Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.7.16

tadā śucas te pramrijāmi bhadre

yad brahma-bandhoh śira ātatāyinah

gāndīva-muktair viśikhair upāhare

tvākramya yat snāsyasi dagdha-putrā

SYNONYMS

tadā — at that time only; śucah — tears in grief; te — your; pramrijāmi — shall wipe away; bhadre — O gentle lady; yat — when; brahma-bandhoh — of a degraded brāhmana; śirah — head; ātatāyinah — of the aggressor; gāndīva-muktaih — shot by the bow named Gāndīva; viśikhaih — by the arrows; upāhare — shall present to you; tvā — yourself; ākramya — riding on it; yat — which; snāsyasi — take your bath; dagdha-putrā — after burning the sons.

TRANSLATION

O gentle lady, when I present you with the head of that brāhmana, after beheading him with arrows from my Gāndīva bow, I shall then wipe the tears from your eyes and pacify you. Then, after burning your sons' bodies, you can take your bath standing on his head.

PURPORT

An enemy who sets fire to the house, administers poison, attacks all of a sudden with deadly weapons, plunders wealth or usurps agricultural fields, or entices one's wife is called an aggressor. Such an aggressor, though he be a brāhmana or a so-called son of a brāhmana, has to be punished in all circumstances. When Arjuna promised to behead the aggressor named Aśvatthāmā, he knew well that Aśvatthāmā was the son of a brāhmana, but because the so-called brāhmana acted like a butcher, he was taken as such, and there was no question of sin in killing such a brāhmana's son who proved to be a villain.

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