Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.13.33

ambā ca hata-putrārtā

pitrivyah kva gatah suhrit

api mayy akrita-prajñe

hata-bandhuh sa bhāryayā

āśamsamānah śamalam

gańgāyām duhkhito 'patat

SYNONYMS

ambā — mother aunt; ca — and; hata-putrā — who had lost all her sons; ārtā — in a sorry plight; pitrivyah — uncle Vidura; kva — where; gatah — gone; suhrit — well-wisher; api — whether; mayi — unto me; akrita-prajñe — ungrateful; hata-bandhuh — one who has lost all his sons; sah — Dhritarāshtra; bhāryayā — with his wife; āśamsamānah — in doubtful mind; śamalam — offenses; gańgāyām — in the Ganges water; duhkhitah — in distressed mind; apatat — fell down.

TRANSLATION

Where is my well-wisher, uncle Vidura, and mother Gāndhārī, who is very afflicted due to all her sons' demise? My uncle Dhritarāshtra was also very mortified due to the death of all his sons and grandsons. Undoubtedly I am very ungrateful. Did he, therefore, take my offenses very seriously and, along with his wife, drown himself in the Ganges?

PURPORT

The Pāndavas, especially Mahārāja Yudhishthira and Arjuna, anticipated the aftereffects of the Battle of Kurukshetra, and therefore Arjuna declined to execute the fighting. The fight was executed by the will of the Lord, but the effects of family aggrievement, as they had thought of it before, had come to be true. Mahārāja Yudhishthira was always conscious of the great plight of his uncle Dhritarāshtra and aunt Gāndhārī, and therefore he took all possible care of them in their old age and aggrieved conditions. When, therefore, he could not find his uncle and aunt in the palace, naturally his doubts arose, and he conjectured that they had gone down to the water of the Ganges. He thought himself ungrateful because when the Pāndavas were fatherless, Mahārāja Dhritarāshtra had given them all royal facilities to live, and in return he had killed all Dhritarāshtra's sons in the Battle of Kurukshetra. As a pious man, Mahārāja Yudhishthira took into account all his unavoidable misdeeds, and he never thought of the misdeeds of his uncle and company. Dhritarāshtra had suffered the effects of his own misdeeds by the will of the Lord, but Mahārāja Yudhishthira was thinking only of his own unavoidable misdeeds. That is the nature of a good man and devotee of the Lord. A devotee never finds fault with others, but tries to find his own and thus rectify them as far as possible.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness