10.84 · The Sages' Teachings at Kurukṣetra

• praṇaya — loving attachment
  In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, praṇaya is a named stage of prema — the rasa in which the lover and beloved share a single life-breath without formality. Rūpa Gosvāmī places it just above prema and below sneha and rāga. Here Śuka picks the precise word to describe the queens' bond with Kṛṣṇa.
• anubandham — attachment, binding cord
  From anu (after, along) + √bandh (to bind). Not casual liking but a continuous tether of the heart. Gauḍīyas read it as the cord by which Bhagavān keeps His devotees in place even when He appears to leave.
• gopyaḥ — the gopīs
  Kṛṣṇa's own (sva) — the verse calls them sva-gopyaḥ. Gauḍīyas hold the gopīs as the topmost reservoir of mādhurya-rasa, the residents of Vraja whose love is acintya. Their tears at Kurukṣetra inaugurate the rasa-exchange that will dominate the chapter's later half.
• akhila-ātmani — the Soul of all
  akhila (whole, all) + ātman (Self). Kṛṣṇa is Paramātmā in every being — yet Gauḍīyas read this not as Advaitin merging but as acintya-bhedābheda: He is the in-dweller and simultaneously distinct, available to each heart as a beloved Person.
• aśru-kala — with tears
  kala = with the small, broken sounds of weeping. Gauḍīyas treat such tears as aṣṭa-sāttvika-bhāva: the body's involuntary witness to interior prema. The verse closes on this somatic sign because it is the diagnostic mark of authentic rasa.

• UM SB 10-84-01 - Devotees compete in a mood of love not envy - 2008-04-02 ISKCON Melbourne
  Her Grace Urmila Mataji· 2008-04-02· English
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-84-01 Telugu Translation - 2014-05-22 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2014-05-22· Telugu

When the queens' love for Kṛṣṇa is described, the listening women — Pṛthā, Gāndhārī, Draupadī, Subhadrā, the gopīs — fill with tears like vessels of different shapes filling at the same monsoon: one rain, many forms of overflow. Bhagavān is the single rasa-cloud; vātsalya, sakhya, mādhurya, and the protective love of a mother-in-law are the differently shaped pots He fills.

• didṛkṣayā — with the desire to see
  From √dṛś (to see) — a desiderative. The motive of the ṛṣis is not to instruct or to perform — it is darśana. Gauḍīyas treat darśana of Bhagavān as a prayojana in itself, not a means to something else.
• munayaḥ — sages
  From √man (to think, contemplate). A muni is one whose thought is silenced into ekāgratā. That such silenced thinkers travel to see Kṛṣṇa argues that Bhagavān is the resting place of contemplation — not its negation.
• kṛṣṇa-rāma — Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma
  Dvandva compound. Gauḍīyas treat Balarāma as Kṛṣṇa's first expansion (prakāśa) and the original guru-tattva. The sages' single purpose — to see both — registers the inseparability of bhagavat-tattva and its expansion that grants service-eligibility.
• brahma-putrāḥ — sons of Brahmā (the four Kumāras)
  Sanaka, Sanat-kumāra, Sananda, Sanātana — eternally child-like ṛṣis. Cited in SB 3.15 as the founders of the Kumāra-sampradāya, and revered by Gauḍīyas as living proof that jñāna ripens into bhakti.
• rāmaḥ — Lord Paraśurāma
  Called bhagavān in the verse (rāmaḥ sa-śiṣyaḥ bhagavān) — an āveśa-avatāra of Viṣṇu. His presence with disciples among ṛṣis registers that even an empowered avatāra approaches Kṛṣṇa as a sage approaching darśana.

• Nirantara Pr SB 10-84-02-11 - 2011-04-10 ISKCON Towaco
  His Grace Nirantara Prabhu· 2011-04-10· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-02-11 - Association with devotees is the preliminary means of advancement in Bhakti Yoga - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

Picture a great king of the heart being visited at once by all the headwaters of the river-system that feeds the land — Vyāsa, Nārada, Vasiṣṭha, the Kumāras, Paraśurāma. When Kṛṣṇa is present in Kurukṣetra, the rivers come to the ocean; the ṛṣis arrive not to bestow but to be where Bhagavān is, because that is where the Veda has its source.

• sahasā — immediately, at once
  No deliberation, no protocol weighed. The instantaneous rising is itself the teaching: brāhmaṇa-darśana commands the body before the mind catches up.
• praṇemuḥ — they bowed down
  From pra + √nam (to bend). Daṇḍavat-praṇāma is the formal full obeisance. Gauḍīyas treat it as the body's first act of śaraṇāgati — the limbs leading the heart.
• vanditān — honored, worshipable
  Past participle of √vand (to praise, salute). The ṛṣis are not merely respected; they are vandya — fit objects of vandana. Gauḍīyas list guru-vandana as the first limb of pañcāṅga-bhakti.
• viśva — by the whole universe
  The ṛṣis are honored by the universe — not by a sect. The qualifier raises brāhmaṇa-pūjā out of cultural custom into a feature of the cosmos as Bhagavān has arranged it.

When the lamps of a temple courtyard come on, even the king rises from his seat. Kṛṣṇa Himself standing up for the ṛṣis is that ārati: He honors His own representatives because the very order He is protecting requires that brāhmaṇas be seen first.

• ānarcuḥ — they worshiped
  From √arc (to worship, honor). The same root as arcana — the third limb of nava-vidha-bhakti. Gauḍīyas read this as showing that arcana is not only of mūrti but of sādhu and ācārya.
• pādya — water for washing the feet
  One of the standard upacāras in Vaiṣṇava arcana-paddhati (Hari-bhakti-vilāsa). Offering pādya is an admission that the guest's feet are tīrtha — exactly the doctrine Kṛṣṇa will articulate two verses later.
• arghya — water for drinking / offering
  From √arh (to be worthy). Arghya is given to one who is arha — worthy. The presence of all sixteen upacāras (svāgata, āsana, pādya, arghya, mālya, dhūpa, anulepana…) marks this as a full pūjā, not a casual welcome.
• acyutaḥ — Kṛṣṇa, the infallible one
  From a- (not) + √cyu (to fall). The unfallen one. That He of all persons performs arcana of the sages is the verse's central scandal — only Acyuta can model what brāhmaṇa-pūjā truly is.

