10.50 · Kṛṣṇa Establishes the City of Dvārakā

• mahiṣyau — the two queens
  Dual number: Asti and Prāpti, the political wives Kaṁsa took from Magadha. Their widowhood is the karmic seed that draws Jarāsandha's seventeen sieges down upon Mathurā — Kaṁsa's adharmic alliances continuing to bear fruit even after his death.
• duḥkha — with unhappiness
  The misery of those whose shelter was a demon — Kaṁsa offered them queenship but no real refuge. Gauḍīyas read this as the standing condition of anyone whose āśraya is not Kṛṣṇa: the support collapses and only duḥkha remains.
• bhartari — their husband (when he was killed)
  Locative absolute: 'their husband having been killed.' The verse opens the chapter not with Kṛṣṇa but with the wake of Kaṁsa's death — līlā continues to ripple outward from Mathurā into Magadha.
• bharata-ṛṣabha — O hero of the Bhāratas
  Śuka addresses Parīkṣit directly. The frame is preserved: a dying king (Parīkṣit) hearing about the kings of long ago, all of it leading back to Kṛṣṇa's saving līlā.

• NRM SB 10-50-01-10
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• NRM SB 10-50-01-38
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-50-01 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-50-01-06 - Various natures of devotees and various forms of Lord - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

When Kaṁsa fell, Asti and Prāpti carried their grief like two streams running back to the source — into the lap of Jarāsandha. Worldly union, untethered from Kṛṣṇa, ends always in this return to the parental fire that will now blaze toward Mathurā.

• jarāsandhāya — to Jarāsandha
  Lit. 'one joined by Jarā' — born in two halves, joined by the rākṣasī Jarā (cf. Mahābhārata Sabhā-parva). His name itself encodes that he is unnaturally welded together; only Bhīma, instructed by Kṛṣṇa, can later split him again.
• magadha-rājāya — to the King of Magadha
  Magadha is the rising imperial power of the age. Kṛṣṇa's līlā at Mathurā now collides with Magadha's empire — the death of Kaṁsa is also the death of a Magadhan client-king, which is why the father must respond.
• vaidhavya — of widowhood
  Derived from vidhavā (widow). The widow's complaint is the formal pretext; the real cause is Jarāsandha's loss of a strategic son-in-law. The Bhāgavatam frames worldly politics as always cloaked in personal grief.
• kāraṇam — the cause
  Apparent kāraṇa: Kaṁsa's killing. True kāraṇa: bhū-bhāra-haraṇa — Kṛṣṇa is already arranging the removal of the demonic kings through Jarāsandha's coming armies, which He will harvest at Kurukṣetra.

The daughters spill their widowhood into their father's ear like oil onto a banked coal — what was already smouldering in Jarāsandha (his hatred of Yadu rule) now bursts into open fire. Kṛṣṇa's pastime in Mathurā has lit the kindling of Magadha.

• ayādavīm — devoid of Yādavas
  Privative a- + yādavī. Jarāsandha's vow is the inversion of Kṛṣṇa's avatāra-prayojana: he wants a Yādava-less earth precisely while Kṛṣṇa is taking birth as a Yādava. The verse marks the head-on collision.
• śoka — sorrow
  Paired with amarṣa — grief seasoned with intolerant rage. Gauḍīya psychology: śoka without śaraṇāgati at Kṛṣṇa's feet metastasises into amarṣa, into war. The same śoka in Arjuna at Kurukṣetra becomes the doorway to Gītā only because he turns to Kṛṣṇa instead.
• udyamam — endeavor
  Paramam udyamam — the greatest possible endeavor. The demonic gather their armies in proportion to their hatred; the devotee gathers his sādhana in proportion to his love. Both are udyama; the difference is the object.

Like a man trying to empty the Yamunā with cupped hands, Jarāsandha vows to make the earth Yādava-less — yet every army he gathers is, unbeknownst to him, being assembled for Kṛṣṇa's harvest. The Lord uses His enemy's rage as a broom.

• akṣauhiṇībhiḥ — by akṣauhiṇī divisions
  Each akṣauhiṇī: 21,870 elephants and chariots, 65,610 cavalry, 109,350 infantry. Twenty-three of them — a force greater than either side at Kurukṣetra. The scale is meant to show that no earthly defense exists for Mathurā apart from Kṛṣṇa Himself.
• mathurām — Mathurā
  Mathurā is Kṛṣṇa's birth-city, eternally non-different from Goloka in Gauḍīya theology (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.43). The siege of Mathurā is the demonic world pressing against the dhāma — and being broken by it.
• nyarudhat — he besieged
  Ni + √rudh — to obstruct, block. The same verb Kṛṣṇa later applies to Kālayavana (rurodha, v. 44). The chapter rhymes its sieges: outer-world adversaries hemming in the city in which the Lord chooses to dwell.

Twenty-three akṣauhiṇīs ring Mathurā like a black tide. From the watchtowers it looks final — but inside the city sits the Lord who lifted Govardhana on one finger. The siege measures Jarāsandha; it does not measure Kṛṣṇa.

• kāraṇa — the cause
  Kāraṇa-mānuṣaḥ: 'the Cause appearing as a man.' Echoes Brahma-saṁhitā 5.1 — sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam. Kṛṣṇa is not playing a role He could not actually fulfill; He IS the cause, but conceals omniscience under Yadu-līlā.
• bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead
  Bhaga (six opulences) + -vat. Used here precisely when Kṛṣṇa appears most human — 'thinking' His response. Gauḍīya rule: Bhagavān-tattva is most concealed in the most intimate, most mānuṣa-like līlās.
• udvelam — having overflowed its boundaries
  Ud-vela — past the shore. The simile of an ocean breaching its banks: a controlled image, since the ocean is also Kṛṣṇa's bed (Kṣīrodakaśāyī). Even the overflowing army is contained inside His own form.
• sva-avatāra-prayojanam — the purpose of His descent
  Contiguous join from sva, avatāra, prayojanam. The verse names the doctrinal axis: every līlā is shaped by avatāra-prayojana, not by reaction. Kṛṣṇa is never improvising; He is fulfilling a pre-set purpose, here being made visible.
• mānuṣaḥ — appearing as a human being
  The mānuṣa-līlā doctrine: Kṛṣṇa hides His aiśvarya so that mādhurya-rasa can flow. Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu treats this concealment as the very basis of intimate exchange — without it, devotees could not approach Him as friend, child, or beloved.

