FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.51.18

సుతా మహిష్యో భవతో జ్ఞాతయోఽమాత్యమన్త్రిణ: । ప్రజాశ్చ తుల్యకాలీనా నాధునా సన్తి కాలితా: ॥ ౧౮ ॥
sutā mahiṣyo bhavato
[sutaa mahishyo bhavato]
jñātayo ’mātya-mantrinaḥ
[jnaatayo ’maatya-mantrinah]
prajāś ca tulya-kālīnā
[prajaash cha tulya-kaaleenaa]
nādhunā santi kālitāḥ
[naadhunaa santi kaalitaah]
sutāḥ — children mahiṣyaḥ — queens bhavataḥ — your jñātayaḥ — other relatives amātya — ministers mantriṇaḥ — and advisers prajāḥ — subjects ca — and tulya - kālīnāḥ — contemporary na — not adhunā — now santi — are alive kālitāḥ — forced to move on by time .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
sutā mahiṣyo bhavato
sutāḥ
children
mahiṣyaḥ
queens
bhavataḥ
your
jñātayo ’mātya-mantrinaḥ
jñātayaḥ
other relatives
amātya
ministers
mantriṇaḥ
and advisers
prajāś ca tulya-kālīnā
prajāḥ
subjects
ca
and
tulya - kālīnāḥ
contemporary
na
not
nādhunā santi kālitāḥ
adhunā
now
santi
are alive
kālitāḥ
forced to move on by time .
  • tulya-kālīnāḥ — contemporaries
    Compound: tulya (equal) + kālīnāḥ (of-the-time). Everyone time-stamped with you eventually receives the same forwarding-address — non-existence. The Bhāgavata's vocabulary for kāla is precise; this word names exactly the relationship Mucukunda is about to lose.
  • kālitāḥ — carried off by time
    Verbal — they were 'time-d.' Kāla is treated as an active agent. In SB 11.5, Kṛṣṇa says kāla is His own form. Mucukunda's family was not merely lost; they were moved by Bhagavān Himself, in His Time-form.
  • sutāḥ — children
    Plural of suta. The Bhāgavata names what was loved before naming what was lost; pathos is built up specifically. Vaiṣṇavas remember each suta is a separate jīva on a separate trajectory — bound to us in one birth, unbound in the next.
  • mahiṣyaḥ — queens
    From mahiṣī — chief queen. Kingdom-relationships, the most exalted earthly bonds, treated as among the items kāla erases. Gauḍīyas read this verse as the structural counterpart to Yaśodā's eternal bond with Kṛṣṇa: vātsalya in Vraja never decays; mundane vātsalya does.
  • amātya-mantriṇaḥ — ministers and advisers
    Compound: amātya + mantriṇaḥ — the cabinet. Even political loyalty is consumed by kāla. The demigods are dismantling Mucukunda's entire memory of belonging, in preparation for him to belong to Bhagavān alone.
“The children, queens, relatives, ministers, advisers and subjects who were your contemporaries are no longer alive. They have all been swept away by time.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
"The children, queens, relatives, ministers, advisers and subjects who were your contemporaries are no longer alive. They have all been swept away by time.
Commentary

They have been made to move (kalitah).

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Amātya refers to followers and mantrinaḥ to more intimate followers. Instead of tulya-kālinaḥ sometimes tulya-kālīyā is seen.

Śrīdhara Svāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Amātya refers a tax collector and mantrinaḥ to person who give advice. They do not exist now because they have attained other bodies (kālitāḥ) or they have been taken away.

Related values
Anahankarah (Freedom from False Ego)Kshama (Forgiveness / Patience)
Related verses
Concepts
Jiva

A man returning to his village after a long campaign and finding every familiar face gone — children, wives, ministers, neighbors, all carried away by the current. Kāla has done the work no enemy could. The demigods are not consoling Mucukunda; they are introducing him to the only opponent he cannot defeat.

Yudhiṣṭhira at the gates

At the end of Mahābhārata's Mausala-parva, Yudhiṣṭhira learns that Kṛṣṇa has departed, the Yādavas have annihilated each other, and Dvārakā has been swallowed by the sea. His brothers begin the great journey north, and one by one fall along the path. Like Mucukunda waking to a world emptied by time, Yudhiṣṭhira walks through a kingdom where everyone he loved has been 'swept away.'

Gauḍīyas read both episodes as the same teaching: kāla erases everything earthly, and what remains is only what was offered to Bhagavān. Yudhiṣṭhira's final companion is dharma in canine form; Mucukunda's is Kṛṣṇa Himself.

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