सूत उवाच
तत्र गोमिथुनं राजा हन्यमानमनाथवत् ।
दण्डहस्तं च वृषलं ददृशे नृपलाञ्छनम् ॥१॥

sÅ«ta uvÄca
tatra go-mithunaá¹ rÄjÄ
hanyamÄnam anÄthavat
daṇá¸a-hastaá¹ ca vṛṣalaá¹
dadṛśe ná¹›pa-lÄñchanam

 sÅ«taḥ uvÄca - ÅšrÄ« SÅ«ta GosvÄmÄ« said; tatra - thereupon; go-mithunam - a cow and a bull; rÄjÄ - the King; hanyamÄnam - being beaten; anÄtha-vat - appearing to be bereft of their owner; daṇá¸a-hastam - with a club in hand; ca - also; vṛṣalam - lower-caste śūdra; dadṛśe - observed; ná¹›pa - a king; lÄñchanam - dressed like.


Text

SÅ«ta GosvÄmÄ« said: After reaching that place, MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it observed that a lower-caste śūdra, dressed like a king, was beating a cow and a bull with a club, as if they had no owner.

Purport

The principal sign of the Age of Kali is that lower-caste śūdras, i.e., men without brahminical culture and spiritual initiation, will be dressed like administrators or kings, and the principal business of such non-ká¹£atriya rulers will be to kill the innocent animals, especially the cows and the bulls, who shall be unprotected by their masters, the bona fide vaiÅ›yas, the mercantile community. In the Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (18.44) it is said that the vaiÅ›yas are meant to deal in agriculture, cow protection and trade. In the Age of Kali, the degraded vaiÅ›yas, the mercantile men, are engaged in supplying cows to slaughterhouses. The ká¹£atriyas are meant to protect the citizens of the state, whereas the vaiÅ›yas are meant to protect the cows and bulls and utilize them to produce grains and milk. The cow is meant to deliver milk, and the bull is meant to produce grains. But in the Age of Kali, the śūdra class of men are in the posts of administrators, and the cows and bulls, or the mothers and the fathers, unprotected by the vaiÅ›yas, are subjected to the slaughterhouses organized by the śūdra administrators.