• BKG SB 10-50-05-06 - Jarasandha%27s history - 2024-02-08 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2024-02-08· English

Kṛṣṇa the kāraṇa of all causes watches the ocean of armies break against His walls and consults Himself like a human strategist. The Cause-of-causes plays the Yadu prince — this is His vow: to act for our sake the way one of us would have to act.

• bhāram — a burden
  Bhū-bhāra: the earth's burden. The same doctrinal phrase appears at SB 1.7 and at the opening of the Kurukṣetra narrative. Kṛṣṇa's mission has two ends — protect the sādhus, lift the bhāra — and Jarāsandha is being used as a collector.
• haniṣyāmi — I will kill
  Future of √han with the army as object — but explicitly not Jarāsandha. Kṛṣṇa's omniscience here is on display: He already sees the seventeen future sieges and the eighteenth Kālayavana episode, and Bhīma's eventual splitting of Jarāsandha.
• na hantavyaḥ — should not be killed
  Gerundive — 'not to-be-killed.' A deliberate līlā restraint. Compare Kṛṣṇa sparing Aśvatthāmā's life later: the Lord chooses His moments. Death by Kṛṣṇa's hand is itself a benediction, and He does not bestow it on Jarāsandha here.
• bhū-bhujām — of the kings
  Contiguous join (bhū + bhuj — 'earth-enjoyers'). Jarāsandha is a vasal-overlord; the smaller kings come into the net behind him. Kṛṣṇa's plan is to clear the whole vassal-system through repeated sieges, not by single combat with Jarāsandha.

• RRDD SB 10-50-07-08 - Trusting Krishna%E2%80%99s Plan - 2024-02-09
  Her Grace Ratna Radhika Mataji· 2024-02-09· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-50-07-16 - Without Bhakti following Varnashrama alone is useless - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• PSarasvati Sw SB 10-50-07-08 - 2023-12-26 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Prabodhananda Sarasvati Swami· 2023-12-26· English

The Lord, looking at the assembled army, sees not 23 divisions of soldiers but a single heap of bhū-bhāra collected for Him by Jarāsandha — and decides to spare the gatherer so that he will keep gathering. The demon becomes Kṛṣṇa's reluctant servant.

• avatāraḥ — descent
  Ava + √tṛ — 'crossing down.' In Gauḍīya tattva, an avatāra is not God 'becoming' something less; it is the original Bhagavān crossing down into a particular līlā-medium. Kṛṣṇa's appearance here is svayam-bhagavān-avatāra, the source of all others.
• bhū-bhāra-haraṇāya — for removing the burden of the earth
  Triple compound: bhū + bhāra + haraṇa. The signature mission-statement of Kṛṣṇa's manifest pastime. The 'burden' is not weight but the adharmic kings whose presence the earth itself cannot tolerate (cf. SB 1.17 — earth as cow).
• saṁrakṣaṇāya — for the complete protection
  Sam + rakṣaṇa — total, not partial, protection. Of sādhus specifically: the sādhu is the one whose only refuge is Kṛṣṇa, and protecting him is the Lord's vow (Gītā 9.31, kaunteya pratijānīhi).
• vadhāya — for killing
  Vadha-, the formal act of executing the duṣkṛtas. Kṛṣṇa's vadha is itself a benediction — the asura killed by His hand attains liberation. Demonology in Gauḍīya frame is never merely punitive; it is also salvific.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-50-09 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian

The Lord names His own purpose in a single breath, as a goldsmith calls the metal by its alloy: avatāra to lift the burden, protect the sādhus, kill the asuras. The verse is a near-prose echo of Gītā 4.7-8 spoken now in action rather than in instruction.

• dharma-rakṣāyai — for the protection of religion
  Dative of purpose. Dharma here is sanātana-dharma, the eternal jīva-Kṛṣṇa relation, not merely social order. Gauḍīyas read 'protection of dharma' ultimately as the protection of bhakti.
• dehaḥ — body
  Crucial doctrinal word: Kṛṣṇa's deha is sac-cid-ānanda, not material (Brahma-saṁhitā 5.1). When He 'assumes another body,' it is a śuddha-cit form, not a karma-bound śarīra. Avatāras share His own substance.
• adharmasya — of irreligion
  Adharma is not merely vice; it is the inversion in which the jīva forgets Kṛṣṇa as its source. Kālayavana, Jarāsandha, Kaṁsa are personalised forms of this inversion. Their destruction is the surface; restoration of remembrance is the inward work.
• kāle — in the course of time
  Locative of kāla — Kṛṣṇa's own potency (Gītā 11.32, kālo'smi). The Lord descends in time but is the controller of time, not its subject. He chooses the kāla; the kāla does not choose Him.

Like the same flame leaping from lamp to lamp, the Lord assumes whatever form the age requires. Rāma's bow, Nṛsiṁha's claws, Kṛṣṇa's flute — one Personality, many bodies, one dharma-rakṣā.

