• māyā-vī — the master of illusion
  Repeated epithet for Śālva — the verse insists, lest the reader forget mid-horror, that this is māyā-vī's work, not real. Vyāsa labels every step of the trick to keep the audience oriented.
• ānakadundubheḥ — of Ānakadundubhi (Vasudeva)
  A patronymic for Vasudeva, referring to the drums (dundubhi) that sounded at his birth. The Bhāgavatam uses the ceremonial name in the very verse where his head is supposedly cut off — pointed irony: the man whose birth was heralded by celestial drums cannot be killed by a stage-trick.
• kha-stham — stationed in the sky
  Compound: kha (sky) + stha (standing). The Saubha is khastha, sky-borne. Gauḍīyas read the sky-vehicle as emblem of unrooted illusion — what is khastha has no soil, no foundation, only the air of make-believe.
• samāviśat — he entered
  Past of sam + ā + √viś. The demon enters his vehicle — re-encloses himself in the bubble of māyā after the stunt. Asurī-māyā always retreats into its own mechanism rather than facing the consequences openly.

• What illusion in my life is being played out to its end before I see through it?
• Can I trust that even the worst-seeming script is being held in a larger story?

Having mocked the Lord, the magician appears to cut off Vasudeva's head with a sword, takes the head, and re-enters the airborne Saubha. The illusionist's final flourish is to ascend out of reach with the prop in hand — māyā always tries to retreat to altitude after its loudest blow.