10.83 · Draupadī Meets the Queens of Kṛṣṇa

• gopīnām — of the cowherd women
  Genitive plural of gopī. The verse names Kṛṣṇa as the gopīnāṁ guruḥ — the guru of the gopīs — placing the supreme mādhurya-bhaktas at the head of the sentence even when the scene shifts to Hastināpura. For Gauḍīyas this is no incidental adjective: the gopīs' bhāva remains Kṛṣṇa's own most-honored possession everywhere He goes.
• guruḥ — spiritual master
  Bhagavān is Himself the guru of the gopīs, not a teacher they sought. Gauḍīya theology reads this as caitya-guru — the Lord within — manifesting outwardly. The same Kṛṣṇa who plays as their beloved is also the inner teacher whose mercy enabled their love.
• gatiḥ — goal, destination
  Gati is the resting-point at which a soul stops travelling. Pairing guruḥ with gatiḥ frames the gopīs' relationship in one breath — He is both the path and the place arrived at, a Gauḍīya formula echoed throughout the Bhāgavatam.
• anugṛhya — having shown favor
  From anu + √grah — to take hold of with mercy. The participle implies the act is complete before the next sentence begins: Kṛṣṇa first finishes the mercy upon the gopīs, then turns to the kṣatriyas. The verse refuses to let the reader skip past Vraja-rasa on the way to Kuru politics.
• su - hṛdaḥ — well-wishing relatives
  Compound suhṛt (good-hearted) — one who wishes well without expecting return. Kṛṣṇa is called suhṛt sarva-bhūtānām in the Gītā; here the same word is reflected back from His own kinsmen, marking the reciprocal warmth that makes Dvārakā-Hastināpura one extended family of the Lord.

• Krishnananda Pr SB 10-83-01 Telugu Translation - 2014-05-02 ISKCON Tirupati
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• RCP SB 10-83-01 Telugu - 2014-05-03 ISKCON Tirupati
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• Bhanu Sw SB 10-83-01-04 - Importance of hearing SB from Vaishnavas in disciplic line and hearing with devotion - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-83-01 - Krishna is Akhila Rasamrita Murti the reservoir of all pleasure - 2008-03-19 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2008-03-19· English

• How do I move between intimate and family circles in my own life — fully present in each, or distracted in both?
• What does full attention in each setting look like?

Kṛṣṇa, having finished consoling the gopīs of Vraja with the rasa He alone can give, now turns to His Hastināpura kinsmen with the same attentiveness — like a master cook who, having served the inner family the deepest dish, comes to the outer guests and asks if their plates are filled. The Lord's mercy has no leftover quality; the same Bhagavān who is gopīnāṁ guruḥ for the milkmaids is the courteous well-wisher inquiring after Yudhiṣṭhira.

• pāda — the feet (of the Lord)
  Pāda — the constant Gauḍīya object of meditation. Throughout this chapter (verses 8, 11, 15-16, 39, 40, 41-42, 43) the word recurs as the queens' single shared longing. Verse 2 plants it early: even sight of those feet destroys sin.
• īkṣā — by seeing
  From √īkṣ — to look. Gauḍīya śāstra ranks darśana of the Lord (or of His vigraha, His devotee, His Vraja-bhūmi) as itself purifying — no other sādhana required at the moment the gaze lands.
• hata — destroyed
  Past participle of √han. The sins are not gradually wiped but struck dead — same root as Kṛṣṇa's slaying of demons. Pāda-darśana is itself a weapon.
• aṁhasaḥ — whose sins
  Aṁhas — sin, narrowness, distress. The genitive frames the kings: those whose sins are slain. The verse stations the antidote (seeing Kṛṣṇa's feet) immediately beside the disease (aṁhas).
• hṛṣṭa — joyful
  From √hṛṣ — to bristle, to thrill. Hṛṣṭa-manas describes the precise Gauḍīya symptom of bhāva: the mind itself stands on end before the Lord. The reply that follows is not duty-speech; it is overflowing rasa.

• Where in my meetings with the Lord do I focus on content when the encounter itself does the work?
• What changes when I trust the meeting more than the words?

A traveller's dust is washed off the moment his feet touch the threshold of his own house — likewise the kings' inner stain falls away simply by their eyes resting on Kṛṣṇa's feet. Darśana of those feet is itself the bath; their joy in answering Him is the towel that dries them.

• āsavam — intoxicating nectar
  Āsava is a fermented honey-wine. The verse deliberately uses the most charged word for liquor and applies it to Hari-kathā: the bhakta is not sober, he is intoxicated — but by Kṛṣṇa's feet, not by viṣaya. The Gauḍīyas read this as the rasa-tattva embedded in even the dvārakā-līlā.
• caraṇa - ambuja — lotus feet
  Caraṇa (foot) + ambuja (lotus-born). The compound is the single most-repeated Gauḍīya meditation-object. Note: the āsava flows from these feet — bhakti is the wine pressed out of Kṛṣṇa's own pādāravinda.
• karṇa - puṭaiḥ — with the cups of the ears
  Karṇa (ear) + puṭa (cup, fold). The ear is rendered a drinking vessel. Gauḍīya śravaṇa-bhakti rests on this image — Hari-kathā is taken in not as information but as drink.
• asmṛti — forgetfulness
  A (not) + smṛti (remembrance). The soul's foundational disease — forgetting the Lord who made the body. The wine of Hari-kathā cures precisely this forgetting; smaraṇa is the antidote and the medicine.
• deha - kṛt — maker of the body
  Deha (body) + kṛt (maker). Bhagavān is named here as the very architect of the embodiment the soul has come to mistake for itself. The verse argues that to forget the deha-kṛt is the original error; remembering Him is the original cure.
• prabho — O master
  Vocative of prabhu. The kings address Kṛṣṇa not as kinsman now but as Lord — the conversation has shifted register, and the address tracks the shift.

• What nectar from a devotee's mouth has poured into my ear recently?
• What forgetfulness has it dissolved?

Words about Kṛṣṇa, flowing from the mouths of great devotees, enter the ears as a wine pours into a cup — and the cup is the soul itself. Once drunk, the wine does not produce forgetfulness but burns away the older drunkenness of forgetting who made this body in the first place. Material liquor numbs; Hari-kathā wakes.

