Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.70.39
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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saṁsarataḥ
—
(of one) caught in the cycle of birth and death
Saṁ-sṛ — to flow around, to transmigrate. The jīva 'flows around' through births. Bhagavān's avatāras break the circular flow by introducing a vertical line: His own coming down.
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līlā-avatāraiḥ
—
by His pastime-descents
Līlā-avatāra — descent for play, not necessity. Gauḍīya emphasis: Bhagavān does not descend because the world demands it externally; He descends because His own bhakta-vatsalya wishes it. The torch is lit out of His love.
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yaśaḥ-pradīpakam
—
the torch of His fame
Pradīpaka — a torch, a lamp. Bhagavān's yaśas is itself the lamp. Hearing His fame is therefore not optional spiritual reading; it is the only light by which the saṁsāric road is navigable.
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prapadye
—
I surrender, I approach for shelter
Prapad — the verbal root of prapatti and śaraṇāgati. Nārada — the cosmic devarṣi — performs prapatti in this single word. If even Nārada must surrender, no one is exempt.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “[Nārada said,] In the bodily concept of existence, everyone is driven by material desires, and thus everyone develops new material bodies one after another in the cycle of birth and death. Being absorbed in such a concept of existence, one does not know how to get out of the encagement of the material body. Out of Your causeless mercy, my Lord, You descend to exhibit Your different transcendental pastimes, which are illuminating and full of glory. Therefore I have no alternative but to offer my respectful obeisances unto You. My dear Lord, You are the Supreme, Parabrahman, and Your pastimes as an ordinary human are another tactical resource, exactly like a play on the stage in which the actor plays parts different from his own identity.”
"Moreover, if you say that it is proper to ask me about the fearlessness of the universe then I reply as follows. You kindle the flame of your good qualities (sva yasah pradipakam), revealing your true nature, through your lila avataras, for the jivas who do not know about liberation from the bondage of the material body. Therefore I surrender unto you (tva). I see many people in this world bewildered by your maya and afflicted by fear. There are also many people who are fearless, absorbed in hearing and singing about your glories." This was hinted at in the above three verses.
Let your activities be! I surrender to you who, out of great mercy, light the lamp of your fame, which reveals everything for the jīva who does not know the method of his liberation from samsāra and the body. Since I am bewildered by your manifestations of ignorance, I surrender to you.
“Without knowing about my activities and thus not perfecting bhakti, how can people become liberated?” The jīva does not know about special liberation from birth (vimokṣaṇam) because of his body, carrying anarthas. Or the jīva does not know because of anarthas. I surrender to you, illuminating brightly (prajvālayat) the lamp of your fame, which destroys the darkness of ignorance. Though I do not know your intentions, I can become easily free from māyā by hearing about your fame.
- Where in my life has hearing about Kṛṣṇa lit a path I could not see otherwise?
- What story of His will I let illumine today?
Bhagavān's līlā-avatāras illumining the jīva's path are like torches lit along a dark road at night — the soul cannot find liberation by his own staring, but the descended pastimes light up the way. Surrender is consenting to walk by His torch.
In SB 4.8-9, the boy Dhruva, suffering as a stepson, performed tapasya and beheld Bhagavān's four-armed form. The vision itself — not abstract Brahman but a personal form — was what illumined his path back home.
Nārada is here precisely re-stating that doctrine: the jīva cannot find his way out of saṁsāra by introspection; he needs the līlā-avatāra to light the road. Bhakti is following that light.
My note
Source: vedabase.io