Verse 1.3.24

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 1.3.24:

भवांश् च वैष्णव-द्रोहि-गार्ग्यादिभ्यः सुदुश्चरैः ।
तपोभिर् भजमानेभ्यो नाव्यलीकं वरं ददे ॥ २४ ॥

bhavāṃś ca vaiṣṇava-drohi-gārgyādibhyaḥ suduścaraiḥ |
tapobhir bhajamānebhyo nāvyalīkaṃ varaṃ dade || 24 ||

The ancestry of Gārga, who was inimical to the Vaiṣṇavas, worshipped you by severe austerities, yet you never bestowed upon them any boon free of any loophole.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

(By Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī himself including a deep purport of that commentary)

In the vision of Śrī Kṛṣṇa there is never any offense, that is, Śrī Kṛṣṇa never saw any offense of Śri Śiva’s. In this way, while showing the symptom of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, Śrī Nārada is saying that there is no scope for his committing an offense to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Now this is explained by the two verses beginning with bhavāṃś ca.

The ancestry of Gārga (gārgyādibhyaḥ), who committed offenses to the Yādavas and Pāṇḍavas, means the vaiṣṇava-drohī or archenemies of the Vaiṣṇavas such as Jayadratha and Sudakṣiṇā. Despite their worship by rigorous austerities, Śiva did not bestow any boon upon them without a loophole. Rather, he bestowed boons with loopholes. Thus he gave a boon to the ancestry of Gārga that would create fear in the Yadu dynasty and restrain them, but he did not bestow on them a boon that would vanquish the Yadu dynasty. He also gave a boon to Jayadratha that he could be victorious over all the Pāṇḍavas, except Arjuna, only once. And to Sudakṣiṇā, he gave the boon of a desirable way to end a fire sacrifice with an incantation by an unqualified brāhmaṇa. For more elaborate details to this analogy, refer to the episodes depicted in Śrī Hari-vaṃśa, Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.