10.78 · The Killing of Dantavakra, Vidūratha, and Romaharṣaṇa

• durmatiḥ — the evil-minded one
  Epithet of Dantavakra. Dur- (bad) + mati (intelligence). In Gauḍīya reading, the buddhi turned against Kṛṣṇa is the very engine that, by sheer attention, still drives the jīva back to Him — though through the painful gate.
• sauhṛdam — act of friendship
  From su-hṛdaya, 'good-hearted.' Dantavakra performs sauhṛda for Śiśupāla and Pauṇḍraka — but real sauhṛda, Prabhupāda notes, is what Kṛṣṇa calls Himself in Gītā 5.29: suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām. Dantavakra inverts the term.
• pārokṣya — for those passed beyond sight
  Parokṣa = out of view, beyond the senses. Etymologically the opposite of pratyakṣa. Dantavakra's loyalty is to the unseen dead; he cannot see the eternal Lord standing in front of him.
• gadā-pāṇiḥ — club in hand
  Contiguous compound: gadā (club) + pāṇi (hand). Note the mirroring — Viṣṇu Himself is gadā-pāṇi in arcā-mūrti. The demon mimics the Lord's iconography just as he mimics His kinship.
• mahā-sattvaḥ — mighty being
  Used here for Dantavakra's physical might. The same epithet (mahā-sattva) is later used for liberated devotees — the Bhāgavatam often lets a word straddle both before its true referent (Kṛṣṇa) reabsorbs it.

• NRM SB 10-78-01-40
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• BVijnanaGS SB 10-78-01-05 - 2015-01-16 Soho London
  His Holiness Bhakti Vijnana Goswami· 2015-01-16· English
• BVijnanaGS SB 10-78-01-05 - 2015-01-16 London
  His Holiness Bhakti Vijnana Goswami· 2015-01-16· English

• Where am I carrying on someone else's fight that may not be mine?
• What loyalty looks heroic but is actually unwise?

Dantavakra walks alone onto the field like a moth flying straight into the lamp it cannot stop staring at. Friendship with Śiśupāla and Śālva pulled him forward, but the lamp is Kṛṣṇa — and the moth's whole life had been waiting to land in that flame.

• satvaraḥ — quickly
  Sa- (with) + tvarā (haste). Kṛṣṇa is normally līlā-mayī, leisurely; here He moves at once. Gauḍīya commentators note that the Lord hurries only to protect a devotee or to receive an enemy who has earned His hand.
• avaplutya — having jumped down
  Gerund of ava-√plu. Kṛṣṇa descends from the chariot to fight on foot — meeting Dantavakra at his level. The aiśvarya-līlā briefly bows to mādhurya: the Lord matches the form of His opponent.
• sindhum velā iva — as the shore the ocean
  A standard Bhāgavatam upamā for irresistible force meeting immovable calm. Velā (shore, also 'right time') hints that Dantavakra has arrived at his appointed hour.
• pratyadhāt — checked / held back
  From prati-√dhā, 'to set against, oppose.' Kṛṣṇa does not strike first; He stops. The verb foregrounds restraint — a foretaste of His later self-imposed atonement before sages.

• Where could I be more 'shoreline' and less 'wave' in my responses?
• What helps me hold steady when forces rush at me?

As the shoreline catches the sea and refuses it further passage without ever raising its voice, Kṛṣṇa simply steps down from His chariot and stands. The ocean is loud; the shore is firm. Dantavakra's rage breaks at the line the Lord chooses to draw.

• kārūṣaḥ — King of Karūṣa
  Dantavakra ruled Karūṣa, a kingdom near modern-day Bundelkhand. Kingship is the very position from which he ought to recognize the Lord; instead it becomes the platform for his offense.
• mukundam — the giver of liberation
  Mukti-do = Mukunda. The irony is sharp: Dantavakra calls Kṛṣṇa by His liberation-granting name in the very breath he announces his intent to kill. The name does its work anyway — moments later he is liberated.
• durmadaḥ — wildly intoxicated
  Dur- + mada (intoxication, pride). One of the standard Gauḍīya diagnostics of demonic consciousness: mada that has no object worth being drunk on, intoxication without rasa.
• diṣṭyā diṣṭyā — by good fortune, by good fortune
  Repeated for emphasis. The word diṣṭi (fate, providence) is the same root devotees use to acknowledge unearned grace — Dantavakra speaks accurate words with inverted intent.
• dṛṣṭi-patham — path of vision
  Compound: dṛṣṭi (sight) + patha (path). To come into the dṛṣṭi-patha of Kṛṣṇa is, for a devotee, the goal of life. Dantavakra receives darśana and treats it as a target.

• Dina Bandhu Pr SB 10-78-04-06 - 2025-04-13 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Grace Dina Bandhu Prabhu· 2025-04-13· English

• What words have I spoken in bravado that, in another light, were really longing?
• How does the Lord hear the hidden meaning even when I speak roughly?

Dantavakra greets Kṛṣṇa the way a fevered man greets the doctor he plans to attack — 'What luck to have you here today!' He cannot tell rescue from confrontation. The blessing of darśana arrives, and he reads it as opportunity for revenge.

• mātuleyaḥ — maternal cousin
  Mātula (mother's brother) + -eya (descendant of). Dantavakra invokes the closest Vedic kinship-bond — and uses it as grievance. The Lord remains mātuleya through the killing itself.
• mitra-dhruk — betrayer of friends
  Mitra (friend) + dhruk (root √druh, 'to injure, betray'). The accusation Dantavakra hurls is precisely the sin he himself is about to commit toward his own ātmā by attacking the Paramātmā.
• jighāṁsasi — you wish to kill
  Desiderative of √han. The grammatical mood of intention. Dantavakra mistakes Kṛṣṇa's protection of dharma for personal vendetta — projecting his own jighāṁsā onto the Lord.
• manda — fool
  Manda = slow, dull, stupid. The standard demonic vocative for Kṛṣṇa (also used by Hiraṇyakaśipu, Rāvaṇa). In Gauḍīya reading, manda is the demon's mirror — he names in Kṛṣṇa what is true of himself.
• vajra-kalpayā — thunderbolt-like
  Vajra (Indra's thunderbolt) + kalpa (resembling). Dantavakra borrows Indra's icon; but Indra's vajra was made from Dadhīci's bones — a saint's body. The demon's club has no such consecration.

