10.24 · Worshiping Govardhana Hill

• bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead
  Śukadeva opens not with 'Kṛṣṇa' but with bhagavān — the verse insists that what we are about to watch is Bhagavān Himself intervening, not merely a clever boy. Gauḍīya doctrine: kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28); the source-Bhagavān is walking these cow pastures.
• baladevena — by Lord Balarāma
  Instrumental of Baladeva. Kṛṣṇa is saṁyutaḥ — joined with — His elder brother. Gauḍīya pattern: Kṛṣṇa never acts alone in Vraja; Balarāma is His ādi-guru and constant companion, the source of all bala (strength) for the Lord's pastimes.
• gopān — the cowherd men
  Accusative plural of gopa. Not generic villagers but the specific community whose devotion is the soil of vraja-līlā. The verse foregrounds whom Kṛṣṇa is about to teach — His own family of vātsalya-bhaktas.
• indra-yāga — sacrifice for Indra
  Compound: indra (the King of heaven) + yāga (sacrifice). The opening note of the chapter's whole argument. Indra-yāga is karma-kāṇḍa par excellence — a śāstric ritual aimed at material fruit. Kṛṣṇa will dismantle it to plant pure bhakti in its place.
• udyamān — great endeavor
  From ud + √yam — exertion strained upward. The cowherds are working hard, and the labor is sincere; Kṛṣṇa's correction is not about laziness but about direction. Sincere endeavor pointed at the wrong object is still misdirected.

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A king walks unannounced through his own palace kitchen and finds the cooks preparing a feast for a distant nobleman. Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān Himself dwelling in Vraja, sees His own people busily heaping rice and ghee for Indra — the feast is being addressed to the wrong door, and the Lord of the house has decided to set the matter right.

• tat - abhijñaḥ — well aware of all that
  Compound: tat (that) + abhijñaḥ (fully knowing). The verse is explicit: Kṛṣṇa already knew. Gauḍīya reading: His subsequent question is līlā, not inquiry — Bhagavān stages occasions for His devotees to act.
• sarva - ātmā — the Soul of everyone
  Compound: sarva (all) + ātmā (Self). The Paramātmā within every heart in Vraja already holds the answer to the question He is about to ask. The verse layers aiśvarya under the surface of an ordinary domestic scene.
• sarva - darśanaḥ — the seer of everything
  Compound: sarva (all) + darśanaḥ (seeing). Pairs with sarva-ātmā: the One who is within all and sees all. Yet in the next breath He bows and asks — the Gauḍīya signature, omniscience cloaked by intimacy.
• praśraya - avanataḥ — humbly bowed down
  Compound: praśraya (humility, modesty) + avanataḥ (bent down). Bhagavān physically bends before His foster father. Aiśvarya conceals itself so that vātsalya may operate; this posture is itself a teaching about bhakti's tone.
• vṛddhān — the elders
  Accusative plural of vṛddha. He asks not Nanda alone but the whole council of elders. The Lord models the dharma He is about to refine — even when correcting, He honors the form of paramparā.

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A father who already knows what his son has been up to still asks, 'What did you do today?' — the question is not for information, it is to give the child the dignity of speaking. Kṛṣṇa, sarva-ātmā and sarva-darśanaḥ, already sees every preparation; He bends low and asks Nanda anyway, honoring the elders before He overturns them.

• kathyatām — please tell
  Passive imperative from √kath. Kṛṣṇa speaks in the polite passive — 'let it be told' — not the curt active. The form itself shows praśraya: the Lord is asking, not commanding.
• pitaḥ — O father
  Vocative of pitṛ. The address is filial, not philosophical. Whatever doctrine is about to follow will be spoken son-to-father, inside vātsalya — Gauḍīyas note this carefully: even the dismantling of karma-kāṇḍa happens in rasa.
• phalam — the result
  From √phal — fruit, result. The first of Kṛṣṇa's four probing questions. By asking what 'fruit' is sought, He frames the ritual as karma-kāṇḍa from word one; this will become the wedge for His whole argument.
• uddeśaḥ — intended object
  From ud + √diś — that toward which the offering is aimed. Coupled with phalam, the pair surface the karma-kāṇḍa formula: a fruit for me, a target for the offering. Kṛṣṇa is going to show both ends are misaligned.
• makhaḥ — the sacrifice
  A Vedic word for yajña. By using the technical term, Kṛṣṇa concedes the form of what is being done — He is not opposing yajña as such; He will only redirect its object. This same word returns in verse 25 when He proposes a new makha for Govardhana.

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A son apprenticed in his father's workshop pauses, gestures at the half-built wheel, and asks, 'Whom is this for, and how will it be finished?' The question gathers the workshop's whole purpose into one breath. Kṛṣṇa, the apprentice-son in Nanda's household, does the same to the indra-yāga — four questions in one verse, designed to make the elders state, out loud, what they are actually doing.

• śuśrūṣave — eager to hear
  Desiderative of √śru — 'one who desires to hear.' The same root that gives śuśrūṣā, the disciple's hearing-service. Kṛṣṇa places Himself in the disciple's posture before His father, modeling śravaṇa even as He is about to instruct.
• gopyam — to be hidden
  Gerundive of √gup. Note the wordplay: gopa-s should have nothing gopya among them — those whose very name comes from 'protection' have no secrets to protect from one another. Kṛṣṇa works the etymology gently.
• sādhūnām — of the saintly
  Genitive plural of sādhu. Gauḍīya force: a sādhu is not merely 'a good person' but one fixed in bhajana whose vision has been corrected — sama-darśana flows from kṛṣṇa-darśana, not from neutrality.
• sarva - ātmanām — of those who see all as themselves
  Compound: sarva (all) + ātmanām (selves). Not Advaitin identity-collapse — the Gauḍīya reading is sama-darśana rooted in seeing Kṛṣṇa as the antaryāmī of every being (Gītā 6.30). Equal vision, personalist ground.
• asva - para - dṛṣṭīnām — of those who have no 'mine and others' vision
  Compound: a- (not) + sva (mine) + para (others) + dṛṣṭi (vision). The sādhu's eye does not partition the world into property and outsiders. The very vice the indra-yāga, as karma-kāṇḍa, secretly trades in — mine, my rain, my fruit — is what Kṛṣṇa is preparing to expose.

A saintly grandfather is asked a household question and answers without selection — he has no private accounts, no hidden ledgers, no friends he favors or enemies he hides things from. Kṛṣṇa appeals to this picture of the sādhu to draw the truth out of Nanda: among such persons, He says, nothing is held back.

• udāsīnaḥ — the neutral, indifferent one
  From ud + √ās — 'sitting apart.' In nīti-śāstra, the udāsīna is the third party whose neutrality may turn either way. Kṛṣṇa flags this category to make a point: a mere rain-supplier with no personal love for Vraja sits in exactly this risky position.
• ari - vat — like an enemy
  Compound: ari (enemy) + vat (like). The neutral is to be treated with the caution of an enemy — Kṛṣṇa is hinting that the formal supplier-recipient relation with Indra is not the safe ground Vraja imagines it to be.
• ātma - vat — like one's own self
  Compound: ātma (self) + vat (like). The standard for a friend (suhṛt). Gauḍīya weight: the only relation worth full investment is one where the other is held as one's own — the relation Vraja already has with Kṛṣṇa Himself, though they have not yet realized it doctrinally.
• suhṛt — well-wisher, friend
  Literally su (good) + hṛt (heart) — the good-hearted one. In the Gītā Kṛṣṇa names Himself suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (5.29). The verse subtly raises the bar: only Bhagavān fits the role suhṛt names in its fullness.

