Punishment and Reward of Kali

Verse 6 (SB 1.17.6)

SB 1.17.5

SB 1.17.7

SB 1.17.6 • मूल श्लोक

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

Transliteration

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

Synonyms (Word-for-Word)

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.”

Bhaktivedanta Purport

By Śrīla Prabhupāda

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.