• Where do I use family or kinship language to justify hostility?
• What honest accounting does my use of 'cousin' or 'brother' need?

A relative who has secretly become a thunderbolt — that is how Dantavakra recasts the Lord, twisting blood-tie into accusation. He brandishes the family connection itself as the reason for violence, the way a wounded man uses his own bandage as a weapon.

• ānṛṇyam — freedom from debt
  An- (without) + ṛṇa (debt). Vedic culture recognizes three debts — to ṛṣis, devas, pitṛs. Dantavakra invents a fourth, to dead friends, and frames Kṛṣṇa-vadha as repayment. Gauḍīyas hold that the only true ānṛṇya is śaraṇāgati.
• ajña — ignorant one
  A- + jñā (to know). The vocative Dantavakra throws at the omniscient Lord. The Bhāgavatam keeps showing demons inverting epistemic categories: the all-knower is called ignorant, the eternal is called mortal.
• mitra-vatsalaḥ — affectionate to friends
  Mitra + vatsala (from vatsa, calf — tender as a cow to her calf). The very term vatsala that names Yaśodā's love is here used by Dantavakra in distorted form, claiming vātsalya for his loyalty to dead allies.
• bandhu-rūpam arim — an enemy in the form of a relative
  Bandhu (kinsman) + rūpa (form) + ari (enemy). Compound that captures Dantavakra's whole hermeneutic: he reads sambandha as deception. For the devotee, every form of the Lord — even the wrathful — is bandhu-rūpa.
• deha-caram — moving within the body
  Deha (body) + cara (moving). The simile is the inner illness — vyādhi. Ironically, what truly moves within the deha is the Paramātmā Himself, whom Dantavakra is naming as disease.

• Where have I called the Lord (or His correction) a disease when He was the cure?
• What about my situation needs to be reread as friend rather than foe?

Dantavakra calls Kṛṣṇa a disease in his body and himself the physician. He plans to repay his dead friends as one pays back a loan — by killing the supposed creditor. The arithmetic is precise; only the names are inverted. Kṛṣṇa is the body's life, not its illness.

• rūkṣaiḥ — with harsh (words)
  Instrumental plural of rūkṣa — dry, rough, abrasive. The Bhāgavatam's standard adjective for asuric speech. Opposite of snigdha (affectionate, moistened) — the speech of devotees and Vraja-vāsīs.
• totraiḥ — with goads
  Plural instrumental of totra. Mahouts' tools for guiding elephants. The verse implicitly identifies Kṛṣṇa as the gaja-rāja, king of elephants — an iconography continuous with Gajendra-mokṣa (SB 8.2-4).
• dvipam — elephant
  Dvi-pa = 'drinking with two' (trunk + mouth). The Lord is repeatedly compared to a great elephant — strong, slow to anger, unmoved by minor weapons. Vraja calls Him gaja-rāja-gāmī, walking like the king of elephants.
• mūrdhni — on the head
  Locative of mūrdhan (crown, top). Dantavakra strikes the very seat of the Lord's crown — the part of the body where devotees keep the dust of His feet. He inverts even posture.
• siṁha-vat — lion-like
  Siṁha + vat (suffix 'like'). Dantavakra roars like a lion but stands before Narasiṁha's own source. The mock-lion meets the Lord of lions.

• Where does my verbal sharpness escalate into something more harmful?
• What discipline keeps anger from crossing the line into assault — even with words?

Sharp words are like the elephant-goads of the mahout — they prick but do not wound a being whose flesh has long been beyond such weapons. Dantavakra's club lands on Kṛṣṇa's head as on Mount Govardhana: the lifter of the hill does not flinch at a falling stone.

• yadu-udvahaḥ — raiser of the Yadu dynasty
  Yadu (the lineage) + udvaha (one who carries, raises). One of Kṛṣṇa's most affectionate dynasty-names. Gauḍīyas read it as 'the One who carries the Yadus across,' tāraka-nāma in Yadu-rūpa.
• gurvyā — heavy / weighty
  Feminine of guru, agreeing with the club. The same word means 'teacher.' The Bhāgavatam often plays the pun: the Lord's heaviest blow is a guru's lesson.
• kaumodakyā — with Kaumodakī
  From kumuda (white night-lotus). Kaumodakī is Viṣṇu's eternal gadā, one of His four iconographic objects (śaṅkha, cakra, gadā, padma). The club here is not borrowed — it is His.
• stana-antare — between the breasts
  Locative of stana-antara (chest, sternum). The śāstric site of the hṛd, the heart — where the jīva and Paramātmā are said to reside together. Dantavakra is liberated through his own heart.
• na cacāla — did not move
  Na + perfect of √cal (to move, shake). Acala, the unmoving, is Kṛṣṇa's nature. The verb echoes Gītā 2.10 (prahasann iva) and 11.46 (sthitaḥ sva-mahimni) — His stillness in conflict.

• Can I stay unmoved when struck before deciding how to respond?
• What practice cultivates that immovable center?

Kṛṣṇa's Kaumodakī club is named for the kumuda, the white night-lotus — it gives joy. When this club strikes Dantavakra's chest, it is a flower delivering death. The Lord's weapons are continuous with His ornaments; even the killing-blow is a kind of garlanding.

• nirbhinna-hṛdayaḥ — his heart split open
  Nir- (out) + √bhid (to split) + hṛdaya (heart). Gauḍīyas note: the hṛdaya is where Paramātmā dwells. By splitting it, Kṛṣṇa enters in the most direct possible way — through the wound.
• udvaman rudhiram — vomiting blood
  Udvaman (present participle of ud-√vam) + rudhira (blood). The body expels its life-fluid; the jīva expels its body. A double evacuation that clears the path for the jyoti in the next verse.
• prasārya — stretching out
  Gerund of pra-√sṛ. His limbs splay involuntarily into the cruciform — a body-position devotees adopt willingly as sāṣṭāṅga-praṇāma. The demon's final posture is the devotee's first one.
• vyasuḥ — lifeless
  Vi- (without) + asu (vital breath). The prāṇas leave. In the next verse what leaves the body is no mere prāṇa but a jyoti — confirming that what departs Dantavakra is not just life but the long-cursed soul of a gatekeeper.

• Where would decisive action end suffering that I am letting drag on?
• What helps me move quickly when slowness becomes its own cruelty?

Dantavakra falls with arms and legs flung wide, his hair undone — the body's last gesture is involuntary surrender, the daṇḍavat he refused to offer in life. The Lord receives the prostration anyway. Even the demon's death-pose is anjali to the One who killed him.