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A traveler on the road steers around the indifferent stranger as cautiously as he would around a known bandit, but treats the friend who walks beside him as he treats his own body. Kṛṣṇa names two narrow gates of relation — and quietly excludes a third, the merely transactional party such as Indra has become for Vraja.

• jñātvā — having known
  Absolutive of √jñā. Action preceded by knowledge. Kṛṣṇa is opening a gap between sincere effort and informed effort; the indra-yāga falls on the wrong side of that gap, and He intends Nanda to feel it.
• ajñātvā — not having known
  Negation of jñātvā. Same act done in ignorance. The verse is not a denial of karma — it is an invitation into discrimination (vicāra) about which karma we are performing and why.
• karmāṇi — actions
  Accusative plural of karma. The Sanskrit term covers ritual, occupational duty, and ordinary deed. Kṛṣṇa's whole argument in the chapter is conducted in this neutral word — He is not anti-karma; He is anti-misdirected-karma.
• karma - siddhiḥ — perfection of work
  Compound: karma (action) + siddhi (success, attainment). Kṛṣṇa concedes that within the karma-kāṇḍa frame there is a real siddhi available — but only to the one who knows what he is doing. He will then ask whether the cowherds, in this case, do.
• viduṣaḥ — of the knower
  Genitive of vidvas, present participle of √vid. The 'knower' here is not the abstract scholar but the practitioner who sees through the form of the act to its actual mechanism. The setup for verses 13–17, where Kṛṣṇa lays bare the actual mechanism — karma, not Indra.

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Two woodcutters fell the same tree. One reads the grain and the lean of the trunk and brings it down where he chose; the other swings hard, hopes well, and is sometimes crushed by what he felled. The axe is the same; the success belongs to the eye that read the wood. Kṛṣṇa is asking Nanda to read this ritual with the same kind of eye.

• kriyā - yogaḥ — ritual procedure
  Compound: kriyā (action, rite) + yogaḥ (application, conjunction). The technical phrase for organized ritual work. By using the precise term, Kṛṣṇa concedes the framework — He is going to evaluate this within its own categories, not from outside.
• vicāritaḥ — deliberated, examined
  From vi + √car — 'thoroughly thought over.' Kṛṣṇa asks whether the procedure has been examined, not just inherited. Gauḍīya note: paramparā transmits, but each generation must re-vicāra what it receives or the form hollows out.
• laukikaḥ — merely customary, worldly
  From loka (world). The opposite of śāstric. Kṛṣṇa names the second possibility bluntly: maybe this is just what people in the world do. The chapter's argument will, in effect, place indra-yāga in this category.
• pṛcchataḥ — of one who asks
  Genitive present participle of √prach. Kṛṣṇa names His own posture: He is asking, not yet teaching. The form again is praśraya — He keeps Himself a questioner in His father's house even while preparing the great correction.

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A son apprenticed to a master craftsman asks whether the technique they are using is from the workshop's lineage manual or simply 'how it has been done lately.' The question itself is respectful and lethal — once asked, the answer matters. Kṛṣṇa asks the same of the indra-yāga: is this śāstra, or only laukika habit?

• parjanyaḥ — the rain-god, rain itself
  An ancient Vedic name for the rain-cloud deity. Nanda's first word names a real Vedic function — Kṛṣṇa will not deny that parjanya exists, only that he is the final cause.
• bhagavān — the great lord
  Nanda applies bhagavān to Indra. Gauḍīya reading: in the laukika sense bhagavān can be used loosely (six aiśvaryas in measure), but svayaṁ-bhagavān is one — Kṛṣṇa standing right in front of him. The verse stages a doctrinal misnaming that the chapter will quietly correct.
• ātma - mūrtayaḥ — his personal forms
  Compound: ātma (self, own) + mūrtayaḥ (forms). Nanda calls the rain-clouds Indra's own mūrtis. A revealing word: it concedes that the visible agent (cloud) is only the form of an unseen agent (Indra) — Kṛṣṇa will simply push the same logic one floor higher.
• prīṇanam — pleasure, satisfaction
  From √prī — to please. Rain gives prīṇana to beings; in the Gauḍīya vocabulary the same root yields prīti, the affection at the root of bhakti. Even Nanda's words about rain are reaching, unawares, toward a deeper register.
• payaḥ — water (rain)
  Vedic for water, milk, juice — the giving fluid. The verse uses the most maternal word for water; the chapter will close with the same payaḥ flowing from Govardhana into the cowherds' pots.

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A village steward, seeing the young master arrive, points at the rooftop water-tank and explains: 'This is filled from that great cistern on the hill — we honor the keeper of the cistern, for our pots depend on him.' Nanda points at the rain-clouds and at Indra behind them, and his answer is honest village theology — accurate as far as it goes, but stopping one floor short of the actual source.

• vāḥ - mucām — of the rain-releasers (clouds)
  Compound: vāḥ (water) + mucām (genitive plural of √muc, releasers). Lovely Vedic kenning for clouds. Nanda speaks of Indra as the patiḥ — lord — of these vāḥ-muc. Kṛṣṇa will not dispute the title; He will dispute its relevance to the cowherds' actual livelihood.
• īśvaram — controller, lord
  From √īś — to be capable, to rule. Nanda calls Indra īśvara of the clouds. Gauḍīya reading: there are many controllers under the one Supreme Controller (Bs 5.1, anādir ādir govindaḥ); Indra is a delegated īśvara, never paramaḥ īśvaraḥ.
• dravyaiḥ — with ingredients
  Instrumental plural of dravya — physical paraphernalia of sacrifice. Notice: these dravyas are exactly what Kṛṣṇa will not waste; verse 25 will redirect 'with all the paraphernalia collected for worshiping Indra' (taiḥ) to Govardhana.
• tat - retasā — by his own discharge
  Compound: tat (his) + retasā (instrumental of retas, seed/discharge). The grain offered to Indra grew from rain that came from Indra — Nanda himself names the closed loop. Kṛṣṇa will gently open it: by what does the rain-cloud move at all?
• kratubhiḥ — by sacrifices
  Instrumental plural of kratu — Vedic sacrifice, especially one offered to a particular devatā. Karma-kāṇḍa par excellence. The chapter's quiet pivot is from kratu to the makha of pure bhakti — same machinery, new object.

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Tenant farmers always pay rent to the landlord whose seal is on the deeds in their village office, even if the king above the landlord has never visited. Nanda is doing what his community has always done — sending the rent up the chain of intermediaries, never questioning that the chain itself might be one link too long.

