Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.51.21
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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abhivandya
—
saluting
Absolutive of abhi-√vand — to honor, salute. A devotee never simply walks away from those he served; he honors them first. Vaiṣṇava decorum, on display even before Mucukunda meets Kṛṣṇa.
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mahā-yaśāḥ
—
of great fame
Compound: mahā + yaśāḥ (fame). The Bhāgavata pauses to honor him with an epithet at the moment of his withdrawal from the world. Yaśas in Vaiṣṇava texts is one of the six bhaga-opulences; here it is conferred on the devotee because of his sevā.
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aśayiṣṭa
—
he lay down
Aorist of √śī. The same verb-field as verses 9 and 11. Mucukunda enters the posture in which Kṛṣṇa will, eons later, find him. Bhakti's geography includes places where one waits asleep until Bhagavān arrives.
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guhā-viṣṭaḥ
—
entering a cave
Compound: guhā + viṣṭaḥ (entered). The cave is now claimed as his. The chapter's repeated cave-vocabulary (kandara, guhā) marks it as a Vaiṣṇava tīrtha-in-the-making — wherever Bhagavān appears becomes holy.
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nidrayā
—
by sleep
Instrumental of nidrā. The boon itself was sleep. Gauḍīyas note the irony: the demigods could not give kaivalya, so they gave the deepest mundane peace — sleep. Bhagavān will exceed that gift by giving wakefulness in bhakti (verse 61).
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura gives the following lines from an alternate reading of this chapter. These lines are to be inserted between the two halves of this verse: nidrām eva tato vavre sa rājā śrama-karṣitaḥ yaḥ kaścin mama nidrāyā bhaṅgaṁ kuryād surottamāḥ sa hi bhasmī-bhaved āśu tathoktaś ca surais tadā svāpaṁ yātaṁ yo madhye tu bodhayet tvām acetanaḥ sa tvayā dṛṣṭa-mātras tu bhasmī-bhavatu tat-kṣaṇāt “The King, exhausted by his labor, then chose sleep as his benediction. He further stated, ‘O best of the demigods, may whoever disturbs my sleep be immediately burned to ashes.’ The demigods replied, ‘So be it,’ and told him, ‘That insensitive person who wakes you in the middle of your sleep will immediately turn to ashes simply by your seeing him.’”
He is called famous because of the following. What use are the devatās if only Viṣṇu can bestow the spiritual world? I do not want to see others. I should sleep alone near Mathurā, dear to the Lord until I can see the Lord. Therefore I will ask of the benediction of sleep. For this reason his famous was spread everywhere. With permission granted by the devatās he lay in the cave. This cave is well known. It is situated in a mountain of Davalapura, south of Mathurā district. In Varāha Purāṇa, in describing parikrama of Mathurā, it is said to be situated within Mathurā. There is a temple made to resemble the cave there, similar to the cave of Yaśodā.
A long-overworked servant given permission to sleep in the king's own chamber — the very rest that prepares him for the Master who has not yet entered. Mucukunda's cave-sleep is not absence; it is appointment. The Bhāgavata's geography of waiting.
My note
Source: vedabase.io