10.48 · Kṛṣṇa Pleases His Devotees

• sarva-ātmā — the Soul of all that be
  Compound: sarva (all) + ātmā (Self). Kṛṣṇa is not visiting Trivakrā as a separate guest; as antaryāmī He already knows the burning in her chest before He knocks. The visit is the outward form of an inward seeing.
• sarva-darśanaḥ — the seer of everything
  He misses no offering — not the gopīs' sweat, not Sudāmā's flat rice, not Trivakrā's sandalwood pulp. Gauḍīyas read this epithet as the doctrinal ground of the Lord's kṛta-jña-tā: grateful response is built into His nature.
• priyam — the satisfaction (of her)
  Kāma-tāpa is real suffering, even if the kāma is misplaced. Kṛṣṇa moves to relieve it. The Lord meets each devotee at the rung she stands on; He does not lecture from above.
• vijñāya — understanding (Uddhava's report)
  From vi + √jñā. Even the omniscient Lord performs the līlā of listening — He receives Uddhava's news from Vraja before turning to His Mathurā duties. Hearing is not redundant for Bhagavān; it is part of the relationship.

• Janmastami Pr SB 10-48-01 - 2014-08-27 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Janmastami Prabhu· 2014-08-27· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-01 - Krishna%27s Pastimes in material world are more attractive than in Spiritual World - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• MNS SB 10-48-01 - Krishna Pleases his Devotees
  His Holiness Mahanidhi Swami· English
• MVS SB 10-48-01 - Suddha Bhakta Purport - 2013-07-03 Soho Street
  His Holiness Mahavishnu Swami· 2013-07-03· English

A king, having received his envoy's report from a distant province, does not file the news and rest — he rises and crosses the city to keep a promise to the lowliest petitioner who once handed him a small flask of oil. So Kṛṣṇa, having heard Uddhava's account of the gopīs' grief, walks straight to Trivakrā's door because a debt of love, however small the donor, is never forgotten by Bhagavān.

• kāma-upāya-upabṛṁhitam — replete with accoutrements of lust
  Three-piece compound: kāma (desire) + upāya (means, devices) + upabṛṁhitam (fully furnished). The room is engineered; nothing is incidental. Gauḍīya readers note that Kṛṣṇa is unmoved by this engineering — His aiśvarya is steady in the midst of māyā's most studied display.
• muktā-dāma — strings of pearls
  Compound: muktā (pearl) + dāma (string, cord). The word dāma will return as the binding cord in many līlās; here pearls are strung as decoration for kāma, in 10.9 a rope is strung in vain to bind the Lord. The contrast is intentional.
• vitāna — canopy
  The luxurious overhead — pleasure's roof. The verse catalogs each sensual support so that the reader cannot miss the scale of the temptation Kṛṣṇa is walking past as if it were nothing.
• gandhaiḥ — with sandalwood paste, fragrances
  Instrumental plural. The very substance Trivakrā once gave Kṛṣṇa on the road — sandalwood — now perfumes her room. Her single act of service has become the atmosphere of her home; even her kāma is shaped by what she once offered Him.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-02-11 - Importance of pure intention and proper worship in Sadhana - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

A room arranged for seduction is the architecture of kāma made visible — banners, perfumes, soft beds, every surface aimed at one purpose. The Bhāgavatam describes it with a connoisseur's precision so that the reader sees clearly: this is the world's most polished offer, and Kṛṣṇa walks into the middle of it without flinching.

• jāta-sambhramā — being in a flurry, suddenly flustered
  Compound: jāta (arisen) + sambhrama (agitation, confused haste). The body recognizes Bhagavān before the mind composes itself. Gauḍīyas mark this as the symptom of bhāva trying to break through even an obstructed heart.
• acyutam — Lord Kṛṣṇa, the infallible one
  From a + cyuta (not fallen). Even as He enters a room arranged for kāma, He is acyuta — never displaced from His own position. The name is a doctrinal anchor placed exactly where the reader might fear the Lord could slip.
• sabhājayām āsa — she respectfully greeted
  Periphrastic perfect of sabhāj — to honor with formal welcome. Even kāmic intention, when it touches the Lord, must pass through the form of arcana. The form is the conversion.
• sat-āsana — an excellent seat
  Compound: sat (true, fine) + āsana (seat). Hospitality's first gesture. The serving-girl gives Kṛṣṇa what the four-armed Vaikuṇṭha Lord receives from Lakṣmī — the proper seat — because bhakti's grammar is the same in every house that opens to Him.

When the Lord arrives, even an awkward host knows to rise. Trivakrā's flurry of rising — half-formal, half-frantic — is the body's honest confession that the Person standing at the door outranks every plan she had for the evening.

• sādhutayā — as a saintly person, on account of his saintliness
  Abstract noun in instrumental: sādhu-tā = saint-ness. Uddhava is honored not because he is Kṛṣṇa's minister but because he is a sādhu. Gauḍīyas read this as the chapter's quiet thesis: a devotee outranks every social courtesy.
• loka-ācaritāni-anuvrataḥ — imitating the modes of human society
  Compound: loka (world) + ācaritāni (customs practiced) + anuvrataḥ (following along). Kṛṣṇa's lying on the bed is līlā, not preference. The Lord performs human gestures as an actor performs a role — fully, but never confused with the role.
• abhipūjitaḥ — duly worshiped
  Past participle of abhi + √pūj. Trivakrā honored Uddhava with arcana even before her chosen seduction proceeded — kāma, brushed against bhakti, cannot help producing pūjā.
• urvyām — on the ground
  Locative of urvī (earth). The sādhu's chosen seat. The same earth that bears Bhagavān's feet is enough for His devotee — no elevated cushion required.

