Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.20.21
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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kāma-anusevayā
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by serving lust (sense-objects)
Compound: kāma (desire) + anu-sevā (continual service). The man here serves his lust as a devotee serves the Lord — but with reversed phala. Gauḍīyas note: kāma-anusevā and hari-sevā are the two possible niṣṭhās of a human life.
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pāda-pāḥ
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the trees (drinkers-with-feet)
Compound: pāda (foot, root) + pa (drinker). Sanskrit's lovely name for trees. Gauḍīyas use it in nāma-saṅgraha — trees drink with feet; devotees drink kṛpā with the lifted head and the bent foot at Kṛṣṇa's feet.
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ātma-mūrtayaḥ
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various bodily features
Compound: ātmā (self/body) + mūrti (form). Here ātmā is used in its lower sense — body-self. Gauḍīyas always disambiguate: ātmā can mean body, mind, jīva, or paramātmā, depending on context.
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tapasā
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by austerity
Instrumental of tapas. Three references to tapas in this chapter (vv. 7, 21, 38) trace the same arc: tapas without bhakti only re-fattens the body. Gauḍīyas use these verses to teach yukta-vairāgya.
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kṣāmāḥ
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thin, withered
Past participle adjective — emaciated. Used for both trees and ascetics. The verse trusts the reader to feel the irony: emaciated by what — the summer, or one's own choices?
The word pāda means foot, and pā means drinking. Trees are called pādapa because they drink through their roots, which are likened to feet. Upon drinking the newly fallen rainwater, the trees in Vṛndāvana began to manifest new leaves, sprouts and blossoms, and they thus enjoyed new growth. Similarly, materialistic persons often perform severe austerities to acquire the object of their desire. For example, politicians in America undergo grueling austerities while traveling about the countryside campaigning for election. Businessmen also will often deny personal comfort to make their business successful. Such austere persons, upon acquiring the fruits of their austerity, again become healthy and satisfied, like trees eagerly drinking rainwater after enduring the austerity of a dry, hot summer.
As the trees become filled with various forms such as sprouts, leaves, and flowers during the rainy season, so the tapasvi, by enjoying material objects, nourishes him body. This of course is unfavorable for those practicing detachment.
Those who are thin and weak because of austerities take on various (healthy) features after enjoying objects. The trees in the summer, on drinking water, take on various features.
Drinking through their feet, the dry trees flower again — but only after long thirst. The verse compares this to a man whose body, thinned by tapas, fills out again on its hard-won reward. Once more the Bhāgavatam quietly tilts the comparison: the trees' green is honest, the materialist's fattening on tapas-fruit is not.
My note
Source: vedabase.io