FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.48.33

పితర్యుపరతే బాలా: సహ మాత్రా సుదు:ఖితా: । ఆనీతా: స్వపురం రాజ్ఞా వసన్త ఇతి శుశ్రుమ ॥ ౩౩ ॥
pitary uparate bālāḥ
[pitary uparate baalaah]
saha mātrā su-duḥkhitāḥ
[saha maatraa su-duhkhitaah]
ānītāḥ sva-puraṁ rājñā
[aaneetaah sva-puram raajnaa]
vasanta iti śuśruma
[vasanta iti shushruma]
pitari — their father uparate — when he passed away bālāḥ — young boys saha — together with mātrā — their mother su — very duḥkhitāḥ — distressed ānītāḥ — brought sva — to his own puram — capital city rājñā — by the King vasante — they are residing iti — thus śuśruma — We have heard .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
pitary uparate bālāḥ
pitari
their father
uparate
when he passed away
bālāḥ
young boys
saha mātrā su-duḥkhitāḥ
saha
together with
mātrā
their mother
su
very
duḥkhitāḥ
distressed
ānītāḥ sva-puraṁ rājñā
ānītāḥ
brought
sva
to his own
puram
capital city
rājñā
by the King
vasanta iti śuśruma
vasante
they are residing
iti
thus
śuśruma
We have heard .
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
We have heard that when their father passed away, the young Pāṇḍavas were brought with their anguished mother to the capital city by King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and that they are now living there.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
We have heard that when their father passed away, the young Pāṇḍavas were brought with their anguished mother to the capital city by King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and that they are now living there.
Commentary

"I have heard that they are living with the king Dhrtarastra (rajna)."

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

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.

Śrīdhara Svāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

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.

Concepts
Jiva

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's death and the move to Hastināpura

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.

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