Text 34]
Bhīṣma's Passing Away
485
the skin;  vilasat —enjoying pleasure;  kavace —protecting armor;  astu —let there be;  kṛṣṇaḥ —unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa;  ātmā —mind.
TRANSLATION
On the battlefield [where Śrī Kṛṣṇa attended Arjuna out of friendship], the flowing hair of Lord Kṛṣṇa turned ashen due to the dust raised by the hoofs of the horses. And because of His labor, beads of sweat wetted His face. All these decorations, intensified by the wounds dealt by my sharp arrows, were enjoyed by Him. Let my mind thus go unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
PURPORT
The Lord is the absolute form of eternity, bliss and knowledge. As such, transcendental loving service of the Lord in one of the five principal relations, namely,  śānta ,  dāsya ,  sakhya ,  vātsalya  and  mādhurya , i.e., neutrality, servitorship, fraternity, filial affection and conjugal love, is graciously accepted by the Lord when offered to the Lord in genuine love and affection. Śrī Bhīṣmadeva is a great devotee of the Lord in the relation of servitorship. Thus his throwing of sharp arrows at the transcendental body of the Lord is as good as the worship of another devotee who throws soft roses upon Him.
It appears that Bhīṣmadeva is repenting his actions, which he committed against the person of the Lord. But factually the Lord's body was not at all pained due to His transcendental existence. His body is not matter. Both He Himself and His body are complete spiritual identity. Spirit is never pierced, burnt, dried, moistened, etc. This is vividly explained in the  Bhagavad-gītā . So also it is stated in the  Skanda Purāṇa . It is said there that spirit is always uncontaminated and indestructible. It cannot be distressed, nor can it be dried up. When Lord Viṣṇu in His incarnation appears before us, He seems to be like one of the conditioned souls materially encaged just to bewilder the  asuras , or the nonbelievers, who are always alert to kill the Lord, even from the very beginning of His appearance. Kaṁsa wanted to kill Kṛṣṇa, and Rāvaṇa wanted to kill Rāma, because foolishly they were unaware of the fact that the Lord is never killed, for the spirit is never annihilated.
Therefore Bhīṣmadeva's piercing of the body of Lord Kṛṣṇa is a sort of bewildering problem for the nondevotee atheist, but those who are devotees or those who are liberated souls are not bewildered.