• yoga - māyā — internal divine potency
  Yoga (uniting) + māyā (potency). Gauḍīya doctrine sharply distinguishes Yoga-māyā (Kṛṣṇa's internal cit-śakti, which arranges līlā) from Mahā-māyā (the external, illusioning potency). The kings rightly attribute Kṛṣṇa's human form to the former — He has not been forced into a body; He has freely come.
• ātma - dhāma — the splendor of His own person
  Ātma (self, person) + dhāma (abode, splendor). The verse does not say impersonal brahman dispels avidyā — it says Kṛṣṇa's personal radiance does. Gauḍīya personalism reads the line strictly: the dispelling light is the form itself.
• nigama — the Vedas
  Nigama — the revealed Vedic literature. Kṛṣṇa's descent is here justified as nigama-avane (Veda-protection) — He has come because time was eroding revelation. The Gauḍīya Bhāgavata-paramparā treats this verse as proof that Kṛṣṇa's appearance is itself a śruti-rescue mission.
• parama - haṁsa — supremely realized soul
  Parama (supreme) + haṁsa (swan — said to separate milk from water). The paramahaṁsa is the topmost class of devotee in Gauḍīya classification. The verse names Kṛṣṇa as their gati — even the highest realized soul has Him as final destination, not impersonal merging.
• ānanda — bliss
  One member of the sat-cit-ānanda triad. The verse says Kṛṣṇa's devotees are in ānanda-samplavam — total immersion in bliss. Gauḍīya rasa-theology insists this ānanda is not a state of absence (śūnya) but the positive sweetness of relationship with Bhagavān.
• ākṛtim — form
  From √kṛ — that which is fashioned. Pairing ākṛti with Yoga-māyā emphasizes: this form is real, deliberate, internally fashioned by Kṛṣṇa Himself — not an illusion projected on a formless absolute. The line is a Gauḍīya proof-text against Māyāvāda.

• What dharma in me needs protecting that only the Lord's intervention can secure?
• How does His form-radiance dispel modes I cannot dispel by effort?

When the sun rises, the threefold darkness of the room — that of the wall, of the floor, of the ceiling — is dispelled by a single light. So the radiance (ātma-dhāma) of Kṛṣṇa's personal form dispels the three states of waking, dream, and deep sleep at once. He has not assumed this human ākṛti out of necessity but by Yoga-māyā, the way the sun chooses to come close to one window so a particular family may worship Him.

• govinda - kathāḥ — topics of Govinda
  Govinda (one who pleases the cows / Earth / senses) + kathā (narrative). The Gauḍīya emblem of the highest conversation. Note Śuka chooses the name Govinda — not Vāsudeva, not Janārdana — locking the inner chamber's mood to Vraja even in Hastināpura.
• uttamaḥ - śloka — He whose verses are of the highest order
  Uttama (highest) + śloka (verse, fame). A title for Kṛṣṇa that the Bhāgavatam itself frequently uses; the women's gathering will, in effect, compose fresh uttama-ślokas in the chapters that follow.
• śikhā - maṇim — crest-jewel
  Śikhā (crest) + maṇi (jewel). The image places Kṛṣṇa as the maṇi mounted at the top of the assembly of all glorified personalities — not first among equals but the apex of the diadem.
• striyaḥ — the women
  Strī — the female-headed gathering. The Bhāgavatam does not relegate this scene to anecdote; an entire chapter is devoted to the women's kathā. Gauḍīya tradition reads this as honoring the strī-bhakta's particular gift: storytelling as devotional offering.
• tri - loka - gītāḥ — sung throughout the three worlds
  Tri (three) + loka (worlds) + gītāḥ (sung). The stories about to be told are not domestic gossip — they are already being sung by gandharvas, by sages, by every devotee across the three worlds. The inner chamber happens to be one more performance of a universal song.

• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-83-05-07 Telugu Translation - 2014-05-08 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2014-05-08· Telugu
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-83-05-07 - Krishna expands himself to satisfy his Devotees - 2008-03-21 ISKCON Melbourne
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• Bhanu Sw SB 10-83-05-39 - Humility-The essential ingredient of any Spiritual Relationship with Lord - ISKCON Chennai
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• Whose circles in my life tell stories about the Lord, and am I part of them?
• What different angles on Kṛṣṇa do women's voices open?

While the men sit in the front hall and speak philosophy of Kṛṣṇa, the women of the Andhaka and Kuru households gather in the inner chambers and tell one another the actual stories. Each conversation is rasa in a different register — the men's is jñāna-mixed devotion, the women's is unadorned narrative bhakti, the gold dust of Govinda-kathā passed between hands.

• acyutaḥ — the infallible one
  A (not) + cyuta (fallen). Draupadī addresses Kṛṣṇa by the name He earned by never letting His devotees fall — including her own famous rescue in the Kuru assembly. The vocative resonance is personal.
• he kṛṣṇa - patnyaḥ — O wives of Kṛṣṇa
  Patnī — co-yajña-partner, not merely 'wife'. The plural sets the chapter's frame: each patnī performs her own yajña of relationship with the same Lord, and the chapter is a recording of those simultaneous yajñas.
• upayeme — He married
  Perfect tense of upa + √yam — to take in marriage. Draupadī's verb places agency on Kṛṣṇa: He married each of them. The queens will narrate how — but the deeper truth, that He chose them, is fixed at the outset.
• lokam anukurvan — imitating ordinary society
  Loka (world) + anu (after) + √kṛ (do). Gauḍīya commentators take this as load-bearing: Kṛṣṇa's marriages are not bound by karma; they are imitations of human custom undertaken so the līlā can be visible. The svayaṁvaras, the dowries, the elopements — all are anukaraṇa, divine mimicry.
• sva - māyayā — by His own mystic power
  Sva (own) + māyā (potency). The māyā here is His own — i.e. Yoga-māyā, not Mahā-māyā. The Lord's marriages are arranged by His internal potency to display the full spectrum of conjugal relationship for the world's instruction.

• Whose story of meeting the Lord could I ask to hear?
• What does asking honor about the other person's path?

Draupadī's question is the listener's question. She names each queen one by one, knowing each has a different door by which she entered Kṛṣṇa's house — one was carried away from a wedding, one offered with a jewel, one earned through tapas, one given freely by a father, one chosen at a svayaṁvara. Like a teacher who asks every student to share how they arrived at the school, she invites the full bouquet of rasas.

