• sakhā — friend (named Sudāmā)
  Sakhya — the third of the five rasas. Sudāmā's relationship with Kṛṣṇa is named here as friendship, not service — a higher, more equal mood. Gauḍīyas treat this verse as the formal opening of a sakhya-rasa episode in dvārakā-līlā.
• brahma — in the Vedas
  Locative use — brahma here means the Vedic scriptures (Veda-brahma), not impersonal Brahman. Sudāmā's learning is śāstric, not Advaitin. Gauḍīyas insist on this distinction to keep the verse from being Māyāvāda-aligned.
• vit - tamaḥ — most learned
  Compound: vit (knower) + tama (superlative). Sudāmā is the supreme knower of the Vedas — and yet Kṛṣṇa is what completes him. Knowledge without bhakti is incomplete; this verse is the demonstration.
• viraktaḥ — detached
  From vi-√raj. Vairāgya — not poverty-by-accident but freedom from sense-objects. Sudāmā's poverty is consonant with his vairāgya; Gauḍīyas note the Bhāgavata standard pairing of jñāna and vairāgya as bhakti's natural companions (SB 1.2.7).
• praśānta — peaceful
  Past participle of pra-√śam. Praśānta-ātmā — a mind at rest. The interior counterpart of jita-indriyaḥ — the senses subdued outside, the mind quiet inside. Both together describe the brāhmaṇa Kṛṣṇa chooses as friend.
• jita — conquered
  Past participle of √ji. The verse pairs viraktaḥ (detachment) with jita-indriyaḥ (sense-conquest) — vairāgya doubled outside-in. Gauḍīyas cite this pair as Sudāmā's qualification for sakhya.

A lamp can stand in a dark hut: Sudāmā is poor in the outer room but lit within. Kṛṣṇa's friendship has chosen the smallest, most untended cottage to keep its light — the Lord is no respecter of square footage.