10.81 · The Lord Blesses Sudāmā Brāhmaṇa

• brahmaṇyaḥ — devoted to the brāhmaṇas
  An emphatic title of Kṛṣṇa — He who holds brāhmaṇas dearer than His own life. Gauḍīyas read brahmaṇya-deva as one of Kṛṣṇa's permanent attributes: not occasional respect but a steady disposition, the same that will be displayed all chapter long.
• sarva-bhūta-manaḥ-abhijñaḥ — who perfectly knows the minds of all living beings
  Compound: sarva (all) + bhūta (beings) + manaḥ (mind) + abhijñaḥ (fully aware). Kṛṣṇa is antaryāmī — He already knows Sudāmā's poverty and hesitation; the entire chapter unfolds as Bhagavān answering an unspoken prayer.
• satām gatiḥ — the goal of the saintly devotees
  A doctrinal title. The saints have no other destination than Kṛṣṇa Himself; Sudāmā arriving at Dvārakā is the visible enactment of every sādhu's invisible movement toward Bhagavān.
• premṇā — with love
  Instrumental of prema — the highest stage of bhakti in Gauḍīya rasa-tattva. Kṛṣṇa looks at Sudāmā premṇā nirīkṣaṇena — the glance itself carries the rasa that all sādhana aspires to.
• prahasan — laughing
  Present participle of pra + √has. Not mockery — sakhya-rasa's signature. Between two friends the laugh precedes the words. Kṛṣṇa greets the impoverished brāhmaṇa not with grave consolation but with a friend's laugh, because that is the rasa their relationship runs in.

A king does not need his cousin's letter to know what his cousin needs — yet he reads it through with affection because the writing is the cousin's hand. Kṛṣṇa, who is sarva-bhūta-manaḥ-abhijñaḥ (knower of every heart), has no need of Sudāmā's words; He smiles because the brāhmaṇa is here, and the audience itself is the message.

• aṇu api — even an infinitesimal thing
  aṇu = atom, the smallest unit. With api (even) it makes the doctrinal point: scale collapses before bhāva. The four palmfuls of chipped rice in Sudāmā's bundle are the aṇu being magnified into bhūri.
• premṇā — with pure love
  The decisive instrumental. Not bhaktyā (with devotional service) but premṇā — the developed stage. Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra distinguishes śraddhā → bhāva → prema; Kṛṣṇa names the highest as the measure.
• bhaktaiḥ — by devotees
  Plural instrumental of bhakta. The marker that selects which offerings register on Kṛṣṇa's scale at all. Without bhakta-status, even bhūri (immense) offerings do not move Him.
• abhakta-upahṛtam — presented by non-devotees
  Compound: a-bhakta (non-devotee) + upahṛtam (offered). A pointed mirror-term to bhakti-upahṛtam in verse 4. The same physical act becomes a different metaphysical event depending on the offerer.
• toṣāya — is not competent for satisfying
  kalpate (from √kḷp) = is fit, is competent. A surprisingly strong negation: such offerings are structurally incapable of pleasing Him. The verse is not saying Kṛṣṇa is offended; it is saying the offering misses Him entirely.

A mother weighs not the bowl but the hand that holds it: the half-eaten sweet brought by her own child outweighs a tray of golden ladoos sent by a stranger. Kṛṣṇa's scale is the same — premṇā tips it, not quantity.

• patram puṣpam phalam toyam — leaf, flower, fruit, water
  Four nouns deliberately lowest-common-denominator — none requires wealth, caste, or temple. Gauḍīyas read this as Bhagavān democratizing access: the universe-owner specifies poverty-compatible offerings on purpose.
• bhaktyā — with devotion
  The decisive instrumental. The leaf is interchangeable with a thousand other leaves; bhaktyā is not interchangeable with anything. The bhāva is the offering; the patra is its container.
• bhakti-upahṛtam — offered in devotion
  Compound: bhakti (devotion) + upahṛtam (presented). The exact category Kṛṣṇa accepts (aśnāmi). Mirrors abhakta-upahṛtam in verse 3 — same verb, opposite prefix, opposite outcome.
• prayata-ātmanaḥ — from one in pure consciousness
  Compound: prayata (chastened, restrained) + ātmanaḥ (whose self). The offerer must be inwardly composed; the leaf is not magic, the inner condition is the doorway.
• aśnāmi — I eat
  First-person present of √aś (to eat). Bhagavān actually eats — not metaphorically. Gauḍīya arcana-tattva rests on this verb: the bhoga truly becomes prasāda because Kṛṣṇa truly tastes it.

A king who owns every garden in the realm still accepts the single jasmine his child wrapped in a leaf. Kṛṣṇa, owner of the universe, hands out His own acceptance-criterion: a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water — and the bhakti that carries them.

• vrīḍitaḥ — embarrassed
  Past participle of √vrīḍ (to be ashamed, abashed). Gauḍīya bhāva-śāstra: vrīḍā / lajjā in front of Bhagavān is itself a transcendental sentiment, not a defect. The brāhmaṇa's shame is the right rasa for the moment.
• pataye śriyaḥ — to the husband of the goddess of fortune
  pataye (dative, to the husband) + śriyaḥ (genitive, of Śrī, Lakṣmī). The poet deliberately names Kṛṣṇa by His richest title at the moment Sudāmā tries to offer the poorest gift. The gap is the rasa.
• pṛthuka-prasṛtim — palmfuls of flat rice
  Compound: pṛthuka (flat rice, chipped rice) + prasṛti (a measure equal to a palmful). The exact, humble, material detail that the chapter will magnify into towering palaces — note its smallness here.
• avāk-mukhaḥ — whose head was bowed down
  Compound: avāk (downward, speechless) + mukhaḥ (face). Avāk also means without words. The bhāva is doubled — face cast down, voice failed. The body itself has become his confession of poverty.
• na prāyacchat — did not offer
  Imperfect of pra + √yam, with negation. The brāhmaṇa's hand will not move. Bhagavān will solve this paralysis in verse 8 by reaching into the cloth Himself — Kṛṣṇa makes the offering on the bhakta's behalf when bhakti is genuine but lajjā is in the way.