• BKG SB 10-48-04 - Honoring the Guest - 2023-11-28 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2023-11-28· English

A saint offered the master bedroom will choose the floor; a Lord pretending to be human will lounge like a guest. Uddhava sits on the ground out of sādhu-vinaya, Kṛṣṇa stretches out on the bed loka-ācaritāni-anuvrataḥ — and between them the whole scene becomes a teaching on roles freely worn.

• mādhavam — Lord Kṛṣṇa, husband of Lakṣmī, sweetness-Lord
  From mā (Lakṣmī) + dhava (husband), or madhu (sweetness) + suffix. The name chosen at this moment is significant — Trivakrā approaches not 'Kṛṣṇa' generically but Mādhava, the rasa-mūrti of mādhurya. Gauḍīyas read the Bhāgavatam's name-choices as deliberate.
• sa-vrīḍa-līlā-utsmita — with shy, playful smiles
  Compound: sa (with) + vrīḍa (shyness) + līlā (play) + utsmita (smiling broadly). Vrīḍa is the recognized ornament of the nāyikā in Sanskrit poetics. Even kāmic vrīḍa, turned toward Bhagavān, becomes the seed of bhāva.
• vibhrama-īkṣitaiḥ — with coquettish glances
  Compound: vibhrama (allurement, the playful agitation of love) + īkṣita (glance). The poetic vocabulary of śṛṅgāra-rasa is being deployed by Trivakrā at the wrong target — yet Kṛṣṇa, who is Himself rasarāja, accepts even mis-aimed rasa and grants its outward fulfillment while reserving the inward.
• prasādhita-ātmā — with her body prepared
  Compound: prasādhita (decorated, arranged) + ātmā (here, body/self). Self-decoration directed at the Lord is what arcana does too — Trivakrā is unknowingly performing the outer form of pūjā even while intending śṛṅgāra.

A bride preparing for her wedding night and a devotee preparing for darśana use the same vocabulary — bath, ornament, perfume, garland — but the target of the offering reveals which it is. Trivakrā does the bridal toilet; what she does not yet know is that Bhagavān is rearranging the offering into worship without her permission.

• puṇya-leśayā — whose single trace of piety
  Compound: puṇya (merit) + leśa (a small fragment) + yā (relative pronoun). One smear of sandalwood was her entire spiritual capital — and it was enough to draw Bhagavān into her room. Gauḍīyas cite this as the Bhāgavatam's most generous arithmetic: the Lord values the offering, not the offerer's stature.
• nava-saṅgama-hriyā — with the shyness of new union
  Compound: nava (new) + saṅgama (union) + hri (shyness). Even Trivakrā's flush of nervousness is recorded — the Bhāgavatam's narrator treats her with the dignity due any nāyikā the Lord chooses to meet.
• kaṅkaṇa-bhūṣite — ornamented with bangles
  Compound: kaṅkaṇa (bracelet) + bhūṣita (adorned). The bangled hand is the wedding-hand of Sanskrit poetry. The detail is not decorative; it dignifies what could have been written as crude.
• reme — He enjoyed
  Aorist of √ram. The same verb used of Kṛṣṇa's rāsa-līlā with the gopīs in SB 10.29–33 — yet here the rasa is asat, the recipient is one whose qualification is a smear of sandalwood. The verb is shared; the rasa is not. Gauḍīya commentators are careful to mark the difference: Trivakrā's union is the Lord's promise-keeping, not His mādhurya.

Bhagavān, having promised her benediction on a Mathurā street, now keeps the word with the precision of a king closing a small contract — taking her by her bangled hand exactly as His promise required, no more and no less. He grants kāma as a debt paid, not as preference accepted.

• ananta-caraṇena — by the feet of Kṛṣṇa, the unlimited Lord
  Compound: ananta (endless) + caraṇa (foot). At the moment of physical contact, the verse switches to the epithet of His infinitude — to remind the reader Whose feet these are. The contact may look human; the contact is with ananta.
• ānanda-mūrtim — the personal manifestation of bliss
  Compound: ānanda (bliss) + mūrti (form, embodiment). Gauḍīyas read this as a doctrinal verse-tag: Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, and even kāmic contact with His body delivers ānanda because the body itself is ānanda-mūrti.
• jighrantī — smelling, inhaling the fragrance
  Present participle of √ghrā. The cure is olfactory — only the scent of His feet, no doctrinal instruction needed. Pāda-padma-saurabha purifies on contact. This is the Bhāgavatam's recurring teaching: His person heals at the senses' threshold.
• ati-dīrgha-tāpam — extremely long-standing distress
  Compound: ati (very) + dīrgha (long) + tāpa (burning, anguish). Her suffering was not a passing mood; she had carried it since the road to Kaṁsa's arena. Bhagavān resolves long-standing tāpa with a single contact — the same compression seen in Ajāmila's case.

A fever burns until the cool of the Yamunā touches the skin. So the smell of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet — not even the feet themselves, only their fragrance — extinguishes a fire kindled by Cupid in Trivakrā's chest. The medicine is gentler than the disease; the medicine is also the Person.

• kaivalya-nātham — the controller of liberation
  Compound: kaivalya (liberation, the state of being only-Self) + nātha (Lord, master). The very Lord who dispenses mokṣa stands within reach of her arm — and she asks for nights. Gauḍīyas read aho as Śukadeva's wonder at how kāma narrows even the largest opening.
• duṣprāpyam — very hard to obtain
  Compound: duḥ (difficult) + prāpya (obtainable). Yogīs strain lifetimes for what Trivakrā received by one smear of sandalwood. The contrast is the verse's whole rhetorical force.
• aṅga-rāga-arpaṇena — by offering body ointment
  Compound: aṅga (body) + rāga (colored paste, ointment) + arpaṇa (offering). One offering = the Lord at her door. Gauḍīya teachers cite this whenever a sādhaka despairs about the smallness of his service: Bhagavān is bhāva-grāhī, not measure-grāhī.
• durbhagā — unfortunate one
  From duḥ (bad) + bhaga (fortune). The narrator's verdict, not Trivakrā's self-assessment. She thinks she has just won the lottery; Śukadeva, looking on, calls her unfortunate — because what she could have asked for, she did not ask for.

