Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.48.33
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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pitari uparate
—
when (their) father had passed away
Locative absolute: pitari (in the father) + uparate (having ceased, past participle of upa + √ram). Sanskrit's compact way of expressing 'when the father died.' The phrase sets the temporal frame for the Pāṇḍavas' vulnerability.
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su-duḥkhitāḥ
—
very distressed
Compound: su (very) + duḥkhita (afflicted, past participle of duḥkhayati). The boys' grief is named. Kṛṣṇa is not dispassionate about His cousins' suffering — He cares enough to deputize Akrūra.
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śuśruma
—
we have heard
Reduplicated perfect of √śru — to hear. First-person plural. Even Bhagavān incarnate participates in the human relay of news; He says 'we have heard' rather than 'I already know.' The verb is part of the līlā of being human.
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sva-puram
—
to his own capital city
Compound: sva (own) + pura (city). Hastināpura, the Kuru capital, which Dhṛtarāṣṭra rules as regent. The widow Kuntī and her sons are brought there as wards — a position of dependence that the chapter is about to call precarious.
"I have heard that they are living with the king Dhrtarastra (rajna)."
The reason for the question and the goal is now stated in three verses. The word uparate (passed way) is used in order to avoid vulgar language to a respectable person. The Pāṇḍavas were children (bālāḥ) when they were brought to Hastināpura. Kṛṣṇa uses the word “king” even though he was blind, because he now ruled the kingdom by chance. Using the word śuśruma (we have heard) indicates the sweetness of his human pastimes (since as the Lord he actually knows everything.) The word nūnam in the next verse also suggests this.
What should be found out as well as the reason is given in three verses. Uparate is a polite way of saying that the father died, and that they lamented this. When the younger brother died, Dhṛtaraṣṭra came. The word king suggests that Dhratrāṣṭṛa was proud of his position and mad. Kṛṣṇa uses the word śuśruma is used to increase the affection for the Pāṇḍavas, and to hide his own powers. The word nūnam in the next verse also suggests this.
- Where do you act before confirming what you've heard?
- How could patient checking strengthen the actions you'll later take?
Five young brothers, their father suddenly dead, brought to the palace of their blind uncle by a kindly hand — and from outside the kingdom, far away in Mathurā, an older cousin remembers them by name and asks after them. Kṛṣṇa's family-care extends across distance the way Yaśodā's rope cannot.
Pāṇḍu, struck by the sage Kindama's curse, died in the forest where he had retired with Kuntī and Mādrī (Mahābhārata, Ādi-parva). Mādrī committed satī; Kuntī returned to Hastināpura with the five Pāṇḍavas — Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva — and from that point on the boys were raised in their uncle Dhṛtarāṣṭra's court alongside the Kauravas.
Kṛṣṇa, in Mathurā, has heard the news. The fact that He mentions it to Akrūra at this exact moment is the Bhāgavatam's quiet announcement: Bhagavān is already moving pieces on the board that will, decades later, become Kurukṣetra.
My note
Source: vedabase.io