• govinde — Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Locative absolute with dhyāyati — 'while Govinda was meditating.' Govinda = cow-finder, senses-pleaser. Even as Kṛṣṇa is meditating warfare, His name remains the gentle Vraja-name — He never sheds His sweetness, even on the battlefield.
• sūrya-varcasau — having the effulgence of the sun
  Dual: two chariots. In Gauḍīya iconography Kṛṣṇa's chariot is golden and Balarāma's silvery-white — both blaze like the sun because both are extensions of the same svarūpa-śakti.
• upasthitau — appeared/stood ready
  Upa + √sthā: 'stood near.' Spontaneously, without summoning. The Lord's paraphernalia is His own internal energy — it serves Him by being Him; the chariots are not separate objects but extensions of the līlā.
• sadyaḥ — suddenly
  Sadyas — at once, instantly. The Lord's paraphernalia arrives without any temporal lag — the cosmos has no friction when responding to Bhagavān. In Gauḍīya frame this is yoga-māyā's signature: the means and the end collapse into a single moment for the Lord.

• NRM SB 10-50-11-17
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English

While Govinda is still considering, two sun-bright chariots fall ready-equipped out of the sky — the cosmos itself rushes to serve Him before He has finished the thought. The devotee does not work harder than the Lord arranges; the Lord arranges faster than the devotee can ask.

• āyudhāni — weapons
  Plural. In Gauḍīya tattva Kṛṣṇa's weapons (Sudarśana, Kaumodakī, Śārṅga, Pāñcajanya) are eternal associates with personalities — they serve Him as Saṅkarṣaṇa's plough and pestle serve Him. They appear because they are devotees, not because they are tools.
• purāṇāni — ancient
  Purāṇa here means eternal, beginningless — these are not new manufactures but pre-existing transcendental weapons of Viṣṇu, now visible because the līlā requires them.
• hṛṣīkeśaḥ — Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord of the senses
  Hṛṣīka + īśa — 'master of the senses.' Used at Gītā 1.21 by Arjuna when he asks Kṛṣṇa to drive the chariot between the armies. Same name, same ratha-līlā: Kṛṣṇa as senses-controller at the front of every fight.
• saṅkarṣaṇam — to Lord Balarāma
  Saṅkarṣaṇa — the puller-together, who draws souls into bhakti. Kṛṣṇa speaks to His brother as the elder; Gauḍīyas honor Balarāma as ādi-guru, the original spiritual master from whom Kṛṣṇa-prema flows.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-50-12 Russian Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Russian
• Sesa Pr SB 10-50-12-17 - 2014-09-23 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Sesa Prabhu· 2014-09-23· English

The eternal divine weapons appear of themselves, like dogs running to a master's whistle. Hṛṣīkeśa, the Lord of all senses, turns to Saṅkarṣaṇa — the inner conversation of the two brothers is the very source of cosmic order.

• ārya — respected one (elder brother)
  Vocative. Kṛṣṇa addresses Balarāma with the term for an elder — even Bhagavān maintains the relationship of younger brother. This vinaya (humility) before the elder is itself a teaching about how the devotee approaches guru.
• nau — Our (dual)
  Dual genitive of asmad — 'of the two of us.' Used precisely to mark the joint mission of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. In Caitanya-līlā this dual reappears as Caitanya–Nityānanda, the same two appearing as guru-pair.
• sādhūnām — of the saintly devotees
  Genitive plural of sādhu. The sādhu is defined in SB 3.25.21 as titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ — tolerant, compassionate, friend to all. Protection of such persons is Kṛṣṇa's standing pratijñā (Gītā 9.31).
• bhāram — burden
  Trayaḥ-viṁśati-anīka-bhāram — the burden of twenty-three armies. Same bhāra-doctrine: Kṛṣṇa is consistently framed as bhū-bhāra-hartā, the lifter of earth's burden, of which Jarāsandha's army is one installment.
• apākuru — please remove
  Imperative of apa + √kṛ. Kṛṣṇa requests Balarāma — the senior is being asked to perform the cleansing. This is the etiquette of joint līlā: the younger initiates the action, the elder fulfills it.

Kṛṣṇa points to His own chariot like a child pointing to a gift — 'look, ārya, Your chariot has come.' The whole purpose of His birth and Balarāma's, He says here outright, is the welfare of the sādhus: 'sādhūnāṁ śarma-kṛt.'

• dāśārhau — the two descendants of Daśārha
  Dual. Daśārha was an ancestor of the Yadu kula. The name locates Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma firmly inside dynastic identity — they fight not as cosmic beings but as Yadu princes, the līlā keeping its mānuṣa frame.
• daṁśitau — wearing armor
  From √daṁś — to bite, to be girded. Even Bhagavān dresses for battle, performing the kṣatriya etiquette to the letter. Gauḍīyas note: He needs no armor, but wears it because the līlā requires the form of human heroism.
• alpīyasā — very small
  Comparative of alpa: 'with a quite small force.' The asymmetry — 23 akṣauhiṇīs vs. a tiny retinue — is the verse's whole point. Kṛṣṇa wins not by force-multiplication but by being Kṛṣṇa.

The two Dāśārhas roll out of Mathurā with only a small retinue, the way two suns might step out of a single cloud. The smallness of Their force is itself the joke — the army is the Lord; everything else is decoration.

• śaṅkham — His conchshell
  The Pāñcajanya, obtained from the demon Pañcajana. Mentioned again at the opening of the Gītā (1.15). Its sound is Vedic śabda — the conchshell of Viṣṇu is non-different from the praṇava; hearing it is itself purifying.
• dāruka-sārathiḥ — whose driver was Dāruka
  Dāruka is Kṛṣṇa's eternal charioteer in Dvārakā-līlā, distinct from Pārtha-sārathi role. Gauḍīyas treat such servants as nitya-pārṣadas — eternal associates, descending with the Lord and never separate from His pastime.
• vitrāsa-vepathuḥ — trembling of terror
  Compound: vitrāsa (terror) + vepathu (trembling). The body-shaking from a single conch-blast is the inverse of devotional aṣṭa-sāttvika-vikāra — the same physical trembling, but issuing from fear of the Lord rather than love.

Kṛṣṇa blows the Pāñcajanya and the hearts of an entire ocean-army shudder. The conch is the same one He blows at Kurukṣetra — when the Lord sounds His instrument, the enemy of dharma loses heart before a single arrow flies.

• puruṣa-adhama — lowest of men
  Adhama-puruṣa, the demonic mirror-image of Kṛṣṇa's actual title puruṣottama (supreme person). The demon's epithet is the inversion of the devotee's; Gauḍīyas use this to illustrate how kṛṣṇa-tattva is occluded for those in tāmasic vision.
• bandhu-han — O killer of relatives
  Compound: bandhu (kinsman) + han (killer). Refers to Kaṁsa, Kṛṣṇa's maternal uncle. The accusation that troubles Arjuna at Gītā 1.36 (svajanaṁ hi kathaṁ hatvā) is hurled at Kṛṣṇa Himself here — but in Kṛṣṇa's case the killing is bhū-bhāra-haraṇa, not sin.
• manda — O fool
  Manda — dull, slow-witted. Asuric insult, identical to the language Hiraṇyakaśipu uses for Prahlāda. The pattern recurs: demons consistently call the Lord and His devotees fools, exactly inverting the actual jñāna-distribution.
• guptena — hidden
  Instrumental of gupta — concealed. Jarāsandha mistakes Kṛṣṇa's tactical reserve for cowardice; lajjayā guptena, 'hidden by shame.' The demon cannot read aiśvarya concealed inside mānuṣa-līlā — he sees only the surface, never the kāraṇa-mānuṣa beneath.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-50-17 - Importance of Bhagavatam Acharyas and the proper approach to reach the goal - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Jarāsandha snarls at Kṛṣṇa as a small dog snarls at the sun — 'puruṣādhama!' he calls the Supreme Person. Demonic vision exactly inverts devotional vision; what the gopīs see as adhama-uddhāra, the lifter-of-the-fallen, the demon sees as adhama, the lowest.

• rāma — O Balarāma
  Vocative. Jarāsandha distinguishes the elder brother as the only worthy opponent; he himself is unaware that Balarāma is Saṅkarṣaṇa, the original ādi-guru. The demon's mis-reading is itself the līlā's setup.
• śraddhā — confidence/faith
  Here used in a kṣatriya sense — confidence to engage. Contrasted with Gauḍīya śraddhā as ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu) — the devotional faith that initiates bhakti. Same word, two universes.
• svaḥ — to heaven
  Svar — the heavenly realms. Kṣatriya formula: die in battle and ascend to svarga. But svarga in Bhāgavata frame is itself karma-bandha — the destination Jarāsandha offers is not actually salvation. Kṛṣṇa's vadha leads to mukti; svarga-gati leads back into saṁsāra.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-50-18 English Translation
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-50-18-29 - Krsna is not acting in his pastimes he is actually experiencing his own bliss - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Jarāsandha throws the challenge specifically at Balarāma, the senior, the way a beaten man throws a stone at the elder of two passing brothers. Even his insults are arranged by Kṛṣṇa — they will pull Balarāma forward to do the seizing in verse 30.

• śūrāḥ — heroes
  Plural — a class-statement, not a personal jab. Real śūratva (heroism) shows in action; vikatthana (boast) is its counterfeit. The verse is a small dharma-śāstra embedded in the battle narrative.
• vikatthante — boast vainly
  Vi + √kath, intensive — to babble, to brag. Gauḍīya ācāryas reuse this term as a warning against ātma-prakāśana, self-display, in spiritual practice: showing one's bhajana is the demonic counterfeit of doing one's bhajana.
• mumūrṣataḥ — of one about to die
  Desiderative of √mṛ — 'wishing to die.' Genitive of contempt. The Lord identifies Jarāsandha as already psychologically a corpse — his outcome (this birth) is fixed, even if his physical death waits for Bhīma.
• āturasya — of one mentally agitated
  Ātura — afflicted, feverish. The condition of one who cannot rest in any shelter. From the Bhāgavata standpoint, every non-devotee is ātura; the cure is śaraṇāgati.

Kṛṣṇa answers boasting with the calm of one who has already decided the outcome. Heroes show their hands, not their tongues — and the words of a man already mentally dead are not worth quoting. Gauḍīyas read this as Bhagavān's instruction on satya-vacana.

• jarā-sutaḥ — the son of Jarā
  Jarā was the rākṣasī who joined the two halves of the prince at birth. To call him jarā-sutaḥ — son of the demoness — is to remind the reader that Jarāsandha's very existence is unnatural, jointable but also separable, which Bhīma will eventually exploit.
• mādhavau — the two descendants of Madhu
  Dual. Mādhava — descendant of Madhu, of the Madhu-vaṁśa. Also a name with sweetness (madhu = honey) folded into it. Even when surrounded by an army, the dual name preserves the chapter's rasic register: the Two Sweet Ones are within the storm.
• sūrya-analau — the sun and a fire
  Compound. Two luminaries — matched to the two brothers. The simile is acintya-bhedābheda-compatible: sun and fire are both fire-natured, neither is destroyed by being temporarily covered. Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma can be apparently obscured but never extinguished.
• abhra-reṇubhiḥ — by clouds and by dust-particles
  Instrumental dual: cloud (gross/atmospheric) and dust (fine/earthly). Two registers of the same kind of covering — māyā operates on multiple scales. But the same wind that brought the cover removes it; the same Kṛṣṇa who allowed the siege ends it.

Like wind covering the sun with cloud or fire with dust, the son of Jarā surrounds the two Mādhavas with his flood-army — but the simile already gives the game away. Wind disperses the cover it imposes; the sun is not extinguished by cloud and a fire is not put out by dust. The enclosure is illusion.

• suparṇa — Garuḍa, the bird who carries Lord Viṣṇu
  Garuḍa is Kṛṣṇa's eternal carrier and Vaiṣṇava emblem. The banner identifies the chariot as Viṣṇu-tattva even in human disguise. To see the banner is to see Kṛṣṇa's identity flagged in plain sight.
• tāla-dhvaja — the palm-tree banner
  Balarāma's emblem. The tāla-vana was the demon Dhenuka's forest cleared by the brothers in 10.15 — Balarāma's banner thus encodes a specific victory of his. Banners in Vedic warfare carry one's defining feat.
• sammumuhuḥ — they fainted
  Sam + √muh — completely bewildered, lost consciousness. Sāttvika-vikāra term in Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra. The women's fainting is a foreshadow of the women of Mathurā at Kṛṣṇa's later departure to Dvārakā (next chapter cycle).
• arditāḥ — tormented
  Past participle of √ard — afflicted, pierced. The women are arditāḥ śucā, pierced by grief. Even before Kṛṣṇa is endangered, the bare possibility of harm to Him produces full-scale śoka. Vipralambha-bhāva: the rasa of separation begins not at separation itself but at its mere possibility.

• RRDD SB 10-50-21 - Spiritual Emotions - 2024-03-01
  Her Grace Ratna Radhika Mataji· 2024-03-01· English

The women of Mathurā watch from the rooftops; when they can no longer see the Garuḍa-banner and the palm-banner, they faint. Their swoon is not weakness but the deepest viraha-vedanā: separation from the sight of Kṛṣṇa, even briefly, is intolerable.

• śārṅga — the bow Śārṅga
  Viṣṇu's eternal bow, made from horn (śṛṅga). Mentioned at SB 8.20–21 in the Vāmana-līlā as well. In Gauḍīya iconography Śārṅga is one of the five eternal weapons of Viṣṇu (with Sudarśana, Kaumodakī, Nandaka, Pāñcajanya).
• sura-asura-arcitam — worshipped by gods and demons
  Compound. Both devas and asuras worship the bow — because both fear it, and because both recognize it as Viṣṇu-svarūpa. Gauḍīyas note: even the demonic, in their hour of awe, acknowledge Bhagavān; they only fail to surrender.
• payaḥ-mucām — of those who release water — clouds
  Compound (payas + muc): 'water-releasers.' A poetic kenning for clouds. The enemy army is again likened to rain-cloud; Kṛṣṇa's arrow-rain will be the sun that disperses it.
• vyasphūrjayat — He twanged
  Vi + √sphūrj — to thunder, to roar. The bow-twang is itself sonic warfare. Compare the conch in v.16 — Kṛṣṇa's instruments enter battle through their sound first, the projectiles only afterward.

• Vishwarup Pr SB 10-50-22-29 - Only hope for us is Krishna - 2014-09-18 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Grace Vishwarup Prabhu (RNS)· 2014-09-18· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-50-22 - Krishna doesn%27t imitate human beings
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Lord Hari twangs Śārṅga — the bow worshipped by gods and demons alike — and the air itself acquires sides: the friends of the Lord stand on one shore, his enemies become the river that the arrow will cross. The string-sound is the call of the kingdom's protector.

• alāta-cakram — the circle of fire made by a whirled torch
  Famous Vedānta-Bhāgavata simile (cf. SB 10.4.20, 10.14.30): a single point of flame whirled rapidly appears as a full circle. Used here for Kṛṣṇa's arrow-streams; used elsewhere for the soul's apparent involvement in matter.
• niśaṅgāt — from His quiver
  Ablative of niśaṅga (quiver). The Lord's quiver is inexhaustible — like the akṣaya-pātra given to Yudhiṣṭhira (Mahābhārata) and like the gopīs' butter-pots that always refilled, Kṛṣṇa's storage simply does not empty.
• nirantaram — relentlessly
  Nir + antara — 'without gap.' No interval between arrows. The verb-cluster (gṛhṇan, sandadhat, vikṛṣya, muñcan, nighnan) is a chain of present participles describing simultaneous, continuous action — the human chronology breaks down.
• śita-bāṇa-pūgān — floods of sharp arrows
  Contiguous join from śita (sharpened), bāṇa (arrow), pūga (heap/flood). The military genre word for arrow-rain is here turned into a quasi-divine flood — the same metaphor Kṛṣṇa's lotus-eye love-glances are described with in Vraja.

Lord Kṛṣṇa pulls arrows from quiver like draws from an inexhaustible pot; nocked, drawn, released — the cycle so rapid that the bow appears as a single ring of fire. Devotees see in this image the alāta-cakra simile beloved of Vedānta: rapid motion creating apparent permanence.

• nirbhinna-kumbhāḥ — whose forehead-protuberances were split
  Compound: nir + bhinna (split open) + kumbha (the elephant's frontal lobe, traditionally said to contain pearls). The pearls are crushed by arrow-tips. Image of opulence destroyed — exterior glory does not protect when standing against Bhagavān.
• kandharāḥ — whose necks (were severed)
  Plural of kandhara (neck). Same word repeats later in the verse for the shoulders of foot-soldiers. The dismemberment is total — no rank of army (elephants, cavalry, chariots, infantry) is spared.
• padāyataḥ — foot soldiers
  Synonym of pādātika. The verse names the four classes of akṣauhiṇī (gaja, aśva, ratha, pādātika) and slays each in turn — the formal completeness of the destruction parallels the formal completeness of the army's structure.

Elephants with split foreheads, horses with severed necks, chariots without horses or masters — the battlefield turns into a single anatomy lesson on the brittleness of all that does not take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. Even gigantic akṣauhiṇīs are finally only meat without Him.

The battle unfolds as a continuous waterfall of arrows — chariot-wheels turning into terrifying whirlpools, gems and ornaments tumbling like stones in a rushing red river. The Lord's arrows are not weapons but kṛpā in fierce form: through them, hundreds of thousands of soldiers receive death from His own hand, the rarest of benedictions.

