SB 11.7.66 — FolioCorpus

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.7.66

सासकृत्‍स्‍नेहगुणिता दीनचित्ताजमायया । स्वयं चाबध्यत शिचा बद्धान् पश्यन्त्यपस्मृति: ॥ ६६ ॥

sāsakṛt sneha-guṇitā

[saasakrit sneha-gunitaa]

dīna-cittāja-māyayā

[deena-chittaaja-maayayaa]

svayaṁ cābadhyata śicā

[svayam chaabadhyata shichaa]

baddhān paśyanty apasmṛtiḥ

[baddhaan pashyanty apasmritih]

Word-for-word

sā — she asakṛt — constantly sneha — by material affection guṇitā — bound up dīna-cittā — of crippled intelligence aja — of the unborn Supreme Lord māyayā — by the illusory potency svayam — herself ca — also abadhyata — became caught śicā — by the net baddhān — the captured (children) paśyantī — while looking at apasmṛtiḥ — having forgotten herself.

Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)

sāsakṛt sneha-guṇitā

sā

she

asakṛt

constantly

sneha

by material affection

guṇitā

bound up

dīna-cittāja-māyayā

dīna-cittā

of crippled intelligence

aja

of the unborn Supreme Lord

māyayā

by the illusory potency

svayaṁ cābadhyata śicā

svayam

herself

also

abadhyata

became caught

śicā

by the net

baddhān paśyanty apasmṛtiḥ

baddhān

the captured (children)

paśyantī

while looking at

apasmṛtiḥ

having forgotten herself.

The lady pigeon had always allowed herself to be bound by the ropes of intense material affection, and thus her mind was overwhelmed by anguish. Being in the grip of the illusory energy of the Lord, she completely forgot herself, and rushing forward to her helpless children, she was immediately bound in the hunter’s net.

Gauḍīya Ācāryas

Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya

Translation

Bound by the ropes of intense affection by the Lord’s māyā, the foolish female pigeon, forgetting the danger while looking at her captured children, became bound in the hunter’s net. Seeing her children bound up, she became forgetful, and fell into lamentation and became caught in the net.

Personal Guidance

Bound by the ropes of sneha and forgetting herself under māyā, the lady pigeon rushed to her trapped chicks and was caught in the same net.

Practical Applications

Name today the one relationship where your affection has tightened into a rope that pulls you toward unwise action.
Before reacting to a loved one's distress, pause and ask whether you are serving their soul or only soothing your own anguish.
Offer your dependents to Kṛṣṇa each morning, accepting that He is their ultimate maintainer, not you.

Reflection Questions

Whose suffering, real or imagined, has the power to make me completely forget myself, and what does that reveal about where my shelter actually lies?
Where am I confusing material compassion for my family with real compassion for the eternal souls in their bodies?

For Each Age Group

youth

Notice the friend or romantic interest whose distress can derail your studies and sleep, and ask whether your loyalty has quietly slid into apasmṛti.
Refuse to perform rescues on social media that are really about easing your own anxiety rather than helping the other person.
When a peer group's drama pulls you in, pause for sixty seconds of japa before responding, so you act from shelter and not from sneha-panic.

householder

Identify the one child, spouse, or parent for whom you would abandon your sādhana in an instant, and renegotiate that line today rather than in a crisis.
Make at least one financial or parenting decision this week from sva-dharma and śāstra, not from the fear of your loved one's momentary disappointment.
Hold a short family remembrance of Kṛṣṇa before bed so that your home's affection is repeatedly reset into its real shelter.

senior

Look honestly at which adult child or grandchild you are still trying to control through worry, and begin handing that thread back to Kṛṣṇa each morning.
Speak with one younger family member about mortality and the soul, so your legacy of affection carries knowledge and not only sentiment.
Loosen one practical rope this month — a property concern, an unfinished argument, a financial entanglement — as a concrete act of vairāgya before the final net tightens.

Common Pitfalls

Reading the verse as a warning against love itself, rather than against affection unhinged from knowledge of the soul.
Using detachment as a pretext for cold neglect of dependents one is genuinely obliged to serve.
Assuming oneself immune because one's attachments feel noble — parental, marital, devotional — when sneha-guṇitā binds the noblest first.

Discussion Prompts

Share one situation where rushing in to rescue someone you love ended up trapping you both — what would acting from sva-dharma instead have looked like?
Debate: is it possible to fully discharge householder duties without becoming sneha-guṇitā, or is some bondage simply the cost of family life?
Where in your life do you see the difference between serving a loved one's body and serving their soul, and which one usually wins when both compete?

Role Play

One student plays a parent whose adult child is making a self-destructive career choice; the other plays a Gauḍīya friend. The parent insists, "I have to fix this or I cannot sleep." The friend must help them distinguish the pigeon's panic from a response grounded in shelter in Kṛṣṇa, without dismissing the parent's love.

Objections & Responses

Calling a mother's love a "rope" sounds cruel and life-denying — surely deep affection for one's children is the highest human virtue.
Gauḍīya teaching does not condemn affection; it diagnoses affection that has forgotten the soul. The lady pigeon's love was real, but unaccompanied by knowledge it became apasmṛti — self-forgetfulness — and delivered her into the very net she feared. Affection rooted in Kṛṣṇa serves the beloved eternally; affection rooted only in the body binds both parties to māyā.
This is just fatalism dressed up as scripture — "don't try to save your family, it's all māyā."
The verse does not forbid action; it exposes action driven by apasmṛti. The householder is still obliged to protect and provide. The instruction is to act with remembrance — knowing oneself and one's dependents as eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa — so that effort flows from shelter rather than panic, and one is not pulled headlong into the hunter's net of further entanglement.

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Source: vedabase.io