Devanagari
त्रिभुवनकमनं तमालवर्णं
रविकरगौरवराम्बरं दधाने ।
वपुरलककुलावृताननाब्जं
विजयसखे रतिरस्तु मेऽनवद्या ॥ ३३ ॥
Verse text
tri-bhuvana-kamanaṁ tamāla-varṇaṁ
ravi-kara-gaura-vara-ambaraṁ dadhāne
vapur alaka-kulāvṛtānanābjaṁ
vijaya-sakhe ratir astu me ’navadyā
Synonyms
tri
—
bhuvana — three statuses of planetary systems
;
kamanam
—
the most desirable
;
tamāla
—
varṇam — bluish like the tamāla tree
;
ravi
—
kara — sun rays
;
gaura
—
golden color
;
varāmbaram
—
glittering dress
;
dadhāne
—
one who wears
;
vapuḥ
—
body
;
alaka
—
kula — āvṛta — covered with paintings of sandalwood pulp
;
anana
—
abjam — face like a lotus
;
vijaya
—
sakhe — unto the friend of Arjuna
;
ratiḥ astu
—
may attraction be reposed upon Him
;
me
—
my
;
anavadyā
—
without desire for fruitive results .
Translation
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the intimate friend of Arjuna. He has appeared on this earth in His transcendental body, which resembles the bluish color of the tamāla tree. His body attracts everyone in the three planetary systems [upper, middle and lower]. May His glittering yellow dress and His lotus face, covered with paintings of sandalwood pulp, be the object of my attraction, and may I not desire fruitive results.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Let me have pure prema for Kṛṣṇa, the friend of Arjuna, who possesses a body desired by all the inhabitants of the three worlds, which is clothed with intense yellow garments shining in the sun, whose complexion is dark like the tamāla tree, and whose lotus face is surrounded by locks of hair.
Purport
When Śrī Kṛṣṇa by His own internal pleasure appears on earth, He does so by the agency of His internal potency. The attractive features of His transcendental body are desired in all the three worlds, namely the upper, middle and lower planetary systems. Nowhere in the universe are there such beautiful bodily features as those of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore His transcendental body has nothing to do with anything materially created. Arjuna is described here as the conqueror, and Kṛṣṇa is described as his intimate friend. Bhīṣmadeva, on his bed of arrows after the Battle of Kurukṣetra, is remembering the particular dress of Lord Kṛṣṇa which He put on as the driver of Arjuna’s chariot. While fighting was going on between Arjuna and Bhīṣma, Bhīṣma’s attraction was drawn by the glittering dress of Kṛṣṇa, and indirectly he admired his so-called enemy Arjuna for possessing the Lord as his friend. Arjuna was always a conqueror because the Lord was his friend. Bhīṣmadeva takes this opportunity to address the Lord as
vijaya-sakhe
(friend of Arjuna) because the Lord is pleased when He is addressed conjointly with His devotees, who are related with Him in different transcendental humors. While Kṛṣṇa was the charioteer of Arjuna, sun rays glittered on the dress of the Lord, and the beautiful hue created by the reflection of such rays was never forgotten by Bhīṣmadeva. As a great fighter he was relishing the relation of Kṛṣṇa in the chivalrous humor. Transcendental relation with the Lord in any one of the different
rasas
(humors) is relishable by the respective devotees in the highest ecstasy. Less intelligent mundaners who want to make a show of being transcendentally related with the Lord artificially jump at once to the relation of conjugal love, imitating the damsels of Vrajadhāma. Such a cheap relation with the Lord exhibits only the base mentality of the mundaner because one who has relished conjugal humor with the Lord cannot be attached to worldly conjugal
rasa,
which is condemned even by mundane ethics. The eternal relation of a particular soul with the Lord is evolved. A genuine relation of the living being with the Supreme Lord can take any form out of the five principal
rasas,
and it does not make any difference in transcendental degree to the genuine devotee. Bhīṣmadeva is a concrete example of this, and it should be carefully observed how the great general is transcendentally related with the Lord.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
“What is the nature of your thoughts?”
Let me have pure prema (ratiḥ) without desire for results, for the friend of Arjuna (vijaya-sakhe), who accepts a body which is desired by all persons in the upper, middle and lower planets, which is clothed in garments golden in the sun’s rays. I saw that intense yellow from his upper and lower cloth sparkling in the sun’s rays as he stood on the chariot of Arjuna. My thoughts take the form of a prayer to have this prema for the most beautiful Kṛṣṇa as the charioteer of Arjuna. In the prayers of following verses also there is no use of the second person, though Kṛṣṇa was present before him This indicates his attraction for the sweetness of the Lord absorbed in vīra-rasa during the battle, and his absorption in relishing it.