• vṛkaḥ — Vṛka (the demon)
  Wolf. Predator-name carries character; the Bhāgavatam never wastes names. He will hunt the very Lord he is about to worship.
• putraḥ śakuneḥ — son of Śakuni
  Contiguous (putraḥ + śakuneḥ). Asuric lineage marked. Bhāgavatam tracks asura genealogies precisely — actions follow inheritance, even as bhakti can break inheritance.
• nāradam — the sage Nārada
  Bhakti-mahā-muni, devarṣi — Gauḍīyas regard him as the prototypical preaching guru. He is here not to bless Vṛka but to test him: his answer (v.15) is true but cruel, exposing the asura's intent.
• āśu toṣam — the one quickly pleased
  Contiguous (āśu + toṣam). Repeating verse 11's diagnosis. Vṛka has internalised the marketplace logic — quick gain, quick satisfaction — without internalising the warning that came with it.
• durmatiḥ — wicked, of evil intelligence
  Dur- (bad) + mati (intelligence). Not stupid — strategically intelligent in service of an evil aim. Gauḍīyas distinguish: dur-buddhi is not absence of buddhi but its directional perversion.

• When my question is 'what is the quickest way,' what does it reveal about my motive?
• Where could a slower question yield a truer life?

A would-be cheat at a temple does not ask 'who is the deity I love' but 'whose priest sleeps lightest at the donation box.' Vṛka asks Nārada the cheat's question — which Lord is the easiest mark. The framing of his question already declares his asurya.