Devanagari
स वै भगवता तेन युयुधे स्वामिनात्मन: ।
पुरुषं प्राकृतं मत्वा कुपितो नानुभाववित् ॥ २२ ॥
Verse text
sa vai bhagavatā tena
yuyudhe svāmīnātmanaḥ
puruṣam prākṛtaṁ matvā
kupito nānubhāva-vit
Synonyms
saḥ
—
he
;
vai
—
indeed
;
bhagavatā
—
with the Lord
;
tena
—
with Him
;
yuyudhe
—
fought
;
svāmīnā
—
master
;
ātmanaḥ
—
his own
;
puruṣam
—
a person
;
prākṛtam
—
mundane
;
matvā
—
thinking Him
;
kupitaḥ
—
angry
;
na
—
not
;
anubhāva
—
of His position
;
vit
—
aware .
Translation
Unaware of His true position and thinking Him an ordinary man, Jāmbavān angrily began fighting with the Supreme Lord, his master.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Unaware of His true position and thinking Him an ordinary man, Jāmbavān angrily began fighting with the Supreme Lord, his master.
KB 10.56.22
Jāmbavān was actually a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but because he was angry he could not recognize his master and thought Him to be an ordinary man. This brings to mind the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā in which the Lord advises Arjuna to get free from anger, greed and lust in order to rise to the spiritual platform. Lust, anger and greed run parallel in the heart and check one’s progress on the spiritual path.
Not recognizing his master, Jāmbavān challenged Him to fight.
Purport
The words
puruṣaṁ prākṛtaṁ matvā,
“thinking Him a mundane person,” are very significant. So-called Vedic scholars, including most Western ones, enjoy translating the word
puruṣam
as “man” even when the word refers to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and thus their unauthorized translations of Vedic literature are tainted by their materialistic conceptions of the Godhead. However, here it is clearly stated that it was because Jāmbavān misunderstood the Lord’s position that he considered Him
prākṛta-puruṣa,
“a mundane person.” In other words, the Lord is actually
puruṣottama,
“the ultimate transcendental person.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In fighting with the weak demons like Canura, Kamsa, and Jarasandha, Krsna did not get much satisfaction. In order to get full satisfaction in fighting, the lord therefore desired to fight with his own servant who had similar strength, his devotee Jambavan. As well, since his devotee Jambavan had not been fully satisfied in vira rasa by fighting with the troops of Ravana, Krsna wanted to satisfy him now. In order to fulfill both his and Jambavan's desires, he thus covered his sweet aspect from Jambavan by his lila sakti, through the power of his yoga maya. Thus Jambavan though of him as an ordinary human.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
He fought with the Lord, whose aṁśa was Rāma. Jāmbavān considered Brahman in human form (puruṣam) to be an ordinary material person (prākrṭam) since he did not bother to consider his powers (na anubhava-vit). He became angry because of loss of discriminating powers.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
He fought with Kṛṣṇa, endowed with all powers (bhagavatā), and his own master. During Rāma’s
Appearance, he served Rāma because he was by nature a devotee. He took him as an ordinary human because he was angry, because he did not know Kṛṣṇa’s power (na anubhāva-vit). Or fought because he lost his intelligence because of anger.