Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.66.6
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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cihnāni
—
symbols
Plural of cihna (mark, insignia). Conch, disc, club, lotus, Śrīvatsa, Kaustubha — the visible vocabulary of Viṣṇu. To wear them without being Him is to commit aparādha against arcana itself. Gauḍīyas distinguish sharply: imitation of the dress without the substance is anartha; aspiration to serve the Bearer of those cihnas is bhakti.
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mauḍhyāt
—
out of delusion
Ablative of mauḍhya (foolishness, bewilderment), from mūḍha. Pauṇḍraka diagnoses Kṛṣṇa as mūḍha — another perfect inversion. Mauḍhya is precisely the disease the next 35 verses will cure him of, by removing the head that hosts it.
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sātvata
—
O chief of the Sātvatas
Vocative of Sātvata, a name of Kṛṣṇa as descendant of the Sātvata-vaṁśa and as the One worshiped by the sattva-rich devotees. The pretender flatters in the very moment of insulting — the verbal habit of someone who cannot tell tattva from social form.
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śaraṇam
—
for shelter
From √śri (to take refuge). The single most charged Vaiṣṇava word — the prayojana of Gītā 18.66 (mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja). Pauṇḍraka commands Kṛṣṇa to take śaraṇa of him; the perfect inversion of the entire bhakti tradition. The word will recur in verse 9 as 'shelter of dogs' — the chapter's grim joke on the inverter.
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āhavam
—
battle
From ā-√hu (to invoke, to challenge). The ritual call to combat. Having demanded surrender and been refused (he assumes), Pauṇḍraka makes the kṣatriya's last move — and so signs the death-warrant Kṛṣṇa will execute in verse 21.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī again interprets Pauṇḍraka’s words according to the inspiration of Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning. Thus they may be understood to mean “Out of foolishness I have assumed an imitation conchshell, disc, lotus and club, and You are maintaining these by allowing me to use them. You have not yet subdued me and gotten rid of these imitation symbols. Therefore please mercifully come and liberate me by forcing me to give them up. Give me battle, and grant me liberation by killing me.”
He speaks further. You hold these symbols which are mine. O Sātvata, member of the Yadu clan! He says this in disrespect. There is another, real meaning to the previous verse. I have not descended to show mercy to all beings because I am inferior, insignificant (aparaḥ). You alone have appeared as Vāsudeva. Make me give up my false designation, like thinking a shell is silver. In verse 20 the Lord will order Pauṇḍraka to do this. The real meaning of the present verse is as follows. You eternally hold the symbols like the cakra, which I have imitated out of foolishness. Throw your cakra at me and accept me will surrender to you since you will liberate me. If you do not release your weapon quickly then give me a fight. In verse 8 the Lord says exactly these words to the messenger and to Pauṇḍraka. Since the messenger spoke with hatred and mockery, seeing the Lord just as the wrestlers saw him in Kaṁsa’s arena, concerning shelter, in verse 9 the Lord answers, “You will become the shelter of dogs.” Later he answers in verse 20, “I will certainly take shelter of you if I do not wish to fight you.”
He speaks further. You hold these symbols which are mine. O Sātvata, member of the Yadu clan or O devotee! He says this in disrespect. There is another, real meaning to the verse. Make me give up my false designation. Accept my house.
- Revati Raman Pr SB 10-66-06 - 2013-06-27 ISKCON Tirupati
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- Haladhar Sw SB 10-66-06 - 2024-10-26 ISKCON Vrindavan
A thief, caught at the door of the treasury, draws a weapon and tells the owner to surrender his own keys. Such is Pauṇḍraka demanding that Kṛṣṇa lay down conch, disc, club, and bow — His own emblems — at the imitator's feet.
In the Rāmāyaṇa, Rāvaṇa sends Aṅgada with a message that Rāma should leave the forest and return to the north — and that Sītā is now Rāvaṇa's. Pauṇḍraka's demand has the same structure: take what is the Lord's, then ask the Lord to renounce it and surrender. Both stories end the same way; the false claimant's head separates from the false claimant's body.
Gauḍīyas read this parallel as deliberate: Vyāsa is showing the same lesson once in Tretā (Rāvaṇa) and once in Dvāpara (Pauṇḍraka). The shape of asuric ambition does not change across yugas.
My note
Source: vedabase.io