SB 11.7.67 — FolioCorpus

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.7.67

कपोत: स्वात्मजान् बद्धानात्मनोऽप्यधिकान् प्रियान् । भार्यां चात्मसमां दीनो विललापातिदु:खित: ॥ ६७ ॥

kapotaḥ svātmajān baddhān

[kapotah svaatmajaan baddhaan]

ātmano ’py adhikān priyān

[aatmano ’py adhikaan priyaan]

bhāryāṁ cātma-samāṁ dīno

[bhaaryaam chaatma-samaam deeno]

vilalāpāti-duḥkhitaḥ

[vilalaapaati-duhkhitah]

Word-for-word

kapotaḥ — the male pigeon sva-ātma-jān — his own children baddhān — bound up ātmanaḥ — than himself api — even adhikān — more priyān — dear bhāryām — his wife ca — and ātma-samām — equal to himself dīnaḥ — the unfortunate fellow vilalāpa — lamented ati-duḥkhitaḥ — most unhappy.

Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)

kapotaḥ svātmajān baddhān

kapotaḥ

the male pigeon

sva-ātma-jān

his own children

baddhān

bound up

ātmano ’py adhikān priyān

ātmanaḥ

than himself

bhāryāṁ cātma-samāṁ dīno

vilalāpāti-duḥkhitaḥ

api

even

adhikān

priyān

dear

bhāryām

his wife

and

ātma-samām

equal to himself

dīnaḥ

the unfortunate fellow

vilalāpa

lamented

ati-duḥkhitaḥ

most unhappy.

Seeing his own children, who were more dear to him than life itself, fatally bound in the hunter’s net along with his dearmost wife, whom he considered equal in every way to himself, the poor male pigeon began to lament wretchedly.

Gauḍīya Ācāryas

Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya

Translation

Seeing his own children, who were dearer to him than life itself, fatally bound in the hunter’s net along with his dear wife, whom he considered equal to himself, the poor male pigeon began to wail and lament in great grief. The word ca indicates “he lamented.”

Personal Guidance

When those we hold dearer than ourselves are caught in māyā's net, raw lamentation alone cannot rescue them — only Kṛṣṇa-conscious shelter can.

Practical Applications

Name the one person you love more than your own life, and today pray specifically for their spiritual shelter, not just their material safety.
Notice when your love for family expresses itself only as worry and lamentation, and convert that energy into one act of devotional service on their behalf.
Refuse to measure your worth by how secure you can keep your dependents — measure it by whether you are pointing them toward Kṛṣṇa.

Reflection Questions

Which family attachment have I placed above my own soul's welfare, and what does the pigeon's helpless lament reveal about where that road ends?
When my loved ones are caught in suffering I cannot fix, do I collapse into grief like the pigeon, or do I take shelter and serve — and what would the second response actually look like this week?

For Each Age Group

youth

Notice when a friendship or romance has quietly become the thing you would sacrifice your sādhana for, and bring that honestly to a senior devotee this week.
When a friend is caught in something self-destructive — addiction, a toxic relationship, an exam-driven breakdown — refuse to only commiserate; offer one concrete spiritual gesture, even a japa round on their behalf.
Resist the social-media reflex of public lamentation over loved ones' problems, and instead spend that same time in private prayer for them.

householder

Sit with your spouse this week and name out loud where your shared anxieties about the children have become a substitute for active spiritual leadership in the home.
Before the next big family decision — school, job move, money — pause and ask whether you are protecting your dependents' bodies at the cost of their souls.
Build one weekly family practice (kīrtana, reading, prasāda) so that if the 'hunter's net' ever falls on your household, your loved ones already have a shelter you have built together.

senior

Look honestly at which adult child or grandchild you still try to micromanage from lamentation rather than from blessing, and consciously release one such grip this month.
Use the nearness of your own departure to convert worry for descendants into specific, named prayer — a list you actually pray through.
Mentor one younger householder out of the pigeon's trap by sharing, without lecturing, the attachments you yourself are now learning to loosen.

Common Pitfalls

Reading this verse as a warning against love itself, when it is really a warning against love divorced from Kṛṣṇa-consciousness.
Using the pigeon's tragedy to justify cold detachment from one's family duties rather than deepening responsibility on a spiritual platform.
Assuming the danger is only 'out there' in the hunter's net, while ignoring how one's own clinging is itself the snare.

Discussion Prompts

Share a moment when love for a family member led you to a decision you would not have made for yourself — was it sva-dharma or the pigeon's bewilderment?
Where is the line between healthy family affection and the kind of bondage this verse warns about, and how can two sincere devotees disagree about where that line falls?
If lamentation cannot free our loved ones, what concretely can — and why do we still default to lamentation?

Role Play

A devotee learns that an adult child has made a major life choice that the parent considers spiritually disastrous — perhaps abandoning sādhana, marrying outside the tradition, or pursuing a destructive career. One student plays the parent, frozen in the pigeon's lament, calling a senior devotee; another plays the senior devotee who must neither dismiss the grief nor feed the helpless attachment, but redirect toward prayer, service, and trust in Kṛṣṇa.

Objections & Responses

This verse seems to pathologize ordinary parental love. Are you really saying a father should not grieve when his children are in mortal danger?
Grief is not the disease — the diagnosis is that the pigeon had no shelter beyond his family, so when the net closed, he had nowhere to stand. A devotee father grieves too, but his grief is held inside a larger refuge in Kṛṣṇa, which is why he can still act, pray, and serve rather than collapse.
I'm a modern reader — I see a tender family man hit by tragedy and the text seems to blame him. That feels cruel.
The text is not blaming him; it is showing us, with great compassion, the structural fragility of any love that is built only on the body and on this lifetime. Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells this story precisely so we can love our families more truly — by anchoring that love in the eternal soul and in Kṛṣṇa, the only one who can actually protect them.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io