Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.54.22
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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gopālasya
—
of the cowherd (or: of the protector of the Vedas)
Go (cow / Veda / earth) + pāla (protector). The triple meaning is built into the word. Rukmī intends 'mere cowherd'; Śrīdhara Svāmī (in the purport) reads 'protector of the Vedas / of the earth.' Sanskrit refuses to demean Kṛṣṇa even when its speaker wants to.
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su-durmateḥ
—
whose mentality is most wicked (or: whose mind is most beautifully compassionate)
Su (intensely or beautifully) + durmati (bad-minded; or — read as 'durga-mati' — possessing a difficult-to-understand mind). Rukmī insults; the language praises. Gauḍīya commentary feasts on such inversions.
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vīrya-madam
—
intoxicated pride of prowess
Vīrya (potency) + mada (intoxication). Rukmī accuses Kṛṣṇa of the very thing Rukmī is doing. Projection is the asura's epistemology — he sees his own madness everywhere except in himself.
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prasabham
—
violently / by force
Pra (forth) + sabham (an assembly). Sanskrit's idiom for 'in the open, before the gathered.' Rukmī treats public claim as theft. Yet Kṛṣṇa's 'abduction' was conducted in the open, with the bride's prior written consent — Vyāsa records the slander to make the contrast sharper.
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niśitaiḥ
—
sharp
From ni-√śā, 'to sharpen.' Rukmī's arrows are sharp; the answer the Lord gives him (six arrows, v. 26) is sharper. Bhagavān's response is always commensurate, never excessive, never deficient.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that gopālasya actually means “of the protector of the Vedas, ” while durmateḥ means “of Him whose beautiful mind is compassionate even toward the wicked.” Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī adds that the real meaning of what Rukmī said is that today, fighting with Lord Kṛṣṇa, Rukmī would relieve himself of his pretensions to being a great hero.
"Today I will take away (nesye) the heroic pride of the stupid cowherd boy who has forcibly taken my sister with my sharp arrows." The other meaning is: ‘I will have my pride in my own heroism removed today by the sharp arrows of the cowherd boy who is merciful to even the wicked (su dur mateh)."
What is the purpose of doing this? I will take away his pride in his prowess. How could the honorable Śukadeva repeat such insulting words about Kṛṣṇa, since his lotus feet are worshipped by all the devotees? Śrīdhara Svāmī has given another meaning to the words gopālasya and su-durmateḥ so that Kṛṣṇa is praised. Gopalasya means “of he who protects the Vedas.” Sudurmateḥ means “having a mind merciful even to the demons.” He does this to show that the meaning presented by Rukmī was not appropriate. The meaning is this. Gopālasya refers to Svayam Bhagavān, the subject of the ten syllable and eighteen syllable mantras, representing the Vedas which have no beginning and no end, whose perfect, extraordinary sweetness and powers are presented in his pastimes and form. Why do many people have inclinations elsewhere? He is very hard to understand (sudurmateḥ). I will destroy my own pride in my prowess (me vīrya-madam) by his sharp arrows. His power is shown. By him my sister was taken and all kings will be defeated (prasabham). Or by him I am defeated (me prasabham).
What is the purpose of doing this? I will take away his pride in his prowess. The other meaning is this. I will offer my pride with arrows to the Lord, Gopāla, famous as the devatā of the mantra, since he has made me his younger brother.
Like a thief calling the rightful owner a robber, Rukmī labels Kṛṣṇa 'wicked cowherd.' Vyāsa preserves Śrīdhara Svāmī's reading: gopāla also means 'protector of the Vedas,' and durmati can be inverted to 'whose beautiful mind extends mercy even to the wicked' — the slander becomes praise the moment a Vaiṣṇava reads it.
Rūpa Gosvāmī's Padyāvalī and Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu are full of examples where an apparently insulting verse can be re-parsed to yield praise of Kṛṣṇa. He treats this as one of the proper exegetical pleasures of bhakti — finding the Lord's name even in the demon's curse.
Gauḍīya tradition reads Rukmī's 'gopālasya su-durmateḥ' through that same lens, with full credit to Śrīdhara Svāmī's earlier note. The slander cannot stick because Kṛṣṇa's protection is in His names whether or not the speaker intends it.
My note
Source: vedabase.io