• śeṣeṇa — by the remnants
  Instrumental of śeṣa — what is left over from sacrifice. Karma-kāṇḍa logic: humans live off the leftovers of what is offered to the gods. Gauḍīyas redirect this idea entirely — the devotee lives off kṛṣṇa-prasāda, not Indra-śeṣa.
• tri - varga — the three aims
  Compound: tri (three) + varga (group). The trio dharma–artha–kāma. Note the absence: mokṣa is not yet on the table. Nanda's worldview is the standard karma-kāṇḍa horizon; Kṛṣṇa will widen it to bhakti, which transcends all four.
• phala - hetave — for the cause of fruits
  Compound: phala (fruit) + hetave (dative of hetu, cause). The verse names Indra as the phala-hetu. Echoes BG 2.47 mā karma-phala-hetur bhūḥ — Gauḍīya hearers cannot miss the resonance; Kṛṣṇa is setting up to displace phala-hetu logic altogether.
• puruṣa - kārāṇām — of those who exert themselves
  Compound: puruṣa (person) + kārāṇām (genitive plural of kāra, doer). The 'self-effort' people — those who believe their own work plus a generous overseer yields results. Kṛṣṇa will redraw this picture in verses 13–18.
• phala - bhāvanaḥ — the bestower of fruits
  Compound: phala (fruit) + bhāvanaḥ (one who brings into being, from √bhū caus.). Nanda crowns Indra phala-bhāvana. Gauḍīya doctrine: only Bhagavān is the true phala-bhāvana (cf. Vedānta-sūtra 3.2.38, phalam ata upapatteḥ); demigods deliver only because empowered by Him.

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A foreman at a granary tells the workers: 'We eat from these stockpiles, and through them we live, prosper, and please ourselves — so let us honor the supplier.' The logic is airtight inside the warehouse. Kṛṣṇa is about to ask who plants the grain that fills the supplier's truck in the first place.

• dharmam — religious principle, duty
  From √dhṛ — that which holds. Nanda calls the indra-yāga a dharma; Kṛṣṇa will not deny that it is dharma in some sense, but in verse 13 He will recategorize what 'holds' Vraja's life together. Bhāgavata dharma replaces vaidha-dharma without despising it.
• paramparya — the line of succession
  From parama + para — 'one-after-the-other.' The standard word for received tradition. Nanda's appeal to paramparā is unimpeachable in principle; the Gauḍīya answer is that Kṛṣṇa Himself is the ādi-puruṣa from whom paramparā issues — when He speaks, He is the source the line points back to.
• kāmāt — out of lust
  Ablative of kāma. The first of Nanda's four named motives for abandoning dharma. Gauḍīya weight: kāma is the original disqualifier (Gītā 3.37, kāma eṣa krodha eṣaḥ); any abandonment of received duty under kāma's pressure is bondage.
• lobhāt — out of greed
  Ablative of lobha. The fourth motive. The verse warns: someone who drops the ritual to save money fails. The irony: by retaining the ritual under greed (afraid to lose rain), Vraja is committing a different version of the same failure — and Kṛṣṇa will surface it.
• śobhanam — auspiciousness
  From √śubh — to shine, to be auspicious. Nanda's whole speech rests on this word: drop the dharma, lose the śobhana. The chapter will redefine śobhana: not rain in season but Kṛṣṇa's prasāda, which never fails.

A village patriarch warns: 'Don't break the irrigation contract — every house that has tried it has gone dry.' His warning is practical and sincere; what he does not see is that the river itself flows by another, deeper grace. Nanda's caution is real within his frame, and Kṛṣṇa is about to gently dissolve the frame.

• niśamya — having heard
  Absolutive from ni + √śam. Kṛṣṇa first listens fully before He speaks. The chapter teaches teaching: hear the elders out, respect what they hold, then correct.
• vraja - okasām — of the residents of Vraja
  Compound: vraja + okas (dwelling). 'Those whose home is Vraja.' Gauḍīya force: vraja-vāsīs are uniquely positioned in all of creation; what Kṛṣṇa says next is calibrated to their rasa, not to a generic audience.
• manyum — anger
  Accusative of manyu — wrath. Kṛṣṇa speaks with the deliberate intention to provoke Indra's manyu. Gauḍīya note: aiśvarya-līlā often runs on engineered provocation — the Lord arranges the offense so He can stage the rescue.
• janayan — generating
  Present participle causative of √jan — bringing into being. The Lord causally generates Indra's anger; nothing in this chapter is accident. Every word of the coming speech is tuned to one downstream līlā: the lifting of Govardhana.
• keśavaḥ — Kṛṣṇa, the slayer of Keśī / the long-haired one
  Three classical glosses: he of beautiful hair (keśa), lord of Brahmā and Śiva (ka + īśa), slayer of Keśī. The name is chosen for the verse: Kṛṣṇa stands ready to slay the next demon of pride — this time the king of heaven's.

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A wrestler steps into the ring not to harm his opponent but to expose the opponent's weak hold so the watching students can see it for themselves. Kṛṣṇa speaks the next eighteen verses with one explicit aim — to provoke Indra into a hold He can then break, in full view of Vraja.

• karmaṇā — by karma
  Instrumental of karma — the verse hammers this word four times in four lines. Kṛṣṇa's argument inside karma-kāṇḍa: if you grant the ritualist's premise, then it is karma, not Indra, that turns every wheel.
• jāyate — is born
  Passive present from √jan. Birth itself is a karma-effect. Gauḍīya doctrine: the jīva accepts a body suited to its saṁskāras; Indra does not write the birth-certificate.
• pralīyate — dissolves
  Passive present from pra + √lī. Death is also karma-resolved. The pair jāyate–pralīyate frames a human life; both endpoints are karma-stamped, not Indra-stamped.
• sukham — happiness
  From √sukh. Even the most ordinary pleasure inside saṁsāra is karma's coin. Gauḍīya note: only ānanda, Bhagavān's own nature, escapes the karma-loop — and that is precisely what bhakti gives, not what karma gives.
• abhipadyate — obtains, encounters
  From abhi + √pad. The jīva 'lands on' joy or fear by karma's gravitational pull. The verb makes the soul passive — exactly the picture Kṛṣṇa wants to plant before He pivots away from karma-kāṇḍa altogether.

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A potter complains that the wheel spins only because Indra blew a wind through it; Kṛṣṇa points out that the wheel spins because the potter's foot pumps the treadle. The wind is real, but it is not the engine. So with karma: birth, dissolution, joy, fear — all turn on the soul's own previous deeds, not on a distant celestial spinner.

• īśvaraḥ — a controller
  From √īś. Kṛṣṇa concedes the karma-mīmāṁsā term provisionally: 'even if there is some such controller.' He is arguing inside the opponent's vocabulary. Gauḍīya frame: the real īśvara is paramaḥ īśvaraḥ, Kṛṣṇa Himself; intermediate īśvaras are derivative.
• phala - rūpī — shaping the fruits
  Compound: phala (fruit) + rūpī (formed). 'The one who gives shape to results.' Kṛṣṇa grants this office to the opponent and then deflates it: a fruit-shaper depends on a fruit-grower.
• kartāram — the doer
  Accusative of kartṛ. The center of karma-mīmāṁsā ontology. Kṛṣṇa's logical pivot: every phala-rūpī presupposes a kartṛ. No kartṛ, no phala — therefore the kartṛ's karma is the load-bearing element, not the distributor's grace.
• akartuḥ — of a non-doer
  Genitive of a-kartṛ. The pointed counter-case: over one who has not acted, the phala-distributor has no jurisdiction. The argument quietly compresses to: even by your premises, action is sovereign — so why credit Indra?
• prabhuḥ — lord, master
  From pra + √bhū. Kṛṣṇa concedes the title only with a restriction: the prabhuḥ of fruits is prabhuḥ only over performed actions. Gauḍīya hearers smile — the unrestricted prabhuḥ is Kṛṣṇa, who is even prabhuḥ over those who have not acted.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-24-14 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• DMS SB 10-24-14 - 2006-03-24 Melbourne
  His Holiness Devamrita Swami· 2006-03-24· English

A clerk hands out year-end bonuses, but only to employees whose ledgers show work — he cannot, by any authority of his office, hand a bonus to someone who never came to the desk. Even granting that there is such a clerk above us, Kṛṣṇa argues, his power begins only after we have done the work; the work itself is therefore the real seat of action.

• sva - sva — each one's own
  Reduplicated sva — 'each his own.' The verse insists that karma is personal property: nobody's karma is interchangeable with anybody else's, and no demigod can substitute one ledger for another.
• anuvartinām — of those who follow
  Genitive plural present participle of anu + √vṛt. Beings 'follow along' the track of their own karma — the verb is one of automatic conformity, not of free choice in the moment.
• anīśena — by one who is not the controller
  Instrumental of an-īśa — 'a non-controller.' Kṛṣṇa flatly says: Indra is an-īśa with respect to the destiny born of svabhāva. He is not 'a small lord'; in this domain he is no lord at all.
• svabhāva — one's own nature
  Compound: sva (own) + bhāva (nature). The conditioned nature shaped by previous karma. Gauḍīya frame: svabhāva is real but not ultimate; only bhakti can dissolve it (cf. Gītā 18.66, sarva-dharmān parityajya).
• vihitam — ordained
  Past participle of vi + √dhā. What svabhāva has 'laid down' is unalterable by any third party. Kṛṣṇa's argument therefore: the indra-yāga is procedurally addressed to an office that cannot deliver.

• AtmanivedanaSw SB 10-24-15 - 2022-10-04 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Atmanivedana Swami· 2022-10-04· English
• BKG SB 10-24-15 - Demigods don%27t change Karma - 2021-04-01 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2021-04-01· English

A debt that comes due on the first of the month will come due whether or not the bank manager remembers your name. Indra cannot move the date forward; he cannot move it back. The collection happens by the contract you yourself signed in earlier lives.

• svabhāva - tantraḥ — controlled by his own nature
  Compound: svabhāva (own nature) + tantra (controlled, dependent on). Tantra here means 'on the strings of.' The jīva is on the strings of his own previous karma's-residue. Gauḍīya note: only śaraṇāgati cuts the strings; nothing inside saṁsāra's machinery does.
• anuvartate — follows after
  Present middle of anu + √vṛt. The same root as anuvartinām in verse 15 — the verse is hammering one verb: people 'follow along.' Free will operates inside a heavily channeled stream, not over it.
• deva — demigod
  From √div — to shine. Even the shining ones move by svabhāva. Gauḍīya doctrine: the devas are jīvas of higher pedigree, not gods in the absolute sense; the verse quietly puts Indra back in his place.
• asura — demon
  Etymologically 'not-sura' or 'powerful one' (depending on derivation). Asura too is svabhāva-bound. The verse refuses moral exceptionalism: even demons act according to nature, which is why līlā-incarnations are needed to redirect that nature.
• mānuṣam — human
  From manuṣya (descended from Manu). Humans complete the triad. Gauḍīya emphasis: human birth is uniquely poised for bhakti precisely because svabhāva can here be reformed by sādhu-saṅga — what the verse implies, the chapter delivers.

• KKS SB 10-24-16 - 2022-10-15 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Kadamba Kanana Swami· 2022-10-15· English

A river follows its bed — not because some official redirects it daily, but because its own contours carry it forward. Devas, asuras, humans: each moves along the bed carved by its own svabhāva. The cosmos, Kṛṣṇa says, runs on conditioned nature, not on petitions to its officers.

• ucca - avacān — high and low
  Compound: ucca (high) + avaca (low). The full vertical range of births. Karma carries the jīva up and down this ladder. Gauḍīya frame: bhakti does not climb the ladder; it steps off it (kṛṣṇa-loka, beyond ucca-avaca).
• prāpya — obtaining
  Absolutive of pra + √āp. Birth comes as something 'obtained' through karma, not chosen freely. The verb shows the jīva as recipient, not author, of his body.
• utsṛjati — gives up
  Present from ud + √sṛj. Death is named as 'releasing.' Together with prāpya, the verse describes the saṁsāra-cycle in one breath — and traces both directions to karma.
• karma — action, the residue of past action
  Nominative — repeated five times in two lines. Kṛṣṇa drowns the verse in this word to dissolve Indra's office. By the end of the line, the listener feels: it has always been karma — never Indra — that ran the show.
• guruḥ — spiritual master
  From √gṝ — heavy, weighty. Kṛṣṇa's most cutting move: karma is even your guru in this world. Gauḍīya weight: the verse is not absolute praise of karma; it is showing what those who refuse a real guru end up serving. The chapter's next move is to install a true guru-object — Govardhana, and through Govardhana, Kṛṣṇa Himself.
• īśvaraḥ — controlling lord
  The same word Nanda used for Indra in verse 9 — Kṛṣṇa reapplies it to karma itself. The displacement is now complete: whatever Indra-power Nanda named, Kṛṣṇa has rerouted to karma. The next step will be to redirect karma to Bhagavān.

• UM SB 10-24-17 - Love is higher than Justice - 2021-04-05 Hillsborough
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2021-04-05· English
• Padaseva Pr Seminars Oriya - SB 10-24-17
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Shikshashtakam Pr SB 10-24-17 Hindi - Govardhan Lila-Hill that Thrills Part-11
  His Grace Shikshashtakam Prabhu· Hindi
• Shikshashtakam Pr SB 10-24-17 Hindi - Govardhan Lila-Hill that Thrills Part-12
  His Grace Shikshashtakam Prabhu· Hindi
• BPSPSw SB 10-24-17 Hindi - 2015-07-25 ISKCON Mira Road
  His Holiness Bhakti Padma Saurabh Pracharak Swami· 2015-07-25· Hindi
• IDS SB 10-24-17 - 2022-10-07 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Indradyumna Swami· 2022-10-07· English

A craftsman lives inside his tools — chisel, lathe, file — and the same set of tools that built his fortune will, if mishandled, take his fingers. Karma is exactly this: the instrument by which the soul gains and loses bodies, befriends and is harmed, learns and is lorded over. Kṛṣṇa names karma five times in two lines to make the point inescapable.

• sampūjayet — should fully worship
  Optative causative from sam + √pūj. Worship is now redirected at karma itself within the opponent's frame. The structure is rhetorical: Kṛṣṇa is leading Vraja toward the realization that what truly maintains them — the cows, the hill, Bhagavān — is what deserves pūjā.
• svabhāva - sthaḥ — situated in one's own nature
  Compound: svabhāva (own nature) + sthaḥ (situated). One must remain in the position one's nature has prepared. Gauḍīya pattern: varṇāśrama is honored as the soil of bhakti; bhakti grows in the field of svadharma, not by abandoning it for fashion.
• sva - karma - kṛt — performing one's own duty
  Compound: sva (own) + karma (duty) + kṛt (doer). The classic Gītā formula (Gītā 18.45–48). Each must do his own duty — vaiśya as vaiśya, gopa as gopa. Setting the stage for verse 21, where Kṛṣṇa names go-rakṣā as Vraja's actual svakarma.
• varteta — may maintain himself
  Optative middle of √vṛt. The 'turning by which one keeps going' — livelihood. The verse names the criterion: by what does one actually live? Worship that — because, in Vraja's case, the answer will turn out to be Govardhana and the cows, and through them Kṛṣṇa.
• daivatam — worshipable deity
  From devatā. Kṛṣṇa's pivot-word: the daivata is whatever genuinely sustains life. Gauḍīya hearing: the verse is at first the karma-mīmāṁsā position taken to its limit, and then — by chapter's end — that limit is broken open as Govardhana himself appears, and the true daivata of Vraja eats the offering.

• Dina Bandhu Pr SB 10-24-18 - 2013-08-22 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Dina Bandhu Prabhu· 2013-08-22· English

A weaver who tries to live by farming starves at both looms; the weaver who weaves with full attention is fed by the very work of his hands. Kṛṣṇa's instruction inside the karma-frame is precise: the work that actually sustains your life is itself the deity worth worshipping — not some absentee patron several offices away.

• ājīvya — the means of livelihood
  From ā + √jīv — that by which one lives. The verse names the criterion bluntly: locate what feeds you, then offer to it. The gopas live by cows and hill; therefore cows and hill (and Kṛṣṇa within them) are the proper recipients.
• upajīvati — takes shelter of
  From upa + √jīv — to subsist near, to depend upon. Kṛṣṇa distinguishes two verbs: ājīvya (what actually sustains) and upajīvati (what one chooses to attach oneself to). The two should match; in indra-yāga they do not.
• kṣemam — auspiciousness, well-being
  From √kṣi — settled welfare. Gītā 9.22 yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham: Bhagavān Himself carries the kṣema of His devotee. By sending its kṣema-petition to Indra, Vraja is sending the request to the wrong return-address.
• jārāt — from a paramour
  Ablative of jāra — illicit lover. Strong word. Kṛṣṇa, who will later be the supreme parakīya-nāyaka in mādhurya-rasa, here uses jāra negatively to characterize misplaced shelter. The same word holds opposite valences in different rasas — a Gauḍīya teaching in miniature.
• asatī — unfaithful
  Feminine of asat — 'not-sat,' not true, not chaste. The asatī woman is the very type of misplaced loyalty. Gauḍīya force: bhakti is faithfulness to the actual sustainer; karma-kāṇḍa addressed to demigods imitates the asatī's pattern.

• KKP SB 10-24-19 Hindi - 2015-07-28 ISKCON Mira Road
  His Grace Kundal Krishna Prabhu· 2015-07-28· Hindi
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-24-19 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• BBBS SB 10-24-19 - 2022-10-09 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Bhakti Brhat Bhagavata Swami· 2022-10-09· English
• BKG SB 10-24-19 - How to achieve supernatural powers - 2021-04-08 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2021-04-08· English
• DMS SB 10-24-19 - 2006-03-28 Melbourne
  His Holiness Devamrita Swami· 2006-03-28· English

A wife sets her plate at her husband's table and then sneaks out to dine with a stranger — she eats, but the meal builds nothing. Vraja is being sustained by the cows, the hill, and Kṛṣṇa Himself, and is sending its rice elsewhere; the analogy is severe and Kṛṣṇa chooses it deliberately, because exposing the misalignment is the kindness of this teaching.

• brahmaṇā — by the Veda
  Instrumental of brahman — here, the Veda, sacred sound. The brāhmaṇa is sustained by Veda, not by Vedic ritual income — a distinction Gauḍīyas keep alive (cf. Sanātana Gosvāmī refusing court wealth to live by śloka).
• rakṣayā — by protection
  Instrumental of rakṣā — guarding. The kṣatriya's svadharma is rakṣā of the earth. Gauḍīya reading: Bhagavān as parīkṣit's-protector is the supreme kṣatriya; rakṣā is His mood toward His devotees (yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham).
• vārtayā — by trade and agriculture
  Instrumental of vārtā — productive livelihood. The vaiśya's word — sets up verse 21, where Kṛṣṇa drills into vārtā's four sub-types. The chapter is now closing in on Vraja's own slot in the varṇa-grid.
• dvija - sevayā — by service to the twice-born
  Compound: dvija (twice-born) + sevā (service). The śūdra's livelihood. Gauḍīya frame: sevā is not a low designation but the highest spiritual category — Vraja-vāsīs themselves are the supreme servants of Kṛṣṇa, beyond all varṇa.

• Vijaya Pr SB 10-24-20 - 2022-10-11 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Grace Vijaya Prabhu· 2022-10-11· English
• DMS SB 10-24-20 - 2006-03-29 Melbourne
  His Holiness Devamrita Swami· 2006-03-29· English

A village's strength is its division of labor — the smith does not preach the Veda and the brāhmaṇa does not pull the plough — and the same wisdom asks each varṇa to feed itself by its own work. Kṛṣṇa enumerates the four standard professions in a single tight verse, lining them up so that He may, in the next verse, sharpen the question: which of these is yours, Nanda?

• kṛṣi — farming
  From √kṛṣ — to plough. Note the wordplay even in the verse: kṛṣ is the same root that yields Kṛṣṇa's name (he-who-attracts / he-who-ploughs-up). The chapter that abolishes one form of kṛṣi-yajña culminates in worship of Him whose name is built on the same root.
• vāṇijya — commerce
  From vaṇij — merchant. Second of the vaiśya's four trades. By naming all four explicitly Kṛṣṇa forces Nanda to identify Vraja's actual occupation in front of everyone.
• go - rakṣā — cow protection
  Compound: go (cow) + rakṣā (protection). The third trade — and Vraja's own. Gauḍīya weight: go-rakṣā is not merely an economic activity; it is the form of bhakti embedded in Vraja's daily life. Kṛṣṇa Himself is gopāla — the protector of cows.
• kusīdam — moneylending
  From ku + sīda — 'sitting on interest.' Fourth trade. Listed for completeness; Vraja does not practice it. The point is exhaustive: of the four, only one is yours.
• go - vṛttayaḥ — those whose livelihood is the cow
  Compound: go (cow) + vṛttayaḥ (livelihoods, modes of living). Vraja-vāsīs identify themselves as go-vṛtti. The verse is the bridge to verse 25: if our life is from cows, our yajña belongs to cows, not to Indra.

• 03 - RGS SB 10-24-21-30 - Giriraj Dharan Leela-03 - 2007 Khadia
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English

A guild master lists the four trades of his guild and points to the bench his apprentices have always worked at — out of farming, commerce, cow-protection, and moneylending, ours is the second from the right. Kṛṣṇa is preparing to slot the indra-yāga into its real category: a misapplication for people whose svadharma is the protection of cows.

• sattvam — the mode of goodness
  From √as — being, sustenance. Associated with maintenance. Gauḍīya frame: sattva is the mode closest to bhakti's threshold but is not itself bhakti; one must rise to śuddha-sattva — pure goodness untouched by rajas and tamas — which is Bhagavān's own nature.
• rajaḥ — the mode of passion
  From √rañj — to colour, to attach. Rajas is the active mode that creates and varies. Kṛṣṇa names it as the cause of the very rain Nanda credits to Indra — relocating causation one floor down (or up, depending on how one looks).
• tamaḥ — the mode of ignorance
  From √tam — to be obscured. The destroyer mode. Verse pattern: stiti (sattva), utpatti (rajas), anta (tamas) — yet Kṛṣṇa lists them sattvam-rajaḥ-tamaḥ, the canonical order, before assigning functions.
• hetavaḥ — causes
  Nominative plural of hetu. The three guṇas are named hetus — the categorical answer to verse 8's parjanyo bhagavān indraḥ. The verse implicitly demotes Indra from cause to functionary moved by rajas.
• vividham — manifold, varied
  From vi + √vid — variously found. Rajas makes the universe vividha through pairing (anyonyam). Gauḍīya note: variegatedness in the material realm is rajas-driven; in the spiritual realm it is svarūpa-śakti driven — same word, opposite source.

• UM SB 10-24-22 - Why and How - 2021-04-12 Hillsborough
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2021-04-12· English
• Padaseva Pr Seminars Oriya - SB 10-24-22
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

Three pigments — white, red, and dark — mixed in different proportions produce every painting in the gallery; the painter named Rajas is the one most responsible for new canvases appearing. Rain comes from clouds; clouds come from rajas; rajas comes from prakṛti — and prakṛti, Kṛṣṇa will not yet say but already implies, comes from Him.

• rajasā — by passion
  Instrumental of rajas. Picks up directly from verse 22 — the clouds are not Indra-driven; they are rajas-driven. Kṛṣṇa is closing the philosophical loop opened earlier.
• coditāḥ — impelled
  Past participle from √cud — to impel, drive. The clouds are causally driven, not consulted. The verb is mechanical, deliberately stripping personality from the rain-process.
• varṣanti — they rain
  Present from √vṛṣ — to rain. The same root as 'Vṛṣṇi' — Kṛṣṇa's own dynasty, the 'pourers.' Quiet wordplay: the true varṣaṇa (downpour) of mercy comes from Bhagavān, not from clouds.
• sarvataḥ — everywhere
  From sarva. Rain falls on the deserving and the undeserving alike — by mode, not by reward. The verse undercuts the karma-kāṇḍa premise that rain is recompense for Indra-pleasing.
• mahā - indraḥ — great Indra
  Compound: mahā (great) + indraḥ (Indra). Kṛṣṇa says the title with edge — 'great Indra, what will he do?' The honorific is hollowed out by the question. In two chapters' time the great Indra will fall at Kṛṣṇa's feet.

The post office automatically delivers letters to every village whose address is on the manifest — no one writes a personal note to the postman asking for delivery. Rain falls because rajas-driven clouds discharge their cargo; Indra has no signing pen at the threshold. Kṛṣṇa's question is rhetorical and devastating — what, exactly, does Indra do?

• puraḥ — cities
  Nominative plural of pur — fortified city. Vraja has no cities. The verse begins a four-fold list of what Vraja is not, narrowing toward what it actually is.
• jana - padāḥ — populated districts
  Compound: jana (people) + pada (place). Civilizational settlements. Vraja is not even a regional district — it is a wilderness of pasture.
• vana - okasaḥ — forest-dwellers
  Compound: vana (forest) + okas (dweller). The positive self-description. Gauḍīya weight: Vṛndāvana is the supreme vana; vana-okas is therefore the highest possible address. The verse renames the cowherds by their actual cosmic dignity.
• vana — forest
  From √van — to love, to desire (some etymologies). The Vraja-vana is the place of love. Even the word for 'forest' is a love-word in this context. Kṛṣṇa is moving Vraja toward seeing where it really lives.
• śaila — hill
  From √śil — mountain. The hill is named alongside the forest as Vraja's dwelling-place. The verse will pivot in the next breath to that very śaila — Govardhana — as the proper object of worship.

• UM SB 10-24-24 - Time Place Object Person - 2012-04-19 Soho
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2012-04-19· English
• BPSPSw SB 10-24-24 Hindi - 2015-08-02 ISKCON Mira Road
  His Holiness Bhakti Padma Saurabh Pracharak Swami· 2015-08-02· Hindi

A people whose hearths are between the trees and whose pots are filled by the springs of the hillside owe nothing to the lord of city-rains — their dependency map is local and visible. Kṛṣṇa makes Vraja look at the actual map of their lives, and the map has a hill and a river and cows on it, and no Indra at all.

• gavām — of the cows
  Genitive plural of go. The cows come first in the new triad — before brāhmaṇas, before even Govardhana. Gauḍīya signature: cows are Kṛṣṇa's beloveds; their pleasure is His pleasure. Worshipping cows is a direct service to gopāla.
• brāhmaṇānām — of the brāhmaṇas
  Genitive plural of brāhmaṇa. The verse is careful — the brāhmaṇas are honored even as karma-kāṇḍa is decentered. Gauḍīya rule: the vaiṣṇava-brāhmaṇa is respected; the institution is preserved while its rituals are reoriented.
• adreḥ — of the hill
  Genitive of adri — mountain. Govardhana enters the verse for the first time, named simply 'the hill.' Gauḍīya practice: even today, calling Govardhana 'the hill' or 'Giriraja' (king-among-mountains) is itself a form of worship; the name carries mercy.
• ārabhyatām — let it be begun
  Passive imperative from ā + √rabh — to commence. The voice is passive — 'let it be begun.' Kṛṣṇa does not personally inaugurate the sacrifice; He invites the elders to begin it, preserving paramparā even as He revises its target.
• indra - yāga — the Indra-sacrifice
  Compound: indra + yāga. Note: Kṛṣṇa keeps the name. He does not call the new ritual a 'kṛṣṇa-yāga.' He preserves the Indra-yāga's sambhāras — its paraphernalia — and quietly redirects them. The form is honored; the address is corrected.
• makhaḥ — sacrifice
  Vedic for yajña — echoing verse 3, where Kṛṣṇa first asked kena vā sādhyate makhaḥ. The same word reappears as the answer: not Indra's makha but Govardhana's. The chapter is a long arc from question to answer in one word.

• NRM SB 10-24-25-38
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• UM SB 10-24-25 - Sacrifice for Krishna Pleasure - 2012-04-24 Soho
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2012-04-24· English
• Padaseva Pr Seminars Oriya - SB 10-24-25
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Padaseva Pr Seminars Oriya - SB Canto-10 Chapter-24-25 - Mayapur
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Radha Gopinath Pr SB 10-24-25-30 Hindi - Govardhana Puja - 2010-10-12 ISKCON Kolhapur
  His Grace Radha Gopinath Prabhu (RNS)· 2010-10-12· Hindi
• BKG SB 10-24-25 - Traditions are Useful - 2021-04-15 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2021-04-15· English
• 01 - RGS SB 10-24-25 - Govardhan Dharan-01-Govardhan Puja ki Taiyariyan - 2014 ISKCON NVCC
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English
• ISKCON Kolhapur SB 10-24-25-30 Hindi - Govardhana Puja - 2010-10-12 Radha Gopinath Prabhu
  ISKCON Kolhapur· 2010-10-12· Hindi

A skilled cook redirects a wedding feast at the last moment from the absent guest of honor to the actual hosts of the family — same rice, same ghee, same fire, new direction. Kṛṣṇa keeps every ingredient of the indra-yāga in place and only changes the address line: from Indra to cows, brāhmaṇas, and Govardhana. The radical move is hidden inside maximum continuity.

• pacyantām — let them be cooked
  Passive imperative from √pac — to cook. The voice keeps the elders as the doers; Kṛṣṇa is still issuing requests in his father's house, not commands. Vātsalya etiquette is preserved even at the height of the chapter's reform.
• pākāḥ — cooked dishes
  Nominative plural of pāka — cooked food. The whole sequence will land on prasāda in later tradition; Gauḍīya kitchens descend in spirit from this verse, where cooking-for-the-Lord first appears as the central act of a Vraja yajña.
• pāyasa - ādayaḥ — sweet rice and other dishes
  Compound: pāyasa (sweet rice pudding) + ādi (etc.). Pāyasa is the iconic temple sweet from the Vedic period onwards. The verse plants the seed of Annakūṭa — the mountain of food — which Vraja still offers Govardhana to this day.
• saṁyāva - āpūpa — fancy cakes and round cakes
  Compound: saṁyāva (a kind of fried sweet) + āpūpa (a kind of cake). Specific traditional sweets. Gauḍīya note: the verse refuses abstraction; it names the foods by name. Bhakti loves the concrete.
• sarva - dohaḥ — all the milk produce
  Compound: sarva (all) + doha (milking). Every milk-yield of Vraja is to be brought. The cows themselves are participating: their work becomes the substance of the offering. Worship and livelihood, in Vraja, are one flowing system.

• Vraja Bihari Pr SB 10-24-26 - Mood of Best Devotees - 2013-09-25 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Grace Vraja Bihari Prabhu· 2013-09-25· English
• JAS SB 10-24-26 - 2022-10-12 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2022-10-12· English

A mother instructed to prepare a feast for her favorite child empties the larder and cooks everything she has — rice, soups, cakes, butter, cream. Kṛṣṇa, designing His own first feast in Vraja, calls for the same maximalism. Govardhana-pūjā is not austere; it is delight piled high, because the recipient is delight Himself.

• hūyantām — let them be offered into
  Passive imperative from √hu — the central ritual verb for pouring ghee into fire. Kṛṣṇa keeps the agni-hotra at the center. Gauḍīya pattern: bhakti is not iconoclastic toward Vedic form; it inhabits the form with a corrected center.
• agnayaḥ — the sacrificial fires
  Nominative plural of agni. The plural matters — multiple fires, the elaborate Vedic style. The verse fully respects ritual technicality even while redirecting the recipient.
• brahma - vādibhiḥ — by those who recite the Veda
  Compound: brahma (Veda, sacred sound) + vādibhiḥ (instrumental plural of vādin, speaker). The brāhmaṇas are named by their function. Gauḍīya doctrine: a brāhmaṇa earns the title by living Vedic speech, not by birth alone.
• bahu - guṇam — of many fine qualities
  Compound: bahu (many) + guṇa (quality). The food given to brāhmaṇas must be excellent. Worship of brāhmaṇas through food is a vaiṣṇava signature — feeding the Vaiṣṇava is feeding Viṣṇu.
• dhenu - dakṣiṇāḥ — cows as priestly gifts
  Compound: dhenu (milch cow) + dakṣiṇā (priestly gift). Even the dakṣiṇā is a cow — the verse keeps cows woven into every step. Vraja's economy is a cow-economy in service to the Lord of cows.

• Nirantara Pr SB 10-24-27 - Summarys - 2011-10-15 Buena Park
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  His Holiness Bhakti Rasamrita Swami· English
• Janananda Sw SB 10-24-27 - Duties of Brahmana - 2012 ISKCON London
  His Holiness Janananda Goswami· English
• RGS SB 10-24-27 Hindi - 2015-08-05 ISKCON Mira Road
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· 2015-08-05· English
• RGS SB 10-24-27 Hindi - 2015-08-05 ISKCON Mira Road
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· 2015-08-05· English

A new patron of an old hall keeps the choir, keeps the priests, keeps the incense — the form of the service is left intact while its purpose is renewed. Kṛṣṇa keeps the brāhmaṇas central in His new yajña, asks them to chant their mantras and accept their dakṣiṇā exactly as before. The reform is in the object, not in the personnel.

• ā - śva - cāṇḍāla — including dogs and dog-eaters
  Compound: ā (up to, including) + śva (dog) + cāṇḍāla (the lowest caste). The verse explicitly extends the feast to the outcaste. Gauḍīya teaching: prasāda is not socially graded; the Lord's mercy through food crosses every boundary.
• patitebhyaḥ — to the fallen
  Dative plural of patita — fallen, dropped. Kṛṣṇa names the fallen as eligible recipients. The vaiṣṇava is patita-pāvana (savior of the fallen); the verse plants this title in the chapter's ritual flow.
• yavasam — grass
  From √yu — green fodder. The cows are not merely the dakṣiṇā currency; they are guests at the meal. Yavasam is offered to them with the same care as cooked dishes to humans. Gauḍīya pattern: cow as recipient of worship, not only as instrument of it.
• giraye — to the hill
  Dative of giri — mountain. Govardhana receives the bali only after everyone else has eaten. The verse's order is doctrinally radical: feed the world first, offer to God last — because in Vraja's reading, the two are one act.
• baliḥ — offering, tribute
  From √bal — strong, weighty. Vedic term for the offering placed before a deity. Gauḍīya note: the word bali becomes especially weighted in vaiṣṇava ears because of Bali Mahārāja's surrender in Canto 8 — bali both names what one offers and what one becomes.

A king holds a feast and orders that everyone in the city be fed — even the cāṇḍālas and the stray dogs at the gate — before he sits down himself; only after that does the king present his cup to his own deity. Kṛṣṇa's new yajña has this universalist grace built into its structure: everyone eats before Govardhana is offered, because Govardhana is the Lord who is in everyone.

• su - alaṅkṛtāḥ — well-decorated
  Compound: su (well) + alaṅkṛta (ornamented). The cowherds are to ornament themselves before pradakṣiṇā. Gauḍīya weight: bhakti dignifies the body; the devotee dresses for the Lord, not for himself. Even the gopīs in later chapters approach Kṛṣṇa fully ornamented.
• su - anuliptāḥ — well-anointed
  Compound: su + anu + lipta (smeared, anointed). Smeared with sandalwood (candana). Gauḍīya ritual: candana on the body is a vaiṣṇava signature — fragrant, cooling, marked. The verse is encoding what will become standard ārcana practice.
• pradakṣiṇām — circumambulation
  Compound: pra (forward) + dakṣiṇā (to the right). The body's loop, keeping the worshipped object on one's right. Even today, Govardhana-parikramā re-enacts this verse precisely — 21 km of devotees still walking the circuit Kṛṣṇa Himself prescribed.
• go — cow
  From √gam — that which goes. Cows are named first in the list of objects circumambulated. The order — cow, brāhmaṇa, fire, hill — is itself a Gauḍīya hierarchy: the cow is the visible form of dharma, named before even the priest.
• parvatān — mountains (the hill)
  Accusative plural of parvata — mountain. The plural is honorific; the single Govardhana is named in the plural form, the way Gauḍīyas address Him as 'Giri-Govardhana' or 'Girirāja.' Singular hill, plural reverence.