• sūkṣma-taram — exceedingly subtle
  Sūkṣma (subtle) + comparative -tara. Beyond the gross senses. Gauḍīyas note that the ātmā is sūkṣmād api sūkṣmataram (Kaṭha Up. 1.2.20) — the very phrase echoed here for the departing jīva.
• jyotiḥ — light / spark
  From √dyut. The same word the Upaniṣads use for the ātmā (jyotir-ātman). The Bhāgavatam dramatizes Vedānta — the jīva-jyoti visibly enters Param-jyoti.
• āviśat — entered
  Aorist of ā-√viś. The root for praveśa, sāyujya. Dantavakra attains the very mukti named in Kṛṣṇa's own epithet (Mukunda), but through the gate of dveṣa rather than bhakti.
• caidya-vadhe — in the killing of Caidya (Śiśupāla)
  Caidya = descendant of Cedi, i.e. Śiśupāla. The verse explicitly cross-references SB 10.74 — the Bhāgavatam wants the reader to hold the two scenes as one event in two lives.

• How does this strange fact — even hatred can liberate — challenge my categories?
• What does it teach me about the centrality of attention on Kṛṣṇa, in any mood?

A spark too subtle for the eye, rising from the broken body and entering Kṛṣṇa as a returning bird enters its nest — the same scene seen at Śiśupāla's death, the same scene that will close all three asura-births of Jaya-Vijaya. Hate-meditation, sustained across lifetimes, finally lands.

• vidūrathaḥ — Vidūratha (Dantavakra's brother)
  Vidūra (far) + ratha (chariot). 'He whose chariot is far' — and indeed he abandons the chariot entirely and charges on foot, as his brother did. The name encodes his fate.
• bhrātṛ-śoka — grief for his brother
  Bhrātṛ (brother) + śoka (grief). The same compound is later used of Yudhiṣṭhira and of Bharata. Śoka is a recognized human bhāva — the Bhāgavatam grants the demon real grief, not a caricature.
• pariplutaḥ — overwhelmed / flooded
  Pari- (around) + plu (flood). Vidūratha is submerged in śoka. Gauḍīyas note: only one being is worth being parikrama-plutaḥ — the Lord. The demon is flooded by the wrong tide.
• ucchvasan — breathing heavily
  Present participle of ud-√śvas. The breath of rage and grief. Devotees' breath in viraha is the same physiology with the opposite object — the Bhāgavatam keeps the bodily fact, changes only the target.
• jighāṁsayā — with intent to kill
  Instrumental of jighāṁsā, desiderative of √han. Same root that drives Dantavakra in verse 5. Both brothers approach the Lord through the verb of killing — and through it, are killed into life.

• Where has my grief turned into the next attack instead of being mourned?
• What space does my sorrow need that I have not given it?

Vidūratha runs at Kṛṣṇa breathing hard, sword in one hand, shield in the other, brother-grief spilling out of him. The asura grieves his brother more truthfully than most men grieve theirs — the only flaw is the address. He brings real sorrow to the wrong tribunal.

• cakreṇa — with the disc
  Instrumental of cakra. Sudarśana, the Lord's eternal weapon, named 'su-darśana' — that by which true seeing is enforced. It removes the head of mis-seeing in one motion.
• kṣura-neminā — with razor-edged rim
  Kṣura (razor) + nemi (rim of a wheel). The cakra's rim is sharper than razors. The compound underscores that Vidūratha did not survive even one revolution.
• jahāra — removed
  Perfect of √hṛ (to take, carry off). The same root in Hari (the remover). Kṛṣṇa as Hari removes Vidūratha's head as He removes the heart's bondage — direct, immediate, total.
• kirīṭam — crown
  The asura wore his kingship to the end. Note: Kṛṣṇa Himself is Kirīṭa-mālī, garlanded with crowns — He does not need Vidūratha's. The crown falls with the head.
• kuṇḍalam — earring
  Earrings (kuṇḍala) are an iconographic mark of royal-divine status — also worn by Karṇa, Pradyumna, Kṛṣṇa Himself. Vidūratha's kuṇḍala falls; the Lord's makara-kuṇḍala sways on, unharmed.

• Where am I repeating my brother's mistake even after seeing it fail?
• What stops the cycle in me before I have to face the same outcome?

Sudarśana means 'good vision' — and it removes the head, the seat of misvision. Helmet and earrings fall with it: all the ornaments of asuric self-image gone in one stroke. The disc that takes Vidūratha's head is the same disc that protects Ambarīṣa; one weapon, two faces of grace.

• saubham — the Saubha airship
  Śālva's mystical flying city, destroyed at SB 10.77. The verse compactly summarizes three chapters (10.76-78) of warfare — Saubha, Dantavakra, Vidūratha — as one continuous victory.
• durviṣahān — unbearable / invincible
  Dur- + viṣaha (endurable, from vi-√sah). 'Whom none else could endure.' The Bhāgavatam underscores that only Kṛṣṇa could absorb these foes — emphasizing His unique sva-rūpa-śakti.
• upagīyamāna-vijayaḥ — whose victory was sung
  Upa- (near) + gīyamāna (being sung). Vijaya is sung up close, intimately. Even celestial praise is staged at Kṛṣṇa's ear — His glories require proximity to land properly.
• kusumaiḥ abhivarṣitaḥ — showered with flowers
  Abhi- + √vṛṣ (to rain). Puṣpa-vṛṣṭi is a standard līlā-ornament; here it marks the close of the demonic-opposition arc. The same shower attends Mahāprabhu's saṅkīrtana in CC.
• vṛṣṇi-pravaraiḥ — by the foremost of the Vṛṣṇis
  Vṛṣṇi (Kṛṣṇa's clan) + pravara (foremost). The Lord re-enters His own city escorted by His own people. Aiśvarya-līlā closes; mādhurya is about to return.

• What recent completion of mine deserves the cosmic flower-shower I am not letting in?
• How could I let myself feel that wider acknowledgment?

When Kṛṣṇa returns to Dvārakā the air rains flowers — devas and Gandharvas and Apsarās all unable to keep silent. Victory over Śālva, Dantavakra, and Vidūratha is also a flower-fall: each enemy was a knot, and the Lord untying knots is what the universe celebrates.

