Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.6.5
తస్యాం విభ్రాజమానాయాం సమృద్ధాయాం మహర్ద్ధిభి: ।
వ్యచక్షతావితృప్తాక్షా: కృష్ణమద్భుతదర్శనమ్ ॥ ౫ ॥
tasyāṁ vibhrājamānāyāṁ
[tasyaam vibhraajamaanaayaam]
samṛddhāyāṁ maharddhibhiḥ
[samriddhaayaam maharddhibhih]
vyacakṣatāvitṛptākṣāḥ
[vyachakshataavitriptaakshaah]
kṛṣṇam adbhuta-darśanam
[krishnam adbhuta-darshanam]
Word-for-word
tasyām
—
in that (Dvārakā)
vibhrājamānāyām
—
resplendent
samṛddhāyām
—
very rich
mahā-ṛddhibhiḥ
—
with great opulences
vyacakṣata
—
they saw
avitṛpta
—
unsatisfied
akṣāḥ
—
whose eyes
kṛṣṇam
—
Lord Kṛṣṇa
adbhuta-darśanam
—
wonderful to behold.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
tasyāṁ vibhrājamānāyāṁ
tasyām
in that (Dvārakā)
vibhrājamānāyām
resplendent
samṛddhāyāṁ maharddhibhiḥ
samṛddhāyām
very rich
mahā-ṛddhibhiḥ
with great opulences
vyacakṣatāvitṛptākṣāḥ
vyacakṣata
they saw
avitṛpta
unsatisfied
akṣāḥ
whose eyes
kṛṣṇam adbhuta-darśanam
kṛṣṇam
Lord Kṛṣṇa
adbhuta-darśanam
wonderful to behold.
In that resplendent city of Dvārakā, rich with all superior opulences, the demigods beheld with unsatiated eyes the wonderful form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura
Gauḍīya
Translation
In that resplendent city of Dvārakā, rich with all superior wealth, the devatās beheld with unsatiated eyes the wonderful form of Kṛṣṇa.
In Dvārakā (tasyām) they saw Kṛṣṇa.
Personal Guidance
Even the demigods could not satisfy their eyes drinking in Kṛṣṇa's wondrous form — His beauty is the one viṣaya that never breeds satiety.
Practical Applications
- Begin the day by looking at Kṛṣṇa's deity or picture for one unhurried minute before reaching for the phone.
- Notice when your eyes feel restless and redirect them to a tulasī leaf, an image of Kṛṣṇa, or the words of a verse.
- Refuse the next piece of visual content that promises stimulation but leaves you emptier, and read one line of Bhāgavatam instead.
Reflection Questions
- Which forms am I currently feeding my eyes that leave me more agitated and less satisfied than before I looked?
- If the demigods themselves remained unsatiated gazing at Kṛṣṇa, what does my boredom in front of Him reveal about the condition of my heart?
For Each Age Group
youth
- Put one image of Kṛṣṇa as your phone lock screen so the first form your eyes meet each day is His, not a notification.
- When you catch yourself in a scroll spiral before an exam or after a hard conversation, close the app and look at that image for sixty seconds before doing anything else.
- In your friend group, name honestly the kinds of looking — feeds, shows, comparisons — that leave you avitṛpta, and pick one to fast from for a week.
householder
- Set up a small altar in a place the whole family passes often, so glancing at Kṛṣṇa becomes a normal part of the household's visual life.
- Before opening the laptop for work, give thirty seconds of attention to the deity or picture, letting that be the first 'meeting' of the workday.
- Eat one meal a day in view of Kṛṣṇa's form rather than in view of a screen, and notice over a month what shifts in the family's mood at the table.
senior
- As eyesight and energy narrow, deliberately spend the freed time in long, unhurried darśana rather than in more news or more worry.
- Tell grandchildren in concrete words what it has felt like, across a lifetime, to look at Kṛṣṇa — pass on the taste, not only the rules.
- Loosen attachment to one cherished visual habit — a particular show, a particular photo album, a particular comparison — and reinvest that gaze in His form.
Common Pitfalls
- Treating darśana as a quick visual transaction rather than a slow, attentive drinking-in with the eyes.
- Imagining Kṛṣṇa's form as a symbol or mental abstraction rather than the actual personal Lord the demigods came to behold.
- Assuming that because we cannot yet feel the wonder the demigods felt, the wonder itself is not real or not for us.
Discussion Prompts
- Share one kind of looking in your life that produces avitṛpta — unsatiated craving — and contrast it with the unsatiated gazing this verse describes.
- Do you think the demigods' inability to take their eyes off Kṛṣṇa is a weakness in them or the proper response to Him, and why does the difference matter for sādhana?
- What concretely changes in a household if its members spend even five minutes a day actually looking at Kṛṣṇa rather than only thinking about Him?
Role Play
Two students sit together. One has just spent an hour scrolling videos and feels hollow; the other proposes they go before the deity and simply look, without prayer-performance or commentary, for five minutes. The first resists — it feels boring, useless, performative. Play out the conversation as the second student, drawing on this verse, invites the first into the demigods' kind of seeing.
Objections & Responses
- This sounds like idol worship — the demigods are staring at a form, and you are asking me to do the same. Surely the Absolute is beyond form.
The verse is precise: the demigods, who are not naive, behold Kṛṣṇa with unsatiated eyes because His form is not a material idol but the supreme Person Himself. An impersonal absolute could never produce avitṛpta — only a real, personal beloved can hold the gaze forever. The personalist conclusion is the demigods' own. - I have looked at the deity many times and felt nothing wonderful at all. The verse describes an experience I do not have, so it cannot really apply to me.
The demigods see clearly because their eyes are purified by service and remembrance; our eyes are coated with rajas and tamas, so the wonder is veiled, not absent. Keep looking, keep hearing, keep chanting — the verse is a description of what these same eyes will eventually see, not a credential check at the door.
My note
Source: vedabase.io