A poor villager wins audience with the emperor on a market day, and instead of asking for land or freedom, asks for one more market day. Trivakrā has the kaivalya-nātha in her room and uses Him to request more nights of the same kāma. The Bhāgavatam's aho durbhagā is the narrator's groan.

• preṣṭha — O beloved
  Vocative, superlative of priya. The address is genuine — she loves Him — yet the love is filed inside kāma rather than prema. Gauḍīyas distinguish: priya-bhāva turned toward bhoga is kāma; the same priya-bhāva turned toward Kṛṣṇa's pleasure is prema.
• amburuha-īkṣaṇa — O lotus-eyed one
  Compound: ambu-ruha (water-born = lotus) + īkṣaṇa (eye). The classical Vaiṣṇava epithet. Even her kāmic prayer reaches for a name of His beauty — proof that the heart, even confused, knows the Person it is addressing.
• na utsahe tyaktum — I cannot tolerate giving up
  Phrase: na utsahe (I have no strength) + tyaktum (to abandon). The exact grammar of attachment. Gauḍīya commentators note: this is what kāma sounds like when it speaks honestly. Prema, by contrast, says 'whatever pleases You.'
• saṅgam — association, contact
  From √sañj (to cling). Saṅga is the root term of bondage in the Gītā too (2.47, 2.62). Trivakrā wants more saṅga; Kṛṣṇa elsewhere prescribes sat-saṅga as the cure for asat-saṅga. The verse is its own diagnostic.

When a child given access to the king's storehouse points only at the candy jar, the courtiers wince. Trivakrā has the saṁsāra-cutter in front of her and asks for a few more nights. Her request is the Bhāgavatam's most precise demonstration of how kāma reduces every horizon to the next encounter.

• māna-daḥ — He who gives respect to others
  Compound: māna (honor) + da (giving). Even Trivakrā, even at this moment, is given respect by Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas cite this epithet as proof of Kṛṣṇa's social grace — He never humiliates a devotee, however small.
• kāma-varam — the benediction of material desire
  Compound: kāma (lust) + vara (boon). The Lord can grant kāma-vara too — but the grant is the smallest item in His treasury. The verse names the boon precisely so the reader cannot mistake it for prema-vara.
• sarva-īśaḥ — the Lord of all beings
  Compound: sarva (all) + īśa (controller). Placed right next to His granting a small kāma-boon — the contrast is deliberate. The Lord of all takes the time to fulfill one bent serving-girl's wish.
• sva-dhāma — His own residence
  Compound: sva (own) + dhāma (abode). Kṛṣṇa came; Kṛṣṇa goes. His home is not in any bhoga-room. Gauḍīyas note that sva-dhāma points ultimately to Goloka — the visit was only ever a visit.

A king grants a small boon and then goes home; the boon is paid, but His home is elsewhere. Kṛṣṇa, having honored the contract, returns to His own dhāma — sva-dhāma — and Trivakrā keeps the night she asked for while losing the gift she did not know to want.

• durārādhyam — rarely / hardly worshiped successfully
  Compound: duḥ (with difficulty) + ārādhya (to be worshiped). Viṣṇu is not easily reached — the worship that brings Him into one's room is precious. To use that arrival for sense-gratification is the verse's exact charge.
• kumanīṣī — of poor intelligence
  Compound: ku (bad) + manīṣī (thinker, intelligent one). A startlingly direct word from Śukadeva. Gauḍīya commentators read it as the verdict on every karma-miśra-bhakta who, on reaching Bhagavān, asks for anything other than His service.
• manaḥ-grāhyam — that which is graspable by the mind, sense gratification
  Compound: manaḥ (mind) + grāhya (to be grasped). The mind's natural appetite is for the senses' food. The Lord can give it, but the gift falls beneath the Giver.
• asattvāt — because of insignificance, unreality
  Ablative of a-sattva — non-being, that which has no real substance. Sense-pleasure is asat in the technical Bhāgavatam sense: passing, not abiding. To trade darśana for asat is the soul's worst exchange.
• sarva-īśvara-īśvaram — the supreme controller of all controllers
  Compound stack: sarva + īśvara + īśvara. The verse piles the title on top of itself — controller of controllers — precisely to magnify the absurdity of choosing kāma in His presence.

• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-48-11 - 2012-06-03 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2012-06-03· Telugu

A traveler reaches the king's own court, the journey of lifetimes, and asks for a copper coin. Śukadeva's verdict — kumanīṣī, poor in intelligence — is not contempt but the elder's quiet grief at watching a soul stand inside the treasury and finger small change.

• akrūra-priya-kāmyayā — with the desire to please Akrūra
  Compound: akrūra (the devotee's name) + priya (the pleasing of) + kāmyayā (out of the wish). Kṛṣṇa's stated motive is to delight His devotee. The kiñcit-cikīrṣayā (small thing to be done) is the cover-story; the affection is the real cause.
• kiñcit cikīrṣayan — wanting to have something done
  Phrase: kiñcit (something small) + cikīrṣayan (desiderative present participle of √kṛ — wanting to do). The 'something small' is the Pāṇḍava-mission revealed at v. 32. Kṛṣṇa wraps a large diplomatic errand inside a small visit.
• saha rāma-uddhavaḥ — together with Balarāma and Uddhava
  Compound: saha (with) + rāma (Balarāma) + uddhava. The three-person delegation is the same that left Trivakrā's house — the chapter sustains its company. Akrūra is being honored by the highest possible visiting party.
• prabhuḥ — the Supreme Lord
  The name placed beside His walking to a devotee's house — Bhagavān-prabhutva does not stay seated; it visits. Gauḍīyas read this as the doctrinal pattern of Kṛṣṇa's social grace.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-12-19 - Akrura glorifies the Lord and his energies - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

A general, with the city's main business finished, walks to the home of his most trusted older statesman — not because he needs counsel but because the bond requires renewal. Kṛṣṇa goes to Akrūra's house with a small task in hand and a large affection in heart.

• nara-vara-śreṣṭhān — the greatest of illustrious personalities
  Compound: nara (man) + vara (chief) + śreṣṭha (best). Akrūra sees them under their human cover; the Bhāgavatam piles superlatives so the reader knows what he is seeing under that cover.
• pratyutthāya — rising up to receive
  Past participle of prati + ut + √sthā — to rise in someone's presence. The gṛhastha's first duty to a guest. Smṛti prescribes pratyutthāna for any honored guest; Akrūra performs it for the Lord of all guests.
• vidhi-vat — according to scriptural injunctions
  Compound: vidhi (rule, ordinance) + vat (suffix meaning 'in accord with'). Akrūra is a Vedic gentleman; he worships Kṛṣṇa exactly as śāstra prescribes for honored guests — even though the guest is the source of śāstra Himself.
• bāndhavān — relatives, kinsmen
  From bandhu — one bound by ties of blood or affection. Akrūra is Kṛṣṇa's father's cousin's son, a Yādava. The verse uses the warmer word bāndhava rather than the formal jñāti: kinship as affection, not as legal degree.

• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-48-13 - 2012-06-04 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2012-06-04· Telugu

When the king arrives unannounced, the proper host does not stand stiff with protocol — he runs, embraces, bows, seats, worships. Akrūra performs all the steps in their precise order, like a man who has been rehearsing the welcome since he first saw Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in the Yamunā.

• pāda-avanejanīḥ — water used for bathing (His) feet
  Compound: pāda (foot) + avanejanī (cleansing water). Caraṇa-amṛta — the foot-water of Bhagavān — is in Gauḍīya practice consumed by devotees as the most concentrated prasāda. Akrūra pours it on his own head, the prototypical gesture.
• śirasā ānamya — bowing down with his head
  Phrase: śiras (head, instrumental) + ānamya (past participle of ā + √nam, to bend). Praṇāma is the body's confession of dependence. The head, the highest part, touches the lowest part of the worshiped — Bhagavān's feet.
• aṅka-gatau mṛjan — placing (His feet) on his lap and massaging (them)
  Phrase: aṅka (lap) + gatau (gone to, dual) + mṛjan (rubbing). Pāda-saṁvāhana — foot-pressing — is one of the nine limbs of bhakti (cited in 7.5.23: arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam, with pāda-sevana implied). Akrūra performs the limb that Lakṣmī herself performs for Nārāyaṇa in Vaikuṇṭha.
• praśraya-avanataḥ — his head lowered with humility
  Compound: praśraya (humility, modesty) + avanata (bowed down). The body's posture matches the heart's posture. Gauḍīyas note: speech to Bhagavān must begin from this position, never from level eyes.

• Bhakti Vikas Sw Hindi SB 10-48-15-18 - Shri Krishna dvara hatya bhi Kripa hai
  His Holiness Bhakti Vikas Swami· Hindi

A son who has waited decades for his father's visit takes the father's feet onto his lap, washes them, drinks the water that touched them, and forgets every grand speech he had prepared. Akrūra collapses into pāda-sevā the way a long-thirsty man collapses at a well.

• diṣṭyā — by good fortune
  Instrumental of diṣṭi (good fortune, divine destiny). A standard Bhāgavatam exclamation of joyful astonishment at the Lord's intervention. Gauḍīyas note: diṣṭyā credits not luck but Bhagavān's daiva-saṁvidhāna — His arrangement masquerading as fortune.
• kṛcchrāt durantāt — from endless difficulty
  Compound and adjective: kṛcchra (hardship) + duranta (endless, lit. 'whose end is hard to find'). The Yādavas' suffering under Kaṁsa was not local — it was a generational siege. The verse names the scope precisely.
• samedhitam — made to prosper
  Past participle of sam + √edh (to flourish). Kṛṣṇa does not merely rescue; He causes the rescued line to flourish. Bhakti is not survival; it is samedhana, increase.
• sa-anugaḥ — together with his followers
  Compound: sa (with) + anuga (follower). Kaṁsa did not fall alone; his retinue fell with him. Evil rarely operates solo, and the Lord's response is correspondingly comprehensive.

After a great fire, the householder counts the rooms still standing and credits the one who put it out. Akrūra opens his prayer by naming Kaṁsa's death — not as politics, but as the moment the Yādava lineage stopped being smothered. Gratitude before theology.

• pradhāna-puruṣau — the original two Persons
  Compound: pradhāna (primordial) + puruṣa (Person). The dual form is striking — Akrūra addresses Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma as the original pair. Gauḍīyas read this as scriptural backing for the dvitīya-prakāśa doctrine: Balarāma is Kṛṣṇa's prakāśa, the original expansion, never separate.
• jagat-mayau — identical with the universe
  Compound: jagat (universe) + maya (consisting of, dual). Acintya-bhedābheda's outer face: the universe is non-different from the Lord because it is His śakti's display. Yet 'than You there is nothing apart' — the bheda is also preserved.
• hetū — the (two) causes
  Dual of hetu (cause). Nimitta-kāraṇa and upādāna-kāraṇa — efficient and material cause — both rest in the Lord. Sāṅkhya needs two; Vedānta knows the two are one Person's two roles.
• param — subtle cause
  From para (higher, subtle). Paired in the verse with aparam (gross product), the two together exhaust the ontology — from the most refined cause to the most material effect, everything is enclosed inside Bhagavān. Nothing escapes Him into independence.

