10.70 · Lord Kṛṣṇa's Daily Activities

• mādhavyaḥ — the wives of Mādhava (Kṛṣṇa)
  The queens are named not by their personal names here but by their relation to Mādhava — their identity is constituted by belonging to Him. In Gauḍīya reading, the suffix marks tādātmya with the Lord that mahiṣī-bhāva shares with the gopīs.
• viraha — separation
  Vipralambha — separation — is for the Gauḍīyas the deeper rasa, because in it longing intensifies and tastes the Lord more thickly than in union. The queens' grief at dawn is the seed-form of mahā-bhāva.
• patibhiḥ — by their husbands
  Plural: Kṛṣṇa simultaneously embraces each of His 16,108 queens in His own form in each palace. The grammar itself testifies to His acintya-śakti — one Bhagavān, many simultaneous līlās.
• kukkuṭān — the roosters
  The cursing of the rooster is a stock motif of love-poetry: that which calls one to dharmic duty is hated by the lover. Bhakti reframes dharma itself — the queens' 'curse' is their refusal to let dawn count as auspicious without Him.

• NRM SB 10-70-01-24
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English
• UM SB 10-70-01 - Glory of Personal Bhakti - 2025-12-14 Hillsborough
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2025-12-14· English

The roosters' crowing is the same dawn-bell every householder hears, but here it tears the queens from Kṛṣṇa's neck. The auspicious hour becomes inauspicious for those whose only wealth is His embrace — a glimpse of how a devotee feels even routine duty as exile from the Lord.

• vandinaḥ — bards, panegyrists
  The birds are likened to court bards whose duty is to wake the king with verses of his fame. In Vraja, the same office is held by the peacocks and parrots; here in Dvārakā, the pārijāta-grove birds take the role. Creation itself sings the Lord awake.
• mandāra — pārijāta tree
  The pārijāta is the heavenly wish-fulfilling tree Kṛṣṇa brought down from Indra's heaven for Satyabhāmā (SB 10.59). Its presence in His garden quietly proves that all desire-fulfillment now resides with Him, not with the demigods.
• kṛṣṇam — Lord Kṛṣṇa
  He who is all-attractive, the source of all incarnations (kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam, SB 1.3.28). That this very svayam-bhagavān allows Himself to be woken like an ordinary king is the heart of His narottama-līlā.
• bodhayanti iva — as if waking
  The iva (as if) is doctrinally crucial — Kṛṣṇa never sleeps (He is nitya-jāgrat); His 'waking' is līlā, performed for the satisfaction of His devotees who serve Him in the role of householder.

Kṛṣṇa is woken not by an alarm but by bards — the bees among the pārijāta blossoms and the birds in the garden recite His glories at dawn. The whole created order is shaped into a court ritual whose only purpose is to greet Him.

• vaidarbhī — the princess of Vidarbha (Rukmiṇī)
  Rukmiṇī is Lakṣmī herself, the goddess of fortune who chose Kṛṣṇa over Nārāyaṇa's calmer Vaikuṇṭha. In Gauḍīya reading her mood verges on mādhurya — possessive love that grudges every moment of separation.
• parirambhaṇa — embrace
  The compound (pari + rambh-) literally means 'encircling fully.' For the mahiṣīs this is not bodily contact but the encompassing shelter of Bhagavān's love — losing the embrace is losing the universe.
• ati-śobhanam — most auspicious
  The very hour the śāstras call most auspicious (brāhma-muhūrta) Rukmiṇī cannot bear. Bhakti inverts the calendar: a moment's value is measured only by proximity to Kṛṣṇa, not by its astrological merit.
• viśleṣāt — because of separation, loss
  Vi-śleṣa is the technical term for the loosening of an embrace, the unsticking of two who were joined. Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra treats every such micro-separation as preparing the soul to taste vipralambha-rasa more deeply.

Rukmiṇī clings to the last second of His embrace the way a thirsty traveler clings to the last drop in a cup. Every auspicious hour announced by the world is, for the devotee, only one more partition between herself and her beloved.

• brāhme muhūrte — the brāhma-muhūrta, ~96 minutes before sunrise
  The hour śāstra reserves for Brahman-meditation and japa. By rising at exactly this hour, Bhagavān models for every gṛhastha that the day's first act belongs to sādhana, not to commerce or family.
• ātmānam — upon Himself
  Doctrinally vast: Bhagavān meditating 'on Himself' is not Advaitin self-absorption but Bhagavān contemplating His own svarūpa, His own dhāma, His own śaktis — and so revealing that ātma-jñāna is in truth Kṛṣṇa-jñāna.
• brahma-ākhyam — that which is called Brahman
  The qualifier 'called' is decisive for Gauḍīyas: impersonal Brahman is one aspect (ākhyā) of Bhagavān, not His full feature. Kṛṣṇa meditates 'on Brahman' because Brahman is the bodily effulgence of His own form (BS 5.40).
• sva-śaktibhiḥ — by His own energies
  Cit, jīva, and māyā śaktis — the threefold potency by which Bhagavān manifests creation without ever becoming material. The verse encodes acintya-bhedābheda in a single phrase.
• svayam-jyotiḥ — self-luminous
  He requires no other light to be known by — neither sense, nor mind, nor scripture independently. He is svayam-prakāśa, and yet, mercifully, He chooses to be known through bhakti.

