• sahasā — immediately, at once
  No deliberation, no protocol weighed. The instantaneous rising is itself the teaching: brāhmaṇa-darśana commands the body before the mind catches up.
• praṇemuḥ — they bowed down
  From pra + √nam (to bend). Daṇḍavat-praṇāma is the formal full obeisance. Gauḍīyas treat it as the body's first act of śaraṇāgati — the limbs leading the heart.
• vanditān — honored, worshipable
  Past participle of √vand (to praise, salute). The ṛṣis are not merely respected; they are vandya — fit objects of vandana. Gauḍīyas list guru-vandana as the first limb of pañcāṅga-bhakti.
• viśva — by the whole universe
  The ṛṣis are honored by the universe — not by a sect. The qualifier raises brāhmaṇa-pūjā out of cultural custom into a feature of the cosmos as Bhagavān has arranged it.

• Whom do I rise for in my life, and whom should I rise for that I have been ignoring?
• Where am I letting status reverse the proper order of reverence?

When the lamps of a temple courtyard come on, even the king rises from his seat. Kṛṣṇa Himself standing up for the ṛṣis is that ārati: He honors His own representatives because the very order He is protecting requires that brāhmaṇas be seen first.