SB 1.17.6

SB 1.17.6

Devanagari

यस्त्वं कृष्णे गते दूरं सहगाण्डीवधन्वना । शोच्योऽस्यशोच्यान् रहसि प्रहरन् वधमर्हसि ॥ ६ ॥

Verse text

yas tvaṁ kṛṣṇe gate dūraṁ saha-gāṇḍīva-dhanvanā śocyo ’sy aśocyān rahasi praharan vadham arhasi

Synonyms

yaḥ on account of ; tvam you rogue ; kṛṣṇe Lord Kṛṣṇa ; gate having gone away ; dūram out of sight ; saha along with ; gāṇḍīva the bow named Gāṇḍīva ; dhanvanā the carrier, Arjuna ; śocyaḥ culprit ; asi you are considered ; aśocyān innocent ; rahasi in a secluded place ; praharan beating ; vadham to be killed ; arhasi deserve .

Translation

You rogue, do you dare beat an innocent cow because Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, the carrier of the Gāṇḍīva bow, are out of sight? Since you are beating the innocent in a secluded place, you are considered a culprit and therefore deserve to be killed.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Since Kṛṣṇa has departed with Arjuna, you are in pitiable position. By beating innocent creatures in a solitary place, you deserve to be killed.

Purport

In a civilization where God is conspicuously banished, and there is no devotee warrior like Arjuna, the associates of the Age of Kali take advantage of this lawless kingdom and arrange to kill innocent animals like the cow in secluded slaughterhouses. Such murderers of animals stand to be condemned to death by the order of a pious king like Mahārāja Parīkṣit. For a pious king, the culprit who kills an animal in a secluded place is punishable by the death penalty, exactly like a murderer who kills an innocent child in a secluded place.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

“Just as you are king of your country, I am king of this time. Thus you do not have power over me.” The King answers in this verse. “Before Kṛṣṇa departed out of sight with Arjuna, where were you?” “I was present, but I did not have power because of fear of them. But I have fear of no one today.” “True. You are worthy of lamentation. You desire to die today.”