• mṛgendraḥ — lion (lord of beasts)
  Mṛga (beast) + indra (lord). Rukmiṇī's chosen simile for her own marriage: not abduction by a thief, but rescue by a lion from a pen of cowards. The image will be echoed by Mitravindā (verse 12: dvipa-ariḥ) and by Śukadeva narrating Lakṣmaṇā's wedding (verse 33: mṛga-rāṭ).
• caraṇaḥ — the feet
  Singular caraṇa-stem. Rukmiṇī ends the verse not by celebrating her rescue but by asking that those feet remain her arcana-object. Gauḍīya bhakti reads the closing line as the actual content of the marriage: not the act of being taken, but the perpetual seva-relationship that began with it.
• śrī - niketa — the abode of the goddess of fortune
  Śrī (Lakṣmī, fortune) + niketa (dwelling). Kṛṣṇa is the abode in whom Śrī dwells — a Vaiṣṇava formula. Rukmiṇī, herself an expansion of Śrī, is acknowledging that her own ultimate ground is in Kṛṣṇa's feet, where Śrī rests.
• arcanāya — for worship
  Arcana — formal ritual worship. The dative case (arcanāya) shows purpose: 'so that I may worship'. Rukmiṇī asks for the eternal posture of arcana-bhakti at His feet, not merely for the status of queen.
• ajeya - bhaṭa - śekharita - aṅghri - reṇuḥ — (He) on whose feet the dust of invincible warriors' heads has come to rest
  Contiguous compound. Where invincible warriors have placed their heads, Kṛṣṇa's feet have rested — the dust on His soles is itself the dust of conquered helmets. The poetic image inverts the usual conqueror-conquered relationship and frames every battle as a śaraṇāgati toward Him.

• How does my own 'how I met the Lord' story end — and is the ending still going?
• What ongoing prayer extends from a past meeting?

A lion does not knock at the door of the pen; he steps among the goats and sheep, takes his share, and walks out unhurried. So Kṛṣṇa entered the courtyard of kings who had their bows trained on Him, picked Rukmiṇī up before Śiśupāla's eyes, and left. The verse calls it rākṣasa-vivāha by form — but the lion's calm is mādhurya, not violence.

• abhiśāpam — condemnation, false accusation
  Abhi (toward) + śāpa (curse). The word names what Bhagavān bore for the sake of His own reputation among devotees: a public abhiśāpa. The act of going to the cave was nirmāṇa — repair — of His own kīrti, not for His sake but for the bhaktas' confidence.
• ṛkṣa - rājam — king of the bears (Jāmbavān)
  Ṛkṣa (bear) + rāja (king). Jāmbavān is the same companion who served Lord Rāma — Kṛṣṇa is fighting His own previous-līlā servant. The fight ends when Jāmbavān recognizes the voice of his Rāma. The chapter will pick up this thread in the next verse from Jāmbavatī's side.
• ratnam — the jewel (Syamantaka)
  Ratna — a precious stone. Kṛṣṇa returned it though He could have kept it. Gauḍīya commentators highlight that the gem was nothing to Him — He came for the kīrti, not for the gold.
• adiśata — offered, gave directively
  Imperfect of ā + √diś. Satrājit had already promised Satyabhāmā elsewhere, but his fear made him 'redirect' her. The verb captures the abrupt re-allocation — and Kṛṣṇa accepts it without comment, knowing the underlying eligibility was always His.
• dattām — (already) given
  Past participle feminine of √dā — given. The bracket is striking: she had already been given to others. Gauḍīya reading: Kṛṣṇa overrides the worldly contract because the inner contract — her bhakti — predates it. The Lord rearranges destinies when bhakti is in play.

• What relationship in my life began in misunderstanding and was reshaped by truth?
• How does the Lord straighten out tangled stories?

A jeweller wrongly accused of theft does not argue; he walks into the cave, fights the bear-king for twenty-seven days, retrieves the stolen gem, and quietly places it on the accuser's table. Satrājit's accusation could have been answered with anger; Kṛṣṇa answered it with effort. Satyabhāmā, given in atonement, is the dākṣiṇa of His patience.

• sītā - patim — the husband of Sītā
  Sītā + pati. Jāmbavatī identifies Kṛṣṇa by His Rāma-līlā title — a clear Bhāgavata acknowledgement of the avatāra-rahasya: the same Lord, different rūpa. Gauḍīya tattva holds Rāma and Kṛṣṇa as non-different in svarūpa though distinct in rasa.
• nija - nātha - daivam — his own master and worshipable Deity
  Nija (own) + nātha (lord) + daiva (worshipable). Three words name three layers: Kṛṣṇa is Jāmbavān's natural lord, personal master, and ārādhya-devatā. Fighting his own iṣṭa-deva for twenty-seven days is the verse's quiet tragedy — and joy of resolution.
• tri - nava - ahāni — three times nine days
  Tri (three) + nava (nine) + ahan (day). Twenty-seven — a numerologically full count in Vedic reckoning (the nakṣatras). The fight occupies a complete cycle before recognition comes.
• pādau pragṛhya — taking hold of His feet
  Pādau (the two feet, dual) + pragṛhya (having taken hold). The exact same act Jāmbavān had performed in Rāma-līlā now performed in Kṛṣṇa-līlā — the body of service is the same; only the face of the Lord has changed. Gauḍīya sevā-tattva: hold the feet, the rest follows.
• dāsī — maidservant
  Dāsī is the female counterpart of dāsa. Jāmbavatī chooses no other word for herself. Note: she does not name her status as queen of Dvārakā; she names her status as dāsī. Gauḍīya rasa-tattva: the highest queen and the lowliest servant are the same word in bhakti.

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• Where might I be 'fighting' something or someone whose true identity I haven't yet recognized?
• What recognition would change the fight?

Jāmbavān, the same servant who searched for Sītā with Hanumān, did not at first recognize his old master in the new dark-blue form — a faithful old retainer striking at his own lord, twenty-seven days, until at the twenty-eighth he hears the familiar voice. He drops the gem and the daughter at the same feet he had served in another yuga. The verse is the moment of recognition, told from the daughter's side.

• tapaḥ — austerity
  Tapas — heat, the burning required to refine. Kālindī's marriage-route is pure tapas-bhakti: she heats herself until only the desired Lord remains. Gauḍīya reading: tapas alone does not produce Kṛṣṇa, but tapas joined to desire-for-Him does.
• sva - pāda - sparśana - āśayā — with the hope of touching His feet
  Sva (His) + pāda (feet) + sparśana (touch) + āśayā (with desire). The entire object of her tapas is one foot-touch. Note: not lordship, not heaven, not liberation — pāda-sparśa. The grammar of Gauḍīya prema in five tokens.
• sakhyā — with His friend (Arjuna)
  Instrumental of sakhi. Kṛṣṇa comes accompanied by His sakhā Arjuna — a small detail that Gauḍīya commentators love: even at His own wedding, the Lord brings His friend along. Sakhya-rasa attends mādhurya-rasa.
• agrahīt pāṇim — He took (my) hand
  Agrahīt — He grasped. Pāṇi-grahaṇa is the technical Vedic gesture of marriage, the moment a bride becomes a wife. The verb is decisive: the tapas of years is consummated in one grasp.
• gṛha - mārjanī — sweeper of the house
  Gṛha (house) + mārjanī (sweeper, broom). Kālindī, queen of Dvārakā, names her actual position as the one who sweeps His floor. Gauḍīya dāsya-tattva at its quietest: the queen is already the broom; the broom is already the consort.