Bhagavān rising in the brāhma-muhūrta and 'meditating on Himself' is like the sun choosing to look into a mirror at dawn. There is no second light to see by; He is at once the meditator, the meditation, and the object — yet He performs the discipline anyway, to set the householder's standard.

• sandhyā-upagama — performance of the morning sandhyā worship
  The thrice-daily sandhyā (dawn, noon, dusk) is the brāhmaṇa's spinal practice. Bhagavān doing it Himself dignifies the rite as worship-of-Himself-by-Himself.
• huta-analaḥ — having offered into the sacred fire
  Fire-yajña is the Vedic householder's central act. Yet the BG (4.24, 9.16) reveals that all such offerings ultimately reach Kṛṣṇa, who is both yajña and yajña-bhuk. Here He performs the yajña He Himself receives.
• brahma — the Vedic mantra (Gāyatrī)
  Gāyatrī is called brahma because it is the mantra-mūla of the Vedas. That Bhagavān chants it 'silently' (jajāpa vāk-yataḥ) shows japa, not external recitation, as the gold standard — and the source-text for the whole Gauḍīya nāma-japa tradition.
• vāk-yataḥ — controlling speech
  Silence (mauna) during japa is the discipline Kṛṣṇa Himself models. Speech leaked outward dissipates the mantra; speech gathered inward feeds it. The whole rāgānuga-japa method rests on this.

Bhagavān bathing, dressing in cloth, and chanting Gāyatrī is the original of every brāhmaṇa's daily ritual — like the king who works the same plough as His farmers, not because He must, but because He wishes the plough to be honoured.

• ātmanaḥ kalāḥ — His own expansions
  Demigods, sages, forefathers — all are kalās, partial expansions of Bhagavān. Worshipping them is not polytheism but recognition that they hold delegated portions of His authority. He worships them to set the example, since they are limbs of His own body (SB 2.1.30-33).
• dhenūnām — of milk-cows
  Dhenu is the lactating mother-cow, archetype of nourishment. Gauḍīya tradition treats the cow as Bhagavān's especially dear creature; Kṛṣṇa is gopāla, govinda, go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya.
• viprebhyaḥ — to the brāhmaṇas
  Brāhmaṇa-dāna is the highest charity in śāstra. Kṛṣṇa's daily giving to brāhmaṇas teaches that wealth in a devotee's house is for distribution to those who hold Veda, not for accumulation.
• badvam badvam — in groups of 13,084 (Śrīdhara Svāmī's gloss)
  The technical numerical term is preserved in the verse itself — 107 such groups equal 1,400,000 cows each day. The detail is doctrinally important: bhakti is concrete, accounted, lavish, never vague generosity.
• ātma-vān — self-possessed
  Bhagavān is the original ātma-vān — His own master, never carried away. The householder devotee is told by this verse that even vast charity must be performed from a settled mind, not a swept-up one.

• RMP SB 10-70-07-09 Telugu - 2013-09-15 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Ram Murari Prabhu· 2013-09-15· Telugu

Bhagavān worshipping the demigods, sages, and forefathers is like the ocean offering a cup of water to each of its own waves — He is the source of every recipient, yet He bows and gives, so that the gift may itself become a śāstra for householders.

• ātma-sambhūtīḥ — His own expanded manifestations
  All beings are sambhūtis — manifestations sprung from Bhagavān (BG 10.8: ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ). Seeing every creature as His expansion is the foundation of vaiṣṇava behaviour: never offending another being is to never offend His sambhūti.
• gurūn — spiritual masters, elders
  Kṛṣṇa Himself bowed to His guru Sāndīpani Muni (SB 10.45). Even as Bhagavān, He establishes that without guru-praṇāma there is no path. The Gauḍīya line begins with this same precedent.
• namaskṛtya — having offered obeisances
  Praṇāma (full prostration) is the householder's first daily act after sandhyā. Bhagavān, who is bowed to by all the worlds, here bows — His humility is the original of which the devotee's is a reflection.
• maṅgalāni — auspicious things
  Touching auspicious objects (cow, ghee, gold, mirror) at dawn is a Vedic discipline of saṅkalpa — the day is shaped by what one first touches. Even Bhagavān honours the practice.

• UM SB 10-70-10 - 2025-12-21 Hillsborough
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2025-12-21· English

Bhagavān bows to the cows, brāhmaṇas, gurus, and all living beings — like a king who bows to his own crown before he wears it. He is the source they all express, yet He offers obeisance to the very forms in which He has chosen to dwell.

• nara-loka-vibhūṣaṇam — the ornament of human society
  Kṛṣṇa is what makes humanity itself beautiful — without Him, nara-loka is bare. The compound is Gauḍīya-charged: every human gathering is graced only by His presence, every devotee assembly is His ornament redoubled.
• divya-srak — divine flower garland
  Mālā is the symbol of acceptance and offering. Kṛṣṇa's vaijayantī-mālā contains the five elements; here His morning garland is the seed of every flower offered to a deity in every Vaiṣṇava household.
• anulepanaiḥ — with ointments, sandalwood paste
  Candana on the forehead and limbs is dīkṣā-mark and cooling agent — Bhagavān models tilaka and aṅga-rāga that the brāhmaṇa-vaiṣṇava replicates daily. The deity-worship paddhati is here in seed.
• svīyaiḥ — His own (personal)
  He wears only His own ornaments — no borrowed splendour. The lesson: Bhagavān is His own source of beauty, and the devotee too should let bhakti supply the inner beauty rather than borrowing identity from the world.

