Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.73.12-13
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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śrī-mada-naṣṭa-dṛṣṭayaḥ
—
whose sight was lost from intoxication with opulence
Five-word compound diagnosing the moral blindness of kings. The eyes are physically present but spiritually 'destroyed' by śrī-mada.
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ati-nirghṛṇāḥ
—
extremely cruel
Nir + ghṛṇā, 'devoid of compassion'. The kings name their own crime against prajā — and a king's chief duty is precisely the opposite, prajā-rakṣaṇa.
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avigaṇayya
—
disregarding
A + vi + √gaṇ, 'to not count, to brush aside'. The verse names the kings' precise sin: mṛtyu stood as Kṛṣṇa Himself in front (mṛtyum puraḥ tvā), and they refused to count Him. Ignoring time is ignoring Bhagavān.
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tanvā
—
by (Your) personal form
Tanu — personal body. The verse explicitly assigns kāla a tanu and assigns that tanu to bhavataḥ — 'Yours'. Time is a līlā-form of Bhagavān, not a neutral measure.
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vinaṣṭa-darpāḥ
—
whose pride is destroyed
Darpa is the gross-est form of mada. Its destruction is the doorway: the next breath is 'caraṇau smarāma te' — let us remember Your feet — śaraṇāgati's actual content.
Examples of this are ourselves. Wanting to conquer the earth (asyah) we competed with each other, not seeing you as death situated in front of us. Previously we were intoxicated with pride, and now, today, we have lost our power by the influence yourself as time. Receiving your mercy, may we remember your lotus feet. We realize that the cause of losing our kingdoms was your mercy.
Losing our kingdoms has been the cause of obtaining your mercy. Though the citizens should be protected like relatives (sva) we afflicted them by our fighting with each other since we were most cruel (ati-nirghṛṇāḥ). Though death was present before us, and we would necessarily die, since we could experience it by seeing fathers die, death was in front of us. You were the destroyer, death, in the form of time. Time is most powerful since it is your form (prabho)! No one can protect himself from your form of time. We did not respect you (avigaṇayya). Śrīdhara Svāmī explains how the kings are burdened with a kingdom and without the kingdom they are no longer burdened in two verses. No one has the power to overcome time. Time acts quickly without being noticed. Because of its subtlety, death approaches unnoticed. Its power cannot be counteracted (duranta-vīryena) since it is your body. What time does is done by you. Agitated by this time, we have lost all pride because of your mercy. Thus we remember you, since you attract all the senses of the ātmārāmas (kṛṣṇa)! That has been testified by the great souls (SB 1.7.10). Why is it necessary for us to speak about this?
- Where might the Lord be using time itself to correct me?
- How does seeing time as His form change my response to loss?
Kāla is Bhagavān's quiet hand. We do not see it until we feel our crowns slip. The kings here describe the very moment the hand closes: the wine of conquest goes flat, the throne lurches, time-as-Kṛṣṇa walks in wearing the face we had refused to see at the door of every battlefield.
On the field of Kurukṣetra, Duryodhana watched his army crumble and at last named the cause: not Bhīma, not Arjuna, but kāla. The Mahābhārata uses precisely this register — the king disregards mṛtyu-puraḥ and only sees Him when there is nothing left to disregard with.
The released kings make the same confession voluntarily, before death, which is the chapter's mercy: they get to say it while still breathing.
My note
Source: vedabase.io