• Akuti Mataji SB 10-83-11-12 - 2015-12-30 ISKCON Alachua
  Her Grace Akuti Mataji· 2015-12-30· English
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• What humble service to the Lord do I actually long for?
• How does 'sweeper in the palace' feel more like fulfillment than higher posts?

Kālindī had no king-father to negotiate, no svayaṁvara to host. She had only the Yamunā's bank and her own tapas — sitting with the desire to touch a single dust-particle of Kṛṣṇa's foot. The wedding-route here is tapas-vivāha: heat the body until the Lord Himself, walking by with His friend, stops and asks her hand. She names her future role not as queen but as gṛha-mārjanī — the sweeper of His house.

• svayaṁ - vare — at the self-choice ceremony
  Svayam (self) + vara (choosing, bridegroom). The Vedic institution by which a princess herself selects her husband. The chapter contrasts svayaṁvara (Mitravindā, Lakṣmaṇā), rākṣasa-vivāha (Rukmiṇī), tapas (Kālindī), and dāna (Bhadrā, Satyā) as four valid routes — Bhagavān honors them all.
• dvipa - ariḥ — enemy of elephants (i.e., a lion)
  Dvipa (elephant) + ari (enemy) — kenning for the lion. Mitravindā escalates Rukmiṇī's mṛgendraḥ image: not just lord-of-beasts but specifically the one elephants fear. Her brothers, who thought themselves powerful, were street-dogs by comparison.
• aṅghri - avanejanatvam — the status of washing the feet
  Aṅghri (foot) + avanejana (washing) + tva (-ness). She asks not to be queen but to hold the office of foot-washer. Gauḍīya sevā-tattva: the lowest service is the highest position. Note the abstract suffix tvam — she wants the office itself, perpetually.
• anu - bhavam — life after life
  Anu (following) + bhava (becoming, birth). She does not ask for liberation from birth — she asks to keep being born, provided each birth contains the foot-washing service. Gauḍīya bhakti's classic refusal of mokṣa-as-cessation.
• apakurutaḥ — (those who were) insulting
  Apa (away from) + √kṛ (do). A precise word for the offence: not just opposing, but apa-karaṇa — anti-action, doing the wrong thing toward the Lord. The brothers' apakāra is what Kṛṣṇa's lion-step corrected.

• UM SB 10-83-12 - Humility os the door way to steadiness - 2008-03-26 ISKCON Melbourne
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• From what 'pack of dogs' has the Lord rescued me?
• What lifelong service do I want to offer in gratitude?

At Mitravindā's svayaṁvara her own brothers stood between her and her chosen Lord, insulting Him; Kṛṣṇa stepped through them as a lion steps through a pack of barking street-dogs and carried her away. Her closing word is not 'queen' but aṅghri-avanejana — let me wash His feet, life after life. The svayaṁvara was the door; the foot-washing is the room.

• sapta ukṣaṇaḥ — seven bulls
  Sapta (seven) + ukṣan (bull). The number is doctrinal — Gauḍīya commentators identify the seven bulls with the seven indriyas or the seven kinds of mada (pride). Subduing them is the inner work the Lord performs effortlessly for any soul who has fixed Him as her vīrya-śulka.
• krīḍan — playing
  Present participle of √krīḍ — to play. The verb that names the same teaching as līlā (which becomes explicit in verse 25-26). Whatever appears to others as struggle (Nagnajit's bulls, Rukmī's army, Jāmbavān's strength) is for Kṛṣṇa krīḍana — free play. The Gauḍīya doctrine of līlā insists Bhagavān is never strained.
• vīrya - śulkām — whose price is heroism
  Vīrya (heroism) + śulka (bride-price). A bride 'priced by valor' — the older Vedic institution by which a kanyā's hand was tied to a heroic deed. Bhagavān pays the price without effort because the valor is His own internal śakti, not strain.
• tat - dāsyam — servitude to Him
  Tat (His) + dāsya (servitude). Satyā closes with the same prayer Rukmiṇī, Jāmbavatī, Kālindī, and Mitravindā have made: not queen-hood but dāsyam. The chapter's refrain is fixing into form.
• durmada — false pride
  Dus (bad) + mada (intoxication). The bulls' role was durmada-hanaḥ — destroyers of false pride. The bulls humbled prior suitors; Kṛṣṇa humbled the bulls. Each defeat-by-bull was a small mercy to those kings, exposing their false vīrya before they could claim Satyā wrongly.

• What in my life looks like a 'seven deadly bulls' obstacle that the Lord could handle with ease?
• How does that recognition change my approach?

King Nagnajit tied his daughter's hand to a price: subdue seven invincible bulls. The kings tried and were gored; Kṛṣṇa stepped into the ring and tied them up the way village children tie up baby goats — playfully, with one hand. The dānam route here is vīrya-śulkā — purchased by valor — and the price Bhagavān paid was a smile.

• mātuleyāya — to (Kṛṣṇa, who is her) maternal cousin
  Mātulā (mother's sister) + suffix -eya — one related through the mother's side. Bhadrā's mother was Kṛṣṇa's father Vasudeva's sister Śrutakīrti; Kṛṣṇa is therefore her cousin. The dāna of the daughter is also the keeping-within-the-family of Yadu rakta.
• tat - cittām — whose heart was absorbed in Him
  Tat (Him) + citta (mind). Her father gave her to Kṛṣṇa because she had already given herself to Him in citta. Gauḍīya reading: external arrangement only ratifies the internal bhāva — the marriage was already complete in her heart.
• saṁsparśaḥ — the touch
  Sam (full) + sparśa (touch). She does not ask for sight or memory but for sparśa — direct foot-contact, life after life. The intimate end of the bhakti-spectrum: not just darśana but touch.
• janmani janmani — in birth after birth
  Doubled locative — repetition for emphasis. The same refrain Mitravindā used (anu-bhavam): not liberation from birth, but birth as the vessel for renewed pāda-saṁsparśa. The Gauḍīya formula iṣṭa-deva-svarūpe sthitiḥ — staying with the Lord through every birth.
• śreyaḥ — ultimate perfection
  Śreyas — the highest good, contrasted with preyas (the pleasing). Bhadrā names pāda-saṁsparśa janmani janmani as her śreyas. Not mokṣa, not lordship — touch of His feet repeated forever.