Kṛṣṇa offering pādya and arghya to the ṛṣis is the original temple ārati: the deity worshiping the devotee, hand-washing the very feet that would otherwise touch His own. The supreme arcya makes Himself arcaka so the order He upholds remains visible.

• dharma-gup-tanuḥ — whose body protects dharma
  Compound: dharma + gup (root √gup, to protect) + tanu (body). Gauḍīyas read tanu here as Kṛṣṇa's nara-līlā body — voluntarily assumed for protection of varṇāśrama and the bhakti-mārga that crowns it.
• bhagavān — the Supreme Lord
  Six opulences in full (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.47, cited by Jīva Gosvāmī). The choice of bhagavān rather than kṛṣṇa here signals that the One about to speak speaks with all six aiśvaryas — wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge, renunciation.
• yata-vācaḥ — whose speech was subdued
  yata (controlled, restrained) + vāc (speech). The audience has gone silent before Bhagavān speaks. Gauḍīyas treat this kind of attention as the prerequisite for hari-kathā-śravaṇa — the first limb of nava-vidha-bhakti.
• anuśṛṇvataḥ — listening carefully
  anu + √śru (to hear). The same root as śravaṇa, the foundational limb of bhakti. Gauḍīyas hold that the quality of one's hearing decides what one becomes — anuśravaṇa is the disciplic ear.

Bhagavān speaking in the assembly is the sun moving through a hall of mirrors — every silenced face becomes a small bright surface. The dharma-protecting body He wears is the same field of warmth that Yaśodā tied up in Vraja: tanu, the deliberately limited form by which the unlimited becomes audible.

• janma-bhṛtaḥ — successful in our birth
  Compound: janma (birth) + bhṛta (carried, sustained, fulfilled). The idiom is that birth has paid its rent. Gauḍīyas hold that human birth has only one rent — sādhu-saṅga leading to bhakti.
• kārtsnyena — in fullness, totally
  From kṛtsna (whole, entire). The fruit of birth is not partial here — it is the whole of it. Gauḍīyas read kārtsnyena as the language of prema-bhakti: nothing held back.
• yoga-īśvara — master of yoga
  yoga (union, discipline) + īśvara (master). Here applied to the ṛṣis themselves. Gauḍīyas note that Kṛṣṇa is yogeśvara par excellence (BG 18.78), so honoring lesser yoga-īśvaras is honoring Him through His representatives.
• darśanam — the sight, audience
  From √dṛś. Not passive looking — mutual seeing. Gauḍīyas treat darśana of sādhu as itself a sacrament: one is seen back, and that seeing rearranges the heart.

• Keshav Anand Pr SB 10-84-09 Hindi - Bhakto ki Importance - 2016-03-16 Rajpura
  His Grace Keshavanand Prabhu· 2016-03-16· Hindi

Even demigods, eating their amṛta in Svarga, cannot pull a sage out of his samādhi to be looked at. Kṛṣṇa says: we mortals at Kurukṣetra have today drawn the lottery the devas could not afford. Sādhu-saṅga is the only fruit He calls life's full kārtsnya.

• su-alpa-tapasām — of those whose austerities are very meager
  su- (intensifier) + alpa (little) + tapas (austerity). Kṛṣṇa speaks as one among the under-qualified. Gauḍīyas read this rhetorical humility as the model: never trade on one's spiritual credit when sādhus arrive.
• arcāyām — in the Deity in the temple
  From √arc. Arcā-vigraha is one of Bhagavān's manifestations (SB 11.27) — fully present in form accepted by the devotee. Yet here Kṛṣṇa contrasts arcā with the live ṛṣi: the point is not that arcā is lesser, but that the live brāhmaṇa is an equally accessible manifestation, often missed.
• pāda-arcana — worshiping the feet
  pāda (foot) + arcana (worship). Specific limb of nava-vidha-bhakti (śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ… pāda-sevanam, SB 7.5.23). Gauḍīyas treat the feet of guru and sādhu as proximally Kṛṣṇa's own feet.
• darśana — seeing
  From √dṛś. The verse strings five sense-faculty interactions — seeing, touching, asking, bowing, foot-worship — to argue that the live sādhu permits a fullness of contact arcā alone may not.

A child raised in the palace sees the king only from across a courtyard, behind guards. Today the gate stands open, the king sits on the verandah, and ordinary people may take his hand. Kṛṣṇa is amazed-on-our-behalf at the privilege: ṛṣis who are usually beheld only in arcā-mūrti are here as conversable persons.

• tīrthāni — holy places, fords
  From √tṝ (to cross over). A tīrtha is what gets you across. Gauḍīyas hold that the sādhu is the supreme tīrtha — bhavauṣadhi, the medicine for material existence — because he is what crossing actually consists of.
• mṛt-śilā-mayāḥ — composed of earth and stone
  mṛt (earth, clay) + śilā (stone) + mayāḥ (composed of). Kṛṣṇa is not dismissing arcā-mūrti — He is naming the externals so the contrast lands. The deity becomes vigraha by Bhagavān's consent, not by the matter alone.
• uru-kālena — after a long time
  uru (long, vast) + kāla (time). Tīrthas and deities work — but slowly, because the contact is mediated. Gauḍīyas read this as the doctrinal warrant for the speed of sādhu-saṅga: one good moment with a Vaiṣṇava outruns years of mechanical bathing.
• sādhavaḥ — saintly persons
  From √sādh (to accomplish, perfect). A sādhu is one in whom bhakti has been brought to completion. Gauḍīyas list the qualities at BG 12.13–20 and SB 11.11.29 — kṛpālu, akṛta-droha, satya-sāra, sama. Their darśana is the verse's punctum.
• darśanāt — by being seen
  Ablative of darśana. The purifying agent is the seeing itself — and Gauḍīyas note that the sādhu sees back, so the transaction is mutual. This is why mere proximity to a saint, even unrecognized, is held to work.