• RMP SB 10-48-18 Telugu - 2012-06-05 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Ram Murari Prabhu· 2012-06-05· Telugu
• BKG SB 10-48-18 - Acintya bedabeda tattva - 2023-12-12 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2023-12-12· English

If a single sun's light illumines every leaf, no leaf is lit by anyone else; if every form of creation rests in Kṛṣṇa-and-Balarāma, no form is sourced elsewhere. Akrūra's theology begins where Vedānta begins: there is no second cause.

• anvāviśya — subsequently entering
  Past participle of anu + ā + √viś. The Upaniṣadic verb (Taittirīya 2.6: tat sṛṣṭvā tad evānuprāviśat — 'having created it, He entered it'). Akrūra's prayer is layered with Upaniṣadic recall; he speaks the language of the Vedānta to its source.
• sva-śaktibhiḥ — by Your own energies
  Compound: sva (own) + śakti (potencies) + bhiḥ (instrumental plural). The Lord acts only through His śaktis. Gauḍīyas insist the śaktis are non-different from the Śaktimān yet really distinct — acintya-bhedābheda's hinge.
• śruta-pratyakṣa-gocaram — knowable by hearing and by direct perception
  Compound: śruta (heard, scripture) + pratyakṣa (direct perception) + gocara (range, sphere). Bhagavān is doubly accessible — through Vedic śabda and through the senses purified by sevā. Neither route alone is sufficient; both meet in Him.
• brahman — O Supreme
  Vocative. Akrūra addresses Kṛṣṇa as Brahman — the impersonal name applied to the Person. Gauḍīyas read this as the standard Bhāgavatam pattern: Brahman is the bodily effulgence (brahmajyoti) of Bhagavān; addressing the Person by His effulgence's name is no error, only an emphasis.

• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-48-19 - 2012-06-06 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2012-06-06· Telugu
• Tamohara Pr SB 10-48-19 - 2014-09-03 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Tamohara Prabhu· 2014-09-03· English
• BKG SB 10-48-19 - Shakti becomes many but the Lord remains one - 2023-12-14 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2023-12-14· English

A poet writes a play and then walks onstage as one of the characters — and now the audience perceives him through the lines he himself authored. The Lord creates the cosmos, enters it as antaryāmī, and is then perceivable both by śruti (the lines) and pratyakṣa (the live performance).

• ātma-tantraḥ — self-reliant, self-governed
  Compound: ātma (self) + tantra (dependent, governed by). The Lord depends on nothing; everything depends on Him. This is svatantra-īśvara — the technical Gauḍīya category of Kṛṣṇa as the sole independent reality.
• kevalaḥ — one alone, sole
  From kevala (only, exclusive). Even amid manyness He is one. Gauḍīyas distinguish kevala-advaita (which collapses the many) from Bhāgavata-advaita (which preserves the Person as the one ground of irreducible variety). The verse holds the second view.
• mahī-ādayaḥ — earth and so on (primary elements)
  Compound: mahī (earth) + ādi (etc.). The pañca-mahābhūta are gathered into one phrase as the analogy's vehicle. The lower nature is invoked to point at the higher Person.
• ātma-yoniṣu — in those whose source is Yourself
  Compound: ātma (self, i.e., the Lord) + yoni (source, womb). Every species' source is Bhagavān; therefore every species is His vessel. Yoni here is causal, not biological.

• Vraja Bihari Pr SB 10-48-20 - How Can I Please You Krishna - 2014-08-15 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Grace Vraja Bihari Prabhu· 2014-08-15· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-20-21 - Lord%27s presence is everywhere in the material world also separated from it - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Earth shows up in jars, statues, walls, mountains — one substance, many vessels. So Bhagavān shows up in every being as their Self, one Soul behind a forest of bodies. The element-and-vessel image is the Bhāgavatam's working model of acintya-bhedābheda.

• guṇa-karmabhiḥ — by the modes and by material activities
  Compound: guṇa (mode of nature) + karma (action) + bhiḥ (instrumental plural). The two by which jīvas are bound; the two by which Bhagavān is not. Gītā 4.14 says the same of Kṛṣṇa: na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti.
• jñāna-ātmanaḥ — of You who are knowledge itself
  Compound: jñāna (knowledge) + ātman (self). The Lord is not a knower with knowledge; He is jñāna-ātmā — knowledge in person. Where would ignorance find purchase on Him?
• bandha-hetuḥ — cause of bondage
  Compound: bandha (bondage) + hetu (cause). The verse asks rhetorically — what could possibly bind You? The form of the question carries the doctrine: Bhagavān's freedom is structural, not conditional.
• rajaḥ tamaḥ sattva — passion, ignorance, and goodness
  The three guṇas, named in the order rajas-tamas-sattva (not the more usual sattva-rajas-tamas) — possibly emphasizing that even sattva, the highest mode, is still part of the Lord's outward energy and not His svarūpa.

• JAS SB 10-48-21
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· English
• JAS SB 10-48-21 - 2012-07-03 Washington DC
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2012-07-03· English
• JAS SB 10-48-21 - 2012-07-03 Washington
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2012-07-03· English

A weaver works the loom — warp, weft, the pulled threads — and is not himself stitched into the cloth. Bhagavān creates, sustains, dissolves through the three guṇas and is not Himself bound by any of them. The Bhāgavatam's repeated refusal of theistic entanglement with prakṛti.

