10.42 · The Breaking of the Sacrificial Bow

• mādhavaḥ — Kṛṣṇa (lord of Lakṣmī, of madhu, of springtime)
  From mā (Lakṣmī) + dhava (husband); also of the Madhu dynasty. Gauḍīyas savor the choice of name here: as He walks toward Kubjā, Bhāgavata calls Him Mādhava — the husband of Śrī — to mark that even fallen attraction can ripen into rasa under His glance.
• kubjām — the hunchbacked woman
  From √kubj, to bend. She is bent in three places (trivakrā). Gauḍīya commentary: the threefold crookedness signifies body-mind-speech distortion of the conditioned soul — and Kṛṣṇa straightens all three by His touch.
• prahasan — smiling
  Present participle of pra + √has. Kṛṣṇa initiates the encounter with laughter, not with rebuke. Gauḍīya note: the Lord's smile (smita) is itself the first mercy — Vraja-rasa begins where His face brightens.
• rasa — the pleasure of love
  The technical term Gauḍīyas inherit from the Bhāgavatam. Here qualified by pradaḥ — 'giver of rasa.' Even in this minor-key encounter with Kubjā, the verse marks Kṛṣṇa's defining function: rasa-distribution.
• pradaḥ — the bestower
  From pra + √dā. Kṛṣṇa is the giver. Kubjā has not asked; He has already begun to give. Gauḍīya doctrine: kṛpā precedes prayer.

• SB 10-42-01 10-43-16 - The Breaking of the Sacrificial Bow - Gauranga Darshan Prabhu 2016-08-31
  Bhaktivedanta Vidyapitha-Govardhan Eco Village· 2016-08-31· English
• NRM SB 10-42-01-14
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• Gauranga Darshan Pr SB 10-42-01 10-43-16 - The Breaking of the Sacrificial Bow - 2016-08-31
  His Grace Gauranga Darshan Prabhu· 2016-08-31· English
• Lilananda Pr SB 10-42-01 - 2014-05-15 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Lilananda Prabhu· 2014-05-15· English
• 02 - RGS SB 10-42-01-12 - Kamsa Vadh-The Breaking of the Sacrificial Bow - 2011-04-12 Charkop Kandivali
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· 2011-04-12· English
• 04 - RGS SB 10-42-01-07 - Mathura Lila-04 - 2008 Haridwar
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English
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  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English
• Ramai Sw SB 10-42-01-13 - 2006-11-22
  His Holiness Ramai Swami· 2006-11-22· English

A traveling king, walking the dust roads of His own capital, stops to speak to a crooked maidservant carrying perfumes for His enemy — and His first word is a smile. The road to Kṛṣṇa begins not with our straightness but with His turning toward us as we are.

• anulepanam — ointment
  From anu + √lip — to smear along. The fragrant unguent meant for Kaṁsa is redirected to Kṛṣṇa's body. Gauḍīya commentators: whatever was prepared for the wicked king becomes, by re-direction, the first offering in service — the principle of yukta-vairāgya.
• sādhu — honestly, well
  Adverb from √sādh, to accomplish. Kṛṣṇa asks for the truth plainly. The Lord, who already knows, draws speech out of His devotee — speech is itself a limb of sevā.
• dehi — please give
  Imperative of √dā. The Lord begs from His own servant. Gauḍīya reading: Bhagavān, who needs nothing, asks — because being asked-from is the joy He gives the bhakta.
• śreyaḥ — benefit, ultimate good
  From √śri. In Gauḍīya usage śreyas is the higher good (prema) over preyas (the pleasant). Kṛṣṇa promises Kubjā śreyas — and what she receives, the straightening, is only its outer sign.
• uttamam — excellent
  Superlative of ud. The Lord asks for the best portion. Devotional principle: offer Him the best, not the leftover; He is not honored by remainders.

• BDDS SB 10-42-02 - 2023-07-08 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Bhakti Dhira Damodar Swami· 2023-07-08· English

A great physician on His rounds asks a patient for her own remedy — not because He needs it, but because accepting her offering is the medicine she needs. Kṛṣṇa asks Kubjā for ointment as a pretext to give her Himself.

• dāsī — a servant, female slave
  From √dās. She names herself dāsī of Kaṁsa — but the Bhāgavatam preserves the word so Gauḍīyas can hear, beneath it, the true designation of every jīva: dāsa of Kṛṣṇa. Caitanya's siddhānta: jīvera 'svarūpa' haya kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa'.
• trivakra-nāmā — named Trivakrā, bent in three places
  Compound: tri (three) + vakra (crooked) + nāmā (named). The three bends are traditionally read as the kuṭilatā of body, mind, and speech in the baddha-jīva. The very name records what Kṛṣṇa is about to undo.
• bhoja-pateḥ — to the lord of the Bhojas (Kaṁsa)
  Genitive of bhoja-pati. Until this moment her perfume served the enjoyer-king who exemplifies asuric possession. Gauḍīya frame: bhoga (enjoyment) is the rival principle to sevā — Kubjā's stock is about to switch sides.
• anulepa — ointment, smearing
  From anu + √lip. Her craft. Gauḍīya note: skill is not renounced in bhakti, it is redirected; the same hand that anointed the demon now anoints the Lord.
• sundara — O handsome one
  From su + undara. She addresses Kṛṣṇa first by His beauty — and beauty (saundarya) is precisely the door through which mādhurya-rasa enters. Her aesthetic eye opens before her devotional eye.

A maidservant who has prepared perfume for her master her whole life suddenly finds the true Master standing in front of her — and her trade, until that moment a livelihood, becomes worship. Every ordinary skill in the world is waiting for the day it meets Kṛṣṇa.

• rūpa — beauty
  The first of the five conquerors listed: rūpa (form). Gauḍīya aesthetics: Kṛṣṇa's rūpa is sac-cid-ānanda condensed into vigraha — not symbolic beauty but ontological beauty.
• mādhurya — sweetness
  From √madh. The signature word of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Mādhurya is what makes Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān rather than merely Viṣṇu — His sweetness exceeds His majesty. Even Kubjā, no gopī, is undone by it.
• hasita — smiles
  Past participle of √has. His smile is enumerated as a separate conquering weapon. Gauḍīya: smita is a distinct anubhāva of mādhurya-rasa — Caitanya wept for it.
• ālāpa — talking
  From ā + √lap. His voice, His words. The Bhāgavata insists that the sound of Kṛṣṇa is a self-sufficient channel of grace — śravaṇa is the first limb of bhakti.
• vīkṣitaiḥ — by glances
  Instrumental plural of past participle of vi + √īkṣ. His side-glance (kaṭākṣa). Gauḍīya: a single kaṭākṣa is the difference between bondage and liberation; here it triggers Kubjā's whole-self surrender.
• dharṣita — overwhelmed
  Past participle of √dhṛṣ. Forcefully overcome. The verse does not say she chose to give — she was overpowered. Bhakti often begins as being-taken, not as taking.