• yoga-īśvaraḥ — master of all yoga / mystic power
  Yoga (union, mystic power) + īśvara (Lord). Gītā 18.78 closes with the same title: yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. The Lord's defeats are always demonstrations of His yoga, not lapses from it.
• jagat-īśvaraḥ — Lord of the universe
  Jagat (universe) + īśvara. He governs the world He sometimes appears to be governed by. Gauḍīyas read jagat-īśvara as the īśvara who has taken jagat-rūpa for līlā.
• paśu-dṛṣṭīnām — of those with beastly vision
  Paśu (animal) + dṛṣṭi (sight). Bhāgavatam's standard term for non-devotional perception. Paśu-buddhi reads līlā as biography — outcomes count, the actor doesn't.
• nirjitaḥ — defeated
  Nir- + √ji. Past participle. Only seen as defeated; never actually. The verb is precisely the one the next clause overturns with jayati.
• jayati — is victorious
  Present indicative of √ji. Not jitavān (was victorious) — present tense, perpetual. Kṛṣṇa jayati nityam. The Gauḍīya jaya-mantra rests on this verb-form.

• PrahladAnS SB 10-78-16 - The Killing Of Dantavakra - 2008-01-18 Melbourne
  His Holiness Prahladananada Swami· 2008-01-18· English

• Where do I read a 'defeat' of the Lord (or of bhakti) where the through-line is actually victory?
• What practice trains my eyes to see the larger arc?

Sūkadeva pauses the narrative to remind the king: this Kṛṣṇa is Yogeśvara. Anyone who watches Him lose — at Kālayavana's cave, at Jarāsandha's siege, at the Mahābhārata — and concludes that He was actually defeated is looking with paśu-dṛṣṭi, the gaze of an animal that cannot read context.

• rāmaḥ — Balarāma
  Rāma here = Balarāma, Kṛṣṇa's elder brother, also called Saṅkarṣaṇa. Gauḍīyas count Him as the first svayaṁ-prakāśa expansion — viṣṇu-tattva, never separate from Kṛṣṇa.
• yuddha-udyamam — preparation for war
  Yuddha (war) + udyama (rising, preparation). The Kurukṣetra war is approaching. Balarāma hears of the udyama and choose pilgrimage — His mode of present-absence.
• tīrtha-abhiṣeka — bathing in holy places
  Tīrtha (holy ford) + abhiṣeka (consecration-bath). Pilgrimage as ritual cleansing. Note the irony: the Lord, who purifies tīrthas Himself (tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni), goes on tīrtha-yātrā for the sake of līlā.
• madhya-sthaḥ — neutral / in the middle
  Madhya (middle) + stha (standing). Standing in the middle. Gauḍīyas note: Balarāma's madhya-stha-tā is not detachment but precise positioning — He stands where His younger brother needs Him to stand.
• vyājena — on the pretext
  From vi-√aj (to drive aside). A pretext, an indirect motive. Pilgrimage is the surface reason; the deeper motive is allowing Kṛṣṇa's Kurukṣetra-līlā its full shape.

• PrahladAnS SB 10-78-17-40 - Process Of Hearing Bhagavatam With Rapt Attention - 2008-01-19 Melbourne
  His Holiness Prahladananada Swami· 2008-01-19· English

• When have I been pressured to take a side in a conflict I love both parties of?
• Is there a pilgrimage — outer or inner — that would be the right response now?

Balarāma chooses neutrality as His weapon — and uses pilgrimage as His vehicle. The plough He carries can level enemies; here it is set aside, and the same hands that wield it instead carry kamaṇḍalu and offerings. The Lord's withdrawal from Kurukṣetra is itself a līlā.

• prabhāse — at Prabhāsa
  Prabhā (radiance) + āsa (seat). One of the foremost tīrthas in Gujarat, near Dvārakā. Site of the future Yadu-mauṣala-līlā. Balarāma's bath here echoes forward in the canon.
• santarpya — having satisfied (with offerings)
  Gerund of sam-√tṛp. Causative — 'caused to be fully satisfied.' The act of tarpaṇa, ritual offering of water, especially to pitṛs. Even the Lord performs śrāddha — pedagogy for the lokas.
• deva-ṛṣi-pitṛ-mānavān — devas, sages, ancestors, humans
  Dvandva listing the four categories of honored beings. Pitṛ-yajña, deva-yajña, ṛṣi-yajña, and nara-yajña — the four of the pañca-mahā-yajña system, minus bhūta. Balarāma teaches the householder template.
• sarasvatīm prati-srotam — the westward-flowing Sarasvatī
  Prati-srota = against the current, here meaning the unusual western course. The Sarasvatī is the river of speech and learning; its westward stretch is rare and sacred.
• brāhmaṇa-saṁvṛtaḥ — surrounded by brāhmaṇas
  Brāhmaṇa + sam-vṛta (surrounded). Balarāma's entourage is not warriors but brāhmaṇas. The Lord stages exactly the company that will later be necessary at Naimiṣa, where He kills a sūta among brāhmaṇas.

• What structure could my own retreats or pilgrimages benefit from?
• Whose company would deepen my own pilgrim path?

Prabhāsa is the very tīrtha where the Yadu line will one day conclude (SB 11.30). Balarāma bathes there now, honors devas, ṛṣis, pitṛs, mānavas — every category of being — and walks along the Sarasvatī flowing west. The pilgrimage is also a quiet rehearsal of farewell.

• bindu-saraḥ — Lake Bindu-saras
  Bindu (drop) + saras (lake). Site associated with Kapiladeva's birth (SB 3.21-22); a drop fell from Brahmā's tear or Viṣṇu's foot, becoming the lake. Balarāma visits the very tīrtha of His own sāṅkhya-avatāra expansion.
• cakram — Cakra-tīrtha
  Tīrthas associated with the Sudarśana cakra dot the subcontinent. Each marks a place where the Lord's disc descended for some līlā. Balarāma honors His brother's weapon-tīrthas on the pilgrimage.
• yamunām — the Yamunā
  Accusative of Yamunā. Kṛṣṇa's beloved river, mother of bhakti-rasa in Gauḍīya theology. Balarāma's pilgrimage circles back to the Yamunā — silently acknowledging Vraja before pressing on to Naimiṣa.
• naimiṣam — Naimiṣa forest
  From nimiṣa (blink). According to Brahmā, the forest is the place where a wheel of dharma's rim wore out in a blink. The Bhāgavatam's frame-narrative opens here — Balarāma now enters that very ground.
• satram āsate — were performing a sacrificial session
  Satra (sacrificial session, especially long ones) + āsate (3pl present of √ās, to sit). The ṛṣis are in sustained yajña, the kind that lasts twelve years. This is the context Balarāma steps into.