A child who has practiced a song for months to sing for his king reaches the throne room and forgets every syllable. Sudāmā at the husband-of-Lakṣmī's feet remembers only his bundle of chipped rice and cannot lift his head. Avāk-mukha is the bhāva called lajjā — and the gopīs know this same paralysis well.

• sarva-bhūta-ātma-dṛk — the direct witness of the hearts of all living beings
  Compound: sarva (all) + bhūta (beings) + ātma (heart, self) + dṛk (seer). The Upaniṣadic antaryāmī read through Bhāgavata-tattva. Kṛṣṇa does not infer Sudāmā's motive; He sākṣāt sees it.
• na — not desirous of opulence
  Compound with negation: na (not) + śrī (opulence) + kāmaḥ (desiring). The decisive qualifier — Sudāmā never sought Kṛṣṇa for wealth before. Bhagavān gives wealth precisely because the asker is not a wealth-asker.
• pati-vratāyāḥ — of (his wife) who is chastely devoted to her husband
  Compound: pati (husband) + vrata (vow) + āyāḥ (genitive feminine). The wife's vow toward her husband is the lever that moves Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas read this as the secondary devotion (toward the devotee) reaching Kṛṣṇa through the primary devotion (toward Himself).
• priya-cikīrṣayā — with the desire of pleasing (his wife)
  Compound: priya (the beloved one) + cikīrṣā (desire to do, desiderative of √kṛ). Sudāmā has come not for himself but to satisfy another — a structurally selfless motive, which Kṛṣṇa rewards beyond all measure.
• amartya-durlabhāḥ — unobtainable by the demigods
  Compound: amartya (the deathless ones, demigods) + durlabhāḥ (hard to obtain). The riches Kṛṣṇa plans for Sudāmā exceed the demigods' reach — because demigod-opulence is karma-earned, and what Kṛṣṇa gives a bhakta is not karma's category at all.

• GRS SB 10-81-06-07 - Krishna is Hungry for His Devotee%E2%80%99s Love - 2015-03-26 Dallas
  His Holiness Giriraj Swami· 2015-03-26· English
• Janananda Sw SB 10-81-06-07 - Real opulence is complete surrender to Krishna - 2008-02-10 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Janananda Goswami· 2008-02-10· English

A father watches his small son fumble at the door with a wrapped present, and knows already what is inside, why he brought it, and what he is too shy to ask for. Kṛṣṇa sees Sudāmā by direct sākṣāt-vision into the heart — and decides on riches the demigods cannot reach, not because asked, but because seen.

• jahāra — He took hold of, snatched
  Perfect of √hṛ (to take, seize). A startlingly informal verb for Bhagavān's action toward a brāhmaṇa's offering. The poet chooses it to mark sakhya-rasa: Kṛṣṇa as friend overrides Kṛṣṇa as recipient of formal pūjā.
• cīra-baddhān — tied up in a strip of cloth
  Compound: cīra (a torn rag) + baddhān (tied). The poet records the poverty in one word — Sudāmā's only wrapping for his offering is a tatter. Gauḍīyas note: Kṛṣṇa reaches into the cīra because that is where the prema is.
• vasanāt — from the garment
  Ablative of vasana (cloth, garment). The bundle was tucked into the fold of Sudāmā's own clothing — hidden, not offered. Kṛṣṇa takes it out of hiding, not out of an offering plate; this is the love-grammar of the verse.
• dvi-janmanaḥ — of the twice-born
  Compound: dvi (twice) + janman (birth). The technical term for brāhmaṇa — sacred-thread initiation as second birth. The poet emphasizes the dignity of the bhakta even as he describes his rags.
• pṛthuka-taṇḍulān — the grains of flat rice
  Compound: pṛthuka (flat rice) + taṇḍula (rice grain). The exact substance Kṛṣṇa will exclaim over and eat. Gauḍīya temples to this day remember pṛthuka-bhoga in honor of this episode.

A friend who knows you are hiding a present behind your back simply reaches around and takes it, laughing — sparing you the moment of formal offering. Kṛṣṇa snatches the cīra-baddha bundle from Sudāmā's garment because sakhya-rasa moves faster than lajjā.

• viśvam — the whole universe
  Kṛṣṇa is identifying Himself with viśva — the same self-disclosure as the universal form in Gītā 11. By eating a few grains, He says, the universes are satisfied, because the universes rest in Him.
• tarpayanti — they satisfy
  Present indicative of √tṛp (to satisfy). The same root that names tarpaṇa, the ritual offering to ancestors. Kṛṣṇa's exclamation casts chipped rice as universal tarpaṇa — Sudāmā's bundle is feeding the cosmos.
• parama-prīṇanam — supreme satisfaction
  Compound: parama (highest) + prīṇana (that which delights). Bhagavān's prīṇana cannot be exceeded by anything else in creation, yet He locates it here, in a rag's worth of beaten rice.
• aṅga — My dear
  An affectionate vocative particle. Friends address friends with aṅga in Sanskrit; Kṛṣṇa uses it deliberately. Sakhya-rasa is signalled in one syllable.
• sakhe — O friend
  Vocative of sakhi (friend). The Vraja-rasa word. Kṛṣṇa publicly names Sudāmā as His sakhā in the presence of His queens — establishing once and for all the rank the brāhmaṇa has held all along but had forgotten.

• BVinodaSw SB 10-81-09 - Story of Sudama Vipra - 2016-05-29
  His Holiness Bhakti Vinoda Swami· 2016-05-29· English

A king accepts the cup of well-water from a thirsty traveler and exclaims that it rivals soma. Kṛṣṇa, viśva (the entire universe Himself), declares that a few grains of flat rice are enough to satisfy the universe — because what He is eating is the love, and love is universe-shaped.