• RCP SB 10-83-15-16 Telugu - 2014-05-11 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Rupeshwar Caitanya Prabhu· 2014-05-11· Telugu

• What is the 'perfection' I am actually seeking — and is it touching His feet?
• How does this clarify what I am chasing?

Bhadrā's father, Kṛṣṇa's own maternal uncle, did not wait for a svayaṁvara or a contest. Knowing his daughter's heart was already given, he simply invited his nephew and offered her — with an akṣauhiṇī army for dowry and her childhood companions to follow. The dānam route, in its sweetest form: a relative giving a relative, no test required because the bhakti was already there.

• nārada - gītam — sung by Nārada
  Nārada (Nārada Muni) + gītam (sung). Śravaṇa-bhakti's emblem-source: the wandering muni's vīṇā. Gauḍīya tradition holds that all four sampradāyas trace back to Nārada in one way or another — every Hari-kathā being sung today is downstream of his gītam.
• mukunde — in/on Mukunda
  Locative of Mukunda — He who gives mukti. Lakṣmaṇā's heart fixes on the name that promises liberation, but she does not ask for liberation; she asks for Mukunda Himself. Gauḍīya: the name carries the bhāva regardless of its semantic content.
• padma - hastayā — by her of the lotus-hand (Lakṣmī)
  Padma (lotus) + hasta (hand). A title of Mahā-Lakṣmī. The verse invokes Lakṣmī as the precedent: even she, with all the world's suitors, chose Kṛṣṇa after careful weighing. Lakṣmaṇā's own choice is thus aligned with the goddess of fortune's own.
• su - sammṛśya — having carefully considered
  Su (well) + sam (fully) + √mṛś (to weigh, to touch with thought). The verse insists Lakṣmī's choice was deliberate — not impulse. Bhakti is not weakness of judgment; it is the most careful judgment, after which all rival options are vihāya — set aside.
• vṛtaḥ — chosen
  Past participle of √vṛ — to choose. The same root as svayaṁ-vara. Lakṣmī's vara is named here as the precedent for Lakṣmaṇā's own vara: the goddess chose, the king's daughter chose, in unbroken line.

• UM SB 10-83-17 - Becoming attached to Krsna through spiritual sound vibration - 2008-03-27 ISKCON Melbourne
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2008-03-27· English
• UM SB 10-83-17-19 - 2025-02-05 Bhakti Center - New
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2025-02-05· English

• What repeated hearing has shaped my heart's attraction?
• What new hearing could shape it further?

Lakṣmaṇā heard Nārada sing Kṛṣṇa's birth and deeds over and over — and the cittam followed the sound the way iron follows a magnet. Even Padmahastā Lakṣmī, with every demigod-suitor to choose from, chose Him after careful consideration; Lakṣmaṇā places herself in that lineage. Her route is śravaṇa-vivāha: ears first, heart following, body brought by the father.

• vatsalaḥ — affectionate (like to a calf)
  From vatsa (calf). The same root word that names Yaśodā's vātsalya-rasa toward Kṛṣṇa — here applied to a father toward his daughter. The Gauḍīya web of vātsalya is wider than parent-to-Lord: it is any tender protective love bent toward the smaller one.
• duhitṛ — to the daughter
  Duhitṛ — daughter, etymologically 'milker', the one who milks the family cows. The word places Lakṣmaṇā in the household's normal economy; her father's vātsalya for her is the same as for any beloved child.
• matam — mentality, inner intention
  From √man (to think). Bṛhatsena knew her mata — her settled intention. Gauḍīya reading: a true mata for Kṛṣṇa cannot be hidden long; even external relatives perceive it. The verse models the proper response — arrangement, not opposition.
• bṛhatsenaḥ iti khyātaḥ — known as Bṛhatsena
  Bṛhat (great) + sena (army) + iti khyātaḥ (so renowned). Lakṣmaṇā's father is a great king. The verse pauses to name him because the test he is about to design (verse 19's hidden fish) requires both his army and his ingenuity.
• sādhvi — O saintly lady
  Vocative of sādhvī. Lakṣmaṇā addresses Draupadī as fellow sādhvī — the chapter is a sister-to-sister exchange. The diminutive of formality marks the intimacy of these conversations.

• Where in my parenting (or my receiving of parenting) is the desire of the heart honored rather than questioned?
• What request of a loved one have I tried too hard to redirect?

A father who can read his daughter's heart does not need to be told. Bṛhatsena saw where Lakṣmaṇā's mind had gone and quietly built the bridge — arranged a svayaṁvara whose test only Kṛṣṇa could pass. Vatsala fathers do this in every yuga: align the world's machinery so the heart's already-made choice can stand publicly.

• matsyaḥ — fish
  Matsya — the species used as svayaṁvara target. Also the name of the first Avatāra. The doubled resonance is intentional: piercing matsya for marriage is small-scale prefiguration of recognizing Matsya-Avatāra at the cosmic level.
• pārtha - īpsayā — with the desire of obtaining Arjuna
  Pārtha (son of Pṛthā, i.e., Arjuna) + īpsā (desire). The chapter explicitly references Draupadī's own marriage in the body of Lakṣmaṇā's narration — the queens are talking with their friend, not lecturing.
• ācchannaḥ — covered
  Past participle of ā + √chad — to cover. The fish was concealed. Gauḍīya commentators read the concealment as deliberate testing of inner vision: the Lord too is ācchanna to ordinary sight, visible only by reflection in pure hearts.
• dṛśyate — was seen
  Passive present of √dṛś — to see. The verb whose subject is only the reflection, not the fish itself. Gauḍīya parallel: in saṁsāra what is dṛśyate is only the ābhāsa; the satya is hidden. Only Bhagavān, who is both the satya and the one who hides it, can pierce.
• rājñi — O Queen
  Vocative of rājñī. Lakṣmaṇā addresses Draupadī by her formal title throughout — a sister-queen's protocol. The intimacy of bhakti does not collapse the courtesy of rāja-bhāṣā.

• Satya Gopinath Pr SB 10-83-19 Telugu - 2014-05-12 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Satya Gopinath Prabhu· 2014-05-12· Telugu

• Where am I asked to act on something I can only see indirectly?
• What disciplines train me to read reflection accurately?

Bṛhatsena did not place the fish openly above, as Drupada had at Draupadī's svayaṁvara; he hid the fish from sight and put only its reflection in a pot of water below. Now the suitor must read the inverted image and shoot the unseen target. It is a sūtra for bhakti itself: the Lord is not visible directly; aim at the reflection in the still water of a pure heart.

