Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.20.13
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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hari-niṣevayā
—
by the service of Hari
Compound: Hari + niṣevā (close service). Niṣevā is intimate service, distinguished from generic seva. Gauḍīyas note: hari-niṣevā is the only cause of devotee-beauty (rūpa); cosmetics are decoration, niṣevā is transformation.
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ruciram
—
lustrous, attractive
From √ruc — to shine, to please. Ruci is also the name for a stage of bhakti (taste). The same word root names both the beauty produced and the relish that produces it.
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rūpam
—
form
Rūpa — the visible shape. Gauḍīyas honour the name of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī here in echo: rūpa is what bhakti makes, and Rūpa Gosvāmī systematized how it is made.
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nava-vāri
—
the new water
Compound: nava (new) + vāri (water). Freshness is theologically charged in Gauḍīya — bhakti is always nava-nava (ever-new). Prema is described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta as nava-nava-rasa.
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jala-sthala-okasaḥ
—
creatures of water and land
Compound: jala (water) + sthala (land) + okasa (dweller). Every kind of jīva is reached by rain; every kind of jīva is reached by Hari's mercy. The pan-jīva scope is the doctrinal point.
Śrīla Prabhupāda comments as follows: “We have practical experience of this with our students in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Before becoming students, they were dirty-looking, although they had naturally beautiful personal features; but due to having no information of Kṛṣṇa consciousness they appeared very dirty and wretched. Since they have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, their health has improved, and by their following the rules and regulations their bodily luster has increased. When they are dressed with saffron-colored cloth, with tilaka on their foreheads and beads in their hands and on their necks, they look exactly as if they have come directly from Vaikuṇṭha.”
Abibhran means to take on . Just as all people become suddenly beautiful on performing devotional service to the Lord, since it is the supreme dharma and gives the highest results, so in the rainy season, the forms of animals and plants become attractive. This is a positive example.
Serving the Lord in the state of sādhana is the highest dharma, perfection and happiness according to Śrīdhara Svāmī. However considering the following statement, the sādhya (experiencing the Lord) is the highest dharma, perfection and happiness: karmaṇy asminn anāśvāse dhūma-dhūmrātmanāṁ bhavān | āpāyayati govinda-pāda-padmāsavaṁ madhu || You let us, blackened by the smoke at this uncertain sacrifice, drink the intoxicating nectar of the lotus feet of Govinda. SB 1.18.12
The fish and frogs (water animals) and cows and deer (land animals) become attractive in color or form by constantly serving the fresh water—by drinking etc. They become most beautiful because they are nourished and cleansed of dirt. By somehow worshipping Bhagavān who is most attractive (hari), a person becomes radiant. Or by serving in prema-bhakti a person becomes beautiful with tears etc. Or by daily worship the devotee becomes beautiful by accepting the mahāprasādam garlands.
Drenched by the new rains, every creature — frog, beetle, calf, river-fish — turns lustrous. The verse names the doctrine: as bhakti makes a devotee beautiful, so the rain makes the worlds beautiful. Hari-niṣevā is the universal cosmetic. Without it, even Brahmā's body lacks lustre; with it, even a fish becomes ruciram.
When Prahlāda stood before Hiraṇyakaśipu's torture-machines, the boy's body shone with such ruciram-rūpa that the demoniac soldiers could not strike effectively (SB 7.5–8). The same Hari-niṣevā that this verse describes had visibly remade his form.
Gauḍīyas read Prahlāda's body as living commentary on SB 10.20.13. The rains here are the rains of bhakti; the lustre on his face is what the verse describes.
My note
Source: vedabase.io