• śrīḥ — the goddess of fortune
  The poet calls Rukmiṇī by Lakṣmī's name at the precise moment she intervenes. The reader is meant to see: the dispenser of all wealth is herself rationing Kṛṣṇa's bites because she knows what each one is worth.
• muṣṭim sakṛt — one palmful, once
  muṣṭi (handful) + sakṛt (once). A single mouthful — and the queen intervenes. Gauḍīyas read this as the doctrine of pramāṇa: there is a definite measure to what Kṛṣṇa needs to accept in order to bless infinitely.
• jagṛhe hastam — she seized the hand
  Perfect of √grah, with direct object hastam (hand). The startling intimacy: Lakṣmī herself grasps Bhagavān's hand. In Vaikuṇṭha protocol this is unthinkable; in the love-grammar between consort and Lord it is exactly right.
• parā — devoted
  Feminine of para — supremely devoted. Rukmiṇī's intervention is not opposition; it is parā-devotion working through her hand. She loves both her husband and his friend, and acts on behalf of both.
• parame-sthinaḥ — of the Supreme Lord
  Compound: parame (in the highest) + sthin (standing, situated). A title for Kṛṣṇa as supremely positioned. The poet uses it precisely at the moment His hand is grasped — the highest is held by the one He loves.

A wife stops her husband's hand mid-bite at a feast, smiling — not to deny him, but because she sees that one mouthful from this guest is already enough to bless the kingdom forever. Rukmiṇī, who is Lakṣmī, knows what Bhagavān's one palmful purchases.

• viśva-ātman — O Soul of the universe
  Compound vocative: viśva (universe) + ātman (soul). Rukmiṇī addresses Kṛṣṇa by His cosmic title at precisely the moment she limits His physical eating — because the universe is being fed by His satisfaction, not by His bites.
• etāvatā alam — this much is enough
  etāvatā (by this much) + alam (sufficient). The decisive judgment of Lakṣmī on the value of one palmful of love-soaked chipped rice — it is the measure of all fortune in this world and the next.
• sampat-samṛddhaye — for the prospering of all opulence
  Compound dative: sampat (opulence) + samṛddhi (flourishing). The grammar of generation: from one palmful blossoms the multi-storied palace of the next scene.
• asmin loke atha vā amuṣmin — in this world or in the next
  A formal pair: iha-loka and para-loka. Rukmiṇī declares Kṛṣṇa's toṣa is the only cause of prosperity in both — a clean Vaiṣṇava theology of fortune, against any karmic or self-help account.
• tvat-toṣa — Your satisfaction
  Compound: tvat (Your) + toṣa (satisfaction). The doctrinal pivot. Gauḍīyas: bhakti is bhagavat-toṣaṇa — what pleases Him — and all other goods follow that, never precede it.

A treasurer notes that one royal seal has been pressed onto the parchment — the deed is done; further seals would only repeat what is already complete. Rukmiṇī tells her husband: one palmful is already enough; Your toṣa (satisfaction) is the only cause of any opulence anywhere.

• acyuta-mandire — in the palace of Lord Acyuta
  Compound: acyuta (the infallible) + mandira (palace). Acyuta — never falling — is the title used here. The palace shares the quality of its master: a place that does not fall away. Sudāmā has slept inside infallibility itself.
• svaḥ gatam — having attained the spiritual world
  svar (heaven, the higher world) + gata (gone). The brāhmaṇa's own felt experience — and the poet treats it as accurate, not delusion. The night with Bhagavān is the spiritual world.
• bhuktvā pītvā — eating and drinking
  Gerundives of √bhuj and √pā. Material verbs sanctified by location: the eating and drinking in Acyuta-mandira are themselves transcendental events. Gauḍīya tradition: prasāda eaten in Bhagavān's presence is not annam but amṛtam.
• sukham — to his satisfaction
  Adverbially: comfortably, happily. The chronically half-fed brāhmaṇa eats sukham — completely — for the first time in years. The poet records the body's healing as a side-effect of the bhāva's healing.

A traveler from a hungry village who is given a single night at the royal table later cannot tell whether the meal was in this world or in svarga. Sudāmā, eating and drinking at Acyuta's palace, feels he has crossed the boundary into the spiritual world — because where Bhagavān eats, that place is already Vaikuṇṭha.

• viśva-bhāvena — by the maintainer of the universe
  Compound: viśva (universe) + bhāva (the one who brings into being). Kṛṣṇa as cosmic sustainer personally walks His friend partway home — a sakhya detail. The maintainer of all worlds escorts one brāhmaṇa to the gate.
• abhivanditaḥ — honored
  Past participle of abhi + √vand (to honor, salute). Bhagavān honored the brāhmaṇa, not the other way around. The grammar of brahmaṇya-deva: Kṛṣṇa stands and offers respect.
• anuvrajya — walking along (escorting)
  Gerund of anu + √vraj (to follow on foot). The same verb-root from which Vraja is named — the place where one walks behind cows. Kṛṣṇa walks behind / alongside Sudāmā here, just as cowherd-boys walk behind cows. Sakhya in motion.
• nanditaḥ — delighted
  Past participle of √nand (to rejoice). Sudāmā's interior weather has changed: nothing material has arrived yet, but the bhāva has, and the verse records bhāva-driven joy as already complete.
• sva-sukhena — who experiences happiness within Himself
  Compound: sva (own) + sukha (happiness). Kṛṣṇa is ātmārāma — happy in Himself, needing nothing — yet He still escorts the brāhmaṇa. Gauḍīya doctrine: the self-satisfied Lord acts only out of love, never out of lack.

A small boat that has been moored to a great ship pushes off into the harbor still feeling the ship's wake under its hull. Sudāmā walks away from Dvārakā nanditaḥ — delighted — because the audience itself is the wealth and the road home is still rocking with Kṛṣṇa's company.

• alabdhvā dhanam — not having obtained wealth
  Gerund of √labh with negation + dhanam (wealth). The verse's plain factual statement: he received nothing. The chapter's reversal in the next scene will make this absence the most dense container of presence.
• na — did not beg
  Past active participle of √yāc (to ask) with negation. He did not even ask. Sudāmā's restraint is doctrinally weighty — Bhagavān gives only to those who do not ask, says verse 37 ahead.
• vrīḍitaḥ — embarrassed
  Same word as verse 5, returning. The lajjā that prevented his offering also prevented his asking. Both are bhāva-driven paralyses; both Kṛṣṇa already knew how to resolve.
• mahat-darśana — the audience of the Supreme Lord
  Compound: mahat (the great one) + darśana (sight, audience). Gauḍīya: sādhu-darśana and bhagavat-darśana are the principal accelerants of bhakti. Sudāmā has had bhagavat-darśana itself; nothing else need follow for him to be nirvṛta.
• nirvṛtaḥ — made joyful, fulfilled
  Past participle of nir + √vṛt (to be free from, to be at peace). The word also names liberation-adjacent peace (nirvṛti). The brāhmaṇa's empty hands and full heart together name the bhakta's natural state.

