Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.83.40
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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bhaumam
—
the demon Bhauma
Bhauma — son of Bhūmi (Earth). The asura whose killing freed the sixteen thousand. Gauḍīya commentators note: even Bhauma was Bhūmi's son, hence a relative of Viṣṇu through Varāha-līlā — the demon is paradoxically family. The Lord's killing of him is also a familial correction.
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anusmarantīḥ
—
constantly remembering
Anu (continually) + smṛ (remember) + present participle feminine plural. The verse's central word. The captives' single practice in prison was anusmaraṇa — continuous remembrance. Gauḍīya śravaṇa-kīrtana-smaraṇa: smaraṇa is bhakti's interior limb. They had no external freedom but full interior smaraṇa.
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pāda - ambujam
—
lotus feet
Pāda (foot) + ambuja (lotus). The same compound as verse 3's caraṇa-ambuja and verses 8, 11, 12, 15-16, 39, 41-42, 43's variations. The chapter's deepest object: every queen, by every route, has been anchored to pāda-ambuja.
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saṁsṛti - vimokṣam
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(the source of) liberation from material existence
Saṁsṛti (the flow of births and deaths) + vimokṣa (liberation). The queens names Kṛṣṇa's pāda-ambuja as the source of saṁsṛti-vimokṣa. Yet they do not ask for vimokṣa itself — they ask for the feet that produce it. Gauḍīya: take the source, not the by-product.
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āpta - kāmaḥ
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He whose every desire is already fulfilled
Āpta (obtained) + kāma (desire). Same theological category as ātmārāma (verse 39). Bhagavān married sixteen thousand wives though He needed none of them — pure responsive sevā-acceptance, not need. Gauḍīya: the Lord accepts because the bhakta longs, not because He lacks.
Rohiṇī-devī was one of the nine queens questioned by Draupadī in texts 6 and 7, and thus it is assumed that she speaks here, representing the 16,099 other queens. Śrīla Prabhupāda confirms this in Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
"We desire the foot dust of he who, though full in his desires, freed and accepted as his wives the daughters of kings, knowing that they had been imprisoned by Bhauma when he defeated the kings while he conquered the earth." The verb kamayamahe is two verses later. "He married us because we were constantly remembering his lotus feet, which cause liberation from material life (samsrti vimoksam). For this reason he freed us from the prison."
Three verses are grammatically related. We desire the dust of lotus feet of he (etasya, verse 42) who married us (verse 40). Since he was the son of the earth, Bhauma could not normally be killed. However Kṛṣṇa killed him decisively (ni—hatya) in battle, since he also killed his followers. “Why did he kill the son of the earth?” He understood that we were imprisoned by him. This means that other reasons were secondary. After killing Bhauma he then freed us completely from bondage (nirmucya), taking us to Dvārakā. They indicate their superiority to those who have knowledge of the Lord as a cause of being freed: we constantly remembered his lotus feet which cause liberation from saṁsāra. Thus we were liberated from its suffering (vi—moksāṇam), what to speak of delivering us from his imprisonment. Though he has all his desires fulfilled, he married us. They indicated his great mercy by this. Or, though he is full in his desires he married us to free us from saṁsāra, what to speak of delivering us from material happiness in this life and the next. Remembering his lotus feet we have no desire at all for material wealth.
Since he was the son of the earth, Bhauma could not normally be killed. However Kṛṣṇa killed him decisively (ni—hatya) in battle, since he also killed his followers. Or the prefix ni indicates that he was killed and did not take birth again. He attained liberation. His sequence of deaths was terminated. He was killed in order to deliver us. That was the reason he was killed. Or after killing Bhauma, immediately we were released completely (nir-mucya), being sent to Dvārakā. The reason for releasing them or for recognizing them is given. We continually remembered his lotus feet, which completely free one from the suffering of saṁsāra, rather than just delaying it. Though he is self-satisfied, he married us. This indicates his great mercy. Or though he who is self-satisfied married us, he liberated Bhauma. Thus we do not desire any wealth.
Rohiṇī speaks for the sixteen thousand. They were not won by svayaṁvara or earned by tapas or given by fathers — they were captives of Bhaumāsura, daughters of conquered kings, locked in his fortress with one continuous practice: anusmaraṇa of Kṛṣṇa's pāda-ambuja. When the Lord killed Bhauma and entered the prison, He found sixteen thousand bhaktas, every one of whom had been keeping Him in mind. He married them all. The route is anusmṛti — the captive's remembrance.
In SB 10.59, Bhaumāsura (Narakāsura), son of Bhūmi, had conquered the earth and abducted sixteen thousand one hundred princesses, imprisoning them in his mountain-fortress Prāgjyotiṣapura.
Kṛṣṇa, with Satyabhāmā beside Him on Garuḍa, killed Bhauma, freed the princesses, and — because they had been remembering Him as the deliverer all the while — accepted them as His wives, returning them not to their fathers (who had been killed) but to the palaces He expanded for them in Dvārakā. Rohiṇī's verse here is their corporate testimony. The route is the captive's anusmaraṇa — the remembrance that begins not with svayaṁvara but with imprisonment.
My note
Source: vedabase.io