• Sarvabhauma Pr Hindi SB 10-42-04 - 2022-12-11 ISKCON Juhu
  His Grace Sarvabhauma Prabhu· 2022-12-11· Hindi
• Sarvabhauma Pr SB 10-42-04 - 2023-07-10 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Grace Sarvabhauma Prabhu· 2023-07-10· English

A miser cracks open her sealed chest and pours its contents at the feet of a stranger because His face has rewritten the meaning of wealth. Kubjā's reserve melts; what was rationed becomes lavish. Kṛṣṇa's beauty is the only economics that turns scarcity into flood.

• varṇa — color, complexion
  Kṛṣṇa's varṇa is śyāma (dark blue), Balarāma's is gaura (fair). Gauḍīya iconography preserves the contrast; later it returns in Caitanya, the gaura embodiment of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa together.
• anurañjitau — anointed, colored
  From anu + √rañj. The root rañj — to color, to delight, to attach. Gauḍīya pun: rasa itself is anurāga, the soul's coloring by Kṛṣṇa. The body-paint is rasa's outer form.
• śuśubhāte — They appeared beautiful
  Perfect dual of √śubh — to shine, to be auspicious. Both brothers shine. Gauḍīya doctrine: Balarāma is ādi-guru, the principle of sevā; His shining beside Kṛṣṇa is the model for every servant-attendant pair.
• rāgeṇa — with the coloring cosmetic
  From √rañj. Rāga — the same word that names attachment. Gauḍīya school is the rāga-mārga: the path of spontaneous attachment, prefigured here as cosmetic but pointing to the inner stain of love.
• para — highest, supreme
  Used with bhagena: parama-aiśvarya, the highest splendor. The verse insists the brothers' beauty is not equaled — anywhere.

• Chaitanya Charan Pr SB 10-42-05 - 2023-07-12 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Grace Chaitanya Charan Prabhu· 2023-07-12· English

Sandalwood paste on a dark-blue body and dark unguent on a fair one — each color shining brighter against its opposite. The Lord's beauty is not lessened by what we put on Him; our offering finds its meaning by contrasting against Him.

• prasannaḥ — satisfied, gracious
  From pra + √sad. Prasāda flows from prasannatā. Gauḍīya note: He is not bargaining — He is already pleased; the straightening is the natural overflow of His already-given grace.
• bhagavān — the Supreme Lord
  The six-fold opulence one: aiśvarya, vīrya, yaśas, śrī, jñāna, vairāgya (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47). Used here precisely because what He does next is an aiśvarya display compressed into a tender act.
• darśane — of seeing Him
  Locative of darśana. Gauḍīya doctrine: darśana is not passive viewing — it is reciprocal exchange. The verse calls Kubjā's transformation the phala (fruit) of one such darśana.
• phalam — the result, fruit
  From √phal. Every contact with the Lord bears phala — the verse here makes Kubjā the demonstration-case, the public proof that even an unintended darśana ripens.
• rucira — attractive
  From √ruc, to shine, to please. Even in her crooked state her face was rucira — Gauḍīya commentators note that Kṛṣṇa's mercy descends through the latent goodness already there; nothing is wasted.

• PSarasvati Sw SB 10-42-06-10 - 2023-07-13 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami· 2023-07-13· English

A sculptor seeing a piece of warped wood does not throw it out; He turns it on His knee until it remembers its straight form. Kṛṣṇa straightens Kubjā not because she earned it but to show the world what one darśana of Him does to a soul.

• padbhyām — with both His feet
  Instrumental dual of pad. Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet are pressing on her toes. Gauḍīya devotion centers on caraṇāravinda — here the very feet that Lakṣmī massages are pressing a maidservant's toes. The hierarchy of mercy is inverted.
• prapade — on her toes
  Locative of prapada. The contact point is the lowest — the toes. Gauḍīya commentators read this as the Lord beginning from the most distant, most peripheral point of the jīva and lifting from there.
• acyutaḥ — the infallible one
  From a + √cyu — never falling. The Bhāgavata names Him Acyuta precisely at the moment He acts on Kubjā: His act cannot fail. Kubjā's transformation is guaranteed not by her merit but by His name.
• uttāna — pointing upwards
  From ud + √tan. His two fingers point up — the gesture of lifting. Gauḍīya reading: the Lord's mudrā is always uttāna, always upward; the jīva's natural drift is downward, and bhakti is the upward correction.
• udanīnamat — He raised, He bent upward
  Imperfect causative of ud + √nam. To make-bend-upward. The same root nam used for praṇāma is here applied to Kṛṣṇa straightening Kubjā — a beautiful Bhāgavata wordplay: He who is offered praṇāma is now Himself bending a soul into a new posture.

A blacksmith's apprentice could never have straightened that twisted bar; the master needs only one motion — feet on the base, two fingers under the chin. The leverage of the Lord is His mere will; everything else is just the visible part of the gesture.

• mukunda-sparśanāt — by the touch of Lord Mukunda
  Compound: mukunda (giver of mukti) + sparśana (touch) + ablative -āt. Gauḍīya: the verse names Him Mukunda because the touch gives more than mukti — it gives prema-yogyatā (the fitness for prema), as Kubjā's next verses will show.
• sadyaḥ — suddenly, at once
  Adverb. Instantaneous. Gauḍīya principle: Bhagavān's mercy is not gradual — when it comes it is total, sadyaḥ. The long crookedness yields in one moment.
• ṛju — straight
  The opposite of vakra. The verse uses ṛju as the lifelong name of what Kubjā becomes. Gauḍīya allegory: kuṭila-jīva becoming ṛju-jīva — the bhakta's straightness.
• pramadā — a beautiful woman
  From pra + √mad — to be intoxicated, to delight. She is now pramadā — one whose presence delights. Gauḍīya note: even in her former condition Kṛṣṇa engaged her; now her outer form too matches her devotional capacity.
• uttamā — most perfect
  Superlative. The Bhāgavata grants the transformed Kubjā the highest grade of beauty — but uses the same word it uses for uttama-bhakti elsewhere, signalling that this outer change foreshadows an inner promotion.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-42-08 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• 05 - RGS SB 10-42-08-30 - Mathura Lila-05 - 2008 Haridwar
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English

A coal lying among ashes touched by fire suddenly remembers it is gold — not changed, only revealed. Mukunda's touch did not add beauty to Kubjā; it uncovered the form she had always been beneath her crookedness.

