• saṁsthā-vidhim — the funeral rituals
  Compound: saṁsthā (completion, the death-rites) + vidhi (injunction). The technical Dharma-śāstra term for antyeṣṭi. Sudakṣiṇa first completes his filial duty before moving to revenge — a kṣatriya-dharma observance the Bhāgavata is careful to note.
• apacitim — revenge
  From apa-√ci (to pay back). The technical word for kṣatriya retribution — debt-paying violence. Gauḍīyas note that apaciti is dharma for the kṣatriya but not, in itself, sādhana for the soul. Sudakṣiṇa will pay back his father's death by losing his own life — exact balancing, no spiritual gain.
• mahā-īśvaram — Lord Maheśvara
  Compound: mahā (great) + Īśvara (Lord). The form-name of Śiva as the great Controller. Gauḍīyas hold Mahādeva to be the topmost Vaiṣṇava (vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, SB 12.13.16) — yet his benediction here is for a man whose grievance is against Viṣṇu Himself. The chapter will show how Maheśvara handles that tension.
• upādhyāyaḥ — with priests
  Plural of upādhyāya (instructor-priest). The ritual specialists who guide a yajamāna through abhicāra. Their presence makes Sudakṣiṇa's vow not a private vendetta but a sacrosanct sacrificial undertaking — which is what makes its eventual misfire so grave for them.
• abhisandhāya — deciding
  Absolutive of abhi-sam-√dhā (to resolve, to direct one's mind toward). Strong volitional verb. Sudakṣiṇa's revenge is not impulse; it is saṅkalpa. Gauḍīyas note that saṅkalpa directed against Bhagavān is the most dangerous of all human resolves — it summons its own undoing.

A son sees his father's head at the palace door and, in the same gesture by which he covers his eyes, lifts the priest's vessel to the altar of Maheśvara. Revenge in the Bhāgavata is not an emotion; it is a ritual technology — and the chapter is about to demonstrate its terms and its limits.