Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.6.13
केतुस्त्रिविक्रमयुतस्त्रिपतत्पताको
यस्ते भयाभयकरोऽसुरदेवचम्वो: ।
स्वर्गाय साधुषु खलेष्वितराय भूमन्
पाद: पुनातु भगवन् भजतामघं न: ॥ १३ ॥
ketus tri-vikrama-yutas tri-patat-patāko
[ketus tri-vikrama-yutas tri-patat-pataako]
yas te bhayābhaya-karo ’sura-deva-camvoḥ
[yas te bhayaabhaya-karo ’sura-deva-chamvoh]
svargāya sādhuṣu khaleṣv itarāya bhūman
[svargaaya saadhushu khaleshv itaraaya bhooman]
padaḥ punātu bhagavan bhajatām aghaṁ naḥ
[padah punaatu bhagavan bhajataam agham nah]
Word-for-word
ketuḥ
—
a flagpole
tri-vikrama
—
three mighty steps in conquering Bali Mahārāja
yataḥ
—
adorned by
tri-patat
—
falling into each of the three planetary systems
patākaḥ
—
the flag upon which
yaḥ
—
which
te
—
Your (lotus feet)
bhaya-abhaya
—
fear and fearlessness
karaḥ
—
creating
asura-deva
—
of the demons and the demigods
camvoḥ
—
for the respective armies
svargāya
—
for the attainment of heaven
sādhuṣu
—
among the saintly demigods and devotees
khaleṣu
—
among the envious
itarāya
—
for just the opposite
bhūman
—
O most powerful Lord
pādaḥ
—
the lotus feet
punātu
—
may they purify
bhagavan
—
O Supreme Personality of Godhead
bhajatām
—
who are engaged in worshiping You
agham
—
the sins
naḥ
—
of us.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
ketus tri-vikrama-yutas tri-patat-patāko
ketuḥ
a flagpole
tri-vikrama
three mighty steps in conquering Bali Mahārāja
yas te bhayābhaya-karo ’sura-deva-camvoḥ
yataḥ
adorned by
tri-patat
falling into each of the three planetary systems
svargāya sādhuṣu khaleṣv itarāya bhūman
padaḥ punātu bhagavan bhajatām aghaṁ naḥ
patākaḥ
the flag upon which
yaḥ
which
te
Your (lotus feet)
bhaya-abhaya
fear and fearlessness
karaḥ
creating
asura-deva
of the demons and the demigods
camvoḥ
for the respective armies
svargāya
for the attainment of heaven
sādhuṣu
among the saintly demigods and devotees
khaleṣu
among the envious
itarāya
for just the opposite
bhūman
O most powerful Lord
pādaḥ
the lotus feet
punātu
may they purify
bhagavan
O Supreme Personality of Godhead
bhajatām
who are engaged in worshiping You
agham
the sins
naḥ
of us.
O omnipotent Lord, in Your incarnation as Trivikrama, You raised Your leg like a flagpole to break the shell of the universe, allowing the holy Ganges to flow down, like a banner of victory, in three branches throughout the three planetary systems. By three mighty steps of Your lotus feet, Your Lordship captured Bali Mahārāja, along with his universal kingdom. Your lotus feet inspire fear in the demons by driving them down to hell and fearlessness among Your devotees by elevating them to the perfection of heavenly life. We are sincerely trying to worship You, our Lord; therefore may Your lotus feet kindly free us from all of our sinful reactions.
Purport
In order to reclaim for the demigods the universal kingdom seized by Bali Mahārāja, Lord Kṛṣṇa, as described in the Eighth Canto of this great work, appeared as the beautiful dwarf- brāhmaṇa Vāmana, who extended His foot upward to the outer limits of the universe. When the Lord’s leg breached a hole in the universal shell, the holy Ganges water came flowing into the universe. This scene appeared like an upraised flagpole with a wonderfully flowing victory banner.
As stated in the śruti-mantras, caraṇaṁ pavitraṁ vitataṁ purāṇaṁ yena pūtas tarati duṣkṛtāni: “The lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead are most pure, all-pervading and the oldest of all. One who is purified by them crosses over all previous sinful activities.” Throughout the universe the process of worshiping the lotus feet of the Lord is most famous.
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura
Gauḍīya
Translation
O powerful Lord! May that foot which is like a victory flag, endowed with great power during your appearance as Vāmana, with banners falling upon the three worlds like the Gaṅgā River, bestowing fear in the demon troops to drive them to hell, and bestowing fearlessness to the devatā armies for taking them to Svarga, purify us of our sins!