• sarva - astra - śastra - tattva - jñāḥ — expert knowers of all weapons-science
  Sarva (all) + astra (projectile weapons) + śastra (hand-held weapons) + tattva (essence) + jña (knower). Five-word compound establishing the suitors' competence. The verse loads up qualifications precisely so their failure can be felt.
• upādhyāyāḥ — their teachers
  Upādhyāya — preceptor, instructor. The kings come with their gurus. Not even teacher-backed expertise will pierce the hidden fish — Gauḍīya implication: technical śāstric knowledge without bhakti cannot reach the Lord.
• sahasraśaḥ — by the thousands
  Adverbial — 'thousand-wise'. Quantity emphasized: the contest was no obscure provincial affair. The whole kṣatriya world arrived.
• bhū - pāḥ — earth-protectors (kings)
  Bhū (earth) + pā (protector). The standard Sanskrit term for kings. Gauḍīya texts note the irony: bhū-pas come to protect their own claims to the bride, but only Bhagavān is finally the bhū-pa of all the earth, and the bride was always His.
• puram — city
  Pura — city, fortress. Bṛhatsena's city becomes for these days the assembly-ground of every confident archer in the land. The word will be picked up at verse 36 (purīm — His own city, Dvārakā) — the failed suitors came to Bṛhatsena's pura; the bride was finally taken to Kṛṣṇa's purī.

• What spiritual 'contest' am I in that I have underestimated the seriousness of?
• How do I prepare with the level of training the moment deserves?

When news of an impossible contest spreads, every archer in the land believes himself capable; thousands converged on Bṛhatsena's city, each with his teacher in tow. The verse is the moment before failure becomes visible: the room is full of confident men. The same scene replays in every age in different garments — confident souls converging on a target Bhagavān has hidden for His own bride.

• vīryam — strength, prowess
  Vīrya — vital force, semen, heroic capacity. The Bhāgavatam uses vīrya broadly: physical strength, spiritual potency, generative power. Each king was ranked by his vīrya; none of these vīryas would prove sufficient.
• vayaḥ — age, life-stage
  Vayas — span of life, age. Vedic etiquette honors elders first. The doubled measure (vīryam + vayaḥ) names the two axes of kṣatriya rank — physical force and accumulated experience.
• ādaduḥ — they took up
  Aorist of ā + √dā — to take, accept. The bow is taken up: the moment of commitment. Gauḍīya parallel: bhakti also requires a moment of ādāna — taking up the practice — before any siddhi appears.
• veddhum — to pierce
  Infinitive of √vyadh — to pierce, to wound. The verb appears in many Upaniṣadic and tantric contexts as 'piercing the heart of the mantra'. Here it remains literal — pierce the fish — but the resonance carries.
• mat - dhiyaḥ — whose minds were on me
  Mat (me) + dhī (intelligence). The suitors took up the bow with their dhī fixed on Lakṣmaṇā. Gauḍīya reading: the dhī determines the act's destination. Their dhī was on a woman; only Kṛṣṇa's dhī was on Lakṣmī's iṣṭa-bhāva.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-83-21 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where am I called to step forward only if my mind is truly fixed?
• How do I tell the difference between honoring an opportunity and being ready to attempt it?

Bṛhatsena's protocol is precise: each king is honored according to his vīrya and his vayaḥ, then offered the bow. Only after worldly courtesy is satisfied does the trial begin. The same order governs spiritual life — honor the kṣatriya-protocols of dharma, then take up the bow whose only target is the Lord's own arrangement.

• sajyam kartum anīśvarāḥ — unable to make it strung
  Sajyam (strung) + kartum (to do) + anīśvarāḥ (unable). The Sanskrit elegance: those who could not perform the act of stringing are called an-īśvara — without the power, without the lordship. Gauḍīya echo: only Īśvara (Kṛṣṇa) is fully an-an-īśvara — fully capable.
• vyasṛjan — they let go, abandoned
  Vi + √sṛj — to release, throw aside. The first failure: they put down the bow before trying. Spiritually, the soul that abandons sādhana before attempting it.
• samutkṛṣya — having drawn forcibly
  Sam (fully) + ut (up) + √kṛṣ (to drag). The second class of failures: they pulled but the bow's recoil knocked them down. The samutkṛṣya is intense effort — but effort alone, without the Lord's grace on the act, ends face-down.
• petuḥ — they fell
  Perfect of √pat — to fall. The word is also used for fallen souls (patita). The verse's vocabulary keeps slipping between archery and spiritual failure.
• hatāḥ — struck
  Past participle of √han — to strike. The bow that was supposed to be their instrument struck them down. Gauḍīya doctrine: sādhana attempted without bhakti can itself become the rod of correction.

• Where could my own public attempt at something reveal limits I would rather not know?
• Could I welcome that knowledge as part of growth?

The bow itself is the first sifter. Some cannot even string it and throw it down in shame; others string it but the recoil throws them to the ground. Before the fish is reached, the instrument has already weeded out the unfit. So in bhakti: many cannot pick up the sādhana, many pick it up but are thrown by the first kickback. The unbroken stance comes later.

• bhīmaḥ duryodhanaḥ karṇaḥ — Bhīma, Duryodhana, and Karṇa
  Three of the great Mahābhārata figures listed together. The same Bhīma who is Yudhiṣṭhira's brother is here just one more failed suitor — a quiet reminder that earthly heroism does not by itself reach the Lord's bride. Even Pāṇḍava-vīra was insufficient for this svayaṁvara.
• sajyam kṛtvā — having strung (the bow)
  Sajyam (strung) + kṛtvā (having done). Same compound as verse 22, but this time successful. The narrative climbs a step: more competent suitors, still insufficient.
• māgadha — the King of Magadha (Jarāsandha)
  From Magadha (the kingdom). Jarāsandha — Kṛṣṇa's perennial opponent in Canto 10, finally killed by Bhīma in the Sabhā-parva at Kṛṣṇa's direction. His failure here is doctrinally significant: the same enemy of the Lord who would later be slain through Bhīma cannot find the bride's location.
• cedi - pāḥ — the King of Cedi (Śiśupāla)
  Cedi (kingdom) + pā (protector). Śiśupāla — Rukmiṇī's intended suitor (verse 8), Kṛṣṇa's repeated insulter, ultimately killed by Kṛṣṇa's cakra at Yudhiṣṭhira's rājasūya. Two of the three Vaikuṇṭha-gatekeepers' final birth. He cannot find the target here either.
• na avidan — they did not find
  Na (not) + avidan (found). The verb is the same root as veda — knowledge. They did not find / they did not know. The verse is technically about archery and theologically about jñāna: even the strong cannot find the Lord's hidden target without His grace.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-83-23 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where am I strong but imprecise?
• What practice would add the precision my strength lacks?