• sthiti-udbhava-antam — maintenance, creation, and annihilation
  Triple compound. The signature creation-maintenance-destruction triad of Bhāgavata theology (cf. SB 1.1.1, 2.6.39, etc.). Kṛṣṇa is identified as the sole source of all three — Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva being His own functional aspects.
• ananta-guṇaḥ — whose qualities are unlimited
  Ananta — without end. Bhāgavata insists Kṛṣṇa's guṇas (qualities) are limitless. Brahma-saṁhitā 5.30 (veṇuṁ kvaṇantam) and SB 1.16.26-30 (the cow Surabhi's lament) catalog these guṇas; Gauḍīyas elevate sweetness (mādhurya) above majesty (aiśvarya).
• sva-līlayā — as His own pastime
  Instrumental of sva-līlā. Līlā doctrine: the cosmos itself is Kṛṣṇa's play, not work. Effort-language does not apply to the Lord. The Yadu-Magadha war is one move in this play.
• martya-anuvidhasya — of Him who imitates mortals
  Compound: martya (mortal) + anuvidha (imitating, following the pattern of). Crucial Gauḍīya term — Kṛṣṇa anuvidha-s, follows the pattern of, mortal behavior. He is not a mortal; He plays the mortal-shape because rasa requires it.

For Him who orchestrates creation, maintenance, and destruction of all three worlds as a pastime, subduing a single hostile army is hardly remarkable — yet sages still glorify it, because in this līlā the Cause appears as a human prince and the human-shaped act becomes the doorway to remembrance of the cosmic one.

• rāmaḥ — Lord Balarāma
  Bala-rāma, 'He who delights in strength.' Saṅkarṣaṇa-tattva. In Gauḍīya theology, Balarāma is the original ādi-guru (cf. Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 1.7) and also the source of all other Viṣṇu-expansions through the catur-vyūha.
• siṁham — another lion
  Accusative of siṁha. The simile siṁhaḥ siṁham iva — 'as one lion seizes another lion' — preserves Jarāsandha's heroic dignity. He is not insignificant; even being caught by Balarāma is the catching of a lion. The seizure is itself a recognition.
• viratham — deprived of his chariot
  Vi + ratha — 'without chariot.' In kṣatriya-dharma, the chariotless warrior must be spared by the chariotborne. The verse signals that what follows next is not killing but binding — and then releasing.
• avaśiṣṭa-asum — having only his life-breath left
  Avaśiṣṭa (remaining) + asu (life-breath). Compound. Everything else stripped away — army gone, chariot gone, only the prāṇa left. Mirrors the bhakta's ideal śaraṇāgati: arriving at Kṛṣṇa with nothing but breath.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-50-30-57 - Different types of Relationships - 2007-03-24
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2007-03-24· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-50-30-57 - Krishna protects his devotees by establishing Dwaraka City - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Balarāma seizes Jarāsandha as one lion seizes another — the Plough-Wielder, the elder brother, the original Saṅkarṣaṇa, takes the king of Magadha bare-handed. The simile is exact: not lion taking lamb, but lion taking lion. The line preserves Jarāsandha's grandeur even while showing him caught.

• vāruṇa — with the ropes of Varuṇa
  Pāśa — noose. Varuṇa-pāśa is the dharmic binding-weapon of the water-god, used at SB 10.28 to bind Nanda. Mentioning it here recalls Kṛṣṇa's release of His own father from Varuṇa earlier — but now Balarāma is the binder.
• govindaḥ — Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Cowherd-name preserved even at the moment of releasing an enemy king. The intervention is from Govinda, not from the warrior — the gentleness of Vraja remains the underlying texture even of Mathurā warfare.
• kārya-cikīrṣayā — desiring to fulfill a purpose
  Compound: kārya (task) + cikīrṣā (desiderative of √kṛ — wish-to-do). Kṛṣṇa restrains Balarāma because the kārya of Jarāsandha is not finished. The demon will gather sixteen more armies for harvest, and eventually deliver the cohort that Bhīma will dismantle.

Balarāma starts binding Jarāsandha with Varuṇa's noose and ordinary ropes — and Govinda stops Him. The Lord has further use of Jarāsandha; the demon will become the unwitting harvester of future armies for Kurukṣetra. Even his release is part of the harvest-plan.

• loka-nāthābhyām — by the two Lords of the universe
  Dual. Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma jointly designated as loka-nāthas. Compare Caitanya-Nityānanda. The dual Lordship is a Gauḍīya throughline — the cosmos is governed not by a single Bhagavān-figure but by a paired source-and-shelter.
• vrīḍitaḥ — ashamed
  From √vrīḍ — to be embarrassed. The verse marks a flicker of spiritual potential in Jarāsandha — shame can lead either to surrender or to redoubled hatred. The counselors steer him toward the latter.
• kṛta-saṅkalpaḥ — having made up his mind
  Compound: kṛta (done) + saṅkalpa (resolution). Jarāsandha briefly resolves on tapas — the Vedic path of penance. Bhāgavata frame: tapas without bhakti and proper guru cannot deliver — and the demonic counsel quickly redirects him to karma-frame anyway.
• karma-bandha — the bondage of past work
  Compound: karma + bandha. The kings explain defeat as karma-bandha — pure karma-mīmāṁsā reading. The Bhāgavata silently corrects this: defeat by Bhagavān is not karma's wage; it is the personal touch of the Lord, mistaken for blind karmic mechanism.
• rājabhiḥ — by kings
  Plural. The bad-saṅga of fellow kings is decisive: they pull Jarāsandha back from the brink of tapas into the path of further enmity. Gauḍīyas note repeatedly — sādhu-saṅga is everything; rāja-saṅga without bhakti is poison.

