Brahmā said: Though hearing the words of the Lord which were pleasing, filled with logic and worthy of worship, the Kumāras were still not satisfied, since their minds were bitten by the snake of anger. Sarasvatīm means words and a river. The words were pleasant, or the river had clear water (uśatīm). The words were filled with various logical ornaments or the river was playful (devīm). The words were worshipable or the river was beneficial for the residence of sages (ṛṣi-kulyām). Though tasting that water, experiencing its sweetness, because their minds were bitten by the snake of anger, filled with anger, they could not tolerate even the pleasing words of the Lord, because they did not experience the taste. Their souls, their intelligence and their minds were not satisfied. They did not give regard to his words. Though they showed great repentance, the non-removal of their anger shows the difficulty in removing offense to the devotee. Though the Kumāras committed such offense to the devotees, their experiencing the sweetness of the fragrance of tulasī from the Lord’s feet shows the strength of the Lord’s mercy, which follows after the mercy to the Kumāras of Jaya and Vijaya, who were repentant after offending the brāhmaṇas. If the Kumāras had not committed offense to the devotees, then they would have developed pure dāsya-prema, from the mercy of the devotees and the Lord. But because of the remaining presence of offense, they developed only to the stage of śānta-bhakti. It is said bhāvo ’py abhāvam āyāti kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāparādhataḥ | ābhāsatāṁ ca śanakair nyūna-jātīyatām api || By an offense against the dearest devotee of the Lord, even real bhāva will be destroyed, if the offense is grave. If the offense is medium, the bhāva will turn to bhāvābhāsa. If the offense is slight, the bhāva will become an inferior type [Note: Dāsya-bhāva can turn to śānta-bhāva.] BRS 1.3.54