• SB 10-84-11 10-84-71 - The Sages Teachings at Kuruksetra - Gauranga Darshan Prabhu 2017-11-24
  Bhaktivedanta Vidyapitha-Govardhan Eco Village· 2017-11-24· English
• Gauranga Darshan Pr SB 10-84-11 10-84-71 - The Sages Teachings at Kuruksetra - 2017-11-24
  His Grace Gauranga Darshan Prabhu· 2017-11-24· English
• RCP SB 10-84-11 Telugu - 2014-05-24 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Rupeshwar Caitanya Prabhu· 2014-05-24· Telugu

A pond of stone is still a pond; an image of clay is still an image. But neither lifts the silt off your floor by Tuesday. A sādhu walking by your door at dusk does it in the time it takes him to look up. Kṛṣṇa is not demoting tīrthas and Deities — He is saying the same Person who makes them holy is condensed in the living devotee.

• bheda-kṛtaḥ — of one who makes differences
  bheda (difference) + kṛt (maker). The worshiper who sees himself as separate from other jīvas and from Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas read this through acintya-bhedābheda: bheda is real, but without bhakti it stays as an obstruction; with bhakti it becomes the structure of rasa.
• vipaścitaḥ — wise men
  From vipaś (to see clearly). The seer-sage. Contrast with the literally blind worshiper of dualities above. Gauḍīyas treat vipaścit as one who has seen through nāma-rūpa to Bhagavān as the substrate.
• muhūrta — a span of minutes
  A muhūrta is about 48 minutes. The verse measures the saint's effective time in muhūrtas while measuring the demigod's in uru-kāla. Gauḍīyas read this as the operative law of sādhu-saṅga's velocity.
• sevayā — by service
  From √sev (to serve, attend upon). Not just seeing — serving. Gauḍīyas hold that sevā activates the contact: bhakti is service, and service to a Vaiṣṇava is service to Bhagavān (mad-bhakta-pūjābhyadhikā, SB 11.19.21).

• Nirantara Pr SB 10-84-12 - 2011-04-11 ISKCON Towaco
  His Grace Nirantara Prabhu· 2011-04-11· English
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-12 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-84-12 Telugu Translation - 2014-05-26 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2014-05-26· Telugu

Demigods are like specialist physicians who clear the symptom that falls under their charge — fever, dropsy, broken sleep. A wise sādhu is the family doctor who treats the patient. Kṛṣṇa says: a few minutes of being treated by the latter dissolves what years of departmental worship merely managed.

• kuṇape — in a corpselike body
  From kuṇapa (corpse). A starkly Vaiṣṇava deflation — the body, once apart from ātman and bhakti, is already a corpse. Gauḍīyas use kuṇapa-buddhi as a diagnostic term for the disease bhakti cures.
• tri-dhātuke — made of three basic elements
  tri (three) + dhātu (humour, constituent). Āyurveda's vāta, pitta, kapha. The verse uses the medical breakdown to refuse the body's pretension of being the self. Gauḍīyas note that anatomical honesty serves vairāgya.
• abhijñeṣu — in wise persons
  From abhi + √jñā (to know directly). The one who knows abhi — knows toward, knows with full presence. Gauḍīyas read abhijña as the brāhmaṇa-sādhu who knows Bhagavān directly, not by hearsay. The verse's punctum is that the donkey-man never seeks such a person out.
• kharaḥ — an ass
  Paired in the verse with gaḥ (cow) as the diagnostic verdict on the man who never seeks the abhijña-sādhu. Not insult but diagnosis: an animal birth is one that cannot perform bhakti by choice. To squander a human form on body-and-land identifications is to choose downward.
• tīrtha-buddhiḥ — the idea that tīrtha is just water
  tīrtha + buddhi (intelligence). The mistake the previous verses named, now condensed into a single phrase. Gauḍīyas treat tīrtha-buddhi-as-water as the visible symptom of a more interior failure: not having found one's guru.

• Nirantara Pr SB 10-84-13 - 2011-04-13 ISKCON Towaco
  His Grace Nirantara Prabhu· 2011-04-13· English
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-13 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• RCP SB 10-84-13 Telugu - 2014-05-27 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Rupeshwar Caitanya Prabhu· 2014-05-27· Telugu
• SDAP SB 10-84-13 - Essential Questions Answered at Vrindavan - 2015-11-05 Vrindavan
  His Grace Sankarshan Prabhu· 2015-11-05· English
• LNS Hindi SB 10-84-13 - Don%27t Consider Tirtha Places Ordinary - 2025-01-31 ISKCON Juhu
  His Holiness Lokanath Swami· 2025-01-31· Hindi

A donkey lives a long life in a stable, eats grass, raises foals, never once raises its head to look at the saint walking the road outside. Kṛṣṇa is saying: a man who identifies with phlegm-bile-wind, who calls clay and river his most-sacred, but who never sits with a sage — that man has refused the one upgrade his birth offered.

• akuṇṭha-medhasaḥ — of unrestricted intelligence
  a- (not) + kuṇṭha (blunt, dulled) + medhas (intellect). Kṛṣṇa's intelligence is never blunted by any object. Gauḍīyas read this as a marker of Bhagavān's omniscience as personal — not abstract knowing, but the sharpness of a Person fully present.
• duranvayam — difficult to comprehend
  dus- (difficult) + anvaya (logical connection, following). Hard to follow the line of reasoning. Gauḍīyas note that Kṛṣṇa's speech often resists analytic reduction because it speaks from a position the analyst does not yet occupy.
• bhramat-dhiyaḥ — whose minds were unsteady
  bhramat (wandering) + dhī (intellect). The brāhmaṇas' minds spin. Gauḍīyas hold that the right reception of bhagavat-vāc temporarily disorients the buddhi — the precondition for a deeper alignment.
• viprāḥ — the learned brāhmaṇas
  From √vip (to tremble, be stirred). A vipra is properly one stirred by Vedic knowing. The verse uses the strongest term for them and shows them silenced — the doctrine here is bigger than their vocabulary.