Released by the two Lords of the worlds, Jarāsandha first burns with shame and decides to perform tapas — almost, almost, the demon turns toward the right path. Then kings on the road talk him out of it, explaining his defeat as mere karma. The closest the demon comes to bhakti is overruled by his own counselors.

• upekṣitah — neglected, disregarded
  Past participle of upa-īkṣ — 'to look past.' (The source synonym is rendered upekṣitah; standard form upekṣitaḥ.) Crucial Bhāgavata theological term. Worse than being killed by the Lord is being looked past. Compare Kṛṣṇa's upekṣa of Aghāsura's mother's grief: divine inattention is the heaviest sentence.
• bhagavatā — by the Supreme Lord
  Instrumental of Bhagavān. The verse insists on the title at the moment of upekṣa — He who possesses all opulence is precisely the one who can afford to look past Jarāsandha. The neglect is sovereign, not casual.
• durmanāḥ — depressed, ill-minded
  Compound: dus (bad) + manas (mind). The mental aftermath of being upekṣita-by-Bhagavān: durmanas. Devotional language — Caitanya-caritāmṛta uses similar terms for separation-grief — but here twisted into demonic depression rather than viraha-prema.
• bārhadrathaḥ — the son of Bṛhadratha
  Patronymic. Bṛhadratha — the king who, childless, performed sacrifices that produced Jarāsandha in two halves later joined by Jarā (cf. Mahābhārata Sabhā 14–16). The patronymic surfaces just as Jarāsandha goes back to Magadha — back to his origin-story.

All armies dead, even the king himself neglected — upekṣita — by the Personality of Godhead, Jarāsandha trudges back to Magadha. To be 'neglected by Bhagavān' is, in Bhāgavata reckoning, the deepest poverty; the demon has fame, vassals, and even his life, but Kṛṣṇa has looked past him.

• mukundaḥ — Lord Kṛṣṇa, the giver of liberation
  Mukti + da — 'giver of liberation.' Gauḍīya commentators (Sanātana) note: this name is deployed here precisely because Kṛṣṇa has just liberated thousands of soldiers through vadha-mukti, His own arrow-touch. The slaughter is, paradoxically, salvific.
• akṣata-balaḥ — whose military force was unbroken
  Compound: a + kṣata (wounded) + bala (force). Not a single Yadu soldier dead. Asymmetry of divine warfare — Kṛṣṇa's side incurs zero loss against 23 akṣauhiṇīs. The verse insists on this to make clear the source of the victory.
• vijvaraiḥ — freed of fever
  Vi + jvara (fever). The siege is described as a fever the city had been running; Kṛṣṇa's return cools it. Same word reused in Gauḍīya literature for the cessation of viraha-fever upon darśana of Kṛṣṇa.
• sūta-māgadha-vandibhiḥ — by bards, panegyrists, and heralds
  Compound. The three classes of court-singers: sūta (storyteller), māgadha (oddly: also of Magadha lineage, here just genealogist), vandin (eulogist). All three classes glorify Kṛṣṇa — śravaṇa-kīrtana is built into the city's welcome.

Mukunda has crossed the army-ocean without losing a single soldier — His bala is akṣata, unscathed. Demigods rain flowers from above, sūtas and māgadhas sing His victory, and Mathurā's people, fever-freed, come out to receive Him. The fever was the siege; the cooling is His return.

• śaṅkha-dundubhayaḥ — conchshells and kettledrums
  Compound. The two ceremonial sounds — conch (Vedic) and kettledrum (royal). Used at every major Bhāgavata moment: Kṛṣṇa's birth (10.3), the lifting of Govardhana (10.27), here at His return.
• vīṇā-veṇu-mṛdaṅgāni — vīṇās, flutes, and mṛdaṅga drums
  Compound listing three classical instruments. Veṇu is Kṛṣṇa's own flute; mṛdaṅga is the saṅkīrtana drum par excellence in Gauḍīya tradition. The list anticipates the soundscape of Caitanya's nagara-saṅkīrtana.
• brahma-ghoṣeṇa — with the sound of Vedic chanting
  Compound: brahma + ghoṣa. The Vedic mantras are sounded as the Lord enters. Gauḍīyas read brahma-ghoṣa as the lower step of which kṛṣṇa-nāma-ghoṣa is the consummation — the Vedas all aim at this name-sound.
• patākābhiḥ — with banners
  Instrumental plural. Banners — the visual counterpart to the sonic celebration. Mathurā becomes a temple-precinct for the Lord's homecoming. Gauḍīyas mark such moments as anticipations of nitya-līlā in Goloka where every street is so adorned.

Mathurā celebrates Kṛṣṇa's return with conch, kettledrum, vīṇā, veṇu, mṛdaṅga — the very instruments of Vraja saṅkīrtana ringing in the city. Boulevards sprinkled, banners on every gate, brahma-ghoṣa filling the air. The city becomes a temple for an afternoon.

• sa-sneham — affectionately
  Sneha — oily affection, tender attachment. The Vraja-mood word. Gauḍīyas rank sneha as one of the rūḍha stages of bhāva (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu). The women see Kṛṣṇa with sneha, not mere reverence.
• prīti-utkalita-locanaiḥ — with eyes opened wide by love
  Triple compound: prīti + utkalita (opened) + locana (eye). The physical opening of the eye is named alongside the inner opening of the heart. Aṣṭa-sāttvika-vikāra territory — bodily symptoms of bhāva.
• dadhi-akṣata-aṅkuraiḥ — with yogurt, parched rice, and sprouts
  Compound listing three Vedic auspicious-welcome substances. Note the homely register: yogurt (Yaśodā's), parched rice (Vraja staple), sprouts (the very seed of new life). The welcome at Mathurā is rendered in Vraja-vocabulary.
• mālya — flower garlands
  Flower garlands as offering — the canonical Vaiṣṇava welcome. Compare Sudāmā's garland-strewing in 10.41. Garlands carry the offerer's affection in a transferable form.