Kṛṣṇa adorning Himself is not vanity but cosmic kindness — like a temple deity being dressed by His own hands. He is nara-loka-vibhūṣaṇam, the ornament of all human society; His ornaments only re-decorate the One who already adorns existence itself.

• kāmān — desires, desired objects
  Bhagavān fulfils kāma at every level. In Gauḍīya theology this is the doorway: by satisfying material kāma, He gradually awakens the prema-kāma whose only object is Himself (cf. Bhāgavata 1.2.10).
• sarva-varṇānām — to members of all the social classes
  Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra — Kṛṣṇa makes no caste exception in His daily distribution. The verse undercuts any Vaiṣṇava reading that would make varṇa a barrier to His mercy.
• prakṛtīḥ — ministers, subjects
  Prakṛti here means the body politic, the king's natural support. Kṛṣṇa greets His ministers not after their work but before — relationship precedes function in His court.
• pratoṣya — fully satisfying
  Pra + tuṣ — to satisfy thoroughly. Not partial satisfaction but completion: the prefix pra- carries the Bhāgavata's repeated insistence that Bhagavān is paritoṣaṇa-mātra — He alone fully satisfies (SB 1.2.6).

Kṛṣṇa fulfilling every minister's, citizen's, and palace-dweller's desire is like the ocean filling every shoreline at high tide — none is overlooked, none over-served. Bhakti-rājya is not a kingdom of equality but of complete satisfaction.

• agrataḥ viprān — first to the brāhmaṇas
  Sequence is doctrinal: brāhmaṇa first, then friends, then ministers, then wives, then self. Bhagavān refuses to consume what has not first been honoured outward. The principle yields prasāda-vidhi for the entire tradition.
• tāmbūla — betel preparation
  Tāmbūla after a meal is the host's signature of complete reception. In Vraja, the gopīs make tāmbūla for Kṛṣṇa as an intimate seva; here He distributes it. Distribution and reception form a single Bhakti-loop.
• suhṛdaḥ — His friends
  Su-hṛd literally 'good-hearted,' the technical term for sakhya-bhāva. Sātyaki, Uddhava, Akrūra and others receive after the brāhmaṇas, before even His own queens — friendship has its own rank in His order.
• svayam — Himself
  He, the original enjoyer of all sacrifice (BG 5.29), takes last. This is the deepest reversal: Bhagavān, who is bhokta of the universe, accepts only what remains after His own have been satisfied. The mahā-prasāda principle is in this single word.

Kṛṣṇa receives the garland only after the brāhmaṇas, friends, ministers, and queens have received theirs — like the host who eats last, the guru who serves first. Prasāda-distribution is the Vaiṣṇava household's central choreography, and this verse is its source.

• sugrīva-ādyaiḥ — named Sugrīva and others
  Kṛṣṇa's four horses — Śaibya, Sugrīva, Meghapuṣpa, Balāhaka — are named in SB 10.59. Bhagavān has personal relationships even with His horses; nothing in His establishment is generic.
• syandanam — chariot
  Syandana literally 'one that flows' — the chariot is the mobile throne. In Bhagavad-gītā the chariot is Arjuna's; here it is His own. The same Pārthasārathi who drove for the bhakta now mounts His own chariot to hold court.
• praṇamya — having bowed down
  Even the charioteer's first act is praṇāma. In the Vaiṣṇava household, every encounter with Bhagavān begins with bowing, however many times a day. The body is the first organ of bhakti.
• sūtaḥ — the chariot driver
  Sūta is also a bardic caste — the chariot driver historically composed the king's praise-songs. The same office that fights and drives also sings. Service has many faces, but one rasa.

The chariot Sugrīva yoked and ready at the door is like the breath the devotee finds already drawn in at the moment of japa — Bhagavān's service-instruments arrive before they are asked for. The bowing charioteer Dāruka has already made his offering before any command.

• bhāskaraḥ — the sun
  Kṛṣṇa is repeatedly compared to the sun in the SB (1.3.43 — sun of dharma; 10.14.36 — sun of devotee-protection). The simile here is liturgical: His daily rising is the inner truth behind the cosmic sunrise.
• sātyaki-uddhava — Sātyaki and Uddhava
  Two paradigmatic Vaiṣṇavas: Sātyaki the warrior-bhakta, Uddhava the contemplative-bhakta. Together they show that bhakti has both fierce-active and inward-reflective faces, both at Kṛṣṇa's side.
• pūrva-adrim — the eastern mountain
  Udayācala, the mythic mountain over which the sun rises each day. Kṛṣṇa's chariot is His personal udayācala — wherever He mounts becomes the eastern horizon for the world.
• pāṇinā pāṇī — hand to hands
  Bhagavān takes the charioteer's hands in His own as He mounts — physical touch initiated by the Lord. Such touch is what the gopīs called śrī-aṅga-saṅga, the supreme grace, given here to a servant who only drives.

Kṛṣṇa mounting His chariot with Sātyaki and Uddhava is the sun rising over the eastern mountain — except the sun has chosen His own two horizon-peaks to rise between. Bhakti makes the cosmos personal: even His mounting has named companions, not anonymous space.