• rūpa-guṇa-audārya-sampannā — endowed with beauty, character, and generosity
  Contiguous compound: rūpa (beauty) + guṇa (character) + audārya (generosity) + sampannā (endowed). The Bhāgavata grants her all three at once. Gauḍīya note: rūpa-guṇa-audārya are precisely the categories used for Kṛṣṇa Himself elsewhere — Kubjā is being given a fragment of the Lord's own qualities.
• keśavam — Lord Kṛṣṇa (the long-haired one, or slayer of Keśī)
  Used at the moment lust arises in her — Gauḍīya commentators note the ironic dignity of the name: even when approached lustfully, the Lord is named Keśava, the slayer of demons, untouchable by such currents.
• hṛt-śayā — lusty feelings, lying-in-the-heart desire
  Compound: hṛt (heart) + śayā (lying). Kāma sleeping in the heart, now awakened. Gauḍīya: Kubjā's response is kāma, not prema. The chapter quietly marks the difference, the same difference Caitanya makes central — kāma seeks self, prema seeks Kṛṣṇa.
• uttarīya — of His upper garment
  From ud + √tṝ. Her hand grips the cloth, not the feet. Gauḍīya commentators read this as the precise gesture of immature attachment: holding the outer garment rather than touching caraṇa-aravinda.
• smayantī — smiling
  Present participle of √smi. Her smile is now a worldly woman's smile, not a devotee's smile. The same word that described Kṛṣṇa in verse 1 (prahasan) now describes her — but the inner content differs. The Bhāgavata expects us to feel the gap.

A patient newly cured of paralysis seizes the doctor's coat and asks Him to stay — gratitude swerving toward possession. Kubjā's new beauty rushes ahead of her devotion; she clutches Kṛṣṇa's cloth instead of His feet. The mercy was real; the response is still half-formed.

• ehi — come
  Imperative of ā + √i. The same word a guru speaks to a śiṣya, here in inverted register — the conditioned soul, addressing the Lord, says ehi to Him. Gauḍīya note: the call is sincere but unripe.
• vīra — O hero
  From √vīr. She addresses Him as warrior, as masculine power. The Bhāgavata records the address as Kubjā's rasa — not the vraja-rasa of intimate friendship but a more external, almost public worship of His vīrya.
• prasīda — please be merciful
  Imperative from pra + √sad. Even here, mixed with lust, the cry is prasīda — and Gauḍīya commentators note that this single word, sincerely uttered, is enough; the rest of Kubjā's longing will mature in due course.
• tyaktum — to leave
  Infinitive of √tyaj. She cannot tolerate His leaving. Gauḍīya parallel: this is the gopīs' theme also (mā jahā mā jahā) — but in Kubjā the inability is bodily, in the gopīs it is the soul's. Same surface, different rasa.
• unmathita — agitated, churned up
  Past participle of ud + √math — to churn. Her mind is churned. Gauḍīya: the same root that gives mathana for ocean-churning and for Yaśodā's butter — Kṛṣṇa is always the churner of hearts.

A traveler is offered shelter by a stranger who mistakes hospitality for love. The traveler cannot stay; His road runs to Kaṁsa. Yet He will not shame her — He receives her offer with grace and walks on. Even Kṛṣṇa's refusals are tender.

• rāmasya — of Balarāma
  Genitive. Kṛṣṇa looks first at Balarāma's face. Gauḍīya note: in delicate moments Kṛṣṇa consults His ādi-guru. The brotherhood here models guru-consultation for the bhakta in any awkward situation.
• gopānām — of the cowherd boys
  Genitive plural. He looks also at the sakhās. Gauḍīya: sakhya-rasa is not abandoned even in Mathurā. The boys' watching gaze is part of the moral fabric of the moment — He will say nothing in their presence He could not say in Vraja.
• vīkṣya — glancing
  Absolutive of vi + √īkṣ. The same glance He used in verse 4 to overpower Kubjā is now used to consult His companions. Gauḍīya commentary: Kṛṣṇa's gaze is multidirectional — to the lover it conquers, to the friend it consults.
• prahasan — laughing
  Same word as verse 1. He began the encounter with a smile and now closes it with one. The frame of His mercy is laughter — never irritation, never cold dismissal.
• uvāca — He said
  Perfect of √vac. The verb of authoritative speech. What follows in verse 12 is therefore not casual deflection but a Bhāgavata-recorded utterance — to be read theologically.

A father with a delicate matter glances at His older brother and at the watching boys before answering — composing not the words but the rasa. Even Kṛṣṇa's social grace is exemplary: He never humiliates the one who loves Him crookedly.

• eṣyāmi — I will go (to your house)
  Future of ā + √i. He uses the future tense — and Gauḍīyas note: the future visit, traditionally identified in later texts, is the gesture of a Lord who does not break a promise. He will come, but on His own kālacakra.
• sādhita-arthaḥ — having accomplished My purpose
  Compound: sādhita (accomplished) + artha (purpose). His prior artha is the killing of Kaṁsa and the relief of the earth. Gauḍīya hierarchy: lokānugraha (universal favor) precedes personal favors. The bhakta accepts the queue.
• ādhi — mental distress
  From ā + √dhā. The technical term for psychological pain. He calls her house the eradicator of ādhi for travelers — a polite, Gauḍīya-noted irony, since His true home for the ādhi-burdened is the holy name, not Kubjā's parlor.
• agṛhāṇām — for those without a home
  Genitive plural of a + gṛha. Kṛṣṇa describes Himself and the boys as homeless. Gauḍīya theological note: Vraja is the only home; Mathurā is exile. The avadhūta-tone here forecasts the bhakta-renouncer ideal — Caitanya and the Gosvāmīs were also agṛhāṇām.
• pānthānām — of those traveling on the road
  Genitive plural of panthāḥ. The Lord and His companions are pilgrims on a road. The bhakta lives as a pānthā — passing through, never settling in the world's lodgings.

• SB 10-42-12-40 10-43 - The Breaking of the Sacrificial Bow - Gauranga Darshan Prabhu 2017-08-28
  Bhaktivedanta Vidyapitha-Govardhan Eco Village· 2017-08-28· English
• Gauranga Darshan Pr SB 10-42-12-40 10-43 - The Breaking of the Sacrificial Bow - 2017-08-28
  His Grace Gauranga Darshan Prabhu· 2017-08-28· English

A surgeon promises the patient He will visit her later — first He must remove the tumor. Kṛṣṇa promises Kubjā after, never before, the killing of Kaṁsa. Mercy waits on the prior surgery of dharma.

• mādhvyā-vāṇyā — with sweet words
  Instrumental: mādhvī (honey-sweet, feminine) + vāṇī (speech). Gauḍīya note: even the parting words to Kubjā are mādhvī — Kṛṣṇa never leaves a soul in bitterness, even when He must walk on.
• vaṇik-pathaiḥ — by the merchants
  Compound: vaṇik (trader) + patha (path; collective: those of the merchant-road). Mathurā's economy bows. Gauḍīya note: bhakti includes the gṛhastha trader — sevā of Kṛṣṇa is not the renunciant's monopoly.
• upāyana — respectful offerings
  From upa + √i + -ana. A formal gift offered to a superior. The Bhāgavata names the offering as upāyana, not dāna — to mark the recipient's exaltedness, not the giver's charity.
• tāmbūla — betel nut, pān
  Specifically tāmbūla — the after-dinner-mouth-freshener offering. Gauḍīya pūjā preserves tāmbūla-arpaṇa as a distinct sevā limb (Hari-bhakti-vilāsa). Mathurā's traders unknowingly perform it.
• agra-jaḥ — His elder brother (Balarāma)
  Compound: agra (front, eldest) + ja (born). Balarāma is named via his birth-order. Gauḍīya: the agra-ja is always honored first; the merchants worship Balarāma alongside Kṛṣṇa, modeling the bhakta's twin reverence.