A son who has come home to his father and forgotten to ask for the inheritance he came for — only the father's embrace is in his memory as he leaves. Sudāmā walks home empty-handed and joy-filled; mahat-darśana is the inheritance.

• aho — ah!
  An exclamation of wonder. The whole verse 15 onward is one long aho — the spontaneous outflow of vismaya-bhāva. Gauḍīya bhāva-śāstra lists vismaya as a vyabhicārī-bhāva amplifying prema.
• brahmaṇya-devasya — of the Lord who is devoted to brāhmaṇas
  Compound: brahmaṇya (devoted to brāhmaṇas) + deva (Lord). A formal title. The chapter's structural doctrine — Bhagavān as brahmaṇya-deva — gets explicitly named here as the lesson Sudāmā learned by direct sight (dṛṣṭa).
• daridra-tamaḥ — the poorest
  Superlative of daridra (poor). Not merely poor — the poorest. The bhakta names his own social rank without softening; the contrast with what follows (Lakṣmī's husband embraces him) is the point.
• lakṣmīm āśliṣṭaḥ — embraced by Him who holds Lakṣmī
  lakṣmīm (Lakṣmī, accusative — the one being held) + āśliṣṭaḥ (embraced). The same chest that embraces the goddess of fortune embraced the poorest of brāhmaṇas. Gauḍīya: Bhagavān's chest is the meeting-place of aiśvarya (Lakṣmī) and dainya (Sudāmā).
• urasi — by Him who carries (her) on His chest
  Locative urasi (on the chest) + present participle bibhratā (carrying) of √bhṛ. The chest is the load-bearing image of Vaikuṇṭha — Śrīvatsa mark, Kaustubha jewel, Lakṣmī Herself. Sudāmā has been pressed into all of it.

A pauper at a king's gate is embraced by the king's own arms — and as the king turns, the pauper sees that the queen on the king's chest is the goddess of all fortune herself. Sudāmā meditates on Kṛṣṇa's brahmaṇyatā: the chest that holds Lakṣmī held him.

• kva — where am I, where is Kṛṣṇa
  The classical kva-kva construction expressing immeasurable disproportion. A Sanskrit idiom for incommensurable gaps. Sudāmā's whole stanza is the bhakta's astonished arithmetic of his own unworthiness.
• śrī-niketanaḥ — the abode of all opulence
  Compound: śrī (opulence, Lakṣmī) + niketana (abode). Kṛṣṇa's defining contrast-term to Sudāmā's daridra. He is where Śrī lives; the brāhmaṇa is where nothing material lives.
• brahma-bandhuḥ — a friend of a brāhmaṇa (not fit to be called a brāhmaṇa)
  Compound: brahma (brahmaṇa) + bandhu (kin, friend). A self-deprecating term: I am only by relation; the substance of brahminhood is missing in me. Gauḍīya dainya in one word.
• pāpīyān — sinful
  Comparative of pāpīya (sinful). Sudāmā does not soften his self-assessment. Dainya in Gauḍīya bhakti is not poetic posture; it is the bhakta's actual seeing of himself in Bhagavān's light.
• bāhubhyām parirambhitaḥ — embraced by His two arms
  Compound: bāhu (arm) + bhyām (dual instrumental) + parirambhitaḥ (embraced). The dual is precise — both arms, not one. Kṛṣṇa held him completely; the kva-kva gap was closed with the full circumference of Bhagavān's embrace.

• JAS SB 10-81-16
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· English

Sudāmā stages two pictures side by side: kva aham — kva kṛṣṇaḥ. A clay lamp and the sun. A sparrow in dust and the king of the universe. Between them, He has extended His two arms. This is the bhakta's classical kva-kva meditation on Bhagavān's inconceivable condescension.

• priyā-juṣṭe paryaṅke — on the bed used by His beloved
  priyā (beloved) + juṣṭe (used, frequented) + paryaṅka (bed). The most intimate piece of furniture in Bhagavān's palace, and Sudāmā was seated there. The poet records the violation of every protocol of distance.
• bhrātaraḥ yathā — just as (one of His) brothers
  bhrātṛ (brother) + yathā (as). Sudāmā was treated as a brother. In Vraja he had been treated as a sakhā at the ashram; in Dvārakā, the same Bhagavān upgrades nothing — Kṛṣṇa keeps the rasa.
• mahiṣyā vījitaḥ — fanned by His queen
  mahiṣī (queen) + vījita (fanned). The queen of the world's wealthiest king personally fanned the brāhmaṇa in rags. The whole chapter's claim about brahmaṇyatā is condensed in this one detail.
• śrāntaḥ — tired
  Past participle of √śram (to be tired). Sudāmā walked to Dvārakā on foot through forests; his body was actually tired. The Bhāgavatam never aestheticizes him into a yogi — he is a tired pedestrian whom Kṛṣṇa's queen attends to.
• bāla-vyajana-hastayā — in whose hand was a yak-tail fan
  Compound: bāla (hair, here yak-tail) + vyajana (fan) + hasta (hand). The cāmara is one of the standard items in temple deity worship — and here it is in Rukmiṇī's hand, used on Sudāmā. The poet inverts the directionality of ritual.

A king's only brother arrives travel-worn, and the queen herself takes up the cāmara to fan him. Sudāmā's wonder is not at the throne-room but at this: Rukmiṇī fanned me. The queen's own hand became service to the brāhmaṇa's tiredness — because the king saw him as His own.