• sa-vrīḍa-prema — shy and loving
  Vrīḍa (shyness) plus prema (love) — the technical pair the Gauḍīyas analyse as the gopīs' signature mood. The queens of Dvārakā partake in mahiṣī-bhāva, which in Gauḍīya theology is itself a refraction of Vraja mādhurya.
• kṛcchrāt visṛṣṭaḥ — released with difficulty
  Even Bhagavān finds it hard to leave them — His own form is held by the bhāva of His devotees. This is the doctrine of bhakta-vatsala: Kṛṣṇa is captive to His devotees' love, not its master.
• jāta-hāsaḥ — a smile having arisen
  The smile of departure — Kṛṣṇa-smita — is the Gauḍīya signature image. From it Rūpa Gosvāmī begins his rasa-analysis: nothing wounds the devotee more, nothing sustains them more, than that smile.
• haran manaḥ — stealing the mind
  Manohara — mind-stealer — is one of Kṛṣṇa's epithets. He is the original thief: of butter in Vraja, of vastra at Cīraghāṭa, and here of the queens' minds. Bhakti is the consent of the stolen one.

The queens' shy glances at the departing Kṛṣṇa are the gopīs' parting glances at the rāsa transposed to Dvārakā — like a flame catching the corner of a curtain as the door closes. The smile He turns back over His shoulder is the same smile that left Vṛndāvana once and never stopped haunting it.

• sudharmā-ākhyām — known as Sudharmā
  Sudharmā literally 'excellent dharma' — the hall is named for the dharma it embodies. In a Gauḍīya frame, sudharma is bhāgavata-dharma, devotional service; nothing else qualifies.
• ṣaṭ ūrmayaḥ — the six waves (of material life)
  The six waves are traditionally hunger, thirst, lamentation, illusion, old age, death — or per Śrīdhara, the dvandvas of the body, mind, and life. Bhagavān's hall protects those inside from all six. The image: His sannidhi is itself the antidote to saṁsāra.
• vṛṣṇibhiḥ — by the Vṛṣṇis
  The Vṛṣṇi dynasty are Bhagavān's personal kinsmen, members of His eternal parivāra. The Gauḍīyas identify them as nitya-pārṣadas — eternal associates — not historical contingencies.
• aṅga — my dear (King)
  Śuka addresses Parīkṣit with the intimate aṅga, the Bhāgavata's vocative of tenderness. The narration of Bhagavān's daily routine is itself offered as a refuge for the dying king.

• Radha Raman Sw SB 10-70-17-21 - 2015-07-22 ISKCON Alachua
  His Holiness Radha Raman Swami· 2015-07-22· English
• VarsanaSw SB 10-70-17 - 2012-07-17 New Vrindavan
  His Holiness Varsana Swami· 2012-07-17· English

The Sudharmā hall — once Indra's, now Kṛṣṇa's — protects everyone inside from the six waves of saṁsāra. It is like a deity-room scaled up to a kingdom: entering is itself salvation, and the entrance-fee is only His company.

• uḍu-rājaḥ — the king of the stars (the moon)
  The moon-among-stars simile is the SB's most beloved image for Bhagavān among His devotees (cf. 10.32.14, the gopīs in rāsa). Here it is applied to Dvārakā: every assembly of Vaiṣṇavas has Kṛṣṇa as its moon.
• nr-siṁhaiḥ — by lions among men
  Nara-siṁha here is metaphorical for the Yadu heroes, but evocative of the Lord's own Nṛsiṁha-avatāra. Kṛṣṇa surrounded by 'lions among men' — His protectors are themselves portions of His own ferocity.
• yadu-uttamaḥ — the best of the Yadus
  Kṛṣṇa is yadu-uttama, the supreme Yadu, even though He is svayam bhagavān. He chooses to take rank within His dynasty rather than apart from it — līlā always honours family.
• sva-bhāsā — by His own effulgence
  His radiance is intrinsic, not borrowed. The same sva- that returned in the brāhma-muhūrta verse (sva-saṁsthayā, sva-śaktibhiḥ) marks Bhagavān as ever self-sufficient — and yet ever choosing relation.

• RMP SB 10-70-18-19 Telugu Translation - 2013-09-20 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Ram Murari Prabhu· 2013-09-20· Telugu
• RMP SB 10-70-18-19 Telugu - 2013-09-20 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Ram Murari Prabhu· 2013-09-20· Telugu
• JAS SB 10-70-18 - BBT Meeting - 2001
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· English
• JAS SB 10-70-18
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· English

Kṛṣṇa amidst the Yadu warriors is the moon among stars — but unlike the moon, He does not borrow His light. He gives light to every Yadu around Him, and yet they remain stars, not reflections. Acintya-bhedābheda: distinct yet of one effulgence.

• upamantriṇaḥ — jesters, advisors-in-jest
  The court vidūṣaka — comic counselor — is a Vedic institution. Even in Bhagavān's assembly, laughter has its place. Bhakti is not solemn refusal of joy but joy redirected to Him.
• hāsya-rasaiḥ — with comic moods, hāsya-rasas
  Hāsya is one of the nine rasas; even in the rasa-śāstra of bhakti, hāsya-rasa has its place (Bharata-muni, Rūpa Gosvāmī's Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu). Kṛṣṇa enjoys hāsya as ardently as vīra or mādhurya.
• naṭa-ācāryāḥ — expert performers, dance-masters
  Naṭa-ācārya literally 'master-actor.' In Caitanya tradition the term is reclaimed: Mahāprabhu Himself is the supreme naṭa, dancing kṛṣṇa-līlā back into the world.
• vibhum — the all-pervading Lord
  He is Vibhu — vast, all-pervading — and yet sits and receives the dance of one female performer. The vibhu is simultaneously aṇu in attention. Bhakti rests on this double infinity.

