FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.57.7

सत्यभामा च पितरं हतं वीक्ष्य शुचार्पिता । व्यलपत्तात तातेति हा हतास्मीति मुह्यती ॥ ७ ॥
satyabhāmā ca pitaraṁ
[satyabhaamaa cha pitaram]
hataṁ vīkṣya śucārpitā
[hatam veekshya shuchaarpitaa]
vyalapat tāta tāteti
[vyalapat taata taateti]
hā hatāsmīti muhyatī
[haa hataasmeeti muhyatee]
satyabhāmā — Queen Satyabhāmā ca — and pitaram — her father hatam — killed vīkṣya — seeing śucā - arpitā — cast into sorrow vyalapat — lamented tata tāta — O father, O father iti — thus hā — alas hatā — killed asmi — I am iti — thus muhyatī — fainting .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
satyabhāmā ca pitaraṁ
satyabhāmā
Queen Satyabhāmā
ca
and
pitaram
her father
hataṁ vīkṣya śucārpitā
hatam
killed
vīkṣya
seeing
śucā - arpitā
cast into sorrow
vyalapat tāta tāteti
vyalapat
lamented
tata tāta
O father, O father
hā hatāsmīti muhyatī
iti
thus
hā
alas
hatā
killed
asmi
I am
iti
thus
muhyatī
fainting .
  • satyabhāmā — Queen Satyabhāmā
    One of Kṛṣṇa's aṣṭa-mahiṣīs in Dvārakā. Gauḍīyas read her as an expansion of Bhū-devī and a partial reflection of Rādhā's pride-bhāva — she is Kṛṣṇa's fiery wife, and her grief here is the door through which Kṛṣṇa enters this whole episode.
  • śucā - arpitā — cast into sorrow
    Compound: śuc (grief) + arpita (placed into). Sorrow is described as a place she has been placed — the Bhāgavata's grammar of bhāva: emotion as a region the devotee enters, not a state that arises from inside her.
  • tata tāta — father, O father
    The vocative doubled — the sound of a child collapsing into the relationship word itself. Gauḍīyas treat this doubling as a feature of bhāva-language across the Bhāgavatam: Yaśodā cries 'lāla, lāla'; Devakī, 'putra, putra'; Satyabhāmā, 'tāta, tāta'.
  • muhyatī — fainting
    Present participle of √muh. The same root from which moha (delusion) is built — but here it is a daughter's grief-faint, not asuric delusion. Bhāgavata distinguishes: moha that closes one to Kṛṣṇa is anartha; the moha of love that drives one toward Kṛṣṇa is bhāva.
When Satyabhāmā saw her dead father, she was plunged into grief. Lamenting “My father, my father! Oh, I am killed!” she fell unconscious.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, Satyabhāmā’s anguished feelings and words at the death of her father were prompted by Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastime potency ( līlā-śakti ), to prepare for the Lord’s violent reaction against Śatadhanvā.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
When Satyabhāmā saw her dead father, she was plunged into grief. Lamenting "My father, my father! Oh, I am killed!" she fell unconscious.
Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

Hearing about the death, Satyabhāmā went there and saw his dead body. She was inundated (arpitāḥ) with grief or offered herself to grief. Or she was thrown (arpitāḥ) by fate into lamentation. She did not consider the faults of her father out of affection (muhyatī). Or she finally fainted. The reason is the līlā-śakti which creates variety of rasas in the pastimes.

Related values
Shraddha (Faith / Reverence)Bhakti (Devotion)Kshama (Forgiveness / Patience)Samata (Equanimity / Even-mindedness)Nyaya (Justice / Righteous Judgment)Apaishunam (Non-slander)Vairagya (Detachment / Dispassion)Karuna (Kindness / Compassion)
Related verses
Satyabhāmā sees her dead father, lamenting 'My father, my father! I am killed!' she falls unconscious. The body collapses at the sight of a loved one's murder; some news cannot be absorbed standing up.
Reflection Questions
  • What news has caused your body to collapse, and have you honored the collapse?
  • How do you make room for grief that fells the body?

Satyabhāmā cries 'tāta, tāta!' over her father's body the way a daughter throughout time has cried — and Bhagavān is the husband to whom that cry must be brought. Gauḍīyas read her fainting not as weakness but as the rasa of grief that becomes the seed of consolation only when carried to Kṛṣṇa.

📝 My note

← Read full Chapter 57