Devanagari
परानुषक्तं तपनीयोपकल्पं
महागदं काञ्चनचित्रदंशम् ।
मर्माण्यभीक्ष्णं प्रतुदन्तं दुरुक्तै:
प्रचण्डमन्यु: प्रहसंस्तं बभाषे ॥ ९ ॥
Verse text
parānuṣaktaṁ tapanīyopakalpaṁ
mahā-gadaṁ kāṣcana-citra-daṁśam
marmāṇy abhīkṣṇaṁ pratudantaṁ duruktaiḥ
pracaṇḍa-manyuḥ prahasaṁs taṁ babhāṣe
Synonyms
parā
—
from behind
;
anuṣaktam
—
who followed very closely
;
tapanīya
—
upakalpam — who had a considerable amount of gold ornaments
;
mahā
—
gadam — with a great mace
;
kāṣcana
—
golden
;
citra
—
beautiful
;
daṁśam
—
armor
;
marmāṇi
—
the core of the heart
;
abhīkṣṇam
—
constantly
;
pratudantam
—
piercing
;
duruktaiḥ
—
by abusive words
;
pracaṇḍa
—
terrible
;
manyuḥ
—
anger
;
prahasan
—
laughing
;
tam
—
to him
;
babhāṣe
—
He said .
Translation
The demon, who had a wealth of ornaments, bangles and beautiful golden armor on his body, chased the Lord from behind with a great mace. The Lord tolerated his piercing ill words, but in order to reply to him, He expressed His terrible anger.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Lord replied to Hiraṇyākṣa, ornamented with gold, wearing golden armor, carrying a huge club, who was following him. In great anger, he assailed the demon to the heart with sharp words and laughed.
The Lord spoke to the demon ornamented with gold, wearing gold armor, who following him, and assailed him with abusive words, not with praise. He was angry because of the hearing the abusive words of the demon, and laughed on hearing the other meaning of the words, which were praise. One would expect a fitting answer to the words of Hiraṇyākṣa. Thus the reply of the Lord has two meanings as well.
Purport
The Lord could have chastised the demon immediately while the demon was deriding the Lord with ill words, but the Lord tolerated him to please the demigods and to show that they should not be afraid of demons while discharging their duties. Therefore His toleration was displayed mainly to drive away the fears of the demigods, who should know that the Lord is always present to protect them. The demon’s derision of the Lord was just like the barking of dogs; the Lord did not care about it, since He was doing His own work in delivering the earth from the midst of the water. Materialistic demons always possess large amounts of gold in various shapes, and they think that a large amount of gold, physical strength and popularity can save them from the wrath of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.