• deva-devena — by the Lord of all the demigods
  Compound instrumental: deva (god) + deva (god). The highest possible cosmic title. The poet uses it deliberately at the moment Kṛṣṇa is doing the lowest task — foot-service. Gauḍīya: the highest stoops the lowest, because aiśvarya yields to prema.
• vipra-devena — by the Lord of the brāhmaṇas
  Compound: vipra (brāhmaṇa) + deva (lord). A second title doubling the disproportion: He whom even brāhmaṇas worship has just worshipped a brāhmaṇa. The chapter's central thesis in one compound.
• pāda-saṁvāhana — foot-massage
  Compound: pāda (foot) + saṁvāhana (rubbing, massaging). Standard servant-task. Kṛṣṇa performed it. Gauḍīya temples preserve this image as the doctrinal anchor for vipra-pūjā.
• śuśrūṣayā — with service
  Instrumental of śuśrūṣā (desire to hear / serve), from desiderative of √śru. The same term names the disciple's primary attitude toward the guru. The verse reverses it: Bhagavān treats Sudāmā with disciple-toward-guru śuśrūṣā.
• deva-vat — like a demigod
  deva (god) + vat (like, suffix of comparison). Kṛṣṇa treated the brāhmaṇa as if Sudāmā were a deva. The whole hierarchy is inverted in one suffix.

The Lord of all the devas — the One the brāhmaṇas worship — knelt down and pressed His friend's feet. To Sudāmā this was the photograph of brahmaṇya-deva that no scripture-verse could have given him: deva-deva washing the dust off his soles like a junior at the ashram.

• caraṇa-arcanam — worship of the lotus feet
  Compound: caraṇa (foot) + arcana (worship). One of the nine limbs of bhakti (śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanam…, SB 7.5.23). Gauḍīyas privilege caraṇa-sevā as the relational anchor of all sādhana.
• mūlam — the root cause
  mūla — root. The structural metaphor: bhakti is the trunk, all worldly and otherworldly attainments are branches. Cut the trunk and the branches die; nourish the trunk and the branches flourish on their own.
• svarga-apavargayoḥ — of heaven and ultimate liberation
  Compound: svarga (heavenly enjoyment) + apavarga (liberation). The standard Vedic pair of post-mortem goals. Sudāmā says both grow from one root — the same root no Vedic ritual on its own can reach.
• siddhīnām — of mystic perfections
  Genitive plural of siddhi. Even yogic siddhis come from caraṇa-arcana. Gauḍīya tradition treats yogic powers as side-effects of bhakti, not its goal — exactly the ranking Sudāmā gives them here.
• rasāyām — in the subterranean regions
  Locative of rasā (the underworld / lower planets). The verse covers the whole vertical cosmos — heaven, earth, underworld — and locates the root of opulence in all three in one place: Kṛṣṇa's feet.

Every fruit on every tree in heaven, every release from every chain, every siddhi in every cave — all of them grow from a single root, which is service to Kṛṣṇa's two lotus feet. Sudāmā has watched the root being watered: nothing else can be more important than what he has just witnessed.

• kāruṇikaḥ — the compassionate one
  From karuṇā (compassion). The verse's pivotal name for Kṛṣṇa. Withholding wealth here is the compassionate act — the opposite of the world's logic. Gauḍīyas: Bhagavān's karuṇā often looks like deprivation from outside.
• mādyan uccaiḥ — delighting excessively (intoxicated)
  Present participle of √mad (to be intoxicated). Wealth's natural pharmacology — mada — would cause the bhakta to forget the giver. Verse 37 will name this pattern explicitly.
• na mām smaret — would not remember Me
  Negation + potential of √smṛ. The risk Kṛṣṇa weighs: wealth-now might cost smaraṇa-later. Smaraṇa is the limb of bhakti He prizes most. Gauḍīya logic: He gives or withholds wealth strictly to maximize smaraṇa.
• adhanaḥ — poor person
  a (not) + dhana (wealth). Kṛṣṇa's interior assessment of Sudāmā: a fragile bhakta whose interior state could not yet hold wealth. The chapter answers this — by the end, the wealth comes only after Sudāmā has internally rehearsed remembering Him without it.
• abhūri — slight, not abundant
  a + bhūri (abundant). Even a small amount of wealth was withheld — because the risk was not in quantity but in any wealth touching him while presence and wealth were simultaneously available. Kṛṣṇa separates them in time, so neither contaminates the other.

A wise physician withholds the sweet medicine that would intoxicate the patient and prolong the cure. Kṛṣṇa, kāruṇika (compassionate), withheld wealth from Sudāmā as he stood before Him — because wealth-with-presence might have replaced the presence itself in the brāhmaṇa's mind.

• sūrya-anala-indu-saṅkāśaiḥ — rivaling the brilliance of sun, fire and moon
  Compound: sūrya (sun) + anala (fire) + indu (moon) + saṅkāśa (similar). A standard threefold cosmic-light simile — the new palaces are bright with all three radiances. The poet refuses understatement; Bhagavān's gift is incandescent.
• vimānaiḥ — with celestial palaces
  Plural instrumental of vimāna. The same word is used for the aerial vehicles of the demigods. Sudāmā's plot of land now holds what the demigods own — fulfilling Kṛṣṇa's pledge in verses 6–7 to give amartya-durlabhāḥ riches.
• kumuda ambhoja kahlāra utpala — night-lotuses, day-lotuses, white lotuses, water lilies
  Four named lotus species. The poet enumerates them — Gauḍīya commentators read this as Bhagavān's gift carrying Vraja-bhāva into Sudāmā's plot: a pond like the Yamunā's, in his own backyard.
• hariṇā-akṣibhiḥ — with eyes like those of she-deer
  Compound: hariṇī (doe) + akṣi (eye). A signature Vraja-poetic image (the gopīs' eyes). The poet is signalling that Sudāmā's new world has Vraja-quality beauty, not merely Dvārakā-quality wealth.
• kim idam kasya vā sthānam — what is this, whose place is it
  Sudāmā's actual recorded words of bewilderment. The bhakta cannot read his own gift; he assumes he has come to the wrong address. Gauḍīyas: this is dainya not yet retracted — even when the gift is in front of him.

• JAS SB 10-81-21-23 - 2015-12-02 ISKCON Alachua
  His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami· 2015-12-02· English

A traveler returning to the spot where his straw hut stood finds, in its place, a city of palaces — sun-bright, fire-bright, moon-bright — and ponds full of every lotus the Sanskrit poets know names for. Kṛṣṇa's gift is not a coin; it is an entire ecosystem. The unspoken prayer has become a landscape.

