Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.17.5

kas tvaḿ mac-charaṇe loke

balād dhaḿsy abalān balī

nara-devo 'si veṣeṇa

naṭavat karmaṇādvijaḥ

SYNONYMS

kaḥ — who are; tvam — you; mat — my; śaraṇe — under protection; loke — in this world; balāt — by force; haḿsi — killing; abalān — those who are helpless; balī — although full of strength; nara-devaḥ — man-god; asi — appear to be; veṣeṇa — by your dress; naṭa-vat — like a theatrical player; karmaṇā — by deeds; advi-jaḥ — a man not twice-born by culture.

TRANSLATION

Oh, who are you? You appear to be strong and yet you dare kill, within my protection, those who are helpless! By your dress you pose yourself to be a godly man [king], but by your deeds you are opposing the principles of the twice-born kṣatriyas.

PURPORT

The brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas and vaiśyas are called twice-born because for these higher classes of men there is one birth by parental conjugation and there is another birth of cultural rejuvenation by spiritual initiation from the bona fide ācārya, or spiritual master. So a kṣatriya is also twice-born like a brāhmaṇa, and his duty is to give protection to the helpless. The kṣatriya king is considered to be the representative of God to give protection to the helpless and chastise the miscreants. Whenever there are anomalies in this routine work by the administrators, there is an incarnation of the Lord to reestablish the principles of a godly kingdom. In the age of Kali, the poor helpless animals, especially the cows, which are meant to receive all sorts of protection from the administrative heads, are killed without restriction. Thus the administrative heads under whose noses such things happen are representatives of God in name only. Such powerful administrators are rulers of the poor citizens by dress or office, but factually they are worthless, lower-class men without the cultural assets of the twice-born. No one can expect justice or equality of treatment from once-born (spiritually uncultured) lower-class men. Therefore in the age of Kali everyone is unhappy due to the maladministration of the state. The modern human society is not twice-born by spiritual culture. Therefore the people's government, by the people who are not twice-born, must be a government of Kali in which everyone is unhappy.

<<< >>>

Copyright © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness