Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.88.27-28
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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vyasanam
—
danger, calamity
From vi-√as — separation, scattering. Saṅkaṭa's synonym. The chapter is precise: Mahādeva's vyasana, not yours and mine, brings the Lord onto the road in disguise.
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vṛjina-ardanaḥ
—
the eradicator of distress
Contiguous (vṛjina + ardanaḥ). Vṛjina = pain, sin; ardana = crusher. Hari's standing epithet — He crushes distress not from a throne but by walking out to meet it in disguise.
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baṭukaḥ
—
a young brāhmaṇa student
Endearing diminutive — a little brahmacārī. Vāmana's family. Gauḍīyas treasure these līlās where Bhagavān's smallness conceals His largeness — opposite of asuric showmanship.
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yoga-māyayā
—
by His internal mystic potency
Contiguous (yoga + māyayā). Yoga-māyā = the internal energy, distinct from mahā-māyā that binds. Gauḍīya doctrine: Hari's forms (Mohinī, Vāmana, baṭuka here) are products of yoga-māyā — real, not illusory, and emerging from His will.
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tejasā agniḥ iva jvalan
—
blazing with effulgence like fire
Contiguous-join (tejasā + agniḥ + iva + jvalan). The disguise is small but the tejas is uncontainable — only an asura blind with success could miss it. Gauḍīyas: this is how Bhagavān always travels — visibly luminous to the eyes prepared.
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kuśa-pāṇiḥ
—
with kuśa grass in His hand
Contiguous (kuśa + pāṇiḥ). Sacred grass of the brahmacārī. Hari has dressed for the role down to the prop in the hand. The thoroughness of Hari's disguise mirrors the thoroughness of His care.
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vinīta-vat
—
in a humble manner
Contiguous (vinīta + vat). Humble — the Supreme bowing first. Gauḍīyas note: this is Hari's signature posture toward asuras, the very humility Vṛka has never met. The disguise is itself the teaching.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī quotes the disguised Lord Nārāyaṇa as saying, “For Us seers of the Absolute Truth, all created beings are worthy of respect. And since you are the son of Śakuni, a wise man and performer of great austerities, you certainly deserve the respectful greeting of a young brahmacārī like Myself.”
Visnu, assuming the dress of a brahmacari, came before Vrkasura (pratyudiyat). Visnu greeted him by offering blessings and paying his respects. I, seeing Brahman everywhere, should offer greetings to all living entities, and thus, since you are the son of Sakuni, great in knowledge and austerity, I, as a brahmacari, must offer you respect.
The Lord, who knew the whole affair, who possessed powers (bhagavān) and who relieves Śiva and others from suffering (vṛjinārdanaḥ), saw Śiva in danger or full of anger (vyasanam) from far off, from Vaikuṇṭha. He appeared in front of Vṛka as a brahmacārī by his special bhakti (yogamāyayā) with beads. This was part of the dress of a brahmacārī. He did this to gain the affection and respect of Vṛka. He shone like fire. This indicates his overpowering intelligence. This would also arouse respect in Vṛka. He greeted Vṛka with blessings, introducing himself to him. He greeted him as if humble, but actually it was not so.
The brahmacarī (baṭukaḥ) was Kṛṣṇa. He had great powers, as in killing Pūtanā.
When the king's own brother is endangered, the king does not send an army — He puts on a sannyāsī's deerskin and walks alone into the road, kuśa-grass in hand, and bows first. The most powerful Person plays the smallest brahmacārī because that is the disguise that will save His devotee. Yoga-māyā is the wardrobe of Hari's tenderness.
When the demigods had churned the nectar and the asuras seized it, Viṣṇu took the form of Mohinī — bewildering the asuras with charm and serving the amṛta to the devas (SB 8.8-9). Even Śiva later asked to see this form (SB 8.12), and was himself bewildered by it.
The Bhāgavatam reading: yoga-māyā disguises are Hari's signature when an asura must be undone without armies. The brahmacārī form here is a cousin of the Mohinī form: small shape, vast intelligence, designed to delete the wicked through their own choosing.
Viṣṇu as Vāmana approached Bali Mahārāja as a tiny brāhmaṇa boy, asked only for three steps of land, and undid the asura-king's grasping ambition (SB 8.18-22). The form was minimal; the intelligence was total.
Kṛṣṇa's baṭuka here is the same family: a small disguise that disassembles a great asura without a single weapon raised.
My note
Source: vedabase.io