• Amal Bhakta Sw SB 10-84-14-17 - 2016-01-19 Los Angeles
  His Holiness Amal Bhakta Swami· 2016-01-19· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-14 - Controversies in the Vedas - 2008-04-07 ISKCON Melbourne
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2008-04-07· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-14-16 - Krsna%27s human like activities bewilders even the most learned - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

When Kṛṣṇa speaks as a junior in the assembly and calls the ṛṣis the real tīrthas, the brāhmaṇas fall silent the way a hall of musicians falls silent when the patron sings: stunned not by ignorance but by the impossibility of placing what was just heard. The Bhagavān whose words this is, is Himself the unfathomable source.

• īśitavyatām — the status of being controlled
  Abstract noun from īśitavya (to be controlled). The very condition Bhagavān is pretending to be in. Gauḍīyas read this as the philosophical heart of Kṛṣṇa's nara-līlā: He plays the īśitavya so the īśvaras of His creation may serve Him without distance.
• jana-saṅgrahaḥ — the enlightenment of the people
  jana (people) + saṅgraha (gathering, taking care of). The same phrase Kṛṣṇa Himself uses at BG 3.20, 3.25 — loka-saṅgrahaḥ. Gauḍīyas note the structural reciprocity: He acts for jana-saṅgraha; His devotee acts likewise.
• smayantaḥ — smiling
  From √smi (to smile). The smile is the diagnostic that the sages have understood. Gauḍīyas treat the smile of a Vaiṣṇava sage as a small mudrā — interior recognition surfacing on the face.
• jagat-gurum — the spiritual master of the universe
  jagat (world) + guru (heavy, weighty, teacher). Kṛṣṇa is the original ādi-guru. The sages address Him so even as He pretends subordination — the smile says, we know who is teaching whom.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-15 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

A wrestling master, sparring with students, will sometimes fall to the floor on purpose so the lesson lands. Kṛṣṇa playing the subordinate in the assembly is the same: jana-saṅgraha — gathering the people — is a teaching technique, and the smile of the sages who recognize it is the smile of advanced students seeing through the master's deliberate stumble.

• tattva-vit — knower of the truth
  tattva (truth, that-ness) + vit (knower). The technical Sanskrit philosopher's title. The sages claim it and immediately disclaim it under Bhagavān's māyā. Gauḍīyas read this as the necessary humility of any philosopher in front of Kṛṣṇa.
• māyayā — by Your māyā
  Bhagavān's power of bewilderment. Gauḍīyas distinguish yoga-māyā (internal, hides Kṛṣṇa's aiśvarya from devotees so rasa may flow) from mahā-māyā (external, hides Him from non-devotees). The next verses make clear this is yoga-māyā.
• viśva-sṛjām — of the creators of the universe
  viśva + sṛj (to emit, create). The Prajāpatis and co-creators headed by Brahmā. The sages are calling themselves the cosmic CEOs — and saying even we are confused. Gauḍīyas note the rhetorical pressure: if these are confused, what of an ordinary watcher?
• viceṣṭitam — the activity
  vi + √ceṣṭ (to move, act). Bhagavān's līlā is viceṣṭita — extraordinary action. Gauḍīyas hold that līlā is the proper category, not karma: action without bondage, performed for rasa, not phala.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-16 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-16 - Krishna%27s pastimes are bewildering even to great Personalities - 2008-04-08
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2008-04-08· English

An astronomer measures the orbits of planets, then steps out at dusk and forgets to look up. The sages confess: we have been the cataloguers of the truth and yet Your māyā has confused us, the very ones who name the categories. Kṛṣṇa as nara-līlā is the planet we keep failing to lift our eyes to.

• anīhaḥ — exerting no endeavor
  a- (not) + īhā (effort). Bhagavān creates without straining. Gauḍīyas read this as a marker of His aiśvarya: His will is enacted directly, without the labor that conditioned beings require to produce anything.
• ekaḥ — alone, one
  Bhagavān creates alone — without a second agent. Personalist reading: not impersonal oneness, but one Person acting from His own Self. Gauḍīyas insist that the One here is Kṛṣṇa as svayaṁ-bhagavān, not a featureless Brahman.
• bhaumaiḥ — by the transformations of earth
  From bhūmi (earth). The pots, pillars, idols. The famous Upaniṣadic analogy compressed into one ablative. Gauḍīyas use it to show that the world's variety is not an illusion — it is a transformation of the substrate, distinguishable from but not separable from the substrate.
• viḍambanam — a pretense, mimicry
  From vi + √ḍamb (to mock, mimic). Bhagavān's humanlike activity is viḍambana — He plays at being conditioned. Gauḍīyas treat this as the doctrinal description of nara-līlā: the form is imitative; the Person within is unaffected.

• Nirantara Pr SB 10-84-17 - 2011-04-18 ISKCON Towaco
  His Grace Nirantara Prabhu· 2011-04-18· English
• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-17 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-84-17 Telugu Translation - 2014-05-31 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2014-05-31· Telugu
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-17 - Krsna%27s actions are completely different from Jivas it is inconceivable and surprising - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

The element earth, going about its single business of being earth, becomes a pot, a pillar, a wall, a road, a Deity, a corpse, without ceasing to be earth. So Bhagavān, in His ekatva, sends forth the variegated worlds and reabsorbs them without being snagged by any of it. The pot does not entangle the clay.

