SB 11.4.19 — FolioCorpus

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.4.19

संस्तुन्वतो निपतितान् श्रमणानृषींश्च शक्रं च वृत्रवधतस्तमसि प्रविष्टम् । देवस्त्रियोऽसुरगृहे पिहिता अनाथा जघ्नेऽसुरेन्द्रमभयाय सतां नृसिंहे ॥ १९ ॥

saṁstunvato nipatitān śramaṇān ṛṣīṁś ca

[samstunvato nipatitaan shramanaan risheemsh cha]

śakraṁ ca vṛtra-vadhatas tamasi praviṣṭam

[shakram cha vritra-vadhatas tamasi pravishtam]

deva-striyo ’sura-gṛhe pihitā anāthā

[deva-striyo ’sura-grihe pihitaa anaathaa]

jaghne ’surendram abhayāya satāṁ nṛsiṁhe

[jaghne ’surendram abhayaaya sataam nrisimhe]

Word-for-word

saṁstunvataḥ — who were offering prayers nipatitān — fallen (into the water in a cow’s hoofprint) śramaṇān — the ascetics ṛṣīn — sages (the Vālakhilyas) ca — and śakram — Indra ca — and vṛtra-vadhataḥ — from killing Vṛtrāsura tamasi — in darkness praviṣṭam — absorbed deva-striyaḥ — the wives of the demigods asura-gṛhe — in the palace of the demons pihitāḥ — imprisoned anāthāḥ — helpless jaghne — He killed asura-indram — the king of the demons, Hiraṇyakaśipu abhayāya — for the sake of giving fearlessness satām — to the saintly devotees nṛsiṁhe — in the incarnation of Nṛsiṁha.

Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)

saṁstunvato nipatitān śramaṇān ṛṣīṁś ca

saṁstunvataḥ

who were offering prayers

nipatitān

fallen (into the water in a cow’s hoofprint)

śramaṇān

the ascetics

ṛṣīn

sages (the Vālakhilyas)

and

śakraṁ ca vṛtra-vadhatas tamasi praviṣṭam

śakram

Indra

and

vṛtra-vadhataḥ

from killing Vṛtrāsura

tamasi

in darkness

praviṣṭam

absorbed

deva-striyo ’sura-gṛhe pihitā anāthā

deva-striyaḥ

the wives of the demigods

asura-gṛhe

in the palace of the demons

pihitāḥ

imprisoned

anāthāḥ

helpless

jaghne ’surendram abhayāya satāṁ nṛsiṁhe

jaghne

He killed

asura-indram

the king of the demons, Hiraṇyakaśipu

abhayāya

for the sake of giving fearlessness

satām

to the saintly devotees

nṛsiṁhe

in the incarnation of Nṛsiṁha.

Gauḍīya Ācāryas

Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya

Translation

The Lord also delivered the tiny ascetic sages called the Vālakhilyas when they fell into the water in a cow’s hoof print and Indra was laughing at them. The Lord then saved Indra when Indra was covered by darkness due to killing Vṛtrāsura. When the wives of the devatās were trapped in the palace of the demons without any shelter, the Lord saved them. In his incarnation as Nṛsiṁha, the Lord killed Hiraṇyakaśipu, the king of demons, to free the saintly devotees from fear. The Lord rescued the Vālakhilya sages who were praising him, and who had fallen in the water of a cow’s hoof print, while Indra laughed. He rescued Indra who was covered with darkness from killing a brāhmaṇa. He rescued the wives of the devatās who were imprisoned. These acts were performed in various avatāra forms.

Related lectures

DMS SB 11-04-19 - In Material World Bad feelings Escalate and Good feelings Satiate - 2008-12-24 ISKCON Melbourne
His Holiness Devamrita Swami· 2008-12-24· English

Personal Guidance

Kṛṣṇa rescues the fallen, the darkened, the trapped, and the fearful — surrender is the doorway through which His protection reaches every kind of helplessness.

