tac chrutvÄ te 'ti-santrastÄ
vimucya sahasodaram
sÄmbasya dadṛśus tasmin
muá¹£alaá¹ khalv ayasmayam

 tat - that; Å›rutvÄ - having heard; te - they; ati-santrastÄḥ - extremely afraid; vimucya - uncovering; sahasÄ - hastily; udaram - the belly; sÄmbasya - of SÄmba; dadṛśuḥ - they saw; tasmin - within it; muá¹£alam - a club; khalu - indeed; ayaḥ-mayam - made of iron.


Text

Upon hearing the curse of the sages, the terrified boys quickly uncovered the belly of SÄmba, and indeed they observed that therein was an iron club.

Purport

Upon hearing the words of the Vaiṣṇavas, headed by NÄrada, the Yadu boys lifted the garment covering SÄmba’s abdomen and saw the fruit of the offense they had committed against Vaiṣṇavas by their deceit: an actual club was there to destroy their dynasty. This example shows that in a polluted society the club of duplicity can never bring the peace found in the society of devotees. Rather, such duplicity smashes all the nondevotional activities and whimsical doctrines of the pseudodevotees. The Yadu boys were wary about jeopardizing their advanced position and indeed had been thinking that as long as they kept their trickery concealed, others would never be able to detect such sophisticated cheating. Nonetheless, they were unable to protect their family from the reaction of their grievous offense against the devotees of the Lord.