Jesters and dancers in Bhagavān's court are like crows feeding from the same lake as swans — even play and laughter, in His presence, become bhakti. There is no domain of human life He has not made into His own service.

• mṛdaṅga — two-headed clay drum
  The mṛdaṅga is the Gauḍīya saṅkīrtana instrument par excellence; Mahāprabhu's parties were known by its sound. Its appearance here in Bhagavān's morning court establishes it as the eternal kīrtana-instrument.
• veṇu — flute
  Veṇu in any Bhāgavata verse cannot be heard without recalling Kṛṣṇa's own flute at Vraja. Here in Dvārakā He has put down His flute and is being played for — the Vraja-instrument has become His courtly companion.
• tuṣṭuvuḥ — they praised, offered stuti
  Stuti — formal verses of praise — is one of the nine limbs of bhakti (śravaṇa, kīrtana, smaraṇa, pāda-sevana, arcana, vandana, dāsya, sakhya, ātma-nivedana). The royal bards perform vandana daily.
• māgadha — reciter of itihāsa, royal historian
  The māgadha recounts the king's ancestry. For Kṛṣṇa, this means reciting the līlās of His own previous avatāras and ancestors — itihāsa as theology. The Bhāgavatam itself is the perfected māgadha-recital.

Drums, vīṇās, flutes, cymbals, and conches — the whole orchestra of creation — playing in His court, with bards reciting His own glories: it is like the sea reciting itself back to the moon that pulls it. Bhakti makes the kīrtana of Kṛṣṇa the centre of every gathering, even His own.

• brahma-vādinaḥ — fluent in the Vedas
  Brahma-vādin is the technical term for the master of Vedic recitation. That such masters sit in Kṛṣṇa's court chanting establishes the Vedas themselves as His servants, not His sources.
• puṇya-yaśasām — of pious fame
  Yaśas — fame — in śāstra is reckoned only when pious (puṇya). Material celebrity is not yaśas. The brāhmaṇas recite only those whose fame stands in dharma; Kṛṣṇa is Himself the source of all puṇya-yaśas.
• kathāḥ — stories, narratives
  Kṛṣṇa-kathā and bhāgavata-kathā are the Gauḍīya tradition's central practice. Hearing kathā in the presence of Bhagavān is the SB's image of Vaikuṇṭha; the morning court is its earthly version.
• āsīnāḥ — seated
  Sitting (āsīna) in Bhagavān's presence is itself a form of seva. The Six Gosvāmīs would sit before the deity reading kathā for hours. The posture is not passive — it is one of the most active possible.

Brāhmaṇas chanting Vedic mantras and recounting tales of pious kings of old in Kṛṣṇa's court is like ancestors visiting their own descendant — the One whom every Veda sings and every pious king worshipped now sits and listens to His own praise.

• puruṣaḥ — a person, man
  Puruṣa is the Bhāgavata's resonant term — Bhagavān Himself is the puruṣottama, supreme puruṣa. Here a small puruṣa enters the court of the supreme puruṣa, a meeting that becomes the hinge of the chapter.
• apūrva-darśanaḥ — whose appearance was unprecedented
  Never before seen at Dvārakā — the messenger represents lands and kings outside Kṛṣṇa's daily orbit. The verse signals that bhakti reaches beyond the inner circle: even strangers are heard.
• bhagavate — to the Supreme Lord
  The doorkeepers announce him 'to Bhagavān' — not 'to the king.' The whole Bhāgavata vocabulary refuses to forget who Kṛṣṇa is, even in royal scenes.
• praveśitaḥ — caused to enter
  The passive: he is brought in. Even arriving at Bhagavān is by His grace through His servants. No one enters Sudharmā by self-effort alone; the doorkeepers (His associates) escort the supplicant in.

• UM SB 10-70-22-24 - Stand for Dharma - 2025-12-28 Hillsborough
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2025-12-28· English
• Sesa Pr SB 10-70-22-26 - 2015-07-23 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Sesa Prabhu· 2015-07-23· English

An unfamiliar messenger arrives at Bhagavān's court — and the doorkeepers, knowing nothing else of him, know enough to announce him to the Lord. Like a leaf borne on a river straight to the sea: every soul carrying a cry of suffering finds itself, without quite knowing how, at Kṛṣṇa's feet.

• kṛta-añjaliḥ — with joined palms
  Añjali — palms joined — is the universal Vaiṣṇava posture of supplication. Even a messenger does not address Bhagavān without this gesture. The body says what the words will say.
• para-īśāya — to the Supreme Controller
  The messenger does not address Kṛṣṇa as merely a king but as parameśvara — Supreme Lord. The political appeal is folded inside a theological appeal: it is to Bhagavān, not to a king, that the imprisoned kings cry.
• duḥkham — the suffering
  Bhagavān receives a report of duḥkha. The whole BG begins similarly with Arjuna reporting his duḥkha (BG 1.46-47). Bhakti often starts where pain finds words at Bhagavān's feet.
• nirodha-jam — born of imprisonment
  Nirodha — confinement, blockage — is also the technical term in Bhāgavata cosmology for cosmic dissolution (SB 2.10.1). The imprisonment of the kings is a local nirodha within saṁsāra; only Bhagavān undoes both.

