Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.45.22
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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saḥ pitā sā ca jananī
—
He is father, she is mother
The definition is offered as a śāstric axiom. Kṛṣṇa names the foster-parent as the real parent — a doctrinal statement Gauḍīyas extend to spiritual filiation under guru and Bhagavān.
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puṣṇītām
—
who nourish
Optative dual of √puṣ — they who would/do nourish. The same root as poṣaṇa (verse 5). Definition by act: parent = nourisher.
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sva - putra - vat
—
as if their own son
Vat = like. The definition turns on the bhāva, not the biology — 'as if their own.' Gauḍīyas note: bhakti redefines kinship by feeling, not by birth (cf. Rūpa's manaḥ-śikṣā: become as a child to Yaśodā by bhāva).
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utsṛṣṭān
—
abandoned
Ut + √sṛj — sent forth, given over. Same root as utsarga (relinquishment). The night Vasudeva carried Kṛṣṇa across the Yamunā was an utsarga in the technical sense.
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poṣa - rakṣaṇe
—
in maintenance and protection
Compound: poṣa (nourishment) + rakṣaṇa (protection). The two parental duties named together. Bhagavān defines parenthood by duty performed, not by genealogy claimed.
Nanda may say, "O Balabhadra, actually you are the legitimate son of my friend Vasudeva. How can he, now free from danger, give up his own son obtaining him after many years? Therefore you must stay in your father’s house. The two of us will somehow carry on living, blocking up our hearts torn up by separation from you with the stone of discrimination. But I could not tolerate to see the suffering of my friend Vasudeva. We were only your guardians." "Those who care for a child as their own son, are the actual mother and father of the child. The seminal father is not the real father, and she who bears the child in her womb is not the real mother. If father and mother abandon a child and the child dies, can they be called the mother and father? Those who raise the child are more worthy of respect by the discerning child. Therefore I will not be able to stay here. Even if Brahma himself comes and speaks to me, he will not be able to change my mind. O father, Krsna will go with you and happily play in Vraja, but I will stay in Mathura burning in the fire of separation. That cannot be. Therefore I make this oath. If Krsna leaves me and goes off the Vraja, then my life will be finished." This is the intention of Balarama’s words in this verse."
Balarāma should also not be considered otherwise. Kṛṣṇa speaks. The word ca means “even.” Thus Balarāma should also be considered only your child. But I took birth, and was nourished and cared for by you and Yaśodā, Or they are the mother and father who raise the child and not those who have given up the child. Therefore if I were to take birth from someone else this would be so, what to speak of being born from you, being nourished and cared for by you. You are my parents and no one else.
The real father and mother are they who care for new born babies abandoned by their relatives because of inability. They are not at fault. The pitiful condition of the babies is suggested. Or even they are the father and mother--those who raise them. What to speak of you who have given birth to us. Vasudeva and Devakī only in previous life raised us as sons.
- Where do you under-honor functional parenthood that wasn't biological?
- Whom in your life has done parent-work for someone you know who deserves recognition?
Kṛṣṇa defines the real parent in foster-language — those who nourish a child abandoned by family unable to protect — speaking, of course, of Yaśodā and Nanda themselves. He gives them, retrospectively, the title their action had already earned them.
In SB 10.3, the night Kṛṣṇa was born, Vasudeva carried Him across the swollen Yamunā and exchanged Him for Yaśodā's newborn daughter — bandhubhir utsṛṣṭān in the exact, literal sense, a relative-given child. Verse 22 of chapter 45 quietly cites that night.
Gauḍīya ācāryas (Sanātana, Jīva) elaborate the rasa-theology: Yaśodā's vātsalya, having no biological claim, is therefore the purest form — niravadhika prīti, love without any condition. Kṛṣṇa here gives Yaśodā and Nanda the śāstric license they never asked for.
My note
Source: vedabase.io