• deha-ādi-upādheḥ — of bodily and other designative coverings
  Compound: deha (body) + ādi (etc.) + upādhi (limiting adjunct). Upādhi is Vedānta's technical word for a designation that appears to limit but does not really limit. Gauḍīyas accept the term for the jīva's predicament and deny it of Bhagavān.
• nikāmaḥ — by Your sweet will
  From ni + kāma (intention, will). What looks like the Lord's bondage or liberation is in fact His chosen līlā — Yaśodā binding Him in 10.9, for instance, is His acceptance, not His captivity. The word nikāma protects His freedom under the appearance of constraint.
• avivekaḥ — erroneous discrimination, our failure to discriminate
  Compound: a (not) + viveka (discrimination). Where the verse stops short of saying 'You are bound,' it credits our avivekaḥ. The Bhāgavatam never blames Bhagavān for the appearance of His limitation; it always blames the seer's vision.
• bhidā — duality, division
  From √bhid (to split). Bhidā for Bhagavān would imply He is one of two — but He is the One into Whom every Two is gathered. Gauḍīya commentators preserve bhidā at the level of śakti-Śaktimān (acintya-bheda) while denying it at the level of Bhagavān's essence.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-22 - The necessity of accepting scriptures to know about God - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

If a king is never actually imprisoned, the question 'when will he be released?' has no answer because it has no subject. Akrūra's logic: bondage and liberation are categories that simply do not attach to Bhagavān; if we see Him in those terms, we are reading our own confusion onto His face.

• veda-pathaḥ purāṇaḥ — the ancient path of the Vedas
  Compound and adjective: veda + patha (path) + purāṇa (ancient). The dharma the Lord enunciates is not new; it is sanātana, beginningless. Apostasy is a contemporary novelty; truth is old.
• pāṣaṇḍa-pathaiḥ — by atheistic paths
  Compound: pāṣaṇḍa (heretic, atheist) + patha (path) + bhiḥ (instrumental plural). Plural — many false paths against the one ancient path. Gauḍīyas read pāṣaṇḍa specifically as any school that denies Bhagavān's personhood and supremacy.
• sattva-guṇam bibharti — assumes the mode of goodness
  Phrase: sattva-guṇa (mode of goodness) + bibharti (bears, takes on). Avatāras descend in śuddha-sattva — pure, transcendental goodness. Gauḍīyas distinguish this śuddha-sattva from the material sattva-guṇa: it is Bhagavān's own internal energy, not a product of prakṛti.
• jagataḥ hitāya — for the benefit of the universe
  Compound: jagat (world, genitive) + hita (welfare) + āya (for the sake of). Every descent is hita-kāmaḥ — driven by the Lord's wish for the world's welfare, not by His own need. The motive is built into the descent.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-23-24 - Lord protects us by descending as an avatar and re-establish the path of upliftment - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

When the path to the village is overgrown by thorn-bushes, the elder of the village comes Himself with a blade. The Vedic path, the ancient one, is the Lord's own laying-out; when atheists overgrow it, He descends — not because His path is fragile, but because the travelers are.

• sva-aṁśena — with Your own direct expansion (Balarāma)
  Compound: sva (own) + aṁśa (portion, expansion). Aṁśa is the technical word for Bhagavān's plenary expansion. Balarāma is svayaṁ-prakāśa, the first expansion of svayaṁ-bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Gauḍīyas insist sva-aṁśa is non-different from the source while functionally distinct.
• bharam apanetum — to remove the burden
  Compound: bhara (load) + apanetum (infinitive of apa + √nī, to take away). Bhūmi-bhāra-haraṇa is the named purpose of the avatāra in Bhāgavatam doctrine — and Akrūra states it explicitly to its agent.
• akṣauhiṇī-śata-vadhena — by killing hundreds of akṣauhiṇīs of armies
  Compound: akṣauhiṇī (a vast army of 21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 horses, 109,350 foot — Mahābhārata's measure) + śata (hundred) + vadha (killing). The scale is named precisely; this is not a small intervention.
• yaśaḥ vitanvan — spreading (the dynasty's) fame
  Phrase: yaśas (fame, renown) + vitanvan (present participle of vi + √tan, spreading out, extending). Kṛṣṇa's incarnation also has a sociological effect — His dynasty's name is broadcast across kalpas. The Yadu line is honored because He chose it.

• BKG SB 10-48-24 - External reasons for the Lord%27s appearnace - 2023-12-19 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2023-12-19· English

The earth, weighted with armies of demonic kings, is like a cart whose axle is bending — and the cart-owner Himself climbs down to lift the load. Kṛṣṇa is not a delegate; the bhāra-haraṇa is His personal errand.

• adhokṣaja — O You who are beyond the senses' purview
  Compound: adhaḥ (below) + akṣa (sense) + ja (born — i.e., He before whom sense-perception falls down). One of Bhagavān's classical names; reminds the worshiper that even when seated in his lap, the Lord is not graspable by senses but only by surrender.
• jagat-guruḥ — spiritual master of the universe
  Compound: jagat (universe) + guru (teacher). Every guru in every paramparā is a transmitter; only Bhagavān is jagat-guru — the original source from whom guru-tva descends. Gauḍīyas read Kṛṣṇa Himself as the ādi-guru.
• pāda-śauca-salilam — the water that washes (Your) feet
  Compound: pāda (foot) + śauca (cleansing) + salila (water). The technical phrase for caraṇa-amṛta — foot-water as prasāda. Akrūra makes the doctrinal claim: that water purifies tri-jagat. Not the temple's water, not the Ganges generically — water that touched these feet.
• sarva-deva-pitṛ-bhūta-nṛ-deva-mūrtiḥ — embodying demigods, forefathers, creatures, men, and gods
  Compound: sarva-deva + pitṛ + bhūta + nṛ + deva + mūrti. A five-tier inclusion: every category of conscious being finds its source-form in Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas read this as the universal-form (viśvarūpa) compressed into one epithet.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-25 - Nullifying from sins is an insignificant byproduct of Bhakti - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

When the Ganges enters a courtyard, the courtyard becomes a tīrtha. Kṛṣṇa's foot-touched water purifies the three worlds; that very water now sits on Akrūra's threshold. He is not exaggerating when he calls his house bhūri-bhāgāḥ — the Ganges has come home with Him.

