• su - upaviṣṭam — when (Garga Muni) was seated very comfortably
  Su (well) + upaviṣṭam (seated). The host first installs the guest in physical comfort — āsana, water, ease — before any verbal exchange. Hospitality is staged in correct order, not collapsed into rushed talk.
• kṛta - ātithyam — and he had been properly received as a guest
  Ātithya = the dharma owed to one who arrives without a fixed day (a-tithi). Refusing ātithya is a Vedic offense. Nanda completes the protocol before speaking — dharma scaffolds bhāva.
• sūnṛtayā — (by words) very sweet and truthful
  Su-nṛta = sweet AND true. The Vedic ideal of speech: priyaṁ ca satyam, never one without the other. Flattery is sweet-untrue; harsh rebuke is true-unsweet; sūnṛtā is both.
• brahman — O brāhmaṇa
  Vocative. Nanda addresses Garga by his varṇa-qualification, honoring the sādhu's social-spiritual frame. Gauḍīyas note: the highest address — 'O knower of Brahman' — is here directed to one who in fact knows para-brahman Kṛṣṇa, currently sitting in Nanda's courtyard as his son.
• pūrṇasya — of one who is full in everything
  Genitive of pūrṇa (full, complete). The technical term Īśopaniṣad uses for Bhagavān (pūrṇam adaḥ). Nanda lends it to Garga, recognizing that a pure devotee shares Bhagavān's pūrṇatā by sevā-conduction.
• karavāma kim — what can I (we) do
  First-person plural imperative of √kṛ + interrogative. The exact form of śaraṇāgati-speech: not 'how can I be served' but 'what can I do'. Compare Arjuna's śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam (BG 2.7).

• SNS SB 10-08-03 - Krishnas Experience in Gurukula - 2021-07-25
  His Holiness Sacinandana Swami· 2021-07-25· English

• When a Vaiṣṇava enters your home, set aside your agenda and ask sincerely: 'What can I do for you?' — then act on the answer.
• Keep your home ready for a sādhu's visit: clean āsana, fresh water, prasāda you would gladly offer Kṛṣṇa Himself.
• Serve a devotee this week without expecting instruction, blessing, or recognition in return — let the serving itself be the gain.

• When a sādhu or senior Vaiṣṇava enters my life, do I rush to serve, or do I subtly position myself to be served?
• What 'fullness' do I imagine in myself that quietly excuses me from the humility Nanda shows here?

• Mistaking the devotee's pūrṇatā as a reason to withhold service — 'they don't need anything' becomes a hiding place for one's own laziness.
• Performing service to sādhus as social ritual or spiritual résumé-building, rather than as Nanda's genuine 'karavāma kim'.
• Reserving such reverent service only for famous gurus while neglecting the ordinary Vaiṣṇavas Krishna actually places in front of us each day.

• Nanda Mahārāja is the father of Kṛṣṇa Himself, yet he humbly asks Garga Muni 'What can I do for you?' What does this teach us about the proper attitude of a gṛhastha toward a brāhmaṇa or sādhu, even when one's own household is supremely fortunate?
• Garga Muni is described as pūrṇa — complete in himself — needing nothing materially. Why then does Nanda still insist on offering service? Discuss how seva to a devotee is for the benefit of the server, not the served.
• The verse uses the phrase 'girā sūnṛtayā' — with sweet and truthful words. How does the quality of one's speech when receiving a sādhu reflect the inner bhāva of the host?

Pair up: one person plays a visiting Vaiṣṇava sādhu who has arrived at the home unexpectedly; the other plays the householder. Practice the traditional reception — offering āsana (seat), pādya (water for feet), arghya (welcome offering), and then asking, in your own words but in the spirit of Nanda Mahārāja, 'You are complete in yourself, yet please tell me, what can I do to serve you?' Then switch roles. Afterward, discuss what felt natural, what felt awkward, and what this exercise revealed about modern hesitation around traditional ātithya-dharma.

• This kind of deference to a 'guru' or sādhu seems outdated and even feudal. Why should a successful householder, who supports his family and contributes to society, lower himself before a wandering ascetic who produces nothing?
  Nanda Mahārāja was not a poor or weak man — he was a prosperous chief of Vraja with thousands of cows, the foster father of the Supreme Lord Himself. His humility before Garga Muni was not weakness but strength of vision. He understood the varṇāśrama principle that the brāhmaṇa carries spiritual wealth that no material prosperity can substitute for. Far from being 'lowered,' the gṛhastha is elevated by this exchange — he transforms his material assets into spiritual capital through the medium of the sādhu.
• If a pure devotee is pūrṇa — complete in himself and needs nothing — then offering service to him is essentially symbolic. Wouldn't it be more useful to give that food, money, or time to people who actually need it?
  Vaiṣṇava tradition does emphasize compassion to all beings — Nanda himself was renowned for his charity. But seva to a sādhu is not in competition with charity to the needy; it is qualitatively different. Feeding the hungry addresses the body for a day; receiving a pure devotee with sūnṛta-vāṇī plants seeds in the heart that fruit across lifetimes. Moreover, a genuine sādhu's blessing tends to flow outward — Garga Muni's visit became the occasion for naming Kṛṣṇa Himself, a gift that benefited all of Vraja and ultimately the whole world.

A man whose well already brims to the rim still draws a fresh pot for the visiting saint — not because the saint thirsts, but because the host must serve to live. Nanda, foster-father of Kṛṣṇa Himself, asks pūrṇa Garga 'karavāma kim' — the question is the host's own oxygen.