Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.17.24
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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kāla-agneḥ
—
from the fire of death (time)
Compound: kāla (time, death) + agni (fire). The poet upgrades the forest fire's significance — it is no ordinary blaze but a face of kāla itself. Gauḍīya reading: every saṁsāric danger is, finally, kāla-agni; only Bhagavān is its end.
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svān
—
Your own (devotees)
Possessive accusative — 'those who are Yours.' The Vrajavāsīs claim Kṛṣṇa's possession of them as the ground of the petition. Gauḍīyas: the prayer 'I am Yours, save me' is the structurally complete śaraṇāgati.
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suhṛdaḥ
—
true friends
Plural of suhṛd — 'good-hearted one,' the friend who wishes well without calculation. The Vrajavāsīs name themselves Kṛṣṇa's suhṛts, not His subjects. Sakhya-rasa in a single word — friendship as the relation, even at the moment of begging shelter.
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santyaktum
—
to give up
Infinitive of sam + √tyaj. Paired in the verse with na śaknumaḥ ('we are unable') — the grammar of impossibility: not 'we will not,' but 'we cannot.' Gauḍīya niṣṭhā in śloka form: prema reaches the stage where renouncing Kṛṣṇa's feet is no longer an option the soul can think.
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akutaḥ-bhayam
—
from which all fear is removed
Compound: a-kutas (from nowhere) + bhaya (fear). Kṛṣṇa's feet are the locus where fear has no direction-from-which to come. The Vraja-vāsīs name this even while burning — the feet are abhaya not because the fire isn't real but because nothing the fire can do reaches there.
The residents of Vṛndāvana told Kṛṣṇa, “If this deadly fire overcomes us, we will be separated from Your lotus feet, and this is unbearable for us. Therefore, just so that we can go on serving Your lotus feet, please protect us.”
Kalagni here means the fire which is death personified. "If we die, separation from your lotus feet will be intolerable. Therefore we say that we cannot give up your lotus feet."
We are your relatives or belong to you (svān). We are splendid friends (suhṛdaḥ), fixed on you alone by genuine sentiments. O person who can do anything (prabho)! Because of your feet fear cannot exist (akuto-bhayam). Destroy our fear of having to give up your feet (They pray not to be separated from Kṛṣṇa, rather than simply praying for their lives). We cannot for a moment (san) become separated (tyaktum) from your feet.
'We cannot give up Your lotus feet' — this is what the surrendered soul knows about itself in the moment of fire. Not 'we are strong'; not 'we will solve this'; but 'whatever happens, the one thing we cannot do is leave You.' The cowherds discover their own niṣṭhā by being unable to imagine its alternative. Self-knowledge in bhakti is the discovery of an attachment that has become unmovable.
Mahābhārata records Hanumān's vow that he would serve Rāma 'as long as Rāma's name is in the world' — and he is therefore still present at every Rāma-kathā. Gauḍīyas extend the same vow-grammar to all paramount devotees: a niṣṭhā so absolute that the future tense itself is bent around it.
The Vraja-vāsīs' 'we cannot give up Your feet' is the same vow without an oath-formula — uttered in fire, without time to compose, and therefore more revealing of its truth.
My note
Source: vedabase.io