• kṛta-jñāt — (from You who are) grateful
  Compound: kṛta (done) + jña (knowing). The Lord remembers every service. Gauḍīyas treasure this epithet: Bhagavān is not the impassive judge but the kṛta-jña Friend — He forgets nothing offered, even Trivakrā's smear of sandalwood.
• ṛta-giraḥ — whose words are always true
  Compound: ṛta (true, in accord with cosmic order) + gir (speech). The Lord's word is the warrant of every śāstric promise. If He says 'I am yours,' He cannot retreat from the statement.
• ātmānam-api — even Himself
  Compound reading: ātmānam (Himself, accusative) + api (even). The Bhāgavatam's most extravagant claim — Bhagavān gives away His own self to His worshipers. Akrūra states what later Six Gosvāmīs will systematize: the Lord is purchased only by prema, and the purchase is His own choosing to be possessed.
• upacaya-apacayau na — no increase or decrease
  Phrase: upacaya (accumulation) + apacaya (diminution) + na (not). Even giving Himself away, He does not lose Himself. This is the avyaya (unchanging) attribute — the doctrinal ground of why infinite grace does not deplete the Source.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-48-26 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-26 - Akrura glorifies the sweetness aspect of Krishna - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• BKG SB 10-48-26 - Everyone is an eternal servant of Krishna - 2023-12-21 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2023-12-21· English
• SNS SB 10-48-26 - Why should we take Shelter in Krishna - 2011-09-19
  His Holiness Sacinandana Swami· 2011-09-19· English

A wealthy father who gives away his entire estate to his children loses nothing — he was never the estate, he was always the giving. Kṛṣṇa gives even Himself to His devotees yet does not diminish; He is the source of giving, not a quantity that runs out.

• moha-raśanām — the ropes of delusion
  Compound: moha (delusion) + raśanā (rope, cord). Raśanā is a specific word — the same rope Yaśodā tries to bind Kṛṣṇa with in 10.9 (dāmodara). The reversal is acute: there she tries to rope Him; here Akrūra asks Him to cut the rope around himself.
• suta-kalatra-dhana-āpta-geha-deha-ādi — children, wife, wealth, friends, home, body, etc.
  A seven-piece compound enumerating the standard mohas of household life. The Bhāgavatam catalogs them in this order precisely so the devotee can recognize each rope by name and ask the Lord to cut it where it touches him.
• bhavadīya-māyām — Your own illusory energy
  Compound: bhavadīya (Your, honorific) + māyā (illusory potency). The rope is recognized as the Lord's own śakti — not an enemy power but His outer energy doing its assigned work. Gauḍīyas note this is the only sane theology of māyā: it belongs to Him, not against Him.
• durāpa-gatiḥ — a goal hard to reach
  Compound: durāpa (hard to obtain) + gati (destination, attainment). The verse pairs this with yoga-īśvaraiḥ — even masters of yoga strain for what Akrūra has in his lap. The grace gap between yoga-siddhi and bhakti-darśana is the Bhāgavatam's running theme.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-48-27-36 - Desire to see and attain relationship with Krishna are very rare - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• PSarasvati Sw SB 10-48-27-30 - 2023-12-07 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami· 2023-12-07· English

A man tangled in heavy ropes around his children, his wife, his savings, his house, his body — and the only one with a knife stands in front of him. Akrūra asks Bhagavān to cut. The rope is moha; the cutter is Kṛṣṇa; the request is the Bhāgavatam's standard prayer.

• sa-smitam — smiling
  Compound: sa (with) + smita (smile). Smita is one of the cherished features of Kṛṣṇa's beauty — the smile that opens His face just before He speaks. Gauḍīyas in their dhyāna-mantras (e.g., barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ kuṇḍale...) place the smile at the center of His mūrti.
• sammohayan iva — as if completely enchanting (him)
  Phrase: sammohayan (causing to be enchanted, participle of sam + √muh) + iva (as if). The 'as if' is important: Bhagavān is not enchanting Akrūra in māyā's sense; He is enchanting him in prema's sense. The same root, different domain.
• saṁstutaḥ — profusely praised
  Past participle of sam + √stu — fully glorified. Akrūra's prayer just concluded was the saṁstuti. The Bhāgavatam closes the prayer-arc with this word so the reader knows the stuti has been received and accepted.
• gīrbhiḥ — with His words
  Instrumental plural of gir (speech). Plural — many words, an extended address. Kṛṣṇa's reply that follows (vv. 29–35) is what is meant by gīrbhiḥ. The Lord's gīr to a devotee is itself prasāda.

After a long stuti, the listener does not break the spell with argument — He answers with a smile and words that complete the embrace. Bhagavān's reply to His devotee is sa-smitam: the smile precedes the speech, and the speech is the smile in language.

