Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.51.19
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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kālaḥ
—
time
Bhagavān's executive form. In Gītā 11.32 Kṛṣṇa says 'kālo'smi' — I am Time, the destroyer of worlds. Here too, the demigods identify Time with Bhagavān Himself, refusing the Indian-philosophy temptation to make Time an impersonal abstraction.
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balīyān-balinām
—
stronger than the strong
Comparative chain. Balavān is many; balīyān is the one above them all. Vedic Sanskrit's chained comparatives are routinely used in the Bhāgavata to assert Bhagavān's supremacy without abstraction — He is the next-step above whatever you can imagine.
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bhagavān īśvaraḥ
—
the Supreme Lord, the controller
The chapter's two charged Vaiṣṇava titles paired explicitly. Bhagavān names the Personality; īśvara names His controllership. The demigods are confessing, mid-counsel, that the One controlling time is the Person, not a principle.
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paśu-pālaḥ
—
a herdsman
Compound: paśu (cow, animal) + pālaḥ (keeper). The very image Gauḍīyas treasure — Kṛṣṇa as gopa, herding souls. Here the demigods unwittingly anticipate Vraja-līlā: the same Kṛṣṇa who herds Time's cows herds the calves of Vṛndāvana with the same hand.
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krīḍan
—
playing
Present participle of √krīḍ. Bhagavān's relation to creation is līlā, not labor. Even time's grinding is His play. Gauḍīyas insist on this: nothing in Bhagavān's activity is grim necessity; everything, including kāla, is His rasa-game.
The universe is created to gradually rectify the contaminated souls trying to exploit material nature. The Lord moves the conditioned souls along, according to their karma, through the various stages of spiritual rectification. Thus the Lord is like a herdsman (the word paśu-pāla literally means “protector of animals”), who moves the creatures under his protection to various pastures and watering spots in order to protect them and sustain them. A further analogy is that of a doctor, who moves the patient under his care to various areas of a hospital for diverse kinds of examination and treatment. Similarly, the Lord brings us through the network of material existence in a gradual cleansing process so that we can enjoy our eternal life of bliss and knowledge as His enlightened associates. Thus all of Mucukunda’s relatives, friends and co-workers had long ago been swept away by the force of time, which of course is Kṛṣṇa Himself.
Who has made them move? This verse answers: time.
Time is called bhagavān since it is non-different from the Lord as his śakti. Thus time is called the controller (īśvaraḥ). It is never exhausted (avyayaḥ). It is a continuous flow without beginning or end. It leads (kālayate) all beings. What is its purpose? It is its play. This shows time’s power. It is like a herdsman herding his animals. This shows time’s independence.
Time is the strongest among the strong because it is the Lord, Nārāyaṇa. The aṁśa is non-different from the aṁśī (the Lord). The Lord is endowed with all powers. He does not decrease since he is infinite. He moves all creatures somewhere else (kālayate), in order to play. It is his play. Or he never tires in this action. His power is shown: he does it like play, as a pastime just as a cowherd gathers cows as play at a certain time. The cowherd is the master of the cows, moving them according to his will.
A herdsman walking behind his cows at evening — they go where he taps the staff, eat where he stops them, settle where he speaks. The demigods name Bhagavān-as-Time the cosmic gopāla, with mortal beings as the herd. The image is not impersonal: Kṛṣṇa is, even as Time, the cowherd boy.
My note
Source: vedabase.io