Practical Applications

Name one situation today where you feel small, fallen, or laughed at, and explicitly hand it to Kṛṣṇa instead of trying to claw your way out alone.
When darkness of regret over a past sinful act covers you, do not hide — chant the holy name and remember that even Indra was retrieved from tamas by the Lord.
Refuse the cynicism that says 'no one is coming to save me'; structure your day around remembering that the Lord has a track record of intervening for the helpless.

Reflection Questions

Where in my life am I behaving like Indra — laughing at smaller devotees today, only to find myself sunk in darkness tomorrow?
What 'palace of the demons' am I quietly trapped inside — a job, a relationship, a habit — and have I actually cried out to Kṛṣṇa for shelter, or only complained?

For Each Age Group

youth

When a peer group laughs at your sādhana the way Indra laughed at the Vālakhilyas, do not shrink your practice — quietly call on Kṛṣṇa and keep going.
After a 'win' — a grade, a follower count, a relationship conquest — watch for the Indra-pattern of pride sliding into private darkness, and pre-empt it with japa that same night.
Identify one 'palace of the demons' you are trapped in online — a feed, a chat, a comparison loop — and ask Kṛṣṇa for shelter from it before opening your phone tomorrow.

householder

When a family member 'falls into a hoofprint' — a small crisis others dismiss — be the hand of Kṛṣṇa for them instead of laughing or rationing your attention.
After career victories that involved cutting corners, do not skip the cleansing — sit with the darkness, chant, and let the Lord retrieve you before it metastasizes into the household's atmosphere.
Audit which 'asura-gṛha' your spouse or children are trapped inside — a toxic school, workplace, peer dynamic — and act as Kṛṣṇa's instrument of shelter, not merely a manager of logistics.

senior

Mentor the younger Vālakhilyas around you — the small, dismissed sādhakas — instead of taking the Indra-seat of amused seniority.
Revisit the 'Vṛtra-killings' of your earlier life — the victories that left residue — and explicitly entrust their darkness to Kṛṣṇa before the body falls.
Speak openly with peers about the abhaya the Lord gives the satām, so that mortality is faced as a devotee under shelter, not as an old Indra alone in tamas.

Common Pitfalls

Treating these rescues as mythology to admire rather than as a personal promise of shelter that demands the humility to call out.
Assuming protection is automatic without cultivating the saintly mood (satāṁ abhayāya) for whose sake the Lord acts.
Confusing material rescue — escaping discomfort — with the real deliverance from tamas and fear that the verse describes.

Discussion Prompts

Share a time you felt like one of the Vālakhilyas — tiny, dismissed, drowning in something others found trivial. What would 'Kṛṣṇa's hand' have looked like then, and did you recognize it?
Indra's darkness came after a 'successful' act of killing Vṛtra. Where in our lives do worldly victories actually drag us deeper into tamas, and how does the group spot this in each other?
What does it mean, concretely, that the Lord acts 'abhayāya satāṁ' — for the fearlessness of the devotees? Do we structure our sādhana as if this is literally true?

Role Play

One student plays a devotee who has just made a serious moral mistake at work and feels covered in darkness, convinced Kṛṣṇa has withdrawn. The other plays a senior devotee whose job is not to minimize the fall but to point — using this verse — to the Lord's specific habit of retrieving even Indra from tamas. Run it twice, swapping roles, and debrief on what landed.

Objections & Responses

These are just hero-myths — a divine strongman rescuing favorites. Why should a thinking modern person take them as personal guidance?
Read them not as advertisements of power but as a pattern of relationship: the Lord moves toward the fallen, the darkened, the trapped, the fearful. The mode is personal, not mechanical. The 'thinking modern person' has simply substituted impersonal forces — markets, therapy, the universe — for a Person who actually responds. The verse invites us to test the personal hypothesis in our own helplessness.
If Kṛṣṇa rescues the helpless, why are so many devotees still suffering, trapped, afraid? The verse seems empirically false.
The verse does not promise removal of every material discomfort; it promises abhaya — fearlessness — for the satām. The Vālakhilyas were still tiny, Indra still had to face his reaction, the deva-strīs still suffered captivity before relief. The Lord's protection works on the level of the soul's shelter, not the body's convenience. Suffering devotees are not unrescued; they are being trained out of dependence on bodily ease and into dependence on Him.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io