• What spiritual 'sites' could I visit in succession rather than seeking one big peak?
• Where could accumulation, not summit, become my model?

Balarāma walks the map of Bhārata-varṣa like one reading a long śloka — Bindu-saras, Tritakūpa, Sudarśana, Viśāla, Brahma-tīrtha, Cakra-tīrtha, the Sarasvatī, the Yamunā, the Ganges, and finally Naimiṣa. Each tīrtha is a syllable; the whole circumambulation is the verse the Lord composes with His feet.

• abhipretya — recognizing / understanding
  Gerund of abhi-pra-√i. Not just visual recognition — recognizing who has arrived. The sages know they are receiving Saṅkarṣaṇa, not merely a Yadu prince.
• dīrgha-satriṇaḥ — performers of a long sacrifice
  Dīrgha (long) + satrin (sacrificer in a satra). They are in a sustained yajña — exactly the context that will then make Romaharṣaṇa's seated posture significant under śāstra.
• abhinandya — having greeted with joy
  Gerund of abhi-√nand (to rejoice). The greeting is suffused with joy, not just protocol. Vaiṣṇavas greet Vaiṣṇavas with internal ānanda; the sages here demonstrate that paramparā.
• praṇamya — having bowed down
  Gerund of pra-√nam. Daṇḍavat-praṇāma — the standard Vaiṣṇava prostration. The sages enact precisely the protocol that Romaharṣaṇa is about to omit.
• ārcayan — they worshiped
  Imperfect 3pl of √arc. To offer arcana. Even mid-satra the sages pause to perform arcana for the Lord — establishing that arcana of a Vaiṣṇava is not a break from yajña but its completion.

• Where am I so absorbed in work for Kṛṣṇa that I forget to honor Him when He arrives?
• What small pause for adoration would reorder my day?

The sages, mid-yajña, see Balarāma arrive and rise as one — like reeds bending together when a single wind passes. Proper greeting is itself a Vedic limb of the rite; their standing up is not interruption but continuation of the sacrifice, now offered to the Yajña-puruṣa Himself.

• kṛta-āsana-parigrahaḥ — having accepted a seat
  Kṛta (made) + āsana (seat) + parigraha (acceptance). The Lord takes the āsana of honor offered. Āsana-protocol is the very issue about to arise — the verse plants the term.
• romaharṣaṇam — Romaharṣaṇa
  Roma (hair) + harṣaṇa (causing to bristle). 'He whose recitations cause hair to stand on end.' A literary-suta name; his speech moved audiences. The defect was not in his art but in his śīla.
• āsīnam — seated
  Past participle of √ās. The participle that becomes the whole problem. Everyone stood; he stayed seated. The grammar mirrors the offense — one verb, but it shouldn't be.
• mahā-ṛṣeḥ śiṣyam — disciple of the great sage (Vyāsa)
  Mahā-ṛṣi here = Vyāsa. Romaharṣaṇa's pedigree is impeccable — he holds Purāṇa-vidyā from Vyāsa himself. Knowledge without humility, the next verses will say, can't override its own absence.
• aikṣata — He noticed
  Imperfect of √īkṣ (to see). A precise, registering verb — not dṛś (general seeing). The Lord registers the breach as data, not yet as anger.

• Whose presence have I failed to acknowledge through laziness?
• What small standing-up could matter more than I think?

The Lord accepts the āsana of honor and looks around — and notices that one man, the very sūta who was to one day speak Purāṇa, has not stood. The defect is small in measure; the position of the man makes it loud. Balarāma's glance is the first reading; the verdict is delayed by one verse.

• apratyutthāyinam — not rising in greeting
  A- + prati-ut-thāyin (one who rises in response). Vedic protocol: rise when a guru, sannyāsī, or Vaiṣṇava enters. Romaharṣaṇa's failure is registered grammatically as a privative — what should have been, wasn't.
• sūtam — the sūta (a mixed-caste bard)
  Sūta = offspring of a kṣatriya father and brāhmaṇa mother (pratiloma). Traditionally the chronicler caste. The term is descriptive, not pejorative — but combined with his posture it marks a categorical breach of seating-order.
• akṛta-prahvaṇa-añjalim — having made neither bow nor folded palms
  A- (not) + kṛta (done) + prahvaṇa (bowing) + añjali (folded palms). Three protocols compressed into one negative compound. The grammar enacts the offense — refusal made into a single word.
• adhyāsīnam — sitting above
  Adhi- (above) + āsīna (seated). Above the brāhmaṇas. Vedic seating-order assigns the highest seat to the senior brāhmaṇa or to the Lord; the breach is geometric as well as social.
• cukopa — became angry
  Perfect of √kup. Note: Balarāma is rohiṇī-tanaya, the embodiment of dhairya, slow to anger. When He cukopa, the breach was real. Gauḍīyas read His krodha as an aspect of His protection of dharma.

• Where do I treat protocol toward holy persons as if it didn't matter?
• What act of standing, bowing, or palms-joined would reset something?

Three omissions in one posture — Romaharṣaṇa did not stand, did not bow, did not join palms — and he sat above brāhmaṇas. The breach is layered, like a chord. Balarāma's anger is not at one wrong note; it is at the chord struck on the seat of the spiritual teacher.

• pratiloma-jaḥ — born from an inverted union
  Prati-loma = 'against the grain.' A child of a lower-varṇa father and higher-varṇa mother. The Vedic system regarded this lineage as bound to additional śīla-restrictions — not condemnation, but circumscription.
• dharma-pālān — protectors of dharma
  Dharma + pāla (protector). Used here of the brāhmaṇas. The brāhmaṇas guard dharma through learning and conduct; Romaharṣaṇa, by sitting above them, claimed their authority without their conduct.
• asmān — Me / Us
  Accusative plural — royal/divine 'We.' Balarāma includes Himself in the list of those over whom Romaharṣaṇa is sitting. The Lord of dharma will not abide being seated under the unseated.
• vadham arhati — deserves death
  Vadha (killing) + arhati (deserves). Balarāma's verdict. Gauḍīyas note: in this idiom 'vadha' is daṇḍa, the corrective action of the protector — not vengeance. The sūta's death will paradoxically install his son in his own seat.
• durmatiḥ — the misguided one
  Same word used for Dantavakra in v.1-2. The chapter binds the asura-vadha and the suta-vadha with one term — both fall under the same category of mati-failure, though one through dveṣa and the other through pride.

