• akṣaiḥ — playing with dice
  Compound phrase: akṣa (die) + krīḍ (to play). Echoes the dice-game of the Mahābhārata. Gauḍīyas note: Kṛṣṇa plays dice with His associates as part of His Dvārakā-līlā — the līlā never pauses; only its expression changes. The dice fall, the protection rises, all in one continuous motion.
• bhaya-āturāḥ — agitated with fear
  Compound: bhaya (fear) + ātura (afflicted). The exact phrase Kuntī uses in her prayers (SB 1.8) describing the Pāṇḍava experience of vipad. Gauḍīyas hold that bhaya-ātura prayer is one of the most efficacious — it carries no pretension, only need.
• trāhi trāhi — Save us! Save us!
  Doubled imperative of √trai (to protect). The standard Vaiṣṇava prayer of distress. Gauḍīyas point out: doubled trāhi indicates that the second cry is louder than the first — the Bhāgavata records the rising desperation in the very repetition.
• tri-loka-īśa — O Lord of the three worlds
  Compound vocative: tri (three) + loka (world) + īśa (lord). The citizens, panicked, reach for the largest title they know. Gauḍīyas note: in extremity, the bhakta does not address Kṛṣṇa by His sweet names (Govinda, Mukunda) but by His grandest — the fear of the moment calls forth aiśvarya, not mādhurya.
• pradahataḥ — which is burning up
  Present participle of pra-√dah, genitive. The fire is actively burning in the moment of the cry — there is no time to wait. Gauḍīyas read this as a paradigm of how to call on the Lord: not in calm formal sentences but in the urgent present tense.

Children run to the father playing dice and tug his sleeve; he sets down the dice and stands. The Lord at the gaming-table is not less the Lord; the dice are part of the same līlā as the disc.