The women look at Kṛṣṇa with eyes flung wide by love — and scatter on Him garlands, yogurt, parched rice, fresh sprouts. The pūjā materials are everyday Vraja-stuff (the same dadhi that mother Yaśodā churned), and so the welcome at Mathurā has the texture of Vraja worship leaking into the city.

• yadu-rājāya — to the King of the Yadus, Ugrasena
  Compound: yadu + rāja. Ugrasena, Kaṁsa's father, reinstalled as king after Kṛṣṇa killed Kaṁsa (10.45). That Kṛṣṇa channels battle-wealth to Ugrasena and not to Himself underscores the principle of seva — the Lord's possessions are for His servants.
• prabhuḥ — the Lord
  Prabhu — master, sovereign. Used at the moment Kṛṣṇa gives away the wealth. The Bhāgavata logic: the true Prabhu is precisely the one who has no need to keep anything. Possession-by-renunciation, not by accumulation.
• āhṛtam — which was brought (collected)
  Past participle of ā + √hṛ. The ornaments are collected, then redirected. The Lord is the channel, not the destination, of war-wealth. Gauḍīya economics: Kṛṣṇa receives so that He may give; He does not receive in order to keep.
• vīra-bhūṣaṇam — the ornaments of the heroes
  Compound: vīra + bhūṣaṇa. The personal armor and jewels of the dead warriors — usually battle-spoils. By giving them away, Kṛṣṇa enacts the principle Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu encodes as akiñcanatva — possessionlessness.

Lord Kṛṣṇa hands the battlefield-ornaments of the slain heroes to Ugrasena, the Yadu king. The Lord Himself keeps nothing — the wealth flows through Him to the kula. Bhakti's economic principle: the devotee renounces what God deposits in his hands, and God in turn deposits more.

• sapta-daśa — seventeen
  Sapta (7) + daśa (10). The number is exact and significant — 17 sieges between the first attack and the arrival of Kālayavana. Tradition treats it as a precise count of bhū-bhāra harvests undertaken before the Dvārakā transition.
• kṛṣṇa-pālitaiḥ — protected by Kṛṣṇa
  Compound. The Yadus are repeatedly designated as kṛṣṇa-pālita — under Kṛṣṇa's direct care. This protection is doctrinally enacted Gītā 9.31, kaunteya pratijānīhi — He protects His own, even across seventeen sieges.
• yuyudhe — fought
  Imperfect of √yudh. The persistence of Jarāsandha — defeated yet returning — is the same pattern that defines all asuric obstinacy in Bhāgavata literature. The demon never learns; the devotee never has to fight twice.

• BKG SB 10-50-41 - Jarasanda%27s determination - 2024-03-14 New Goloka
  His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami· 2024-03-14· English

Seventeen times the King of Magadha is broken; seventeen times he comes back. Each siege is itself a harvest by Kṛṣṇa — Jarāsandha is the unwitting collector, gathering kings into the field where Kṛṣṇa is reaping. The same demon reappears at the same gate, and each time more bhū-bhāra is lifted.

• kṛṣṇa-tejasā — by the power of Lord Kṛṣṇa
  Instrumental compound. The Vṛṣṇis fight, but the tejas is Kṛṣṇa's. Gauḍīya principle: the devotee's effort is real, but the śakti behind it is Bhagavān's. Compare Arjuna at Kurukṣetra — he draws the bow, but the victory is the Sārathi's.
• akṣiṇvan — they destroyed
  Imperfect 3rd plural of √kṣi — to diminish, exhaust. The Vṛṣṇis exhaust the armies. Same root underlies akṣata (the auspicious unbroken rice grain) — but inverted; the army is the broken thing, the Yadus the akṣata.
• vṛṣṇayaḥ — the Vṛṣṇis
  The Yadu sub-clan to which Kṛṣṇa belongs. Named here, in this chapter that ends with the founding of Dvārakā as their new home. The Vṛṣṇis are about to be transplanted; this verse names them as still in Mathurā, still on the brink.
• tyaktaḥ — abandoned
  Past participle of √tyaj. The crowning humiliation — Jarāsandha is even released by his enemies, not killed and not captured. The Yadus refuse him the dignity of a final fight. He is left over.

• RRDD SB 10-50-42 - Spiritual Empowerment - 2024-03-15
  Her Grace Ratna Radhika Mataji· 2024-03-15· English

The Vṛṣṇis, powered by Kṛṣṇa's tejas, finish off every army Jarāsandha brings — and the king, abandoned by his enemies, goes home each time. The line is austere: the demon is not even granted death by Yadu hand. He is dismissed.

• aṣṭā-daśama-saṅgrāme — in the eighteenth battle
  Compound: aṣṭa-daśama + saṅgrāma. The eighteenth war is interrupted before it begins; Jarāsandha never gets his eighteenth Mathurā-siege. Bhīma will eventually conclude the Jarāsandha-arc not on a battlefield but in single combat at Magadha.
• nārada-preṣitaḥ — sent by Nārada
  Compound. Nārada is the Vaiṣṇava sage who arranges līlā-movements. He instigates Hiraṇyakaśipu against Prahlāda (7.5), informs the Pāṇḍavas, and here informs Kālayavana. Always serving the Lord's plan by appearing to disrupt it.
• yavanaḥ — a barbarian (Kālayavana)
  Yavana — outside the Vedic varṇāśrama. Kāla (dark/time) + yavana, hence Kālayavana. Born of a brahmaṇa's curse and a yavanī princess (Hari-vaṁśa). His function is to be the second front that pushes Kṛṣṇa to relocate the Yadus.
• pratyadṛśyata — appeared
  Prati + √dṛś, passive imperfect — 'became visible.' A sudden appearance, like a divinely-arranged stage-entry. The chapter's pacing accelerates from here: siege, pivot, founding of Dvārakā, all in a few verses.