• Akuti Mataji SB 10-42-13-14 - 2014-05-21 ISKCON Alachua
  Her Grace Akuti Mataji· 2014-05-21· English
• Mukunda Datta Pr SB 10-42-13-14 - 2023-07-16 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Grace Mukunda Datta Prabhu· 2023-07-16· English
• 03 - RGS SB 10-42-13-38 - Kamsa Vadh-The Breaking of the Sacrificial Bow - 2011-04-13 Charkop Kandivali
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· 2011-04-13· English
• 04 - RGS SB 10-42-13 10-43-12 - Krishna ka Mathura mai Pravesh-04 - Chicago
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English

A king walking through the bazaar accepts pān and garlands not because He needs them but because the merchants need to give. The roadside worship of Mathurā's traders is a small rehearsal of the city-wide ārati Kṛṣṇa is about to receive.

• smara — Cupid, kāma-deva
  From √smṛ — to remember (Cupid is so called because he 'reminds' of pleasure). Gauḍīya distinction: smara/kāma in Mathurā's women is mundane; in the gopīs the same surface is kṛṣṇa-kāma (pure devotional desire). Same word, different ontology.
• kṣobhāt — by their agitation
  Ablative of kṣobha — disturbance, churning. The Bhāgavata names what happens precisely: not love, but agitation. Gauḍīya note: agitation by Kṛṣṇa's form, even unrefined, is preferable to dull indifference; it is raw material rasa can refine.
• visrasta — disheveled
  Past participle of vi + √sras — to fall away. Clothes, hair, ornaments fall loose. Gauḍīya commentary: outward decorum dissolves before Kṛṣṇa — what the world calls disorder is, when oriented to Him, the body's spontaneous praṇāma.
• lekhya-mūrtayaḥ — their forms as if drawn in a picture
  Compound: lekhya (to be drawn) + mūrti (form). They become still as paintings. Bhāgavata's poetic touch — stillness is also a kind of bhāva (stambha, paralysis), one of the eight sāttvika-bhāvas Rūpa Gosvāmī catalogues.
• na avidan — they could not recognize (themselves)
  Imperfect of √vid with negation. Loss of self-awareness. Gauḍīya: this is the seed-form of the gopīs' ātma-vismṛti (self-forgetting in Kṛṣṇa) — but here without the rasa-architecture to sustain it.

Painters caught mid-stroke when the model arrives and turns out to be the Sun itself — their hands fall, their brushes hover, their work suspended. Mathurā's women are not seduced; they are stopped. Beauty that is Bhagavān is also a kind of arrest.

• dhanuṣaḥ-sthānam — the place of the bow
  Contiguous: dhanuṣa (bow) + sthāna (place). He asks where it is. Gauḍīya note: He knows already, of course — the asking is līlā, drawing the Mathurā-vāsīs into participation. Bhagavān stages even His own omniscience.
• acyutaḥ — the infallible Supreme Lord
  The same name used at Kubjā's straightening (verse 7) is used again as He approaches the bow. The Bhāgavata is binding the two events: the same Acyuta who lifted Kubjā will lift and snap Kaṁsa's bow.
• aindram — of Lord Indra (or like Indra's)
  Possessive adjective of indra. The bow is Indra-class — meant for kings. Gauḍīya note: aiśvarya-grade weapons are about to fall before the simple hands of the cowherd Lord.
• adbhutam — amazing
  From a + √bhū — that which makes one say 'oh.' The Bhāgavata pre-names the scene as adbhuta-rasa. Rūpa Gosvāmī enumerates adbhuta as one of the seven auxiliary rasas; the chapter is staging it for the reader.
• praviṣṭaḥ — entering
  Past participle of pra + √viś. He enters the arena. The Lord's entries are themselves marked events in the Bhāgavata — He never merely arrives; He praviśati, He penetrates the scene.

A surgeon asking directions to the operating theatre — He has come for one purpose, and even the city-folk's worship cannot delay it. The bow at the dhanur-yāga is the next item on the divine agenda; everything else, however sweet, must wait.

• guptam — guarded
  Past participle of √gup — to protect. The bow is heavily guarded. Gauḍīya: guarding what Bhagavān has decided to take is the asuric posture — Kaṁsa exemplifies it across the canto.
• arcitam — being worshiped
  Past participle of √arc. The bow is ritually worshiped by Kaṁsa's men. Gauḍīya commentary: this is misdirected pūjā — energy spent on weapons instead of on the Lord. The Bhāgavata silently contrasts this arcana with the merchants' upāyana of verse 13.
• vāryamāṇaḥ — warded off
  Present passive participle of √vṛ — to obstruct. Many tried to stop Him. The Bhāgavata insists on this obstruction so that the breaking is doubly impressive — He acted not in unguarded space but against active resistance.
• prasahya — by force, overpowering
  Absolutive of pra + √sah — to bear, to overcome. Kṛṣṇa does not slip past the guards; He overrides them. Gauḍīya note: the same Lord who is bound by Yaśodā's rope here forces His way through a king's guard — līlā holds both possibilities simultaneously.
• ādade — He took up, picked up
  Perfect of ā + √dā. The act of lifting the bow. Gauḍīya parallel: the same root that gives ādāna for Rāma's lifting of Śiva's bow (Sītā-svayaṁvara) — the Bhāgavata is quietly aligning Kṛṣṇa's act with Rāma's.

• BKG SB 10-42-16 - Krishna Entering Mathura - 2014-05-17 Sweden
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2014-05-17· English

Palace guards form a ring around the royal weapon; a country boy walks through them as though they were tall grass. Kaṁsa's elaborate defenses become, against Kṛṣṇa, a child's stick-fence — not because the guards are weak, but because the world's barriers are not the kind that hold Bhagavān.

• kareṇa-vāmena — with His left hand
  Instrumental: kara (hand) + vāma (left). Kṛṣṇa uses the left, lesser hand. Gauḍīya commentary: the dominant right hand is reserved for the flute and for Rādhā's hand — the bow merits only the left.
• sa-līlam — playfully
  Compound: sa (with) + līlā (play). The Bhāgavata's signature word inserted at the climactic act. Kṛṣṇa's most decisive interventions are līlā, not labor. Gauḍīya: even the killing of Kaṁsa's bow is part of nitya-līlā.
• nimiṣeṇa — in the wink of an eye
  Instrumental of nimiṣa — the blinking of an eyelid, a unit of time. The Bhāgavata measures the deed in the smallest visible duration. Gauḍīya: aiśvarya operates in instants; sādhana operates in lifetimes; only kṛpā bridges the difference.
• ikṣu-daṇḍam — a stalk of sugarcane
  Compound: ikṣu (sugarcane) + daṇḍa (stick). The simile. Sugarcane is sweet — and Gauḍīya commentators (Viśvanātha) note: even Kṛṣṇa's destruction is sweet. The image He breaks is not a sword or a club; it is sugar.
• mada-karī — an excited elephant
  Compound: mada (rut, intoxication) + karin (elephant — 'doer-with-hand,' i.e., trunk). The image: Kṛṣṇa is the elephant, intoxicated with His own youth and purpose. Bhāgavata pairs aiśvarya with playfulness — the elephant is not malicious, only effortless.
• urukramaḥ — wide-striding Lord
  Compound: uru (wide) + krama (stride). The Vāmana epithet — He who took the universe in three strides. The Bhāgavata invokes it here: the same wide-strider is now snapping a bow. Vāmana-līlā and Kṛṣṇa-līlā are interleaved at the level of name.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-42-17 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

An elephant idly bites through a stalk of sugarcane between meals — no effort, no triumph, only an absent-minded snap. The bow that hundreds of men had worshiped is, to Kṛṣṇa's left hand, a piece of cane on the path. The Lord's mighty deeds are His indifferent ones.

