Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.75.21
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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sasnuḥ
—
they bathed
Perfect of √snā (to bathe). The plural — everyone, including the lowest. Gauḍīyas read this as foreshadowing the great Vaiṣṇava democratic claim: sankirtana, like a great river, leaves no varṇa out.
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varṇa-āśrama-yutāḥ
—
belonging to varṇa-āśrama
Compound: the four varṇas and four āśramas. The Vedic social organization — present, included, but here transcended by the tīrtha that purifies even outside it.
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mahā-pātakī
—
the greatly sinful one
Compound: mahā (great) + pātakin (a sinner). The strongest term in śāstra for moral degradation. Even he is freed by this water — the Bhāgavatam's standard scandal of grace.
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mucyeta
—
would be freed
Optative of √muc — the verb of mokṣa. But Gauḍīyas note carefully: this verb is the same verb that, in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, names a state inferior to prema. To be freed from sin is the floor; love of Kṛṣṇa is the ceiling.
After Yudhiṣṭhira bathed, the brāhmaṇas and others bathed, who also were of different āśramas. Those outside the varṇas and āśramas also bathed, but not at the same time. They bathed later. In Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said that Ṣatadhanvā became purified after he was born as a peacock by bathing at this time since at the avabhrṭhya places even the greatest sinner is freed of all sins. What to speak of doing so under the supervision of Yudhiṣṭhira and Vyāsa. What to speak of the avabhṛthya bath taking place in the Gaṅgā. What to speak of having the presence of Kṛṣṇa!
All the citizens belonging to the various orders of varṇa and āśrama then bathed in that place, or in the Gaṅgā, since they particularly had faith. Outcastes are excluded. Or even those without varṇa and āśṛama (avarṇāśrama-yutāḥ) bathed, because by bathing in the Gaṅgā even the greatest sinner is freed of all sins. Immediately a person achieves special freedom from killing a brāhmaṇa etc.
- Whom do I subtly think the sacred is 'not for'?
- How does Yudhiṣṭhira's open Ganges challenge my exclusivity?
A tīrtha is a place where the river of mercy already runs hard. Even a great sinner stepping in is washed not by his own effort but by the river's habit. The Yamunā at the avabhṛtha-site is doubly such a tīrtha — Kṛṣṇa's river, hosting Kṛṣṇa's devotee's bath.
In Canto 6 the brāhmaṇa Ajāmila, fallen to the lowest sins, calls 'Nārāyaṇa!' at death (meaning his son) — and the Viṣṇu-dūtas come anyway. The name is enough.
Verse 21 makes the same point in tīrtha-language: contact with the right water, like contact with the right name, dissolves contamination. The Gauḍīya emphasis is the same: it is not the sinner's purity that purifies; it is the medium's potency. Bhakti is not earned; it is received.
My note
Source: vedabase.io