• phālgunam — Phālguna-tīrtha
  A holy bathing place associated by tradition with the month of Phālguna and with Arjuna (also called Phālguna). Balarāma bathes here just before the Kurukṣetra section of the chapter — the poet places the name of Arjuna's epithet on the page two verses before Arjuna himself appears.
• pañca-apsarasam — the lake of the five Apsarās
  Compound: pañca (five) + apsaras (celestial dancer). The Mahābhārata (Ādi-parva) records that Arjuna once liberated five Apsarās cursed to crocodile form in this very lake. By bathing here Balarāma touches the water already touched by Arjuna's hand.
• sannihitaḥ — directly manifested
  From sam + ni + √dhā, 'permanently established near.' The same word the verse used for Hari at Śrī-raṅgam — here applied to Viṣṇu at Pañcāpsarā. Gauḍīyas track this term as the Bhāgavatam's marker for places where the Lord's full presence is ever-available, not merely remembered.
• asparśat gava-ayutam — He touched ten thousand cows (in charity)
  Phrase: asparśat (He touched) + gava-ayutam (ten thousand cows). The donor formally touches the gift before giving — Vedic dāna requires hand-contact with the dāna-vastu. Balarāma's hand touches ten thousand cows; each receives the contact of Bhagavān before passing to its brāhmaṇa.

Pañcāpsarā Lake is named for the five celestial dancers — but the verse's hinge is yatra viṣṇuḥ sannihitaḥ, 'where Viṣṇu Himself is established.' Balarāma touches the water as one Viṣṇu greeting another. Then ten thousand cows again — the elder brother of Kṛṣṇa cannot pass a tīrtha without giving cows away, the way Yaśodā cannot pass Kṛṣṇa without offering milk.