• śabdaḥ — the sound
  From √śabd. The verse foregrounds śabda — sound itself. Gauḍīya note: śabda is the upādāna (material cause) of the Lord's revelation; here the same śabda principle is used in inverted register to terrify the demon.
• kham — the earth (here: space)
  Bhāgavata uses kha for sky / space. The sound fills kha plus rodasī plus diśaḥ — every dimension. Gauḍīya: when the Lord acts, the soundprint of the act saturates the cosmos.
• rodasī — the sky (heaven-and-earth pair)
  Dual of rodas — the Vedic pair of heaven and earth. The Bhāgavata reaches for the most ancient cosmographic term. Kṛṣṇa's act is recorded in Vedic register.
• kaṁsaḥ — King Kaṁsa
  The name of the demon-king. Gauḍīya commentators note that Kaṁsa, the chief of asuric obstruction in Canto 10, is first named in this verse with the verb upāgamat — 'came under,' 'submitted to.' The grammar already shows him submitting to terror.
• trāsam — fear
  From √tras — to tremble. Trāsa is the technical word for the physical shudder. Gauḍīya: even before Kṛṣṇa lifts a finger against him, Kaṁsa's body has begun the trāsa-pose of a defeated demon.
• upāgamat — He experienced, He approached
  Imperfect of upa + ā + √gam. He went-into fear. The Bhāgavata uses motion-verbs for emotion: Kaṁsa enters trāsa as one enters a room. Asura-rasa is being narrated in technical Sanskrit.

A great bell rung once in a palace courtyard reverberates through every chamber until even the king on the highest floor goes pale. The bow's crack is heard by Kaṁsa before any messenger reaches him — the demon's body knows what the demon's mind has not yet admitted: his death has begun.

• ātatāyinaḥ — holding weapons (aggressors)
  From ā + √tan — to stretch. Specifically: those who have stretched their weapons. The Dharmaśāstra word for an attacker against whom self-defense is permitted (Manu). Gauḍīya: Kṛṣṇa's response in verse 20 is therefore dharmically pre-justified.
• kupitāḥ — angered
  Past participle of √kup — to be angry. The guards' anger contrasts with Kṛṣṇa's playfulness. Gauḍīya rasa-theory: krodha is an asuric register; even when Kṛṣṇa fights, He does so without krodha, only with hāsya.
• āvavruḥ — surrounded
  Perfect of ā + √vṛ. They enclose Him. Gauḍīya note: encirclement is the asura's standard tactic — Kṛṣṇa is repeatedly surrounded across the canto and always exits centrally. The geometry mirrors the soul's situation: encircled by saṁsāra, exited via the center, which is Kṛṣṇa.
• gṛhītu-kāmāḥ — wanting to seize
  Contiguous compound: gṛhītu (to seize) + kāma (desire). They want to capture Him. Gauḍīya: the asura always wants gṛhīti — to seize; the bhakta wants gṛhīti reversed — to be seized by the Lord. Same root, inverted polarity.
• vadhyatām — let him be killed
  Third-person imperative passive of √vadh. Their cry. The Bhāgavata preserves their exact words. Gauḍīya note: the imperative against the immortal Lord is the asura's perpetual absurdity.

Wasps disturbed at midday rise as one swarm — angry, organized, useless against the gardener who has just clipped their nest. Kaṁsa's armed guards converge in formation; the Bhāgavata records their shouts and weapons so that we feel the contrast when Kṛṣṇa, with two pieces of a broken bow, dismantles them.

• durabhiprāyān — with evil intent
  Compound: dur (bad) + abhi (toward) + prāya (intent). The Bhāgavata names the guards' intent. Gauḍīya doctrine: the Lord acts only against durabhiprāya, never against ignorance alone. His violence is precision-targeted.
• bala-keśavau — Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa
  Contiguous compound: Bala (Balarāma) + Keśava (Kṛṣṇa). Dual. The two brothers act in concert. Gauḍīya: Balarāma is named first — agra-ja's precedence preserved even in combat.
• kruddhau — angry
  Past participle dual of √krudh. Both become angry. Gauḍīya note: Bhagavān's krodha is dharma-krodha — not vyākulatā but rakṣaṇa, protective fierceness. Different in kind from the kupitāḥ guards of verse 19.
• śakale — the two broken pieces
  Locative-dual of śakala — fragment. The two halves of the bow. Gauḍīya commentators savor the detail: what the enemy worshiped becomes, in pieces, what kills him. The Lord uses His enemies' offerings against them.
• jaghnatuḥ — the two of Them struck
  Perfect dual of √han. The verb of killing. The Bhāgavata reserves √han for sacred violence — Kṛṣṇa's hananam is not crime but cosmic re-balancing.

A surgeon's instruments shattered mid-operation become themselves the tools by which the surgery is finished. The very bow whose worship was Kaṁsa's defense becomes, in two halves, the weapon of his guards' destruction. Kṛṣṇa improvises with the wreckage of the enemy's reverence.

• kaṁsa-prahitam — sent by Kaṁsa
  Contiguous compound: Kaṁsa + prahita (sent). The reinforcements are named as Kaṁsa's. Gauḍīya commentary: the asura keeps escalating; each escalation costs him more. The pattern repeats across Canto 10 — Pūtanā, Tṛṇāvarta, Aghāsura — and culminates in Kaṁsa himself.
• hatvā — having killed
  Absolutive of √han. Past-completed action; the killing is finished before the next verb begins. Gauḍīya note: Kṛṣṇa's combats end cleanly — He does not linger, He does not gloat.
• ceratuḥ — the two of Them walked along
  Perfect dual of √car — to move. They go on strolling. Gauḍīya: after slaughter, līlā continues unbroken. The Lord's destruction is not narratively privileged over His sight-seeing — both are equal līlā.
• hṛṣṭau — happy
  Past participle dual of √hṛṣ — to be delighted. Both brothers are happy after the killing. Gauḍīya: the asura's death is the cosmos's holiday; the Lord shares the cosmos's relief.
• pura-sampadaḥ — the riches of the city
  Contiguous compound: pura (city) + sampad (wealth). They observe Mathurā's opulence. Gauḍīya parallel: the brothers came from Vraja's natural beauty to Mathurā's urban beauty — and they look at it without attachment, the model of yukta-vairāgya.

