Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.88.11
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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durārādhyam
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difficult to worship
Dur- (hard) + ārādhya (to be worshiped). Hari calls Himself hard to worship — not because He is unkind, but because His worship is not transactional. Gauḍīya pedagogy is honest about the steep gradient of pure bhakti.
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āśu toṣebhyaḥ
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from those quickly satisfied
Contiguous (āśu + toṣebhyaḥ). The devatās who say 'yes' fast. Speed is the hallmark of the lesser benefactor; Hari's tempo is measured by the soul's actual readiness, not the worshiper's impatience.
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uddhatāḥ
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arrogant, lifted-up
Past participle of ud-√hṛ. Lifted by gifts they did not earn from sources they did not understand — the same lift becomes the fall. Compare Vṛkāsura (v.21): the boon that lifts him will kill him.
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mattāḥ
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intoxicated
Past participle of √mad. Madya, mada — drunkenness of opulence. Gauḍīyas note: even spiritual gifts can make one mada; this is why genuine devotees pray to remain tṛṇād api sunīcena.
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pramattāḥ
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negligent
Pra- (forth) + matta — exceedingly intoxicated to the point of forgetting duty. The Bhāgavatam's diagnosis of those who receive without inquiry: forgetfulness of the giver.
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vara-dān
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the givers of benedictions
Contiguous (vara + dān). The very ones who gave the boon. The arrogance is structural — boon-recipients insult their boon-givers. Vṛkāsura's hand-on-Śiva's-head will literalise this verse.
The lord is difficult to worship because he destroys material happiness. The person, worshipping devatas, is devoid of judgement (pramattah) and proud, offends those who bestow benedictions.
The Lord has defined in general terms all truths by showing the result of his mercy. That should be understood in detail. “You give wealth according to the principle of akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā (whether having desires or no desires, worship the Lord) but not those whom you really show mercy. Then why does an ordinary person worship anyone else to attain wealth?” This person finds it difficult to worship the Lord because he is unsatisfied with the results attained from the Lord, because of ignorance of the real purpose of worshipping the Lord, even after thinking about it thoroughly. yo gajendraṁ jhaṣa-grastaṁ dhyāyantaṁ caraṇāmbujam krośantīnāṁ kareṇūnāṁ kṛcchrato ’mocayad drutam taṁ sukhārādhyam ṛjubhir ananya-śaraṇair nṛbhiḥ kṛtajñaḥ ko na seveta durārādhyam asādhubhiḥ What grateful person would not worship the Supreme Lord who quickly rescued the king of the elephants from the material world when he was caught by the crocodile while his wives lamented, as he meditated on the lotus feet of the Lord, and who is willingly worshipped by the sincerely surrendered souls while not worshiped by the crooked? SB 3.19.35-36 Or in this verse the Lord shows the cause is the person’s ignorance. The person gives up me, superior to Brahman (brahma param), which is difficult to understand, since impersonal Brahman is only my aṁśa (cinmātram) or is only my śakti with consciousness, and which eternal. He gives up my form of the highest bliss and worships other forms. Worshipping other forms, this person obtains opposite results. These people become proud (mattāḥ), disregarding all rules (uddhātāḥ), having attained wealth and kingdom from devatās who are easily satisfied but have no discriminating power in giving benedictions. They become inattentive (pramattāḥ) and forget those who gave benedictions. Even if they remember, they offend those devatās.
A person who because of losing wealth (ataḥ) gives me up, who can be attained by worship only after a long time or with much effort (sudurārādhyam), worships other persons. This is a reason for giving up the Lord. Because of the worship or after that (tataḥ), those who worship devatās with desire for wealth (te), because of withdrawal of my mercy, attaining wealth by surpassing rules, become proud (mattāḥ) and inattentive (pramattāḥ).
- Where am I choosing quick spiritual satisfaction over delayed but truer fulfillment?
- What harder worship would actually serve me better?
Two doors stand in a marketplace: one with a long quiet queue and a sober gatekeeper, another with no queue and a smiling guard handing out crowns. Of course the crowd rushes the second door. The chapter says: those crowns make the new kings arrogant, and they soon insult even the guard who gave them.
Verse 16 will name Rāvaṇa explicitly. The Rāmāyaṇa records that after receiving from Brahmā the boon of near-invulnerability, Rāvaṇa proceeded to terrorize the very devas and ṛṣis who had once interceded for him — labdha-rājya-śriyā uddhatāḥ, exactly as the verse describes.
Gauḍīyas cite Rāvaṇa as the cautionary archetype: quick worship of an easily-pleased benefactor produces a king who insults his giver. The verse is a structural diagnosis, not an aside.
My note
Source: vedabase.io