• mīmāṁsamānam — who was deeply pondering
  Present participle of √man with desiderative — to investigate, reflect. The same root that names Mīmāṁsā philosophy. Sudāmā is in the act of weighing the evidence; Kṛṣṇa interrupts his mīmāṁsā with a procession.
• amara-prabhāḥ — whose effulgent complexions were like the demigods'
  Compound: amara (deathless ones) + prabhā (radiance). The servants assigned to Sudāmā's home shine like demigods — a quiet repetition of verses 6–7's amartya-durlabhāḥ pledge.
• mahā-bhāgam — most fortunate
  Compound: mahā (great) + bhāga (share, portion). The servants address Sudāmā as most fortunate — and they are right, but their reckoning runs through the palaces, while his runs through the embrace. Gauḍīya reading: the bhakta and the world rate his fortune by different scales; both come out high.
• gīta-vādyena — with singing and instrumental music
  Compound: gīta (song) + vādya (instrument). The chapter records the wealth as not merely material — it is musical. Sudāmā returns to a saṅkīrtana, not just to a treasury.

• Radha Raman Sw SB 10-81-24 - 2025-06-01 ISKCON Vrindavan
  His Holiness Radha Raman Swami· 2025-06-01· English

A wandering father returning home is met at the gate by a procession of musicians who already know his name. Sudāmā has not yet entered the door; the gift is already singing him in.

• uddharṣā — jubilant
  Compound: ud (up) + harṣa (joy). Joy that bubbles up. The bhakta's wife had not stopped loving him during the poverty; the joy is the same love finally given permission to be visible.
• rūpiṇī śrīḥ iva — as if the goddess of fortune (Lakṣmī) had manifested her form
  rūpiṇī (formed, manifest) + śrī (Lakṣmī) + iva (as if). The poet's striking comparison: the brāhmaṇa's wife appears in the moment of reunion as Lakṣmī herself. Gauḍīya commentary: chastity is itself Śrī; when chastity is honored by Bhagavān, the chaste woman radiates Lakṣmī's quality.
• ākarṇya — hearing
  Gerund of ā + √karṇ (to hear). She heard before she saw — sound preceding sight, śravaṇa preceding darśana. The order mirrors the bhakti-limbs' order (śravaṇam kīrtanam… then smaraṇam, sevana, darśana).
• ati-sambhramā — extremely excited
  Compound: ati (extreme) + sambhrama (agitation, eager hurry). The wife's body cannot stand still. Gauḍīya bhāva-śāstra recognizes sambhrama as a sañcārī-bhāva in vipralambha (separation-bhāva); here it bursts at the moment separation ends.

A wife who has waited through every hungry year hears her husband at the gate and rushes out — and at that moment she is no longer the woman of cold porridge but Śrī herself stepping from her abode. The bhakta's wife, by her chastity, has become Lakṣmī-rūpiṇī in the moment Bhagavān's blessing arrives.

• pati-vratā — devoted to her husband
  Compound: pati (husband) + vrata (vow). Her standing title throughout the chapter. The pati-vratā in Vaiṣṇava tradition is theologically privileged — her vrata toward her husband becomes a channel by which Bhagavān reaches her household.
• prema-utkaṇṭha-aśru — tears of loving eagerness
  Compound: prema (love) + utkaṇṭhā (yearning, longing of the throat) + aśru (tears). Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra catalogues aśru (tears) as one of the aṣṭa-sāttvika-bhāvas — the eight bodily signs of bhāva. Her body is involuntarily producing the marks of prema.
• mīlita-akṣī — with closed eyes
  Compound: mīlita (closed) + akṣi (eye). She cannot bear to look directly. Gauḍīya bhāva: when bhāva is too dense, the senses shut to protect the heart. The same gesture as when Yaśodā sees the universe in Kṛṣṇa's mouth (SB 10.8) — eyes close before the unbearable.
• buddhyā manasā pariṣasvaje — with thoughtful reflection (and) with the heart she embraced
  Instrumentals buddhi (intellect) + manas (mind) + pariṣasvaje (perfect of pari + √svaj — to embrace). The interior embrace precedes any physical one; in Gauḍīya bhāva-śāstra, mānasī-sevā (mental service) is itself a complete category.

She closes her eyes — because what is in front of her is too much to look at — and embraces him inside her heart before her body can. This is buddhyā / manasā embracing, the embrace before the embrace, the bhāva that the body's gesture only catches up to.

• visphurantīm — appearing effulgent
  Present participle of vi + √sphur (to shine forth, throb). She is throbbing-bright — not lit from outside but glowing from within. The bhāva radiates as light. Gauḍīya: the bhakta's body undergoes visible change when Bhagavān's blessing rests on it.
• devīm vaimānikīm iva — as if a demigoddess come in a heavenly airplane
  devī (goddess) + vaimānikī (one who travels by vimāna) + iva. The wife has not actually flown anywhere — she has stayed home — yet she looks like a sky-goddess. The poet inverts cosmic geography: the celestial has descended into the house.
• niṣka-kaṇṭhīnām — (maidservants) with lockets on their necks
  Compound: niṣka (a gold ornament, locket) + kaṇṭha (neck). Even the maidservants wear gold. The chapter's wealth pours through the household at every level — not concentrated on the master but distributed.
• vismitaḥ — amazed
  Past participle of vi + √smi (to wonder). The same vismaya-bhāva from verse 15 returns. Sudāmā's whole homecoming is a sustained vismaya — and the poet keeps marking it, because vismaya is the rasa-component the verse wants the reader to share.

A pauper husband stands in the doorway and sees his wife — the same woman who had been thin from fasting — now standing in the middle of jeweled maidservants, shining as if she had stepped out of a vimāna. Kṛṣṇa's gift has rewritten the household's geography, and the doorway is the boundary between two lives.