A small elite — Jarāsandha, Śiśupāla, Bhīma, Duryodhana, Karṇa, the King of Ambaṣṭha — could at least string the bow. The bow opened to them; the fish did not. The verse is a roll-call of names that will all stand opposite Kṛṣṇa on the Kurukṣetra battlefield or earlier; even their partial competence at the bow could not buy them the bride. Competence stops at the doorstep of the actual target.

• ābhāsam — the reflection
  Ā + √bhās — to appear, to shine forth. Ābhāsa is also a Vedānta term for the apparent (as opposed to real) — Gauḍīya commentators are alive to the resonance: even Arjuna, working only from ābhāsa, could touch but not pierce; only Kṛṣṇa, who is the satya itself, can pierce.
• yattaḥ — taking careful aim
  Past participle of √yat — to be intent, controlled. Arjuna is not careless here; he is yattaḥ — fully concentrated. The failure is not lack of effort but the Lord's reservation.
• na acchinat — he did not pierce
  Na (not) + acchinat (cut, pierced). The verse's central negation. The very word that will be inverted in verse 25-26 (chittvā — having pierced) when Kṛṣṇa acts.
• paspṛśe — he touched
  Perfect of √spṛś — to touch. Arjuna's arrow only touched. Gauḍīya note: the touch was real — Arjuna is a real bhakta — but the piercing is reserved for Bhagavān Himself.
• param — only
  Param — 'only, merely'. The word that turns Arjuna's near-miss into a near-miss: he touched, but only touched. Even great souls' efforts can be 'only' — a single syllable that opens the door for Bhagavān to step through.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-83-24 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• What threshold in my life will not yield to skill alone?
• What additional quality might be needed?

Arjuna — the same Arjuna who pierced Draupadī's fish — looked at the reflection, took careful aim, and grazed the fish. The arrow touched but did not pierce. The world's greatest archer's near-miss is the verse's most poignant beat: even the closest natural ally of Kṛṣṇa cannot do this work without Him. Pārtha's bow needs Pārtha-sārathi.

• līlayā — as play
  Līlā in instrumental — 'by means of play'. The single word that names Gauḍīya doctrine: everything Bhagavān does is līlā, free play not labor. The kings strained and failed; Kṛṣṇa played and succeeded. Effort is not the door; līlā is.
• sakṛt — only once
  Sakṛt — one time. Where Arjuna took careful aim and missed, Kṛṣṇa glances once and pierces. The Lord does not rehearse; one look is sufficient. Gauḍīya doctrine of the Lord's instantaneous all-seeing.
• abhijite sthite — when (the sun) was in Abhijit
  Abhijit (literally 'all-conquering') — a nakṣatra particularly auspicious for victory. Gauḍīya jyotiṣa-commentary holds that Kṛṣṇa's act is staged in cosmic alignment with the very meaning of Abhijit: the Conqueror conquering in the Conqueror's hour.
• bhagna - māneṣu māniṣu — when the proud (kings) had their pride broken
  Bhagna (broken) + māna (pride) + māni (proud). The pride must break before Bhagavān acts. Gauḍīya humility-doctrine: as long as the kṣatriya holds his māna, the bow cannot find him; Bhagavān picks up the bow only when every claimant has set his māna down.
• chittvā iṣuṇā — piercing with the arrow
  Chittvā (having cut) + iṣu (arrow). The exact opposite of Arjuna's na acchinat. The single arrow that the strongest had failed to launch effectively becomes, in the Lord's hand, a finished act.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-83-25 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• BDDS SB 10-83-25-26 - 2025-07-27 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Bhakti Dhira Damodar Swami· 2025-07-27· English

• Where am I trying to force a result outside of auspicious timing?
• What would it look like to let the Lord do what only He can?

When every confident suitor has been broken — and even Arjuna has merely grazed — Bhagavān picks up the bow as one picks up a child's toy, strings it līlayā, looks at the water just once, and pierces. The cosmic hour is precise: the sun in Abhijit, the constellation of invincible victory. The same Bhagavān who refused to be hurried on Yamunā's bank with Kālindī moves here in a single glance.

• dundubhayaḥ — kettledrums
  Dundubhi — the celestial drum sounded at all great Vedic moments: gods' victories, royal coronations, the Lord's līlās. The drum's sound from divi establishes the deva-loka's blessing on the union.
• jaya - śabda — the sound 'victory'
  Jaya (victory) + śabda (sound). The single Sanskrit cry that runs through the entire Bhāgavatam at moments of līlā: jaya, jaya. Gauḍīya kīrtana inherits this; every saṅkīrtana is an echo of dvāpara's jaya-śabda.
• kusuma - āsārān — torrents of flowers
  Kusuma (flower) + āsāra (downpour). The standard celestial response — Brahmā showering flowers when Kṛṣṇa lifts Govardhana, the gods showering flowers at Rāma's coronation. Heaven has no other gift it can offer: it gives flowers.
• harṣa - vihvalāḥ — overwhelmed with joy
  Harṣa (joy) + vihvala (overwhelmed). The gods themselves are tossed by their own ānanda. Gauḍīya rasa-theory: even demigods experience secondary bhāva at the Lord's victories, though their stable rasa is reverence.
• devāḥ — demigods
  Deva — the heavenly administrators. They do not marry Lakṣmaṇā themselves (verse 17: she rejected the loka-pās), but they bless the bride who saw past them to Mukunda. Their flower-rain is the higher beings' acknowledgement that the Lord's bride chose rightly.

• What recent victory of mine deserves wider rejoicing than I have allowed?
• How could I let the multiple worlds' applause in?

The cosmos itself recognizes the moment: drums sound in heaven, the people shout victory below, demigods empty their petal-baskets. The same celestial response that greets every great līlā — the gopīs' first dance, Govardhana lifted, the demons slain — pours down here too. The marriage is being ratified above before the bride has even garlanded.