The messenger bowing with joined palms and reporting the kings' suffering is like a single arrow drawn at the foot of the lion. He carries no weapon, only the news of pain — and that, before Bhagavān, is enough to set the rescue in motion.

• sannatim — complete subservience
  Saṁ-nati — full bowing, total submission. The kings refused to bow to Jarāsandha and were imprisoned for it. The Gauḍīya reading: refusal to bow to any but Bhagavān may bring worldly imprisonment, but it is the only correct refusal.
• giri-vraje — in the fortress (city) of Girivraja
  Girivraja, Jarāsandha's capital in Magadha (modern Rajgir), is the geography of bondage in this chapter. Kṛṣṇa will eventually enter it with Bhīma and Arjuna (SB 10.71-72) to undo it from inside.
• ayute dve — twenty thousand
  Twenty thousand kings, each with his own retinue — the scale shows Jarāsandha's reach. Bhagavān's intervention, when it comes, will not be small either; the magnitude of bondage measures the magnitude of mercy needed.
• prasahya ruddhāḥ — forcibly imprisoned
  Prasahya — by force. Saṁsāra too holds the jīva by force: the body, the mind, the karma-pāśa. The kings' imprisonment is a literalization of every jīva's predicament.

Twenty thousand kings packed inside the fortress of Girivraja are the human race in saṁsāra in miniature — each a sovereign in his own mind, yet collectively a prisoner. Jarāsandha is the principle of bondage; Kṛṣṇa, the principle of release.

• kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa — O Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa (doubled vocative)
  Reduplication in Sanskrit intensifies, but in nāma-bhakti the doubling is itself the rasa: the name once is calling, the name twice is taking shelter. Mahāprabhu's whole mahā-mantra is built on such reduplication.
• aprameya-ātman — O immeasurable Soul
  Aprameya — beyond pramāṇa, beyond proof. The kings address Bhagavān as one whom no measure can contain, and yet they confidently call. Bhakti is the means by which the immeasurable becomes intimate.
• prapanna-bhaya-bhañjana — destroyer of the fear of the surrendered
  A compound epithet that is one of the Bhāgavata's signature names for Bhagavān. The grammar is decisive: He destroys fear only for prapannas, those who have surrendered. Śaraṇāgati is the condition of His protection.
• śaraṇam yāmaḥ — we come for shelter
  The verbatim phrase of śaraṇāgati. Echoes BG 18.66 (mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja) and SB 7.5.23 (śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ … ātma-nivedanam). The kings perform ātma-nivedana from inside their prison, and the rescue is already structurally ensured.
• pṛthak-dhiyaḥ — of separated mentality
  They confess they are pṛthak-dhī — given to separate thinking, to the illusion of being independent agents. The confession is itself the beginning of bhakti: only one who admits pṛthak-dhī can give it up.

• NRM SB 10-70-25-47
  Her Grace Narayani Mataji· English

The kings cry 'kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa' — the very name repeated is the medicine and the message. Like a child calling 'mother, mother' in the dark, the doubled name is itself the saraṇāgati. They have not finished the sentence; the name has already begun the rescue.

• animiṣāya — to the unblinking one (time)
  Animiṣa — without nimeṣa (blink). Bhagavān as time never blinks; nothing escapes His attention. The same epithet means both demigod (who do not blink) and Kṛṣṇa-as-kāla, in this verse the latter.
• vikarma — forbidden activities
  Vi-karma is the technical opposite of dharma-karma — not just absence of duty but actively wrong action. The kings confess that the world is captive not only to the wicked Jarāsandha but to vikarma at large.
• tvat-udite bhavat-arcane — in the worship of You as spoken by You
  The kings explicitly invoke the BG (cf. 18.66): worship as You yourself have commanded. Bhakti is not invented by the devotee; it is performed as Bhagavān Himself prescribed.
• kuśale — what is for one's true benefit
  Kuśala — true welfare. The verse names sva-arcana (His own worship) as kuśala. All other 'goods' are pramāda — bewildered miscalculation. The Gauḍīya soteriology in one word.

• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-70-26 Telugu Translation - 2013-09-26 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2013-09-26· Telugu

Bhagavān as time — animiṣa, the unblinking — cuts down the kings' hopes for long life as suddenly as a sword takes a flower's head. The verse offers obeisance to that very sword: bhakti consents to being trimmed, because the gardener is Kṛṣṇa.

• avatīrṇaḥ — descended
  Avatāra — the descent. The kings invoke the doctrine of avatāra at the precise moment when they need it most. The Gauḍīya understanding: every avatāra is for sat-rakṣaṇa and khala-nigraha, the verse's exact two phrases.
• sat-rakṣaṇāya — for the protection of the saintly
  Sat — the truthful, the real, the devoted. Bhagavān's first descent-purpose is to protect them. The kings, naming themselves implicitly as sat, claim a place under that protection.
• khala-nigrahaṇāya — for the subduing of the wicked
  Khala — the malicious. The second descent-purpose. The kings name Jarāsandha as khala, asking Bhagavān to fulfil the second clause of His own promise.
• kalayā — by an expansion (Baladeva, or time potency)
  Bhagavān descends with His kalā — partial manifestation. The Gauḍīya reading: even when 'descending,' Bhagavān is in fact undiminished; only His outer manifestation appears partial.