• maṇi-stambha-śata — with hundreds of jeweled pillars
  Compound: maṇi (jewel) + stambha (pillar) + śata (hundred). The numbering — hundreds — refuses any modest reading. Kṛṣṇa's gift to a bhakta who never asked is at the scale of cosmic kings.
• mahā-indra-bhavanam yathā — like the palace of great Indra
  Compound: mahā (great) + indra (Indra) + bhavana (palace) + yathā (like). Indra's palace is the standard upper bound for opulence in Vedic literature. Bhagavān's gift to His brāhmaṇa friend hits that ceiling — verses 6–7 promised amartya-durlabhāḥ; this is the cash-out.
• prītaḥ — pleased
  Past participle of √prī (to please, be pleased). The bhakta's emotional state on crossing the new threshold. Gauḍīya note: prīti is the affective register of bhakti — Sudāmā's prīti is not at the pillars but at what they say about the One who set them there.
• tayā yuktaḥ — joined with her
  tayā (with her) + yukta (joined). He enters the new home with his wife, not alone. The chapter never separates them; Kṛṣṇa's reward is to the household, not to the man.

• BVMS SB 10-81-28 - Sudama%27s palace as opulent as Indra%27s - 2008-02-21 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami· 2008-02-21· English
• PrahladAnS SB 10-81-28 - 2015-12-04 ISKCON Alachua
  His Holiness Prahladananada Swami· 2015-12-04· English

A homecoming that started at a thatched threshold ends at a hall of gem-pillars rivaling Indra's. The brāhmaṇa walks through doors that did not exist this morning. The chapter's geography is Kṛṣṇa's gesture made architectural.

• nirvyagraḥ — free from agitation
  nir (without) + vyagra (agitated). The decisive word in the four-verse block. The wealth has not disturbed him. Gauḍīya: this is the test Kṛṣṇa was running with His withholding in verse 20 — would the bhakta hold steady when wealth arrived? Sudāmā passes.
• ahaitukīm — the prosperity without (apparent) cause
  Compound: a (not) + hetuka (caused) + samṛddhi (prosperity). Wealth without a karmic cause — Sudāmā cannot point to any work of his that produced it. He correctly infers in verse 33 that it is causeless from his side and entirely caused from Kṛṣṇa's. Gauḍīya: bhakta-bhagavat exchange is precisely ahaitukī.
• payaḥ-phena-nibhāḥ — resembling the foam of milk
  Compound: payas (milk) + phena (foam) + nibha (resembling). The bedding is so white and soft that it is compared to milk-foam — a poet's flourish but also a Vraja-coded image (milk being the Vraja substance par excellence).
• muktā-dāma-vilambīni vitānāni — canopies hanging with strings of pearls
  muktā (pearl) + dāma (string) + vilambin (hanging) + vitāna (canopy). The poet's inventory is dense with the ornaments standard in Vaikuṇṭha descriptions. Sudāmā's home now reads visually like Vaikuṇṭha — Bhagavān has imported the architecture of His own abode.
• tarkayām āsa — he conjectured / reasoned
  Periphrastic perfect of √tark (to reason, infer). The bhakta does not merely receive the wealth; he reasons about its source. The next four verses are the full inference. Gauḍīya: bhakti is not the abandonment of buddhi but its right ordering.

• Akuti Mataji SB 10-81-29-34 - 2015-12-07 ISKCON Aalchua
  Her Grace Akuti Mataji· 2015-12-07· English
• BVMS SB 10-81-29-34 - Krishna%27s extraordinary mercy - 2008-02-22 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami· 2008-02-22· English

The poet inventories the household — milk-foam beds, ivory bedsteads, golden couches, cāmaras, thrones, cushions, pearl-strung canopies, emerald-inlaid walls, jeweled lamps, gem-decked women — and at the inventory's end notes one detail more precious than all of it: nirvyagraḥ, the brāhmaṇa stayed undisturbed. The wealth has not even ruffled him. This is the verse's deepest gift.

• nūnam bata — certainly indeed
  Two emphatic particles paired. Sudāmā's inference is delivered with certainty — not hypothesis but logical conclusion. The grammar marks the verse as a formal deduction.
• durbhagasya śaśvat daridrasya — of an unfortunate one, always poverty-stricken
  durbhaga (unfortunate) + śaśvat (always) + daridra (poor). The bhakta names his prior condition with unflinching accuracy. Dainya intact even amidst the new wealth — Gauḍīya's most prized continuity.
• samṛddhi-hetuḥ — the cause of (this) prosperity
  Compound: samṛddhi (prosperity) + hetu (cause). The verse's logical pivot — the unique cause. Sudāmā is doing causal inference, in proper Sanskrit logical form.
• mahā-vibhūteḥ avalokataḥ — from the glance of Him who possesses the greatest opulences
  mahā (great) + vibhūti (opulence) + avalokana (glance). Bhagavān's avalokana — His glance — is the cause. Gauḍīya note: the kaṭākṣa, the sidelong glance of Kṛṣṇa, is the recognized doorway through which all His mercy enters.
• yadu-uttamasya — of the best of the Yadus
  Compound: yadu (Yadu dynasty) + uttama (best). Sudāmā names Kṛṣṇa formally by His dynastic title. The intimate friend of Sāndīpani's ashram is the most exalted of the Yadus — the bhakta holds both registers at once.

A blind man whose sight returns reasons: there is no other source of light I have known but the sun; therefore the sun has risen on me. Sudāmā reasons: there is no source of wealth in my life-history but Kṛṣṇa's glance; therefore the glance has fallen on me. The bhakta's logic terminates in Bhagavān, not anywhere else.

• abruvānaḥ — not speaking
  Present participle of √brū (to speak) with negation. The chapter's doctrinal hinge in one word — Kṛṣṇa said nothing about the gift in Sudāmā's presence. The silence is not absence but density.
• yāciṣṇave — to him who was intending to beg
  Dative of yāciṣṇu (one desirous of begging), desiderative noun of √yāc. The crucial form: Sudāmā never asked, but did intend to ask. Bhagavān reads even unrealized intention and answers it.
• parjanya-vat — like a cloud
  parjanya (rain-cloud) + vat (like). The chapter's central simile. The cloud does not require a request; it pours by nature. Gauḍīyas: Bhagavān's nature is karuṇā, and karuṇā is not on-demand — it is the cloud that has been a cloud all along.
• bhūri — plentiful
  The same word from verses 3 and 9 — small offerings becoming bhūri in His hand. Now used for what He gives back: bhūri offering meets bhūri return. The grammar of exchange is bhūri-bhūri at both ends.
• dāśārhakāṇām ṛṣabhaḥ — the most exalted of the descendants of Daśārha
  Compound: dāśārhaka (of the line of Daśārha, i.e. Yadus) + ṛṣabha (bull, chief). Kṛṣṇa is named once more by His dynastic title, paired with the intimate sakhā me — formal name and friend's name held together, the chapter's signature register.