• UM SB 10-24-29 - Celebrate - 2021-04-19 Hillsborough
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After a great wedding feast the family does not scatter; they wash, dress in their best, and walk in slow circuit around the elders' seats with folded hands. Kṛṣṇa designs the close of Govardhana-pūjā in this same vein: bathing, decoration, and pradakṣiṇā around cows, brāhmaṇas, fires, and hill — the four sustainers of Vraja's life, each receiving the body's circumambulation as an embodied praṇāma.

• matam — my opinion
  Past participle of √man — thought, considered. Kṛṣṇa softens the proposal to one word: 'mata' — opinion. Bhakti's gentleness even in command: the Lord names His own will as a mere mata to be considered.
• kriyatām — let it be done
  Passive imperative of √kṛ. Again the passive — He does not say 'do this' (active) but 'let it be done.' The voice keeps the elders as agents and Kṛṣṇa as one who only asks.
• rocate — pleases
  Present from √ruc — to shine, to please. 'If it pleases you.' Gauḍīya signature: bhakti runs on prīti, not on coercion. Even Bhagavān submits His proposals to the ruci of His devotees.
• go - brāhmaṇa - adrīṇām — of the cows, brāhmaṇas, and the hill
  Compound: go (cow) + brāhmaṇa (brāhmaṇa) + adri (hill), genitive plural. The verse fuses the three into one beloved object. Gauḍīya practice: this triad is invoked in daily Hare Kṛṣṇa prayers (go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca) — its first appearance in scripture is here.
• dayitaḥ — dear
  Past participle of √day — that which is loved. Kṛṣṇa says the sacrifice is dayita to Him. Gauḍīya weight: the same root yields 'dayitā' — beloved — used in mādhurya-rasa for the gopīs. Whatever Kṛṣṇa calls dayita, the Vraja-vāsīs rush to bring.

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• Romapada Sw SB 10-24-30 - 2020-02-27 ISKCON Chicago
  His Holiness Romapada Swami· 2020-02-27· English

A young son tells his father: 'I have an idea — try it if you like it.' The conditional is real; the gravity of who is speaking is what gives the suggestion its weight. Kṛṣṇa retains the form of suggestion to the very end, even as His proposal has, by this verse, completely replaced the indra-yāga in everyone's heart. He never compels; the elders consent because what He has said is self-evidently right.

• kāla - ātmanā — as the Soul of time
  Compound: kāla (time) + ātmā (soul, self). Kṛṣṇa is identified by Śukadeva as kāla-ātmā — Bhagavān as Time itself, the consumer of every pride. Gauḍīya pattern: aiśvarya-aspects of Kṛṣṇa surface in moments of līlā-justice, even amidst Vraja's vātsalya.
• śakra — Indra (the powerful)
  From √śak — to be able. The 'capable one.' By calling Indra śakra precisely when about to humble him, Śukadeva makes the title ironic — like Sanskrit's mahā-indra in verse 23.
• darpa — pride
  From √dṛp — to be proud, intoxicated. Specifically intoxicated arrogance. Gauḍīya frame: darpa is the disqualifier for bhakti (Gītā 16.4 lists it among āsurī-sampat). Kṛṣṇa systematically punctures it in His devotees and his rivals alike.
• jighāṁsayā — with the desire to destroy
  Desiderative of √han. The Lord 'wishes to slay' Indra's pride — note: the pride, not Indra. Gauḍīya rule: Bhagavān is enemy of the offense, friend of the offender. Indra survives; his darpa does not.
• agṛhṇanta — they accepted
  Imperfect of √grah. The elders 'grasp' Kṛṣṇa's word as proper. The same root that yields gṛhīta-cetana (one whose consciousness is captured by the Lord) — the elders are, at this moment, captured by Him.

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  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· 2022-10-16· English
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• RGS SB 10-24-31-34 Hindi - Summary of the Govardhan Lila - 2013-09-29 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· 2013-09-29· English
• RGS SB 10-24-31-34 Hindi - Summary of the Govardhan Lila - 2013-09-29 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· 2013-09-29· English
• 04 - RGS SB 10-24-31-38 - Giriraj Dharan Leela-04 - 2007 Khadia
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English

A doctor administering a bitter cure smiles, because what looks like cruelty to the bystander is the cure's first sign of working. Kṛṣṇa, named in this verse as kāla-ātmā — Time itself — has already begun the medicine for Indra's swollen pride. The elders agree to His proposal; the medicine is now in the bloodstream of heaven.

• madhusūdanaḥ — Kṛṣṇa, slayer of the demon Madhu
  Compound: madhu (the demon Madhu) + sūdana (slayer). The name evokes Bhagavān's earlier dispatch of arrogance-demons. Gauḍīya note: every name of Kṛṣṇa in a verse is doctrinally selected; here, the same Lord who slew Madhu is dismantling Indra's darpa.
• svasti - ayanam — auspicious invocation
  Compound: svasti (well-being) + ayana (course, going). The standard auspicious mantras. The form is preserved entirely; only the recipient has changed. Bhakti's conservation of ritual continuity is on full display.
• tat - dravyeṇa — with that very paraphernalia
  Compound: tat (that) + dravyeṇa (instrumental of dravya, paraphernalia). The exact ingredients gathered for Indra are used for Govardhana. Gauḍīya teaching: nothing accumulated for the Lord is wasted by re-direction; the substance is sanctified by the new address.
• balīn — offerings, tributes
  Accusative plural of bali. The full ritual offerings are presented — now to the giri and the dvijas. The same word that appeared as 'bali' in verse 28 returns in plural, completing the arc from instruction to execution.
• go - dhanāni — the cows, who are their wealth
  Compound: go (cow) + dhana (wealth). The cows themselves are named dhana — wealth. Gauḍīya doctrine: Vraja's wealth is not gold but go; the procession's center of gravity is the herd that walks the parikramā with them.
• pradakṣiṇam — circumambulation
  Singular form (verse 29 was accusative pradakṣiṇām). The Vraja-vāsīs complete the very first Govardhana-parikramā in history. Every parikramā around the hill since — Caitanya's own, the Six Gosvāmīs', and today's pilgrims' — re-walks the same loop these gopas walked first.

• Padaseva Pr Seminars Oriya - SB 10-24-32
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
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  His Holiness Romapada Swami· 2020-02-28· English

A whole household pivots in one afternoon — the linens come down from one shrine and go up at another, the cooks redirect the rice, the priests adjust their chants, the cows are brought to the front of the procession. The Vraja community executes Kṛṣṇa's reform without resistance, because what He proposed simply fit them better than what they had been doing. Bhakti, when offered its proper object, runs smoothly through the form.