• sattvam — the mode of goodness
  Here, Gauḍīyas read this as śuddha-sattva, not the material guṇa. Jīva Gosvāmī (Bhāgavata-sandarbha) distinguishes Bhagavān's form as constituted of viśuddha-sattva — the unmixed mode, the substance of His descents.
• veda-patham — the path of the Vedas
  veda + patha (path). The Vedic dharma-mārga that culminates in Kṛṣṇa-bhakti (SB 1.2.6). Gauḍīyas hold that protecting veda-patha is the same as protecting bhakti — the two are continuous, not rivals.
• sanātanam — eternal
  The Veda's path is not historical; it is eternal. Gauḍīyas use sanātana as a technical term for the eternal nature of dharma (sanātana-dharma) and of one's relationship with Bhagavān (sanātana-yoga, BG 4.3).
• varṇa-āśrama-ātmā — the Soul of the varṇāśrama order
  varṇa (social order) + āśrama (life-stage) + ātmā (Self). Bhagavān is the inner Person of the varṇāśrama structure. Gauḍīyas note this as the reason varṇāśrama is not optional pluralism — it is Kṛṣṇa's own social body, designed to converge on bhakti.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-18 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-18 - Krsna%27s actions are beyond material gunas and perfect though it bewilders conditioned Jivas - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-18 - Understanding Krishna%27s appearance in and interaction with the material world - 2008-04-09
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2008-04-09· English

A king walks the streets in plain clothes for half the year, but on coronation day puts on the regalia so that justice may be visibly enacted. Kṛṣṇa wears the pure mode of sattva as that regalia: nara-līlā in plain dress, descent in śuddha-sattva for the explicit act of protection and chastisement.

• brahma — the Vedas
  Here brahma = the Vedas, śabda-brahman. Gauḍīyas distinguish three referents of brahma — śabda-brahman (the scriptures), nirviśeṣa-brahman (the impersonal effulgence), and svayaṁ-bhagavān (the Person, of whom brahman is the bodily glow, BG 14.27). The verse here means the first.
• hṛdayam — heart
  The Vedas are not Bhagavān's calling card; they are His hṛdaya. Gauḍīyas read this as the warrant for treating the Bhāgavatam (called nigamasya kalpa-taroḥ galitam phalam, SB 1.1.3) as Kṛṣṇa-vāṇī — His heart speaking.
• śuklam — pure, spotless
  From √śuc (to shine, be pure). The Veda is uncontaminated revelation. Gauḍīyas insist on the Veda's apauruṣeyatva — not human-authored — which is why śuklam is grammatically possible.
• tapaḥ-svādhyāya-saṁyamaiḥ — by austerity, study, and self-control
  The classical brāhmaṇa-triad. Gauḍīyas note that bhakti subsumes all three: tapas as voluntary restraint for sevā, svādhyāya as hearing kṛṣṇa-kathā, saṁyama as senses turned toward Bhagavān (hṛṣīkeṇa-hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam, Padma Purāṇa).
• param — transcendental, supreme
  The Vedas reveal vyakta, avyakta, and tataḥ param — what is beyond both. Gauḍīyas read param as Bhagavān Himself: the Veda points past manifest and unmanifest to the akṣara puruṣottama (BG 15.18).

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-19 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Sesa Pr SB 10-84-19-22 - 2016-01-21 ISKCON Alachua
  His Grace Sesa Prabhu· 2016-01-21· English
• Vraja Bihari Pr SB 10-84-19 - Vedas and How to Undersatand - 2016-07-23 ISKCON Chowpatty
  His Grace Vraja Bihari Prabhu· 2016-07-23· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-19-21 - Without devotees one cannot understand and follow the real meaning of Scriptures - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

The Vedas are Kṛṣṇa's spotless heart — the one place where what He is can be exactly traced. Through tapas, svādhyāya, and saṁyama, the disciple presses an ear to that heart and hears, in sequence, the manifest world (vyakta), the unmanifest cause (avyakta), and the pure Person beyond both. The textbook is a stethoscope, not a wall.

• brahmaṇya — of those who respect brahminical culture
  From brāhmaṇa + -ya (relating to). Kṛṣṇa is brahmaṇya-deva — the God who honors brāhmaṇas (SB 10.84.20, Viṣṇu-sahasra-nāma names Him brahmaṇyaḥ). Gauḍīyas insist this title names Him before any of the sovereign epithets — He is first the friend of brāhmaṇas, then king.
• agranīḥ — the foremost, leader
  agra (front) + nī (leading). Kṛṣṇa is the agranīḥ — the leader — of brāhmaṇa-respecters. Gauḍīyas note that the model He sets becomes the binding standard: a Vaiṣṇava cannot ignore brāhmaṇa-pūjā if Bhagavān Himself enacts it.
• śāstra-yoneḥ — whose means of realization is śāstra
  śāstra + yoni (source, womb). The brāhmaṇas are the womb through which śāstra becomes realizable. Gauḍīyas read this as the rationale for guru-paramparā: the text alone does not transmit; the brāhmaṇa-vaiṣṇava transmits.
• sat-dhāma — the perfect abode
  sat (true, existent) + dhāma (abode). The brāhmaṇa-kula is called the abode of sat. Gauḍīyas distinguish this from the brāhmaṇa-by-birth: the verse intends those whose conduct manifests sat — that is, the Vaiṣṇava brāhmaṇa.

Kṛṣṇa as brahmaṇya-deva is the king who calls his prime minister 'my elder' in public, not because the minister outranks him but because the office of brāhmaṇa is the channel by which the kingdom recognizes its sovereign. Bhagavān honors the brāhmaṇa because that is how He chooses to be honored.

