaliate against someone who has wronged you; leave their correction to the law of nature and spend that energy serving a devotee instead.
A flame that has been carried unhurt through a storm of wind sets off no quiet alarm in the watchman's heart — only the certainty that the lamp-keeper of the universe was the one carrying it. The unhurt child returned from the rākṣasa's mouth teaches the same: Kṛṣṇa's devotees are not unhurt by accident but by His decision.
Ajāmila, sinful through life, called out 'Nārāyaṇa' at death — and the Viṣṇudūtas drove off the Yamadūtas. The śāstra's verdict: even a single sincere utterance of the Lord's name is enough to relieve the surrendered soul from all fear (SB 6.1–3).
The principle here in 10.7.31 — sādhuḥ samatvena bhayāt vimucyate — is Ajāmila's verdict generalized. The devotee's protection is structural; the demon's destruction is automatic. The verse is the Bhāgavatam's quiet doctrine of rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāsaḥ — the third limb of śaraṇāgati.
My note
Source: vedabase.io