Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.84.13
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
True intelligence is shown by one’s freedom from false identification of the self. As stated in the Bṛhaspati-saṁhitā: ajñāta-bhagavad-dharmā mantra-vijñāna-saṁvidaḥ narās te go-khara jñeyā api bhū-pāla-vanditāḥ “Men who do not know the principles of devotional service to the Supreme Lord should be known as cows and asses, even if they are expert in technically analyzing Vedic mantras and are adored by world leaders.” An imperfect Vaiṣṇava advancing toward the second-class platform identifies himself with the sages who have established the true spiritual path, even while he still may have some inferior material attachments to body, family and so on. Such a devotee of the Lord is not a foolish cow or stubborn ass like the majority of materialists. But most excellent is the Vaiṣṇava who has gained the special mercy of the Lord and broken free from the bondage of illusory attachments altogether. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, the words bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, “who thinks an image made of earth is worshipable,” refer not to the Deity form of the Supreme Lord in His temple but to deities of demigods, and the words yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile, “who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there,” refer not to sacred rivers like the Ganges or Yamunā but to lesser rivers.
Those who reject the devotees and thinking that things of value are elsewhere because of their attachments, are unintelligent. He who thinks that the body, a corpse (kunape) composed of vata, pitta and kapha (tridhatuke) is the object of love (atma), who thinks that wife and children are his own (sva dhih), images made of earth (bhauma) are worthy of worship (ijya dhih), who thinks of the water of rivers as sacred (tirtha buddhih), but never thinks of the devotees who know the truth about God (abhijnesu) in a similar way, is just a cow or donkey (go kharah). Because of their similarity they are classed as one object. Or go kharah can mean the donkeys used for the cows, carrying their grass and other items. In the brhaspati samhita it is said, "Those men who are knowledgeable of mantras but do not know about bhagavat dharma are to be known as go kharah even if worshipped by kings." Thus one who sees body as self, family as his own, and also sees the saintly persons as dear is not a donkey. But it should be understood that those who think the devotees alone to be the self, or ones own, or worthy of worship or as sacred and nothing else are the best of all. The words bhauman ijya dhih refers to worshipping forms other than that of the lord. In the eleventh canto it is said, " he who worships with faith the form of the Lord, but not the devotee of the lord is considered a kanistha devotee." Though he does not consider the devotees worthy of worship he is still devotee (and therefore not condemned as a go kharah). Seeing water as holy refers to waters other than genuine sacred waters such as that of the Ganga and Yamuna. There are many other such statements in the scriptures to support this meaning.
The body is by its nature equal to a corpse (kuṇapaḥ), composed of three dhātus that are the root of all diseases. In spite of teachings about the jīva and the Lord, people think that this corpse is the ātmā, since they have a wrong conception of ātmā. This is not proper use of intelligence. Intelligence should appreciate those who know about the Lord, the supreme ātmā of all beings. They will also then become full of the Supreme Lord. People fix their intelligence on persons associated with their bodies, such as wife and family instead of persons associated with the Lord. They think of holy water as ordinary water. “I have become clean by taking a bath.” They do not think that these waters are equivalent to the Lord who is called tīrtha-pāda, the basis of holy places. Their intelligence never identifies with the saintly people. They are at fault. They are considered the most fallen since they are devoid of all intelligence. Such persons are like cows (go) with no intelligence and like donkeys, low animals (kharaḥ). In the forest on the bank of the Sindhu River there is an animal called gokhara, a type of donkey, a useless animal. The word also refers to a mleccha king. In Bṛhat-saṁhitā this gokhara is a non-vaiṣṇava: ajṣāta-bhagavad-dharma-mantra-vijṣāna-saṁvidaḥ narās te gokharā jṣeyā api bhūpāla-vanditāḥ Persons ignorant of dharma, mantras, spiritual knowledge concerning the Lord, even though they are kings, are called gokhara. Though a person worshipps the deity of the Lord, he may be a kaniṣṭha but he is not a gokhara. In the the Eleventh Canto it is said: arcāyām eva haraye pūjāṁ yaḥ śraddhayehate na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ A person who is very faithfully engaged in the worship of the deity in the temple but does not know how to behave toward devotees or people in general is called a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. SB 11.2.47 Condemnation of deity worship and holy places is from the general point of view.
The body is by its nature equal to a corpse (kuṇapaḥ). Similarity to a corpse is shown to indicate the body as an object of repulsion. Since the body is opposite of the ātmā, it is improper to think of it as the ātmā. The wife, sons and wealth (kalatrādiṣu) should be given up by detachment. One may think that objects made of earth or wood are worshippable as the Lord. One may think ordinary water –not Gaṅgā or Yamunā—to be a tīrtha. This person is not aware of persons who know the glories of bhakti and the Lord in the Vedas. Identifying with body, with family, with deities, and with water are successively lesser mistakes. They are not you and are not yours. By some type of intelligence they can be thought of properly. Being without any intelligence, they are fools. That is the lowest position. The cow or bull is without intelligence. The donkey (kharaḥ) is the lowest. One becomes like that. ajṣāta-bhagavad-dharma-mantra-vijṣāna-saṁvidaḥ narās te gokharā jṣeyā api bhūpāla-vanditāḥ Persons ignorant of dharma, mantras, spiritual knowledge concerning the Lord, even though they are kings, are called gokhara. Bṛhaspati-saṁhitā
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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.
In SB 5.7–14, the great king Bharata abandons his throne for forest sādhana, then becomes attached to a deer fawn, dies thinking of it, and is born as a deer. Recovering, he is finally born as Jaḍa Bharata, who passes through the world refusing to be the body that carries him.
Gauḍīyas hold his trajectory as the inverted commentary on this verse: identification with the body is what generates donkeys and deer; only sādhu-saṅga (which finds him in his next life) breaks the loop.
In SB 3.5, Vidura, having abandoned the corpse-like Kuru palace and the kinship-as-mine of his brother's house, finds Maitreya at Hardvāra and is given the entire creation-narrative.
The Bhāgavatam is structured around Vidura's choice — exactly the choice this verse names. Gauḍīyas read Vidura as the model of the householder who refuses the four false identifications and goes looking for a sādhu.
My note
Source: vedabase.io