• sat-gatyā — the goal of saintly persons
  sat (true) + gati (goal). Kṛṣṇa is what sat-persons are heading toward. Gauḍīyas hold the prayojana of all the regulative limbs (sambandha-abhidheya) to be kṛṣṇa-prema, which is what 'sat-gati' here ultimately names.
• sāphalyam — fruition, becoming fruitful
  sa- (with) + phala (fruit) + -ya (abstract). Birth, education, austerity, sight — each one becomes a phala-bearer only on meeting Kṛṣṇa. Gauḍīyas read sāphalya as the same condition kārtsnyena named in verse 9.
• śreyasām — of (all) benefits
  Genitive plural of śreyas (highest good). Gauḍīyas distinguish preyas (immediately pleasant) from śreyas (ultimately beneficial), and within śreyas they hold prema-bhakti as the topmost. The sages name Kṛṣṇa as the śreyasām paraḥ — beyond even the standard śreyas-mokṣa.
• saṅgamya — by obtaining association
  From sam + √gam (to go together). The saṅga of saṅga-saṅgatī. Gauḍīyas treat satāṁ saṅga (SB 3.25.25) as the seed of all spiritual progress — exactly what this gerund names.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-21 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

The sages confess: every credential they brought — birth, learning, austerity, the trained eye — was only a coin waiting for the kiosk of Your darśana. Today the kiosk opened. Kṛṣṇa is the redemption-point of every spiritual asset; meeting Him is what makes them count.

• yoga-māyayā — by His internal illusory potency
  yoga (joining) + māyā (potency). Bhagavān's antaraṅga-śakti. Gauḍīyas sharply distinguish yoga-māyā (internal, enables līlā) from mahā-māyā (external, binds the conditioned soul). The same word, two completely different functions.
• ācchanna-mahimne — to Him whose glories are covered
  ā + √chad (to cover) + mahiman (greatness). His glories are not absent — they are covered, on purpose. Gauḍīyas treat this as a positive feature, not a deficiency: covered greatness is what permits sakhya and vātsalya to operate.
• akuṇṭha-medhase — whose intelligence is unrestricted
  Same compound as verse 14, here in dative. The sages return to the phrase deliberately — they began by being confused; they end by saluting the unrestricted intelligence that produced the confusion.
• parama-ātmane — to the Supersoul
  parama (supreme) + ātman (Self). Gauḍīyas distinguish the three aspects of the Absolute — brahman, paramātmā, bhagavān — and read paramātmā as Bhagavān's localized aspect in every heart. The sages address Kṛṣṇa as the Person who is also the inner Witness.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-22 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-84-22 Telugu Translation - 2014-06-05 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2014-06-05· Telugu
• BhaktiVasudeva Sw SB 10-84-22 - Pay Obeisances to Lord Krishna - 2011-04-21 ISKCON New Jersey
  His Holiness Bhakti Vasudeva Swami· 2011-04-21· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-22 - The living entity%27s obligation to Krishna - 2008-04-11
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2008-04-11· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-22 - Vraja Krsna-The Svayam Bhagavan and Vraja Vasis the topmost recipient of his mercy - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

A sun behind a curtain still warms the room. The sages bow not to the visible boy in the assembly but to the Person whose glories yoga-māyā has drawn a curtain over — knowing the warmth they receive is direct contact with the sun, not with the curtain.

• eka-ārāmāḥ — who enjoy together
  eka (one, together) + ārāma (enjoyment, pleasure-garden). The Vṛṣṇis enjoy in unison with Kṛṣṇa. Gauḍīyas read this as a marker of intimate līlā — and exactly therefore as the cover under which His aiśvarya is hidden from them.
• javanikā — curtain
  From java (speed) — a curtain that moves quickly. The technical word for a stage-curtain in Sanskrit drama. Bhagavān's līlā is staged; māyā is the curtain whose movements time the rasa.
• kālam — time
  Kṛṣṇa as kāla — the same self-disclosure He makes in BG 11.32, kālo 'smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt. Paired with īśvaram in the verse. Gauḍīyas note that the Person familiar to the Vṛṣṇis as 'cousin' is also the Time that swallows all kings.
• ātmānam — the Supreme Soul
  ātman as Bhagavān's Self, here qualified by kālam īśvaram. Gauḍīyas read ātmā in this verse not as the impersonal self but as the Soul of all souls — paramātmā, equivalent to Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-23 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• BhaktiVasudeva Sw SB 10-84-23 - Mahamaya and Yogamaya coverings for Nondevotees and Devotees Respectively - 2011-04-22 I
  His Holiness Bhakti Vasudeva Swami· 2011-04-22· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-23 - Illusion in pastimes increases bliss and Illusion in material world amplifies suffering - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-23 - Krishna%27s illusory potency acts differently for the Devotees and Non-Devotees - 2008-04-12
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· 2008-04-12· English

A son growing up with his father may know him as 'papa' but never as the celebrated jurist of the city. The Vṛṣṇis and the Pāṇḍavas live with Kṛṣṇa, share His bed and His war, but the curtain of māyā keeps Him in domestic costume. The sages, arriving from outside the household, name what the household cannot quite name from inside.

• smṛti-upaplavāt — due to the disruption of memory
  smṛti (memory) + upaplava (overflow, disruption). The forgetting of one's eternal relationship with Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas treat smṛti as a technical term: nityaḥ kṛṣṇa-smṛti is the goal; the disease is its disruption.
• nāma-mātreṣu — in things having only names
  nāma (name) + mātra (only, mere). The objects perceived by the dreaming jīva are name-only — they have no substance independent of Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas read this not as Buddhist śūnyatā but as acintya-bhedābheda: real but not standalone.
• indriya-īhayā — by the activity of the senses
  indriya (sense) + īhā (activity). The senses act and the world appears. Gauḍīyas note that bhakti redirects the senses (hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate, Nārada-pañcarātra), turning indriya-īhā from world-making into Kṛṣṇa-service.
• guṇa-tattva-dṛk — whose vision is of secondary reality
  guṇa (secondary, modifying) + tattva (reality) + dṛś (vision). The dreamer's eye sees the secondary. Gauḍīyas treat the goal as the recovery of paramārtha-dṛṣṭi — seeing the Person who underlies the guṇas.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-24 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• Revati Raman Pr SB 10-84-24-25 Telugu Translation - 2014-06-08 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Revati Raman Prabhu· 2014-06-08· Telugu

A dreaming man wears a different name and walks a different street and forgets his real bed. Daybreak doesn't argue him out of the dream; it simply ends it. The conditioned soul perceives only names-and-forms because his consciousness is dreaming; only smṛti — the breaking of the dream — restores Kṛṣṇa to view.