• kala - nūpurābhyām — having sweetly sounding ankle-bells
  Kala (gentle, melodic) + nūpura (anklet) + dual. The doubled instrumental — both feet sounding. Gauḍīya kīrtana repeatedly uses nūpura imagery for Rādhārāṇī's approach; here it is Lakṣmaṇā but the rasa-vocabulary is identical.
• kanaka - ujjvala - ratna - mālām — a necklace brilliant with gold and jewels
  Kanaka (gold) + ujjvala (brilliant) + ratna (jewel) + mālā (garland). The mālā she will place around Kṛṣṇa's neck in the next verse. The garland is the active instrument of choosing — Gauḍīya wedding-imagery's central object.
• kauśika - agrye — in the finest silk
  Kauśika (silk) + agrya (foremost). Silk fabrics held first place among Vedic textiles. The detail places her in the highest bridal register — not so the listener admires the dress, but so that the dress, garland, and Lord's neck all align.
• sa - vrīḍa - hāsa — with a shy smile
  Sa (with) + vrīḍā (shyness, modesty) + hāsa (smile). Vrīḍā is one of the eight sāttvika-bhāvas in Gauḍīya rasa-theory — bashfulness as a sign of approaching prema. The smile breaking through the shyness is the bhāva itself in motion.
• kavarī - dhṛta - srak — (her) hair-braid bearing a flower-wreath
  Kavarī (braid) + dhṛta (held) + srak (wreath). The wreath in the hair is the bride's traditional Vedic ornament. Gauḍīya iconography of Rādhā always includes the kavarī — the long braid that Kṛṣṇa Himself sometimes plaits.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-83-28 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where does false modesty prevent me from telling my own story?
• What joyful moment of mine deserves telling?

Now the bride enters. Anklets soft, silk new, jewelled necklace in hand, hair garlanded, smile shy — the verse is one long ornamental sweep so the listener can see her walking. Lakṣmaṇā paints herself the way a Gauḍīya kīrtanīyā paints Rādhā entering Yāvaṭa: every detail of dress, every step. Bhakti notices the surface because the surface is what touches the Lord.

• murāreḥ — of Murāri (Kṛṣṇa, enemy of Mura)
  Mura (the demon) + ari (enemy). Kṛṣṇa is named here by a name that recalls His killing of the demon Mura at Bhaumāsura's fortress (SB 10.59). Gauḍīya commentators note: the same Lord who slays demons is gentle enough to receive a bride's garland.
• anurakta - hṛdayā — whose heart was attached
  Anu (after) + rakta (colored, attached) + hṛdaya (heart). Anurāga — coloring-after, the Gauḍīya term for prema's first ripening. The heart has taken the color of the Lord before the body has approached Him.
• kaṭa - akṣa - mokṣaiḥ — with the casting of sidelong glances
  Kaṭa (corner) + akṣa (eye) + mokṣa (release). The sidelong glance — a sthāyī Gauḍīya iconographic element of Rādhā's interaction with Kṛṣṇa. Here used by Lakṣmaṇā but the same rasa-vocabulary.
• śiśira - hāsa — cooling smile
  Śiśira (cool) + hāsa (smile). Her smile cools the rival kings even as it warms the Lord. Gauḍīya rasa-doctrine: one bhāva produces opposite effects in different ground.
• śanakaiḥ — slowly
  Adverb — unhurriedly. She does not rush the garland onto Kṛṣṇa's neck. The slowness is its own statement: the choice has been made years ago at Nārada's first gītam; the hand may take its time.

• Where does my heart already know its choice but my action has not caught up?
• What gesture would let the choice become visible?

She lifts her face once, glances around the assembly with cool sidelong eyes, and slowly — śanakaiḥ, slowly — places her garland on Murāri's shoulder. The slowness is theological: there is no rival under consideration; the glance around is courtesy, not deliberation. Her citta had gone to Mukunda at Nārada's first verse; the hand is only completing the citta's journey.

• mṛdaṅga - paṭahāḥ — mṛdaṅga and paṭaha drums
  Mṛdaṅga is the two-headed clay drum central to Gauḍīya saṅkīrtana — the same drum Caitanya Mahāprabhu's saṅkīrtana parties carried through Navadvīpa. The verse plants the mṛdaṅga at the bride's first procession to the Lord; Gauḍīya tradition picks it up and never sets it down.
• śaṅkha — conchshell
  The conch sounded at every Vedic auspicious moment — Kṛṣṇa's own conch is Pāñcajanya. Its sound is the audible form of the praṇava in Vaiṣṇava liturgy.
• naṭa - nartakyaḥ — male and female dancers
  Naṭa (male performer) + nartakī (female dancer). Both sexes dance at the moment of union. Gauḍīya saṅkīrtana inherits this — body's response to līlā cannot be confined to seated chanting.
• gāyakāḥ jaguḥ — singers sang
  Gāyaka (singer) + jaguḥ (sang). The cognate doubling — singers sang — is a Sanskrit emphatic device. Gauḍīya kīrtana descends from precisely such gāyaka-circles.
• ānaka — large military drum
  Ānaka — the deep war-drum. Curiously listed at a wedding: but the verse is preparing the next beat, in which the failed suitors will attack on the road. The marriage is also a battle; the wedding-band is also the army's band.

• What in my life is the right choice that deserves visible celebration?
• How does ceremony seal a decision?

The garlanding is acknowledged with a sudden eruption — mṛdaṅga, paṭaha, conch, kettledrum, military ānaka — male and female dancers, singers. The hall recognizes that something has just become permanent. Gauḍīya kīrtana descends from this moment: the moment human bodies, hearing the union, cannot help but sing and dance.

• vṛte — (He) having been chosen
  Past participle of √vṛ — same root as svayaṁ-vara. The verse compresses the entire ceremony into one locative: vṛte — at the moment of choosing. Everything before built up to it; everything after fans out from it.
• hṛt - śaya — lust (literally 'lying in the heart')
  Hṛt (heart) + śaya (lying). Kāma is named here by its dwelling-place — the heart, where it lies hidden. Gauḍīya kāma-tattva: lust is not external; it is the inhabitant of the unpurified heart. When frustrated, it becomes anger (krodha).
• āturāḥ — distressed, sick
  Ātura — afflicted, diseased. Lust frustrated becomes a disease, not a passion. The kings are not heroes here; they are patients of their own hṛt-śaya. The verse pities them even as it records their attack.
• yājñaseni — O Yājñaseni (Draupadī)
  Yājñaseni — daughter of Yajñasena (Drupada). The chapter keeps surfacing Draupadī's name to remind the listener: this is conversation, not monologue. Lakṣmaṇā speaks to a friend who has herself known suitors' violence (Karṇa's mockery at her own svayaṁvara).
• spardhantaḥ — becoming quarrelsome
  Present participle of √spṛdh — to contend. The single word names the moment a defeated suitor abandons dignity for contest. Gauḍīya commentators note: spardhā with the Lord is the source of all asura-līlā in the Bhāgavatam.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-83-31 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

• Where in me does lust refuse to accept loss and keep fighting?
• What practice helps me let an unattainable thing go?

The failed suitors cannot endure the choice. Bhakti's selection is the world's offence: kings who would have accepted defeat in honest combat cannot accept being passed over for someone they consider their equal. Their hṛt-śaya — lust-arrow — turns to blade. The verse marks the moment material desire, frustrated, becomes violence.