Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.77.17-18
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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mūḍha
—
fool
Vocative — the demon's standard insult against Bhagavān, repeated by Hiraṇyakaśipu, Kaṁsa, Rāvaṇa. Gauḍīyas note the pattern: he who calls Bhagavān "fool" is the one who has just identified his own future.
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apunaḥ-āvṛttim
—
to the state of no return
Compound: a (not) + punaḥ (again) + āvṛtti (return). Literally the term for liberation — Śālva, intending to threaten Kṛṣṇa with death, accidentally uses the technical word for mokṣa. The Bhāgavatam laughs quietly at the demon's slip.
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aparājita-māninam
—
thinking Yourself invincible
Compound: aparājita (unconquered) + mānin (one who imagines oneself). The demon accuses the Lord of māna — but the Bhāgavatam, in the very next verse, has Kṛṣṇa quietly turn the accusation back: real warriors do not boast.
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tvayā mūḍha
—
by You, fool
Repeated address — "by you, fool, the bride was kidnapped." The demon piles up the past as grievance. Gauḍīyas read this list of "crimes" inversely: each item Śālva names — Rukmiṇī-haraṇa, Śiśupāla-vadha — is in fact a glory of Kṛṣṇa's līlā.
"O fool I will make you die." However the other meaning is: "because there is no confusion for you (yat tvaya amudha) , you took your rightful wife who is actually Laksmi, while we and our friend and paternal cousin Sisupala looked on (and you ignored us. Genitive case implies disregard.) Today I let you, the object of adoration for being invincible to sharp arrows, give me liberation." Or "I attain you who gives liberation ( tvam apunar avrttim) and therefore will not take rebirth."
Because you stole the bride of your brother and our friend, and in the assembly, not the battlefield, you killed him while he was inattentive, I will kill you today. Tvayā is repeated to indicate Śālva’s hatred of Kṛṣṇa. Since he is my friend (sakhā), I must take revenge. I will kill you if you stand before me. By this he indicates that Kṛṣṇa will flee in fear. Sarasvatī gives another meaning O wise one (amūḍha)! Śiśupāla was our friend and brother. You took your own wife, since she is Lakṣmī, while we watched with indifference. You killed our friend who was acting wildly and using bad words like a drunkard.
He was a brother because he was a friend, or because he was your cousin. He was killed in an assembly, not in battle, and while he was inattentive. Otherwise you could not have killed him. He repeats the word tvayā (by you), to emphasize that Kṛṣṇa alone was the killer. This shows his intense hatred for Kṛṣṇa. Since he was a friend, I lament for him and must take revenge. If you stand before me I will kill you. Actually you will flee from me in fear.
- What grievances do I rehearse to keep my resentment alive?
- What would happen if I stopped reciting them?
Śālva's taunt is a catalog of grudges — Rukmiṇī's marriage, Śiśupāla's killing, Kṛṣṇa's supposed pride — laid out as legal charges before execution. Demons love to deliver verdicts before they have any power to enforce them; bhakti, by contrast, speaks little and acts when the moment is ripe.
Śālva was Śiśupāla's close friend and Rukmiṇī's would-be brother-in-law's ally; he had attended the failed wedding at which Kṛṣṇa carried Rukmiṇī away (SB 10.54). He was wounded and humiliated there, and vowed publicly to make the earth Yādava-less.
He then performed austerities to Lord Śiva for the gift of an aerial city impervious to gods, asuras, and Yakṣas — Maya Dānava built him the Saubha. Every word of this taunt is rooted in a wound he received in his friend's wedding hall and never let close.
My note
Source: vedabase.io