A king's son, having broken a wedding-pot, strolls out of the bridal court to admire the city as though nothing has happened. Kṛṣṇa kills a battalion, exits the arena by the front gate, and then sight-sees Mathurā — the lightness of Bhagavān after action is itself a teaching.

• adbhutam — amazing
  Repeats from verse 15. The chapter brackets the bow-incident with adbhuta-rasa — the Lord's action is the textbook example of the sthāyī-bhāva 'wonder' (vismaya). Rūpa Gosvāmī's rasa-śāstra would later codify this.
• vīryam — heroic deed
  From √vīr — to be heroic. One of the six aiśvaryas (jñāna, śakti, bala, aiśvarya, vīrya, tejas). The verse uses the Bhāgavata's technical lexicon to mark what the citizens witnessed.
• tejaḥ — strength, brilliance
  From √tij — to be sharp, to flash. Tejas is the visible aura of power. Gauḍīya commentators note that Kṛṣṇa's tejas, normally veiled, was permitted to flash here precisely so the city would later recognize Him.
• prāgalbhyam — boldness
  From pragalbha — bold, mature. The Bhāgavata catalogues the qualities visible to the city. Gauḍīya note: prāgalbhya is one of the gopī-nāyaka qualities Rūpa Gosvāmī enumerates in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi — a sambhoga-nāyaka trait shining here in a martial register.
• vibudha-uttamau — two of the best of demigods
  Contiguous compound: vibudha (wise one, demigod) + uttamau (best, dual). The citizens' mistaken classification. Gauḍīya commentary: they place Kṛṣṇa within the deva-category — a half-step toward truth, the full truth being Bhagavān, source of devas.

Witnesses to a miracle reach for the only category they have — 'these must be gods.' Mathurā's citizens have the right intuition with the wrong taxonomy. The Bhāgavata records their guess because right intuition without correct frame is still the first step.

• svairam — at Their will, freely
  Adverb from sva + īra. By Their own pleasure. Gauḍīya: Kṛṣṇa moves svairam — His every motion is independently willed, not driven. The bhakta's ideal is to come within range of this svaira-līlā.
• ādityaḥ — the sun
  From √ad — to eat (the sun consumes darkness). Setting suns frame Kṛṣṇa's days in Canto 10. Gauḍīya note: even sūrya is just a lamp in Bhagavān's drama — sun rises and sets to mark His scenes.
• kṛṣṇa-rāmau — Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma
  Contiguous compound dual. The brothers' joint name. Gauḍīya: kṛṣṇa-rāma is itself a mantra-pair (Rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan, Brahma-saṁhitā 5.39) — the same Bhagavān in two simultaneous forms.
• gopaiḥ — by the cowherd boys
  Instrumental plural of gopa. The sakhās are still with Him — Mathurā has not severed Vraja. Gauḍīya emphasis: gopa-saṅga is not abandoned even in the killing-week of the demon.
• śakaṭam — the wagons, the encampment
  From √śak — that which carries. The śakaṭa is the cowherd's caravan. Gauḍīya parallel: the same word used for the cart Kṛṣṇa kicked over as an infant (Śakaṭāsura, SB 10.7) — the Bhāgavata's vocabulary keeps returning to the cowherd's domestic geometry.

Two princes who have toured a strange city all afternoon return at dusk to the wagons of their fathers' camp — the day's work done, the night ahead's larger work undisclosed. Kṛṣṇa keeps the rhythm of an ordinary cowherd day even on the eve of His most consequential combat.

• gopyaḥ — the gopīs
  Plural of gopī. Their prophecy. Gauḍīya theology: the gopīs' speech is itself śruti — Caitanya treats their words as the highest revelation. Their parting predictions in SB 10.39 are now being fulfilled.
• mukunda-vigame — when Lord Mukunda was departing
  Locative compound: Mukunda + vigama (departure). The Bhāgavata names the moment of separation. Gauḍīya: vigama from Vraja is the central trauma of Canto 10's later half — and the gopīs' viraha-bhāva is the highest rasa-grade Rūpa Gosvāmī catalogues.
• viraha-āturāḥ — tormented by separation
  Contiguous compound: viraha (separation) + ātura (afflicted). The technical phrase. Gauḍīya: viraha is not the absence of rasa — it is rasa's most intense mode. Mahāprabhu lived in viraha-bhāva.
• madhu-puri — in Mathurā
  Compound: Madhu (the dynasty / the sweet) + purī (city). Mathurā literally as 'the city of sweetness.' Gauḍīya pun: it is the city of Bhagavān's external sweetness, but the deeper madhu — mādhurya-rasa — remains in Vraja.
• śrīḥ — the goddess of fortune (Lakṣmī)
  From √śri. The Bhāgavata names her explicitly. Gauḍīya doctrine: Lakṣmī's hankering for Vraja access is the canonical proof-text that Vraja-rasa exceeds her own Vaikuṇṭha-rasa.
• ayanam — shelter, refuge
  From √i — that toward which one goes. The Bhāgavata calls Kṛṣṇa Lakṣmī's ayana. Gauḍīya: even Lakṣmī, who is Bhagavān's own consort, is here positioned as one seeking ayana — every being, regardless of rank, takes shelter in Him.

A queen would gladly trade her palace for one window-seat in a country cottage if her beloved lives there. Lakṣmī herself, the queen of cosmic fortune, prefers Mathurā now because Kṛṣṇa is in it. The gopīs' grieving prophecy is proved true by Lakṣmī's pilgrimage.

• avanikta — having been bathed
  Past participle of ava + √nij — to wash down. Specifically: pāda-prakṣālana, the foot-washing rite. Gauḍīya pūjā preserves it as a primary upacāra. The Bhāgavata records the household sevā being performed for the Lord by His own people.
• aṅghri-yugalau — the two feet of each of Them
  Compound: aṅghri (foot) + yugala (pair). Lotus-feet pair. Gauḍīya: aṅghri-yugala is the bhakta's perpetual meditation. The cowherds, who served those feet daily, are still doing what every later sādhaka tries to do.
• kṣīra-upasecanam — rice sprinkled with milk
  Compound: kṣīra (milk) + upasecana (sprinkling). The cowherd staple. Gauḍīya note: prasāda-tattva — the Lord enjoys not delicacies but His own pastoral fare; the milk of Vraja follows Him to Mathurā.
• kaṁsa-cikīrṣitam — what Kaṁsa intended to do
  Contiguous compound: Kaṁsa + cikīrṣita (the wished-to-be-done; desiderative). The Bhāgavata's precise grammar — Kaṁsa's plot exists only as desire, never as accomplishment. Gauḍīya: asuric will is always cikīrṣā, never kṛti.
• sukham — comfortably
  From √sukh. Adverbial. Kṛṣṇa sleeps comfortably. Gauḍīya commentary (Viśvanātha): the Lord's sukha is a teaching — His bhakta need not lose sleep over the world's plots; the Lord has already managed them in His sleep.

