Study a Verse

• The word daṇḍa means “rod,” and vat means “like.”
• To offer obeisances to the spiritual master, one must fall flat exactly as a rod falls on the ground.
• This is the meaning of the word daṇḍavat.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Intellectual wonder humbled. Many explanations converge on the attractiveness of devotion; a hunter’s heart is transformed.

The mood of Madhya 24 as a whole, an editorial reading, not the text itself. See the emotional atlas

Madhya 24: The Sixty-One Explanations of the Ātmārāma Verse

From Śrīla Prabhupāda's chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

In this regard, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu narrated a story about how the great sage Nārada converted a hunter into a great Vaiṣṇava, and how this was appreciated by Nārada’s friend Parvata Muni. Sanātana Gosvāmī then offered a prayer to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained the glory of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.