• PSarasvati Sw SB 10-78-24 - 2025-04-17 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami· 2025-04-17· English

• Where have I positioned myself above teachers who should be above me?
• What humility would restore the proper geometry?

Balarāma names the breach precisely: this man, born of a mixed marriage, sits above brāhmaṇas and above Me, the protector of dharma. The point is not the birth — it is the geometry. Where one places one's body in the assembly is a sermon; Romaharṣaṇa's body preached the wrong sermon.

• adāntasya — of one not self-controlled
  A- + dānta (from √dam, to subdue). Dama is the first qualification listed in BG 18.42 for a brāhmaṇa. Romaharṣaṇa held the books of brāhmaṇa-dharma but lacked the first quality of brāhmaṇa-conduct.
• avinītasya — of one without humility
  A- + vinīta (from vi-√nī, 'led aside, trained'). Vinaya — śiṣya-quality. Vyāsa's own student lacked it. The Bhāgavatam quietly notes that paramparā fails when its receiver is unbendable.
• paṇḍita-māninaḥ — considering himself a scholar
  Paṇḍita (learned) + mānin (one who considers himself). The exact construction Kṛṣṇa uses in BG 2.42 (avipaścitaḥ) and 3.27 (ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha-ātmā kartāham iti manyate). Self-image as scholar without scholar's qualities.
• naṭasya iva — like an actor
  Naṭa (actor) + iva (like). A devastating Bhāgavatam simile. The actor's lines are perfect; his life is not the part. Vyāsa's verses on Romaharṣaṇa's lips were theatre, not testimony.
• ajita-ātmanaḥ — one who has not conquered his self
  A- + jita (conquered) + ātmā. Ātma-jaya — the conquest of the lower self by the higher — is the first turn of bhakti. Without it, śravaṇa and adhyayana ferment into pride.

• Has my scriptural study produced humility, or refined performance?
• What inner quality would let study actually change me?

Studying all the Itihāsas, Dharma-śāstras, Purāṇas — and yet none of it produced even one good quality. Scripture without dama, vinaya, ātma-jaya is like an actor learning a saintly role: the lines are exact, the character is empty. Knowledge that does not bend the knower is theatre.

• avatāraḥ — descent
  Ava- (down) + √tṛ (to cross). The Lord 'descends across' from His own realm into the world. Here Balarāma names His own avatāra purpose — proof that He speaks not as a Yadu prince but as Saṅkarṣaṇa-tattva.
• vadhyāḥ me — to be killed by Me
  Vadhya (gerundive, 'to be killed') + me (by Me). The gerundive carries the force of dharma — these ones must be killed. The Lord identifies hypocrites as the principal target of His descent.
• dharma-dhvajinaḥ — those who flag dharma falsely
  Dharma + dhvajin (flag-bearer). The image is precise: a flag advertises a kingdom; these men advertise a kingdom they don't inhabit. Bhāgavatam's most surgical word for religious hypocrisy.
• pātakinaḥ — great sinners
  From pātaka (a fall, a great sin). Pātakins are graver than ordinary pāpins because their fall is occluded by their robes. The verse insists: occlusion compounds, not mitigates.
• adhikāḥ — exceeding / greater
  More sinful than open sinners. Gauḍīya doctrine emphasizes this: pretending to be a devotee while not surrendering is graver than open atheism — because it co-opts the form of bhakti for non-bhakti ends.

• Where in me is religion performed rather than lived?
• What part of my outer practice would not survive scrutiny by my inner state?

The Lord names the very purpose of His avatāra: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām. Hypocrites in religious garb (dharma-dhvajinaḥ) draw His blade more sharply than open enemies, because their offense soils the very robe of dharma. The Lord descends to cleanse His own colors.

• asat-vadhāt — from killing the impious
  Asat (untrue, impious) + vadha (killing). Balarāma is said in other places (SB 10.65, His vow with Pralamba etc.) to have refrained from further killing — but here the bhāvitva (inevitability) of Romaharṣaṇa's death overrides His personal vow.
• bhāvitvāt — because it was destined
  Bhāvitva = the state of being-going-to-be. A standard Sanskrit philosophical noun for inevitability. Gauḍīyas note: even the Lord respects the unfolding of karma-niyama within His own līlā.
• kuśa-agreṇa — with the tip of kuśa grass
  Kuśa (sacred sharp grass used in yajña) + agra (tip). The Bhāgavatam underlines the disproportion — sūkṣma instrument, decisive effect. The Lord's daṇḍa is proportional only to His will, not to His tool.
• kara-sthena — held in His hand
  Kara (hand) + stha (resting). Anything that rests in the Lord's hand is His āyudha. The flute, the cakra, the kuśa — He differentiates them; we should not.
• ahanat — He killed
  Imperfect of √han. The deed is direct. No agent, no proxy. The Lord Himself executes the daṇḍa, in front of the very sages whose protocol was breached.

• What small but precise gesture might finish a long-standing matter in my life?
• Where am I straining when a kuśa-blade move would suffice?

A blade of kuśa grass — the same grass laid out as the seat of fire-sacrifices — becomes the weapon. The Lord uses no club here, no cakra; the gentlest thing on the yajña-ground takes Romaharṣaṇa's life. The choice of instrument is itself the teaching: even a blade of grass, when held by the Lord, is sufficient daṇḍa.

• hā-hā iti — exclaiming 'alas, alas'
  Hā is the standard Sanskrit lament-particle. Doubled, it marks the strongest grief. The sages register the killing not with approval but with mourning — even when its target deserved it.
• khinna-mānasāḥ — with distressed minds
  Khinna (dejected, from √khid) + mānasa (mind). The sages' minds are bent. Gauḍīyas note: a sage's khinnatā is itself a teaching — even right action carries cost when it disturbs ritual.
• saṅkarṣaṇam — Saṅkarṣaṇa
  From sam- + √kṛṣ ('to draw together'). One of Balarāma's tattva-names — the One who draws together. The sages address Him by His viṣṇu-tattva name to remind Him of the responsibilities that name carries.
• adharmaḥ — irreligion
  A- + dharma. The sages name the killing as a-dharma. The Lord does not contradict them — He will perform atonement. The Bhāgavatam allows two true descriptions to coexist: necessary daṇḍa, and ritual a-dharma.
• prabho — O master
  Vocative of prabhu. Even while accusing Him of a-dharma, the sages address Him as Lord. The Vaiṣṇava form of complaint never abandons the relation.