Bhagavān descends to protect the saintly and subdue the wicked — the kings cannot understand how Jarāsandha still rampages. It is as if the sun has risen and yet shadows persist; the kings rightly suspect that the shadow is not stronger than the sun but is being permitted, for some purpose, to remain.

• svapnāyitam — merely dreamlike
  Svapnāyita — like a dream. The technical Bhāgavata term for saṁsāra-sukha: it has the appearance of substance but no abiding reality. The kings finally see what they could not see before imprisonment.
• para-tantram — dependent (on something else)
  Their happiness is para-tantra — under another's control (specifically Jarāsandha's, but more deeply, māyā's). True happiness is sva-tantra, which is only in bhakti to Bhagavān.
• tvat-anīha labhyam — to be obtained by selfless work done for You
  Anīha — without selfish craving. Niṣkāma-karma-yoga (BG 2.47-48, 3.9) is the Gauḍīya doorway: work performed for Bhagavān, without personal claim, becomes the road to ātmani sukham — happiness within the self.
• kṛpaṇāḥ — wretched, miserly
  Kṛpaṇa is the SB's term (cf. 7.6.10) for one who fails to use the rare human birth for bhakti. The kings confess themselves as kṛpaṇa — the first step in becoming udāra (generous-hearted, devoted).
• māyayā — by the illusory energy
  Bhagavān's own deluding potency. The kings recognize that their suffering is not random — it is His māyā operating on them, and so the remedy is Him. The metaphysics points the way out.

• UM SB 10-70-28 - Suffering Cause and Cure - 2019-01-01 Chennai
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2019-01-01· English
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-70-28 Telugu Translation - 2013-09-29 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2013-09-29· Telugu
• Vraja Bihari Pr SB 10-70-28 - Sadhana Bhakti is about being Present Now - 2015-11-08 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Grace Vraja Bihari Prabhu· 2015-11-08· English
• Ramai Sw SB 10-70-28 - What is Real Happiness - 2007-11-10
  His Holiness Ramai Swami· 2007-11-10· English

The kings carry their royal happiness like men hauling a corpse — the body of pleasure has long died, and yet they cannot put it down. Bhakti is the only knife sharp enough to cut the rope, and they finally name themselves as kṛpaṇa — wretchedly attached.

• praṇata-śoka-hara — remover of the sorrow of the surrendered
  Triple compound: praṇata (the bowed-down), śoka (grief), hara (remover). One of Bhagavān's most precise epithets — He removes the sorrow specifically of those who bow. Bowing is the door.
• karma-pāśāt — from the fetters of karma
  Karma-pāśa — the rope of karma. The kings' physical chains are doubled by metaphysical chains, and both are loosened together. Bhagavān's grace cuts both kinds of bondage at once.
• mṛga-rāṭ — lion (king of beasts)
  The lion-image is doubled in the chapter: Jarāsandha is the false lion that has caged the kings; Kṛṣṇa among the Yadus was just called nr-siṁha (18). The true Lion will displace the false one.
• viyuṅkṣva — please separate (us from the bondage)
  From vi + yuj — to unjoin, to release. The verbal imperative carries the entire request: separate us from our fetters. Bhakti often takes the form of begging Bhagavān to unjoin what should not be joined.

• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-70-29 Telugu Translation - 2013-09-30 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2013-09-30· Telugu
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-70-29 - Mercy of Lord is essential for all processes and how to get the mercy in path of Bhakti - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• Ramai Sw SB 10-70-29 - Krishna Consciousness uproots the desire for sinful activity - 2007-11-11
  His Holiness Ramai Swami· 2007-11-11· English

Jarāsandha caging twenty thousand kings as a lion captures sheep — the image is exact: those who lived as kings have been reduced to flock-animals. Only the king of kings, Kṛṣṇa, can break the lion's grip, because He is the lion-master Himself (Nṛsiṁha).

• dvi-nava-kṛtvaḥ — eighteen times (two-times-nine)
  Bhāgavata commentators traditionally read this as seventeen victories and one strategic 'defeat' — the eighteenth as the Mucukunda-trick. The number-grammar carries the entire history.
• nr-loka-niratam — absorbed in human affairs
  Bhagavān 'absorbed in human affairs' — a doctrinally weighty phrase. He chooses to act as if bound by human limits, hiding His full sovereignty. Gauḍīya: this is His narottama-līlā, His human-pastime; never a real diminution.
• ananta-vīryam — of unlimited prowess
  Ananta — endless. The kings explicitly affirm Bhagavān's unbounded strength even while reporting His apparent loss. Faith outruns appearance — the basic bhakti operation.
• ajita — O unconquerable one
  Ajita — never-conquered. Kṛṣṇa's epithet, used precisely when He has 'allowed' Himself to be conquered. The contradiction is theological: He is ajita in essence even when līlā shows otherwise.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-70-30 - Everything is the Perfect Arrangement of the Lord - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• Ramai Sw SB 10-70-30 - A surrendered soul feels fully protected by Krishna - 2007-11-12
  His Holiness Ramai Swami· 2007-11-12· English

Kṛṣṇa has defeated Jarāsandha seventeen times and once allowed Himself to lose — like a teacher who scores his pupil's pride and then deliberately fails an exam to let the pupil swell. The kings, having watched the swelling become a torment, now ask Him to end the game.

