Text 10.76

(3) [A generality is understood from a particular case:]

शङ्के नीताः सपदि दशम-स्तन्ध-पद्यावलीनां
  वर्णान् कर्णाध्वनि पथिकताम् आनुपूर्व्याद् भवन्तः |
हंहो डिम्भाः परम-शुभदान् हन्त धर्मार्थ-कामान्
  यद् गर्हन्तः सुख-मयम् अमी मोक्षम् अप्य् आक्षिपन्ति ||

śaṅke nītāḥ sapadi daśama-standha-padyāvalīnāṃ
  varṇān^[1] karṇādhvani pathikatām ānupūrvyād bhavantaḥ^[2] |
haṃho ḍimbhāḥ parama-śubhadān hanta dharmārtha-kāmān
  yad garhantaḥ sukha-mayam amī mokṣam apy ākṣipanti ||

śaṅke—I suspect; nītāḥ—brought; sapadi—at once; daśama-skandha—of the tenth canto [of Bhāgavata Purāṇa]; padya—of the verses; āvalīnām—of the multitudes; varṇāḥ—the phonemes; karṇa—of the ears; adhvani—on the path; pathikatām—to the state of being travelers; ānupurvyāt—in sequence; bhavantaḥ—all of you venerable persons; haṃho—hum hum; dimbhāḥ—O children (O fools); parama-śubha—the topmost auspiciousness; dān—which give; hanta—alas; dharma—moral codes; artha—economic development; kāmān—and the quest for the fulfilment of material desires; yat—because; garhantaḥ—while criticizing; sukha-mayam—consisting of bliss; amī—those [phonemes]; mokṣam—liberation; api—even; ākṣipanti—are deriding.

I suppose that all of you respectable persons turned the syllables of the verses of the tenth canto of Bhāgavatam into a file of travelers on the path of yours ears because those syllables, O fools, rebuke ordinary moral codes, the quest for wealth, and the pursuit of material happiness, which provide the topmost auspiciousness, and, alas, even deride the liberation that consists of bliss! (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.240)

atra caturvarga-tiraskāritayā skandha-sāmānye prastute daśamasya tad-viśeṣasyoktiḥ.

In this verse, the contextual topic, the generality, is the cantos of Bhāgavatam, and that is understood from the mention of the tenth canto, a particular one of them, by means of the rebuke of the four goals of life.

Commentary:

According to Jīva Gosvāmī,^[3] in this verse Rūpa Gosvāmī elaborates upon the sixty-first aspect of devotional service, mentioned earlier (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.91): The relishment of Bhāgavatam in the company of rasika devotees.

Jīva Gosvāmī says the verse features aprastuta-praśaṃsā and vyāja-stuti, whereas Viśvanātha Cakravatī says there is vyāja-stuti. The vocative ḍimbhāḥ (O fools) constitutes the vyāja-stuti ornament because the individuals are praised under the pretext of criticism: The individuals are fools by following the Bhāgavatam, which disregards the first three goals of life as well as the liberation which only consists of transcendental bliss, but in fact the individuals are not fools by seeking to achieve prema-bhakti by reading Bhāgavatam.

The following is Mammaṭa’s example:

etat tasya mukhāt kiyat kamalinī-patre kaṇaṃ vāriṇo
  yan muktā-maṇir ity amaṃsta sa jaḍaḥ śṛṇv anyad asmād api |
aṅguly-agra-laghu-kriyā-pravilayiny ādīyamāne śanaiḥ
  kutroḍḍīya gato mamety anudinaṃ nidrāti nāntaḥ-śucā ||

“Is anything special about hearing from him that a certain blockhead thought the water drops on lotus petals were pearls? And one more thing. Listen to this: When he proceeded to pick up the drops, they vanished due to the light pressure of his fingertips, and since then that dolt, intensely aggrieved at the thought “Where did my pearls go?”, is sleepless day and night.” (Bhallaṭa-śataka)

Mammaṭa explains:

atrāsthāne jaḍānāṃ mamatva-sambhāvanā bhavatīti sāmānye prastute viśeṣaḥ kathitaḥ,

“Here a particular instance is stated when the actual subject matter is this generality: “Fools feel possessiveness for the wrong things” (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 441 vṛtti).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

varṇāḥ (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu).

[2]:

bhavadbhiḥ (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu).

[3]:

sva-vākya-mādhurī-dvārā pūrvam evārtha-pañcakam anubhāvayann āha, smerām ity ādi pañcabhiḥ (Durgama-saṅgamanī 1.2.239).