• agha-ogha-marṣa — which undoes the flood of sins
  agha (sin) + ogha (flood) + marṣa (forbearing, undoing). Bhagavān's feet are not just clean — they unmake the accumulation of sin. Gauḍīyas note the river-imagery: ogha matches the Ganges, marṣa matches its flow.
• tīrtha-āspadam — the source of the holy pilgrimage site
  tīrtha + āspada (resting place, source). The feet are the source-point of the tīrtha — the doctrine of verse 11 brought to its furthest end: not only is the sādhu the real tīrtha, but Bhagavān's feet are the tīrtha's tīrtha.
• utsikta-bhakti — fully developed devotional service
  ut-sikta (poured upon, sprinkled out, fully ripened) + bhakti. Bhakti at its full pour. Gauḍīyas read this as a near-synonym for prema-bhakti — the stage at which bhakti has overflowed the disciplinary banks.
• jīva-kośāḥ — the external covering of the individual soul
  jīva (individual soul) + kośa (sheath, covering). The mind-shaped covering that needs to be destroyed for the jīva to meet Bhagavān. Gauḍīyas read kośa-bheda not as Advaitin merging but as the lifting of the covering so the eternal servant may serve.
• anugṛhāṇa — please show mercy
  anu + √grah (to seize, accept). To grasp toward, to bestow grace. Gauḍīyas treat anugraha as the active form of kṛpā: not passive favor but Bhagavān's reaching out. The sages, having said so much, end the speech with this imperative.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-26 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya
• RCP SB 10-84-26 Telugu - 2014-06-09 ISKCON Tirupati
  His Grace Rupeshwar Caitanya Prabhu· 2014-06-09· Telugu
• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-26 - Devotee never aspires any type of liberation unless it is favorable to please Krsna - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English
• Sridhar Sw SB 10-84-26 - With Jaya Advaita Maharaja - Houston or London 2000-07-29
  His Holiness Sridhar Swami· 2000-07-29· English

The sages, having walked through the doctrinal map of two dozen verses, end at the feet themselves: not as conclusion but as the actual washing place from which the Ganges issues. Perfected yogis hold these feet in meditation; only undivided bhakti, melting the kośa, lands a soul among them. The whole speech bends toward the touch of those feet.

• dāśārham — Kṛṣṇa, the descendant of Daśārha
  Daśārha was an ancestor in the Yadu line. Gauḍīyas note that Kṛṣṇa's many vamśa-titles — Dāśārha, Vṛṣṇi-vīra, Yadu-nandana — register that He has voluntarily entered into a human lineage; the names anchor His incarnation in actual genealogy.
• anujñāpya — having taken permission to leave
  anu + √jñā in causative + ya. The sādhu does not depart without permission. Gauḍīyas treat anujñā as a small but important sign of saṅga-dharma: the relationship is honored on both ends of the visit.
• rāja-ṛṣe — O sage among kings
  Address to Parīkṣit. The Bhāgavatam never lets the reader forget that this entire transmission is happening between Śuka and a king-sage. Gauḍīyas read Parīkṣit as the model śrotā — the perfect listener of hari-kathā in his last seven days.
• āśramān — to the hermitages
  From ā + √śram (to exert). The disciplined retreats. Gauḍīyas note that the āśrama is not anti-world but a workshop for the world's renewal: ṛṣis go back to āśramas to refill what they spend in sat-saṅga.

• Bhanu Sw SB 10-84-27-33 - Krsna%27s pastimes are enacted through his shaktis but shaktis act only by his will - ISKCON Chennai
  His Holiness Bhanu Swami· English

After the discourse, the sages do not linger to be praised — they ask leave and turn toward their āśramas, like rivers that, having delivered their water to the sea, climb back into the clouds to fall as rain elsewhere. The mark of a sādhu is that he keeps moving toward the next sevā.

• vasudevaḥ — Vasudeva
  Father of Kṛṣṇa, named ānakadundubhi (drums of the gods sounded at his birth). Gauḍīyas treat him as the standing instance of vātsalya from the father's side, complementary to Yaśodā's vātsalya in Vraja.
• upasaṅgṛhya — taking hold of their feet
  upa + sam + √grah. The technical word for receiving the dust of the feet. Gauḍīyas read pādārcana / pāda-saṅgrahaṇa as a non-negotiable feature of approaching a brāhmaṇa-sage.
• su-yantritaḥ — very carefully composed
  su- + yantrita (controlled, restrained). Vasudeva speaks with restraint. Gauḍīyas note that vāk-tapas (austerity of speech, BG 17.15) is the prerequisite for serious spiritual inquiry — not the casual chat.
• praṇamya — bowing down
  Gerund of pra + √nam. Again the body leads — bow first, speak second. Gauḍīyas read praṇāma as the entry-rite of every encounter with a Vaiṣṇava.

Vasudeva, the father of Bhagavān Himself, does not stand on rank. He bows, takes the dust of the ṛṣis' feet, and speaks with carefully composed words. The man who fathered God models the verse just spoken: the brāhmaṇa is the form Bhagavān has chosen to be honored through.