You lotus feet have been realized by all people. May your foot, like a raised victory flag, purify us. Endowed with great powers when you appeared as Vāmana avatāra (trivikrama-yutaḥ), the flag is endowed with three banners, or with its banner it falls like the Gaṅgā over the three worlds. It creates fear in the demon army for sending them to hell and fearlessness in the devatā army for sending them to Svarga. May this foot purify us worshippers of sin! Another version has aghāt. The possessive case in bhajatām is poetic license. Śruti says caraṇaṁ pavitraṁ vitataṁ purāṇaṁ yena pūtas tarati duṣkṛtāni: we become pufified and can cross saṁsāra by that pure, ancient foot which extended itself. (Mahā-nārāyaṇa upaniṣad)
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Trivikrama's three steps split fear from fearlessness; take shelter of His lotus feet and your sinful reactions are washed away like the Gaṅgā.
Practical Applications
- Begin today's worship by mentally bowing at the lotus feet of Trivikrama and asking, plainly, to be freed from a specific sinful reaction you keep repeating.
- Notice one place where you have, like Bali, claimed kingdom over what is not yours — money, time, a relationship — and offer that territory back at His feet.
- When fear rises in you today, refuse to manage it horizontally and instead place it directly under the same feet that terrify the asuras and reassure the devotees.
Reflection Questions
- Where in my life am I behaving like the asura-camū — fortifying a kingdom Kṛṣṇa will eventually measure in three steps — and what would it look like to hand it over now?
- If His lotus feet are what actually purify, why do I still rely on my own clever strategies of self-improvement to deal with my aghaṁ?
For Each Age Group
youth
- Pick one area where you are quietly building a 'kingdom' — followers, grades, a romantic conquest — and honestly ask whose property it actually is before you invest one more week in it.
- When exam anxiety or social-media fear of missing out spikes, place that specific fear at Trivikrama's feet in japa before you reach for your phone.
- Refuse the campus story that you purify yourself by self-optimization; instead, do one act of direct devotional service today and let His feet do the cleaning.
householder
- Look at your finances, your home, your children's futures, and acknowledge in writing which of these you have been treating as your kingdom rather than Kṛṣṇa's property held in trust.
- When a family fear rises — a child's illness, a job threat, a marital tension — bring it to your morning worship and place it literally at Trivikrama's feet before you act on it.
- Each evening, offer the day's work, earnings, and decisions at His lotus feet, asking Him to purify the inevitable subtle aghaṁ that came with householder duty.
senior
- Identify the attachments you are still gripping — property, position, the right to be consulted — and begin, slowly, to measure them out and lay them at His feet while you can still do so consciously.
- Use the nearness of mortality as the reason to take shelter of these specific feet now, since the verse promises they free the sincere worshiper from sinful reactions accumulated over a long life.
- Mentor a younger devotee by speaking plainly about which fears His feet have actually removed from you, so that fearlessness becomes a living testimony, not a slogan.
Common Pitfalls
- Reducing Trivikrama to a charming dwarf-story and missing that the same feet are presently the only purifier of your sinful reactions.
- Treating 'surrender to His feet' as a pious feeling rather than an actual transfer of ownership of a specific area of life.
- Assuming the fear-of-Kṛṣṇa side of the verse applies to other people — the demons over there — and only the fearlessness side applies to you.
Discussion Prompts
- Share one concrete kingdom in your life that you suspect Kṛṣṇa is asking you to measure out and return — and one you are still defending.
- The verse says His feet inspire fear in demons and fearlessness in devotees. Where do you currently feel the fear, and what does that honestly tell you about your position?
- What does it mean, practically, that the Gaṅgā flowed from this same foot — that purification is not abstract but comes from contact with Him personally?
Role Play
One student plays a sincere seeker who keeps trying to purify a recurring fault through willpower, self-help techniques, and resolutions. The other plays a senior devotee who, drawing only on this verse, redirects them from self-driven cleansing to actually taking shelter of Trivikrama's lotus feet — without dismissing the seeker's effort, but reframing where the purifying power lives.
Objections & Responses
- Why should I worship feet at all? It sounds primitive — and worshiping the feet of a 'God' who terrifies enemies sounds worse.
In Vaiṣṇava culture, approaching the feet is the posture of a servant, not of fear — it is the lowest, safest, most intimate place near the Lord. The same feet that frighten those who claim His property reassure those who claim only His shelter; the verse is telling you which side you can stand on today. - I do not need a personal God striding across the universe. A quiet inner consciousness is enough for me.
An impersonal inner glow does not measure out Bali's kingdom, does not break the universal shell, does not send the Gaṅgā down for fallen souls. The verse is specific: it is bhagavan, a person, whose feet act on our aghaṁ. A vague interior will not purify what only His concrete, personal mercy reaches.
My note
Source: vedabase.io