Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.81.5
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
vrīḍitaḥ
—
embarrassed
Past participle of √vrīḍ (to be ashamed, abashed). Gauḍīya bhāva-śāstra: vrīḍā / lajjā in front of Bhagavān is itself a transcendental sentiment, not a defect. The brāhmaṇa's shame is the right rasa for the moment.
-
pataye śriyaḥ
—
to the husband of the goddess of fortune
pataye (dative, to the husband) + śriyaḥ (genitive, of Śrī, Lakṣmī). The poet deliberately names Kṛṣṇa by His richest title at the moment Sudāmā tries to offer the poorest gift. The gap is the rasa.
-
pṛthuka-prasṛtim
—
palmfuls of flat rice
Compound: pṛthuka (flat rice, chipped rice) + prasṛti (a measure equal to a palmful). The exact, humble, material detail that the chapter will magnify into towering palaces — note its smallness here.
-
avāk-mukhaḥ
—
whose head was bowed down
Compound: avāk (downward, speechless) + mukhaḥ (face). Avāk also means without words. The bhāva is doubled — face cast down, voice failed. The body itself has become his confession of poverty.
-
na prāyacchat
—
did not offer
Imperfect of pra + √yam, with negation. The brāhmaṇa's hand will not move. Bhagavān will solve this paralysis in verse 8 by reaching into the cloth Himself — Kṛṣṇa makes the offering on the bhakta's behalf when bhakti is genuine but lajjā is in the way.
According to Ācārya Viśvanātha Cakravartī, the description here of Kṛṣṇa as “the husband of the goddess of fortune” implies that Sudāmā questioned himself, “How can the Lord of Śrī eat this hard, stale rice?” By bowing his head, the brāhmaṇa revealed his meditation: “My dear master, please do not make me ashamed. Even if You request it from me repeatedly, I will not give this to You. I have made up my mind.” But the Lord countered with His own thought: “The intention you had fixed in your mind while coming here must not be frustrated, for you are My devotee.”
He did not give his four handfuls (prasrti) of chipped rice to Krsna, being embarrassed (vriditah), as Krsna was the husband of Laksmi and all wealth (pataye sriyah). He was thinking, "How can I let the husband of Laksmi eat this hard tasteless flat rice?" His head was turned downwards indicated, " O Lord, do not mock me. Though you have requested me many times, I have decided that I will not give it to you." But the Lord was thinking, "But you should do as you decided to do when you left home, and give it to me."
Sudāmā still did not give willingly his four handfuls of rice to Kṛṣṇa but in embarrassment stood with downcast face. He was embarrassed because Kṛṣṇa was the husband of Lakṣmī.
- What offering does shame keep me from making, even when the Lord is asking?
- What would it take to raise my eyes and hand over what's in my pocket?
A child who has practiced a song for months to sing for his king reaches the throne room and forgets every syllable. Sudāmā at the husband-of-Lakṣmī's feet remembers only his bundle of chipped rice and cannot lift his head. Avāk-mukha is the bhāva called lajjā — and the gopīs know this same paralysis well.
Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu) lists lajjā — devotional shyness — among the sañcārī-bhāvas that ornament prema. The gopīs, when first called by Kṛṣṇa's flute, are also paralyzed by where to put their faces. Sudāmā's avāk-mukhaḥ is not weakness; it is rasa breaking the surface of his composure.
My note
Source: vedabase.io