Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.72.40
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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janma-mṛtī
—
birth and death
Compound accusative dual. Kṛṣṇa knows both ends of Jarāsandha's existence. Gauḍīyas: the Lord is the ādi and anta of every being; in this case He uses His knowledge surgically.
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jarā-kṛtam
—
done by the demoness Jarā
Compound accusative. The 'doing' of Jarā — the joining of the halves. Kṛṣṇa knows precisely what was joined and therefore what can be split.
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svena-tejasā
—
with His own potency
Compound instrumental. Sva-tejas — the Lord's personal potency. He does not merely advise; He transmits energy into Bhīma's body. The transmission is the actual cause of the death.
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āpyāyayan
—
nourishing, augmenting
Present participle. Āpyāyana — making full, augmenting. The technical term used for the Lord's empowerment of a devotee. Cf. verse 12 viṣṇu-tejaḥ-upabṛṁhitān — same principle, now applied at zero distance.
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hariḥ
—
Lord Kṛṣṇa
Nominative. The name Hari — 'one who takes away' — sits exactly here: Hari takes away Jarāsandha. The choice of name within the verse names the action.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes that Lord Kṛṣṇa “knew the mystery of the birth of Jarāsandha. Jarāsandha was born in two different parts from two different mothers. When his father saw that the baby was useless, he threw the two parts in the forest, where they were later found by a black-hearted witch named Jarā. She managed to join the two parts of the baby from top to bottom. Knowing this, Lord Kṛṣṇa therefore also knew how to kill him.”
Knowing Jarasandha’s birth, by joining to pieces together, and his death by separating the pieces, and how the raksasi Jara had given him life by bringing the two pieces together, the lord, giving Bhima (partham) his personal power, thought how to make Bhima know that Jarasandha was made of two parts.
Jarāsandha had been produced when the demoness Jarā joined two halves of his body together. Bhīma was the object of Kṛṣṇa’s affection because he was the son of Kuntī (pārtham). The Lord filled Bhīma with his power or with his intelligence. The Lord was intent on taking way the life of the enemy (hariḥ).
- What in my struggle do I not actually understand at the structural level?
- Where could turning to Kṛṣṇa for insight redirect my effort to where it can work?
A king at a wedding does not bring the bride himself — he sends his strength through the priest. Kṛṣṇa, the cause of Jarāsandha's birth (knowing how the demoness Jarā joined the two halves of the infant) and of his death, transmits svena tejasā — His own potency — into Bhīma. The mace-arm is Bhīma's; the strength inside the arm is the Lord's.
King Bṛhadratha of Magadha had two wives but no son. A sage Caṇḍakauśika gave him a single mango, which the king split in half between the two queens. Each gave birth to half a child; the halves were discarded on a refuse heap until the demoness Jarā found them. She brought the halves together and the child became whole — alive, named Jarā-sandhi, 'joined by Jarā'. The secret of his vitality lies in the join; what Jarā made whole, only a reverse-tearing can undo.
Kṛṣṇa knows this. The verse's word vidvān is loaded: He knows janma, mṛti, and jīvitam — origin, death, and re-animation. This omniscience becomes the kill-strategy.
My note
Source: vedabase.io