• Where have I been shocked by what looked like the Lord's wrong action?
• How does He receive my protest, and what conversation might follow?

The same sages who rose to greet Him now cry hā-hā, lamenting that their guest has killed their reciter. The Lord's act has split the assembly into two truths at once — the breach of śīla was real, the killing of a brāhmaṇa-by-association is also real. The Bhāgavatam refuses to resolve the tension cheaply.

• brahma-āsanam — the seat of brahman / spiritual teacher
  Brahma (here = the supreme/teacher) + āsana (seat). The seat the sages had bestowed on Romaharṣaṇa. This explains why he was sitting above brāhmaṇas — they had elevated him. The geometry was their gift; the conduct was his failure.
• yadu-nandana — O joy of the Yadus
  Yadu + nandana (delight, son). Vocative address. They invoke Balarāma's Yadu-affiliation precisely while reminding Him of obligations to brāhmaṇas — a gentle pressure point.
• āyuḥ — lifespan
  Āyus — Vedic vital duration. The sages had promised him āyuḥ; the Lord will need to restore equivalent vital quantum, which He does by transferring it to his son in v.36.
• ātma-aklamam — freedom from physical pain
  Ātma (body/self) + a-klama (un-fatigue, freedom from exhaustion). The second item of the vow. Klama = exhaustion. The sages had pledged he would not tire mid-satra; the Lord must replace this too.
• satram samāpyate — until the sacrifice is completed
  Satra + samāpyate (passive of sam-√āp, 'reach completion'). The duration of the vow. The Lord's responsibility is bounded by the duration of the rite — He must arrange that the satra completes intact.

• Where do I dismiss authority that the community has genuinely granted?
• How do I honor the position even when its holder is unworthy?

The sages had given Romaharṣaṇa the brahma-āsana, the very seat of the spiritual teacher — and a vow of long life, freedom from bodily pain, for as long as the satra lasted. When the Lord kills him, He has also broken their vow. The accusation is in fact two accusations folded into one: against their guest, but also against their own pledge.

• ajānatā — unknowingly
  Present participle of √jñā, negated. The sages frame the killing as inadvertent — though the verse 24-27 sequence makes clear Balarāma knew exactly what He was doing. They offer Him a face-saving framing for the sake of the ritual outcome.
• yoga-īśvarasya bhavataḥ — of You, the Lord of yoga
  Same title used of Kṛṣṇa in v.16. The sages explicitly invoke Balarāma's identity as Yogeśvara — the very identity that exempts Him from āmnāya-constraint, and yet they are about to ask Him to bind Himself anyway.
• āmnāyaḥ — Vedic injunction
  From ā-√mnā (to repeat from memory, to learn from teacher). The transmitted Veda. Even the Veda does not command the Lord; He commands its application. The sages name this and then ask Him to suspend His exemption.
• pāvanam — purification
  From √pū. The act of making pure. The atonement procedure is itself the pāvana — and the Lord becomes loka-pāvana ('purifier of the world') by performing it. The purified is the purifier.
• loka-saṅgrahaḥ — for the holding-together of the world
  Loka (world) + saṅgraha (holding together). Gītā 3.20-25's central phrase. The whole reason the Lord performs anything He does not need to. The sages quote Kṛṣṇa's own theology back to His brother.

• Where could I take corrective action — not because I owe it, but because watchers benefit by the example?
• What act of self-correction would teach more than a lecture?

Even the Lord of all yoga-aiśvarya, the sages say, is not commanded by scripture — He is svatantra. But if of His own free will He performs the prescribed atonement, ordinary people will inherit a model. The Lord's voluntary submission to ritual is the Bhāgavatam's quietest, deepest pedagogy.

• cariṣye — I will perform
  Future 1sg of √car (to move, to enact). The same root that gives caritra, conduct. The Lord's first word in His response is the verb of voluntary action — He freely commits to the rite.
• vadha-nirveśam — atonement for killing
  Vadha (killing) + nirveśa (payment, expiation). The technical śāstric term for the prāyaścitta-rite assigned to a killer. The Lord names His act as vadha and accepts the formula's name for its consequence.
• loka-anugraha-kāmyayā — with desire to favor the people
  Loka + anugraha (favor, grace) + kāmyā (desire-driven). Kāmya-karma is action with desire — the Lord performs the rite as kāmya-karma, but His kāma is loka-anugraha. The desire-clause is the giveaway: He has no personal stake.
• niyamaḥ — regulation / rule
  Ni- (down) + yama (restraint). The procedure. The Lord asks the sages to prescribe the niyama for Him — submitting to their authority in form, even as He retains authority in substance.
• prathame kalpe — as the first option
  Prathama (first) + kalpa (option, alternative). Śāstric atonements come in tiered options; the first kalpa is the most rigorous. The Lord asks for the strictest tier — He will not cut Himself any slack on the prāyaścitta.

• Where could I place myself under another's guidance for the sake of those who watch?
• What humility does compassion require of me?

Cariṣye — 'I shall perform.' The Lord accepts the ritual. He who needs no purification freely submits to its motions, because compassion for lokas is the same word as compassion for forms. Balarāma's yes here is structurally identical to Kṛṣṇa's 'sarva-dharmān parityajya' — both presuppose that the One in charge of dharma freely chooses His relation to dharma's forms.

• āyuḥ — long life
  Same word as in v.30. The Lord is enumerating the items of the sages' vow — addressing each one directly, item by item. The atonement is being negotiated as a contract.
• sattvam — strength / stamina
  From √as (to be). Pure being-force, often translated 'vital strength.' The second item to be replaced. Yoga-māyā can produce sattva by transference.
• indriyam — sensory power
  From indra. The senses' power. The third item. With this, all three items of the vow (āyuḥ, sattva, indriyam) match v.30's āyuḥ + ātma-aklamam — the Lord adds indriya for completeness.
• yoga-māyayā — by My yoga-māyā
  Yoga + māyā. The Lord's intrinsic śakti — not māyā in the bondage-sense, but His own potency. Gauḍīyas distinguish yoga-māyā (līlā-arranging) from mahā-māyā (jīva-binding). Balarāma works through the former.
• sādhaye — I will accomplish
  Causative-future of √sādh. 'I will bring to completion.' The Lord uses the verb of siddhi — what He pledges will be siddha, accomplished beyond doubt.