A rain-cloud passes over a parched field without speaking, without being addressed, and pours abundance because that is its nature. Kṛṣṇa is parjanya-vat — the cloud — and the bhakta who only stood in the field, intending in his heart to ask, found his fields full by morning without a word having been spoken.

• mahā-ātmā — the Supreme Soul
  Compound: mahā (great) + ātman (soul). The verse's title for Kṛṣṇa at the moment His ledger-rewriting is being described. Gauḍīya: Bhagavān is mahā-ātmā precisely because He magnifies the small offering and minimizes His own generosity.
• kiñcit karoti uru api — He makes insignificant even what is great
  kiñcit (a little) + uru (great) + api (even). The hyperbolic reversal: Bhagavān treats His own great gifts as nothing. Gauḍīya rasa-śāstra reads this as the lover's gesture — He hides His giving behind His friend's offering.
• phalgu api bhūri-kārī — makes even a trifle into something great
  phalgu (trifling) + bhūri-kārī (one who makes great). The mirror of the previous clause. Same grammatical mood, opposite direction. The verse's chiasmus: He shrinks what He gives, He inflates what He receives.
• suhṛt-kṛtam — done by a well-wishing friend
  Compound: su-hṛt (a well-wisher, literally good-hearted) + kṛta (done). Sudāmā is called suhṛt — friend-with-good-heart. The relationship-name decides the accounting; outside that name, the same act would not register.
• prīti-yutaḥ — with pleasure
  Compound: prīti (love, pleasure) + yuta (joined with). Bhagavān eats with prīti — the affective frame is the actual food. Gauḍīya: it is prīti that travels between the bhakta and Bhagavān; the rice is only the vehicle.

• BVMS SB 10-81-35-36 - Krishna wants to serve his Devotee - 2008-02-23 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami· 2008-02-23· English

A father, asked by his small son for one paisa, gives him a hundred rupees and pretends he didn't really give anything; later he speaks of the son's offered crumb as if it were a feast. Kṛṣṇa, mahā-ātmā, downplays His own giving and magnifies the bhakta's offering — because that is how love rewrites the ledger.

• sauhṛda sakhya maitrī dāsyam — love, friendship, sympathy, servitude
  Four relational nouns. Gauḍīya rasa-tattva: dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, mādhurya — Sudāmā lists his preferred rasas as the relational forms he wants to keep. The brāhmaṇa knows his rasa (sakhya) and prays for it permanently.
• janmani janmani — life after life
  Locative repetition — birth in birth. The classical Vaiṣṇava request: not mukti but punar-janma in Bhagavān's service. Gauḍīyas hold this above mokṣa; Sudāmā's prayer is the gold-standard bhakta-prayer.
• guṇa-ālayena — with (Him who is) the reservoir of qualities
  Compound: guṇa (transcendental quality) + ālaya (abode, reservoir). Bhagavān as the storehouse of all sat-guṇas. Gauḍīyas list 64 qualities in Kṛṣṇa (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu); Sudāmā names Him by this collective title.
• tat puruṣa-prasaṅgaḥ — the valuable association of His devotees
  tat (His) + puruṣa (devotee) + prasaṅga (association, contact). Gauḍīyas: sat-saṅga, especially saṅga of Bhagavān's puruṣas, is the engine of bhakti. Sudāmā places it as the means by which his prayer is to be fulfilled.
• viṣajjataḥ — of one who becomes attached
  Present participle of vi + √sañj (to attach). Positive attachment — to Bhagavān, through devotees. Gauḍīya: rāga (attachment) is not the enemy; misplaced rāga is. Re-aimed rāga is rāgānuga-bhakti.

A man who has found the spring of a long river prays only that he may come back to drink there in every lifetime, in the company of those who already know its water. Sudāmā does not ask to keep the palaces; he asks for bhakta-saṅga, life after life, and for prema toward Bhagavān as the guṇa-ālaya, the storehouse of all qualities.

• adīrgha-bodhāya — (to the one) whose understanding is short
  Compound: a (not) + dīrgha (long) + bodha (understanding) + dative. The bhakta whose discernment is still short-range — who cannot yet hold wealth without being held by it. Kṛṣṇa decides on the basis of bodha-length, not on bhakti-fervor alone.
• ajaḥ — the unborn one
  a (not) + ja (born). Kṛṣṇa as eternal, beyond birth. The poet uses it in the verse about wisdom — the One who has never been born is the One who weighs the rest of us most accurately.
• vicakṣanaḥ — wise
  vi + √cakṣ (to see, perceive). The seer-with-discrimination. Bhagavān's withholding is not arbitrary; it is vicakṣana — informed by sight into the bhakta's actual capacity.
• mada-udbhavam — the rise of intoxicating pride
  Compound: mada (intoxication) + udbhava (rising up). The standard Vaiṣṇava diagnosis of wealth's pathology. Wealth without sufficient bodha breeds mada; mada breeds nipāta (downfall).
• dhaninām — the downfall of the wealthy
  dhanin (wealthy) + nipāta (fall). The empirical pattern Bhagavān has watched unfold across every yuga. Gauḍīyas read this verse as the chapter's safety-valve — explaining the apparent contradiction between verse 20 (withholding) and verses 21–34 (lavishing). He gives only when the bhakta has shown that wealth will not become mada.

A wise father does not put a sword in the hand of a child whose grip is not yet steady. Kṛṣṇa, vicakṣaṇaḥ (the wise one), withholds vibhūti from a bhakta whose bodhi is still adīrgha (short-sighted) — because the wealth He sees would unmake the bhakta is wealth He chooses not to give.