A surgeon eats a quiet supper the night before a difficult operation and sleeps soundly because the work is already finished in His mind. Kṛṣṇa, knowing Kaṁsa's plot in full, takes His milk-rice and sleeps comfortably. The line between knowing-everything and worrying-about-everything is what separates Bhagavān from us.

• govinda-rāma — of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma
  Contiguous compound: Govinda (cow-cherisher) + Rāma (Balarāma). Kaṁsa hears the names but cannot say them properly — the Bhāgavata preserves his terror-stricken speech. Gauḍīya: even an asura's invocation of the holy name has effect; Kaṁsa's mokṣa at Kṛṣṇa's hand is being prepared by this very hearing.
• vikrīḍitam — the playing (the līlā)
  Past participle of vi + √krīḍ. The Bhāgavata describes Kṛṣṇa's destruction of the bow and the guards as vikrīḍita — mere play. Gauḍīya: even Kaṁsa, the demon, is forced by the facts to call it līlā.
• durmatiḥ — the wicked-minded
  Compound: dur (bad) + mati (mind). The Bhāgavata's epithet for Kaṁsa. Gauḍīya commentary: durmati is not just bad mind but mind oriented away from Bhagavān — the structural opposite of su-mati.
• prajāgaraḥ — remaining awake
  From pra + √jāgṛ. Wakefulness. Gauḍīya parallel: the bhakta also stays awake — but in jāgaraṇa for the Lord (kīrtana, smaraṇa). Same posture, different content.
• mṛtyoḥ — of death
  Genitive of mṛtyu. Death is named here as a person — a courier sending messengers. Gauḍīya note: Bhagavata's Yamarāja flees from devotees and pursues asuras; Kaṁsa's omens are his summons.
• dautya-karāṇi — the messengers (of death)
  Compound: dautya (message-bearing) + kara (doer). The omens themselves are messengers. Gauḍīya: the world is full of dūtas — for the bhakta they bring the holy name; for the asura they bring death.

An insomniac king lights every lamp and the lamps only deepen the dark — every comfort he reaches for has soured. Kaṁsa lies awake while Kṛṣṇa sleeps; the same night that grants the bhakta rest grants the demon dreams of death. The night is impartial; what changes is the heart inside it.

• adarśanam — the not-seeing, invisibility
  Compound: a (not) + darśana (seeing). The same word that in verse 6 named Kubjā's vision of Kṛṣṇa (darśana) now names Kaṁsa's vision-failure. Gauḍīya: bhakta sees Kṛṣṇa, asura sees his own disappearance — symmetrical inversion.
• pratirūpe — in his reflection
  Locative of pratirūpa — the counter-form, mirror image. The Bhāgavata's omens are mirror-omens: the self begins to disappear from its own image. Gauḍīya note: the asura's outer success masks an inner non-being already revealed in the mirror.
• dvai-rūpyam — double image
  From dvi (two) + rūpa (form). The moon and stars double. The Bhāgavata catalogues classical death-omens. Gauḍīya commentary (Sanātana): unity is the sign of being; doubling is the sign of dissolution about to begin.
• preta-pariṣvaṅgaḥ — being embraced by ghostly spirits
  Compound: preta (departed spirit) + pariṣvaṅga (embrace). In dream the asura is embraced by ghosts. Gauḍīya: bhakta is embraced by Kṛṣṇa, asura by pretas. The contrast structures the canto.
• khara-yānam — traveling on a donkey
  Compound: khara (donkey) + yāna (vehicle). One of the canonical death-omens. Bhāgavata's catalogue is the same as the Dharmaśāstra omen-lists — the verse is doing technical śāstra inside narrative.
• viṣa-adanam — swallowing poison
  Compound: viṣa (poison) + adana (eating). In dream he swallows poison. Gauḍīya note: the asura, having spent his life giving poison (cf. Pūtanā), now consumes it in dream — the karma-cycle visible in night-time symbol.

• UM SB 10-42-28-31 - Omens - 2023-02-23 Hillsborough
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2023-02-23· English
• 06 - RGS SB 10-42-31 10-43-13 - Mathura Lila-06 - 2008 Haridwar
  His Holiness Radha Govinda Swami· English

A glass that knows it will break tonight sees its own reflection without a top, hears no echo of its own ring. Kaṁsa's world is being annotated by its coming end — every mirror, shadow, footprint, and tree has been recruited into the chorus of his impending exit. Bhagavān does not need to send messengers; reality itself becomes the messenger.

• vyuṣṭāyām-niśi — the night having passed
  Contiguous: vyuṣṭāyām (locative absolute of vy-uṣṭa, dispelled) + niśi (in the night). The Bhāgavata's narrative pivot. Gauḍīya note: the night of bad omens ends; the day of Kaṁsa's death begins.
• kauravya — O descendant of Kuru (Parīkṣit)
  From Kuru-vaṁśa. Śuka addresses his royal listener. Gauḍīya: the verse momentarily breaks the fourth wall — Śuka is reminding Parīkṣit, who is also days from his own death, that day always follows night, life always follows even the worst omens, for the soul taking shelter.
• sūrye — the sun (locative)
  Locative absolute with samutthite. Sūrya rises. Bhāgavata's daily-cycle motif. Gauḍīya: every sunrise is Bhagavān's līlā-curtain; even Kaṁsa's last sunrise is set by Him.
• kārayām āsa — had carried out
  Periphrastic perfect causative of √kṛ. He caused the arrangements. Gauḍīya note: Kaṁsa thinks he is the doer; Bhāgavata's verb is technically causative but the deeper karma-tantra makes him only an instrument of Bhagavān's prior arrangement.
• malla-krīḍā — the wrestling-sport
  Contiguous compound: malla (wrestler) + krīḍā (sport). The verse names the day's frame as krīḍā — sport. Gauḍīya pun: Kaṁsa thinks he is staging a fight; Kṛṣṇa will turn it into His own krīḍā.

A condemned man, hands trembling, oversees the construction of his own scaffold and calls it a festival. Kaṁsa arranges the wrestling-spectacle in which his death has been pre-scheduled. Even the asura's stagecraft is recruited into Bhagavān's līlā.

• ānarcuḥ — worshiped
  Perfect of ā + √arc. The king's men worship the wrestling-arena. Gauḍīya commentary: misdirected arcana again, mirroring verse 16 — energy spent worshiping the stage rather than its Lord.
• raṅgam — the arena
  From √rañj — also 'to color, to delight.' The same root as anurañjita in verse 5. Gauḍīya pun: raṅga is both 'theatre' and 'coloring' — the stage about to be colored with the Lord's līlā.
• tūrya — musical instruments
  Generic for orchestral instruments. Bhāgavata's narrative-staging vocabulary. Gauḍīya: even the asura's drums become part of Bhagavān's mahā-mahotsava.
• patākā — with flags
  From √pat — to fly. Flags. Bhāgavata's stagecraft language. The festival's banners will outlive the festival's host.
• toraṇaiḥ — with gateways
  Instrumental plural of toraṇa — ornamental arch. Mathurā's gateways are decorated. Gauḍīya commentators (Viśvanātha): the gateways receive Kṛṣṇa as the entering hero, regardless of what Kaṁsa imagines them to be doing.