• Tamohara Pr SB 10-78-34-36 - 2015-10-30 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Tamohara Prabhu· 2015-10-30· English

• Where do I make stingy repair when generous restitution is possible?
• What promise of mine deserves full, not partial, fulfillment?

Balarāma offers, by His yoga-māyā, to restore exactly what the sages had pledged: long life, strength, sensory power. The currency of the vow can be transferred; only the recipient must change. The Lord rewrites the ledger, sages keep their word, śāstra keeps its hold.

• astrasya — of the weapon
  Genitive of astra. The kuśa-blade is named astra — once held by the Lord, the grass-tip is an astra. Its vīrya must not be retroactively undone; the killing must remain real.
• vīryasya — of valor / potency
  Vīrya = both heroism and potency. Balarāma's vīrya. The sages will not have the Lord humiliated by undoing His act. They ask for a solution that preserves His dignity along with the rite.
• mṛtyoḥ — of the death (Romaharṣaṇa's)
  Genitive of mṛtyu. They name even the death as something to preserve. Romaharṣaṇa's death must remain a fact — the sages will not pretend it didn't happen. Reality, not erasure, is the request.
• vacaḥ satyam — our word true
  Vacas (word) + satya (true). Their vow to Romaharṣaṇa must remain satya. Vedic culture treats kept-word as the substrate of cosmic order. The sages are asking the Lord to save their satyatā.
• vidhīyatām — let it be arranged
  Passive imperative of vi-√dhā. 'Let arrangement be made.' The sages turn the verb over to the Lord — He is the arranger of all forms, including this knot of four truths.

• Where am I willing to sacrifice one truth to preserve another?
• What creative resolution would honor every truth involved?

The sages compose a delicate request: preserve everything. Your weapon's power, Your own valor, our vow, and Romaharṣaṇa's death — all four must remain intact. They will not accept a solution that undoes any prior reality. The Lord is asked to keep every truth standing without contradiction. This is the form of the prayer.

• ātmā vai putraḥ — the self is indeed the son
  A direct quotation from Vedic teaching (Aitareya, Bṛhad-āraṇyaka). The son is regarded as the continuation of the father's ātmā. The Lord uses śruti itself to honor the sages' vow.
• veda-anuśāsanam — the Vedic instruction
  Veda + anu-śāsana (continuing teaching). The Lord cites the Veda as His authority for the device — even though He is the Veda's source. Loka-saṅgraha again: cite scripture so people respect scripture.
• vaktā — speaker
  From √vac. Speaker — specifically, the speaker of Purāṇas. The Lord installs the son in his father's office. The position is preserved; the person rotates.
• indriya — sensory power
  Same item the sages had pledged (v.30, 34). The Lord transfers it to the son. The son will recite Purāṇas — a task requiring strong indriyas, especially voice and memory.
• sattva-vān — endowed with stamina
  Sattva + vat (possessing). The son will inherit the father's promised sattva. The Bhāgavatam's eventual narrator is, by this verse, given the constitution to last the recitation.

• What in me feels ended that might be carried forward by another?
• Where do I see Vedic continuity — through children, students, work — as renewal of self?

The Vedic ātmā-putra equation — 'one's self is reborn as one's son' — is precisely the device by which all four truths are kept. The death stands. The vow stands. Romaharṣaṇa rises as Ugraśravā. The Lord finds the seam that the śāstra had already stitched, and slides everything through it.

• kāmaḥ — desire
  From √kam. The Lord inquires after the sages' kāma — what they wish. He acts as fulfilling agent. Note: in His mouth, kāma-pūrti is service, not consumption.
• muni-śreṣṭhāḥ — O foremost of sages
  Muni + śreṣṭha. Vocative of honor. The Lord addresses the sages with full deference — performing, in form, the very humility Romaharṣaṇa lacked. The contrast is the teaching.
• ajānataḥ — of one who does not know
  Present participle of √jñā, negated. The Lord places Himself in the position of ajānat — not-knowing. Gauḍīyas note: this is bhakta-vatsalatā in pedagogical form. The omniscient assumes ignorance to honor His petitioners.
• apacitim — atonement
  From apa- + √ci (to gather). 'To gather away,' i.e. to remove the residue of an act. A technical śāstric term for prāyaścitta. The Lord asks for the apaciti — the precise removal-procedure.
• budhāḥ — O wise ones
  Vocative of budha. From √budh (to awaken, to know). Those who are awake. The Lord addresses the sages as knowers, again inverting Romaharṣaṇa's claim to be a paṇḍita.

• Where am I too proud to ask qualified guidance?
• Whose counsel could I solicit this week with genuine submission?

The Lord asks the sages to name their desire and to prescribe His atonement. He volunteers His ignorance — 'I do not know what My proper prāyaścitta might be' — though He is omniscient. This is the same self-veiling by which He asks Arjuna 'kac cid etac chrutaṁ pārtha?' or asks His mother for butter. Aiśvarya hides itself so dharma's protocol can speak.

• ilvalasya sutaḥ — son of Ilvala
  Ilvala — the brāhmaṇa-killing asura from Mahābhārata Vana-parva. The lineage is explicit: Balvala inherits a family vocation of defiling brāhmaṇas. Asura-dharma runs in his blood.
• ghoraḥ — fearsome
  From √ghur. Standard Bhāgavatam epithet for high-grade asuras. Ghora-rūpa, the terrible form. Balvala fits the category.
• balvalaḥ — Balvala
  Name of the demon. From bala (strength) — but as 'Balvala' it doubles the bala morpheme, suggesting brute redundant force. The Lord's elder brother is Balarāma, the right kind of bala; the demon's name is the wrong one.
• dūṣayati — pollutes
  Causative of √duṣ. The verb of contamination of yajña-ground. The opposite of pavitra-karaṇa. Balvala's whole activity is dūṣaṇa; the Lord's whole activity is pāvana.
• parvaṇi parvaṇi — at every new-moon
  Locative-iterative. Parvan = the joint of the month, especially new and full moons. Balvala's attack is calendrical — a counter-rite synchronized with auspicious days. The Bhāgavatam shows asuras using śāstric time against śāstric ends.

• What is the 'Balvala' that disturbs my regular practice on a predictable schedule?
• How could I anticipate and prepare for it rather than be surprised each time?