• guruḥ — spiritual master
  Bhagavān naming His devotee 'guru.' Gauḍīyas read this as the doctrinal warrant for śikṣā-guru-tattva: the Lord Himself models the receiving-posture, so even the Lord's incarnations make a teacher of senior Vaiṣṇavas.
• pitṛvyaḥ — paternal uncle
  From pitṛ-vya — the brother of the father. Akrūra is Vasudeva's cousin in the Yādava genealogy; Kṛṣṇa observes the kinship-rank precisely. Gauḍīyas note: even svayaṁ-bhagavān honors family seniority within the human līlā.
• rakṣyāḥ-poṣyāḥ — to be protected, to be maintained
  Two gerundive forms in a row, joined by the verse's third — anukampyāḥ. Kṛṣṇa stacks the dependent-postures. Rakṣya from √rakṣ (to protect), poṣya from √puṣ (to nourish). The grammar itself prostrates: Bhagavān names Himself as the one who needs to be protected and fed by the devotee.
• prajāḥ — children, dependents
  From pra + √jan — those who issue from. Kṛṣṇa places Himself in the position of Akrūra's prajā. The svatantra-īśvara of the previous chapter accepts the role of dependent in this one. Līlā permits both.

A king visits his old tutor and announces, in front of the court, that he is still the tutor's student — paternal uncle, elder, friend, the one whose protection he claims to need. Bhagavān places Himself one rung below Akrūra and lets the verse stand on the page. Vinaya is the Lord's mood, not just His devotees'.

• mahā-bhāgāḥ — most fortunate, most eminent
  Compound: mahā (great) + bhāga (portion, fortune). The classical epithet for advanced Vaiṣṇavas. Mahā-bhāgavata in Gauḍīya theology is the third and highest stage of devotee — the one who sees Kṛṣṇa everywhere; sādhus of this caliber are niṣevya.
• śreyaḥ-kāmaiḥ — by those who desire the highest good
  Compound: śreyas (lasting welfare, the spiritual good) + kāma (desirer) + bhiḥ (instrumental plural). Bhāgavatam distinguishes preyas (immediate pleasure) from śreyas (ultimate good) — only those who want the second seek sādhu-saṅga.
• devaḥ-sva-arthāḥ — demigods (who are) self-interested
  Contiguous pair: devaḥ (demigods) + sva-arthāḥ (concerned with their own purpose). Kṛṣṇa's blunt sociology: the deva-loka has its own agenda. Worship of demigods yields demigod-style results — Gītā 7.20–23. Sādhus, by contrast, are para-artha — concerned with another's welfare.
• sat-tamāḥ — most saintly
  Compound: sat (real, good) + tama (superlative). Among the worshipable, the sādhus are the topmost — above tīrthas, above devatās. Gauḍīyas place the Vaiṣṇava at the apex of every comparative scheme.

When a traveler is choosing whom to follow on a journey, the question is not which guide knows the most but which guide is not himself going somewhere else. Demigods, Kṛṣṇa says, are on their own errands; sādhus alone walk the path the seeker actually needs to walk.

• darśanāt eva — by the mere sight
  Phrase: darśana (sight) + eva (only, alone). The eva is doctrinally heavy — the sight alone is enough. Gauḍīyas read this as the warrant for sādhu-darśana practice: showing up where Vaiṣṇavas gather is itself the sādhana, no further effort required.
• uru-kālena — after a long time
  Compound: uru (broad, great) + kāla (time). Tīrthas and stone deities work slowly — the verse does not deny their power but ranks it. The sādhu's instantaneity is the comparison's whole point.
• ap-mayāni tīrthāni — holy places made of water
  Compound: ap (water) + maya (consisting of). The Ganges, the Yamunā, the seven sacred rivers — all are ap-maya. They are real, but they are slow. The sādhu is faster because he is Kṛṣṇa's living medium.
• mṛt-śilā-mayāḥ — made of earth and stone
  Compound: mṛt (clay) + śilā (stone) + maya (consisting of). The verse applies this to devāḥ — deities made of earth and stone. Even the consecrated arcā-mūrti operates uru-kālena for most worshipers. The sādhu, by contrast, transmits because he is conscious; the response is immediate.

A holy river purifies after long immersion; a stone deity is reached by lifetimes of pilgrimage. But the saint purifies darśanāt eva — by the mere sight. The eye is the shortest pilgrimage; the sādhu is the closest tīrtha.

• gaja-āhvayam — to Gajāhvaya (Hastināpura, 'the city named for the elephant')
  Compound: gaja (elephant) + āhvaya (named). Hastināpura — 'Elephant City' — capital of the Kurus, where Yudhiṣṭhira will eventually be crowned. The poetic synonym reminds the reader of the city's gravity in the broader epic.
• śreyaḥ-cikīrṣayā — wishing to arrange (their) welfare
  Compound: śreyas (welfare) + cikīrṣayā (desiderative instrumental). Kṛṣṇa's care for the Pāṇḍavas is not reactive — it is proactive cikīrṣā, a planned wish. He is already arranging Yudhiṣṭhira's coronation from Mathurā.
• jijñāsā-artham — for the sake of inquiry
  Compound: jijñāsā (desiderative noun from √jñā — wish to know) + artha (purpose). The mission's official cover: a fact-finding visit. Akrūra is to gather intelligence on the Pāṇḍavas' situation under Dhṛtarāṣṭra.
• śreyān — the very best (of well-wishers)
  Comparative-superlative of śreyas — best. Of all Kṛṣṇa's suhṛdas (named earlier in the verse), Akrūra ranks highest for this errand. The address dignifies the assignment: a high task is given only to one who has been weighed and found śreyān.

• Dravida Pr SB 10-48-32-36 - 2014-09-10 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Dravida Prabhu· 2014-09-10· English

A king with a thousand officers chooses one — the man whose discretion has been tested — to go quietly into enemy territory and report. The 'something small' Kṛṣṇa mentioned at v. 12 turns out to be Hastināpura, the Kuru capital, and the Pāṇḍavas' welfare. Akrūra is being trusted with the future of the Mahābhārata.