Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.56.20
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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maṇi-preṣṭham
—
the most precious of jewels
Compound: maṇi (jewel) + preṣṭha (most beloved). Preṣṭha is a charged Gauḍīya word — usually used for Kṛṣṇa Himself or His most beloved devotees. Here it is used for the gem; the chapter quietly winks at the displacement.
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kṛta-matiḥ
—
deciding, with mind set
Compound: kṛta (made) + matiḥ (mind). Even the Lord's actions are decisional — He does not seize on impulse. Bhakti reflects this: surrender is a kṛta-mati, a chosen orientation, not a mood.
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arbhaka-antike
—
near the child
Compound: arbhaka (child) + antike (near, locative). Bhagavān places Himself near a child — His characteristic location across the canto. The chapter quietly reasserts vātsalya geography even in Dvārakā exile.
Krsna saw the jewel, which had become a toy for the child.
Within the cave (tatra), seeing the jewel made into a toy, he decided to wait for an opportunity to take it, since searching for it was finished.
Kṛṣṇa walks into a bear-cave and sees a child playing with the universe's most precious jewel — the same Kṛṣṇa who once let cowherd boys mistake gems for berries. He recognises the scene; He has been on the child's side of it before.
In earlier Canto 10 līlā, Kṛṣṇa's cowherd friends ate forest berries, while the Brāhmaṇas' more 'precious' offerings went uneaten. The Bhāgavatam consistently inverts the value-hierarchy — childish eating beats ritual gravity.
Here the same inversion: the rarest jewel made into a child's toy. Kṛṣṇa's mood is recognition, not theft — He sees His own Vraja-rasa in this bear-child's play.
My note
Source: vedabase.io