• 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.