• nirhāraḥ — purging, removal
  From nir- (out) + √hṛ (to take). The phrase karmaṇā karma-nirhāraḥ frames the rest of the chapter. Gauḍīyas read it as pointing toward yajña-as-bhakti: karma performed as worship of Viṣṇu (verse 35) is the karma that dissolves prior karma — the classical karma-yoga reading of BG 3.9, yajñārthāt karmaṇaḥ.
• sarva-devebhyaḥ — to all the demigods
  Vasudeva addresses the sages as comprising all the demigods. Gauḍīyas note that the Vaiṣṇava ṛṣi is treated as comprehending all deva-tattva — pūjā of the sādhu is implicit pūjā of every demigod (cf. SB 4.31.14).
• śrotum arhatha — please be willing to hear me
  śrotum (to hear) + arhatha (you are worthy). Polite request. Gauḍīyas note that the householder approaching the sage does not demand instruction — he asks to be heard, an inversion that itself constitutes saṅga-dharma.
• ucyatām — please say
  Passive imperative of √vac. The standard śiṣya-question form. Gauḍīyas note that the Bhāgavatam's many great teachings (BG 1.21–22; SB 1.1.1) issue from exactly this passive-imperative — an open hand toward the speaker.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-29 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

Vasudeva, knowing that karma drags the karmī between two birth-banks, asks the sages the question of how karma itself might be set against karma — like a man with a thorn in his foot asking which other thorn would pull this one out. The whole second half of the chapter is the sages' answer.

• arbhakam — a boy
  From arbha (small, weak). The very word Yaśodā would use. Gauḍīyas treat the appearance of arbhaka here as evidence that vātsalya-māyā operates on Vasudeva as well as Yaśodā — though differently — and is itself a gift of Kṛṣṇa to His own parents.
• bubhutsayā — with the desire of learning
  Desiderative of √budh (to know). Vasudeva is genuinely seeking. Gauḍīyas read bubhutsā as the right disposition of a śiṣya — the verb-form itself encodes the leaning forward.
• śreyaḥ — the highest good
  The classical śreyas — paired in the verse with ātmanaḥ (for himself). Gauḍīyas note that the Bhāgavatam's whole frame is set by such questions — beginning with the Naimiṣāraṇya sages (SB 1.1.9, śreyaḥ etan na pṛcchāmaḥ) and now repeated by Vasudeva.
• matvā — thinking
  Gerund of √man. The verb itself — matvā arbhakam — is the diagnostic. Vasudeva thinks-Kṛṣṇa-a-boy, and that thinking is what makes the question possible. Gauḍīyas read this as the operation of yoga-māyā in vātsalya-rasa.

• Padaseva Pr SB 10-84-30 Oriya
  His Grace Padaseva Prabhu· Oriya

A grandmother lives with the king of the world dressed as her grandson and asks the neighbors how to obtain the king's favor. Nārada smiles at Vasudeva's question, not because it is foolish but because intimacy has rearranged the categories: the questioner does not see that he is asking the sages about the one whose father he is.

• sannikarṣaḥ — proximity, closeness
  sam + ni + √kṛṣ (to draw). The very condition of being close. Gauḍīyas note that sannikarṣa to Bhagavān is meant to ripen into rāgānuga; but it can also, in the conditioned soul, ripen into anādara — dullness toward what is near.
• anādaraṇa — disregard
  an- (not) + ādara (respect). The standing failure of human beings vis-à-vis what is close at hand. Gauḍīyas treat anādara as the symptom of forgotten smṛti — verse 24–25's smṛty-upaplava in social-emotional form.
• gāṅgam — of the Ganges
  From gaṅgā. Nārada chooses the holiest river for the image precisely because the failure of treating it as merely water is the same failure that this chapter has named four times now (verses 11, 13, 26, 31).
• śuddhaye — for purification
  Dative of śuddhi (purification). The motive that drives the absurd trip elsewhere. Gauḍīyas note that proper śuddhi is achieved by Bhagavān's name and feet — both already present in Vasudeva's house.

A man whose front yard borders the Ganges packs a satchel and travels six days to a smaller pool for a purifying dip. Familiarity has dulled the eye. Nārada uses the image to name Vasudeva's own situation: Bhagavān is in the next room and you are asking the visiting sages how to reach Him.

• anubhūtiḥ — awareness
  anu + √bhū (to be after, become). Bhagavān's consciousness, technical term for divine cit. Gauḍīyas read His anubhūti as svarūpa-jñāna — He is fully self-aware always, regardless of the līlā He is enacting.
• advitīyam — without a second
  a- (not) + dvitīya (second). Famous Upaniṣadic term (Chāndogya 6.2.1 — ekam evādvitīyam). Gauḍīyas read this not in Advaitin merging-monism but as the Vaiṣṇava reading: Bhagavān is one without a second, and yet His energies and His devotees are eternally distinct from and dependent on Him.
• sūryam iva — like the sun
  The standard image of an uncovered cause behind apparent coverings. Gauḍīyas note that this image runs through SB and the Upaniṣads, and was deployed by Caitanya in His teachings to Rūpa Gosvāmī (CC Madhya 19) on acintya-bhedābheda.
• vibhavaiḥ — with His expansions
  From vi + √bhū (to be powerful, expand). The prāṇa and elements are Bhagavān's own vibhavas — His expansions, not foreign agents. Gauḍīyas read this as a doctrinal anti-dualism: even what seems to cover Him is His own.

The sun is the sun whether covered by cloud, snow, or eclipse. The covering is not in the sun — it is in the line of sight of the watcher. Bhagavān's awareness is not affected by time or the universe's tides or even by His own self-expansions; only the watcher imagines Him covered by prāṇa and the elements.

• ānaka-dundubhim — Vasudeva (named for the drums that sounded at his birth)
  ānaka (drum) + dundubhi (kettledrum). The devas sounded drums at his birth, foreknowing that Bhagavān would take him as father. Gauḍīyas treat the epithet as the name's theological resume — Vasudeva's worthiness pre-announced by Svarga.
• śṛṇvatām — as they listened
  Genitive present participle of √śru. Everyone is listening — the kings, Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma. Gauḍīyas note that the verse takes care to record the audience: the sages' instruction is meant to ripen in many hearts, not just Vasudeva's.
• acyuta-rāmayoḥ — of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma
  Dual genitive. Bhagavān and His first expansion listening to brāhmaṇas instruct on dharma. Gauḍīyas read this as the model of the highest hearers: even Acyuta hears.
• ābhāṣya — speaking to
  ā + √bhāṣ (to speak). The technical gerund for direct address. The sages do not lecture the field; they speak to Vasudeva, with the field listening.