An elaborately decorated wedding-pavilion mistakenly built around a funeral pyre — every flag and garland is real, every drum is in tune, but the central rite will not be what the decorators imagined. Mathurā's arena is being dressed for an assassination it is about to host as a coronation.

• paurāḥ — the city-dwellers
  Plural of paura — citizen. Gauḍīya note: paurāḥ are the same ones who in verse 14 stood like figures in a painting, transfixed by Kṛṣṇa. Now they assemble formally — but their hearts have already met Him.
• jānapadāḥ — the people of the suburbs (outlying districts)
  From jana (people) + pada (region). Country folk. Bhāgavata's class taxonomy: paura + jānapada covers both urban and rural. Gauḍīya: Bhagavān's līlā does not discriminate by zip-code; village and city both witness.
• brahma-kṣatra — by the brāhmaṇas and the kṣatriyas
  Contiguous compound: brahma (priestly class) + kṣatra (warrior class). The two upper varṇas lead the procession. Gauḍīya note: even varṇāśrama-leaders, by attending, become unwitting witnesses of the avatāra's mission.
• rājānaḥ — the kings
  Plural of rājan. Royal guests given special seats. Gauḍīya commentary: the kings who came to honor Kaṁsa are about to witness his fall — and many will, by that witness, be re-oriented toward Bhagavān.
• yathā-upajoṣam — as suited their comfort
  Contiguous compound: yathā (according to) + upajoṣa (pleasure, comfort). The Bhāgavata records that the seating was done by individual preference — and Gauḍīyas note the irony: every seat in the asuric arena is the wrong seat once Bhagavān enters.

Every social class in a kingdom takes its seat at the colosseum, sure that today's entertainment will reinforce the order they belong to — and the order is about to be inverted by a cowherd boy. The seating chart is the asuric mind's last illusion of stability.

• parivṛtaḥ — surrounded
  Past participle of pari + √vṛ — to enclose. Surrounded by ministers. Gauḍīya: the asura is always parivṛta — surrounded by counselors who can advise on policy but cannot quiet his hṛdaya. Bhakti, by contrast, is hṛdaya-praveśa — direct entry into the heart.
• amātyaiḥ — by his ministers
  Instrumental plural of amātya. The official advisors. Gauḍīya note: surrounded by mati-givers (amātya means roughly 'fellow-thinker'), Kaṁsa's mati is still durmati.
• rāja-mañce — on the King's platform
  Contiguous compound: rāja (king) + mañca (platform). His elevated dais. Bhāgavata's irony: the rāja-mañca is his last seat; from there he will be pulled down.
• maṇḍala-īśvara — of secondary rulers of various regions
  Compound: maṇḍala (district) + īśvara (lord). The provincial vassals. Gauḍīya parallel: maṇḍala-īśvaras are still īśvaras — but they sit beneath Kaṁsa, who sits beneath the unseen Īśvara about to enter the arena.
• hṛdayena-vidūyatā — with a trembling heart
  Contiguous: hṛdaya (heart) + vidūyatā (trembling, present participle of vi + √dū). The Bhāgavata names the inner state in technical language. Gauḍīya note: the bhakta's hṛdaya also trembles — but with bhāva-sāttvika kampa, not bhaya. Same somatic event, opposite content.

A condemned man on the highest throne — surrounded by ministers, dressed for power, his heart shaking like a leaf no one else can see. Kaṁsa's outer pomp and inner trembling are simultaneous: the Bhāgavata refuses to let his costume hide his condition.

• mallāḥ — the wrestlers
  Plural of malla. The professional fighters. Gauḍīya commentary (Viśvanātha): the mallas are the asuric guṇa concentrated into bodily form — tamasic strength, devoid of dharma. Their death by Bhagavān is the day's central scene.
• dṛptāḥ — proud
  Past participle of √dṛp — to be arrogant. Dṛpta is the technical word for asuric pride. Gauḍīya note: dṛpta is the opposite of dīna; the bhakta is dīna (humble), the asura is dṛpta. The verse names the wrestlers' core vice.
• su-alaṅkṛtāḥ — well ornamented
  Contiguous: su (well) + alaṅkṛta (ornamented). The mallas are decked out. Gauḍīya pun: ornaments do not save the asura; the only ornament that saves is the holy name (Hari-nāma, which Caitanya called the supreme alaṅkāra).
• tāla — rhythmic meter
  From √tal. The drumbeat in tāla. Bhāgavata's musical vocabulary. Gauḍīya: even the drumming serves the līlā — every beat brings Kaṁsa closer to his end.
• sa-upādhyāyāḥ — together with their instructors
  Contiguous: sa (with) + upādhyāya (teacher). The wrestlers' coaches also sit. Gauḍīya commentary: the asuric tradition has its own guru-paramparā — but lineage by itself does not save; only the lineage of bhakti does (sampradāya-vihīna mantra niṣphalā).

Bull-necked men strutting into a ring to the cheers of trained drummers, fattened on royal patronage, lined up to fight a boy. The Bhāgavata lists them carefully because the asuric body always wants to be catalogued — and because, by evening, the catalogue will be a death-list.

• cāṇūraḥ muṣṭikaḥ kūṭaḥ — Cāṇūra, Muṣṭika, and Kūṭa
  Three of the five wrestlers. Cāṇūra is Kaṁsa's chief malla; Muṣṭika (lit. 'one with a fist'), Kūṭa (lit. 'hammer'). Gauḍīya commentators note that the names themselves describe their tools — bodies turned into weapons. They will fall in chapter 44.
• śalaḥ tośalaḥ — Śala and Tośala
  Two more wrestlers, named. Gauḍīya note: the Bhāgavata lists all five — Cāṇūra, Muṣṭika, Kūṭa, Śala, Tośala — because every demon defeated by Kṛṣṇa receives a name in the text; namelessness is reserved for those of no consequence to līlā.
• praharṣitāḥ — enthused, delighted
  Past participle of pra + √hṛṣ — to bristle with delight. They are exhilarated by the music. Gauḍīya: praharṣa is here in tāmasic register — joy at one's own coming combat; bhakta's praharṣa is at hearing the Lord's name.
• valgu-vādya — pleasing music
  Contiguous compound: valgu (sweet, pleasing) + vādya (music). Bhāgavata's careful aesthetic note — the music is genuinely beautiful. Gauḍīya commentary: the asuric world has its beauties, but they orient the wrong way; the same drum's beat will accompany the wrestlers' deaths.
• upasthānam — on the mat of the wrestling ring
  From upa + √sthā — the place of taking-stance. Bhāgavata's stagecraft. The same root that gives upasthāna for ritual standing — the wrestlers' martial standing is being narrated as anti-pūjā, oriented against Kṛṣṇa.

Five named champions take their assigned spots on the mat to applause — each will be remembered, not for any victory, but for the verse in which they are listed before Bhagavān destroys them. The Bhāgavata's poetry grants them the dignity of being named even as it announces their end.