• prapannāḥ — surrendered
  Prapanna — the technical term for one who has performed śaraṇāgati. The messenger does not say 'powerful kings'; he says 'surrendered.' Their qualification before Bhagavān is no longer their crown but their prapatti.
• darśana-kāṅkṣiṇaḥ — anxiously desiring darśana
  Darśana — seeing — is the Vaiṣṇava goal even more than physical release. The kings ask first to see Him; freedom is secondary. Bhakti subordinates mokṣa to darśana.
• śam vidhīyatām — please bestow welfare
  Śam — auspiciousness, peace. The imperative is gentle: the kings do not specify what they want; they entrust the form of help to Him. Bhakti is request without dictation.
• dīnānām — of the wretched, of the lowly
  Dīna — humbled, destitute. Bhagavān is dīna-bandhu (friend of the wretched) and dīna-nātha. The kings, having become dīna, qualify for the very name that Bhagavān bears toward them.

• UM SB 10-70-31-33 - Joy to the Lord - 2019-01-05 Chennai
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2019-01-05· English
• Ramai Sw SB 10-70-31 - The scriptures says it all and one does not have to speculate - 2007-11-13
  His Holiness Ramai Swami· 2007-11-13· English

The messenger ends his speech the way an arrow lodges in its mark — 'they hanker for Your audience, bestow good fortune.' Like a child holding up a broken toy to a parent, his report is complete the moment Bhagavān has heard it; the rest is His to do.

• deva-ṛṣiḥ — the sage of the demigods
  Devarṣi — Nārada's specific title. He is the only ṛṣi who freely moves among devas, asuras, and mortals, carrying news of Bhagavān. The Gauḍīya tradition reveres him as the guru of Vyāsa and thus the great-grandfather of the SB itself.
• piṅga-jaṭā — yellowish matted hair
  Piṅga — reddish-yellow, the colour of fire and sun. Nārada wears no royal ornament but his hair itself shines like the sun. The ascetic-luminous body is a Vaiṣṇava aesthetic: holiness as its own radiance.
• yathā raviḥ — like the sun
  Nārada is compared to the sun just as Kṛṣṇa was at verse 15 (bhāskaraḥ). Two suns now share the hall. The simile encodes Gauḍīya doctrine: the devotee shines with Bhagavān's borrowed-and-yet-real light.
• prādurāsīt — appeared, manifested
  Prādur-bhū is the verb of divine manifestation (cf. avirbhāva). Nārada does not 'enter' through a door so much as 'manifest' in the court — his arrivals are always slightly miraculous.

• Tamohara Pr SB 10-70-32-37 - 2015-07-28 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Tamohara Prabhu· 2015-07-28· English

Nārada entering with golden matted locks blazing like the sun is like one luminous body announcing another. The court that already had its sun (Kṛṣṇa) now sees a second sun walk in — and rises to greet him, because the second sun is His servant.

• sarva-loka-īśvara-īśvaraḥ — the controller of all controllers of all worlds
  A triple-layered compound — Bhagavān is īśvara of īśvaras of all lokas. And yet this triple-īśvara rises and bows. The grammar amplifies the humility into something cosmic.
• vavanda — offered respects
  Vand — to praise, to bow, to honour. Kṛṣṇa Himself uses it toward His devotee. The whole vandana-aṅga of bhakti (one of the nine limbs) is given a cosmic example: even the One who is bowed to bows.
• śīrṣṇā — with His head
  He bows with His own head — the supreme limb. In Vaiṣṇava liturgy, śīrṣa-praṇāma (touching the head to the ground) is the most complete obeisance. Kṛṣṇa offers it to Nārada.
• utthitaḥ — having stood up
  Standing for a guest is a Vedic householder discipline. Kṛṣṇa, who needs to stand for no one, stands. Every Vaiṣṇava-gṛhastha who rises for an arriving devotee re-enacts this moment.

Kṛṣṇa rising from His throne with His ministers to bow His head to Nārada is the sun standing up for one of its rays. He is sarva-loka-īśvara-īśvara — controller of every controller — and yet He rises. Bhakti's deepest grammar: the Lord honours His own devotee more than Himself.

• vidhi-vat — according to scriptural injunction
  Vidhi-vat — by the rule. Bhagavān worships Nārada exactly as the śāstra prescribes for honouring a guest-sage. The Lord does not improvise around the Veda; He honours it from inside.
• su-nṛtaiḥ vākyaiḥ — with truthful and pleasing words
  Su-nṛta is a Vedic compound (Manu 2.51 and SB elsewhere) for words that are simultaneously sweet and true. The Gauḍīya practical teaching: speech that is true but harsh, or sweet but false, is not su-nṛta. Bhagavān's own speech is the standard.
• śraddhayā — with faith, reverence
  Śraddhā — the Bhāgavata's foundational term for the inner condition of bhakti (cf. ādau śraddhā, Rūpa Gosvāmī). Kṛṣṇa Himself approaches His devotee with śraddhā — the model is set.
• tarpayan — satisfying, gratifying
  Tarp — to satisfy, related to tarpaṇa, the daily offering to forefathers and devas. Bhagavān performs tarpaṇa toward His devotee Nārada — a sacred reversal.

• UM SB 10-70-34-37 - Sweet Human Like Pastimes - 2019-01-06 Chennai
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2019-01-06· English

Kṛṣṇa offering Nārada a seat and speaking 'truthful and pleasing words' (su-nṛtaiḥ vākyaiḥ) is like the ocean offering a cup of its own water to a river. The seat, the worship, the words — all His; yet given as if received.