taá¹ Å›aÅ›Äpa kulÄcÄryaḥ
ká¹›tÄgasam akÄmataḥ
na ká¹£atra-bandhuḥ śūdras tvaá¹
karmaá¹‡Ä bhavitÄmunÄ
tam - him (Pṛṣadhra); Å›aÅ›Äpa - cursed; kula-ÄcÄryaḥ - the family priest, Vasiá¹£á¹ha; ká¹›ta-Ägasam - because of committing the great sin of killing a cow; akÄmataḥ - although he did not want to do it; na - not; ká¹£atra-bandhuḥ - the family member of a ká¹£atriya; śūdraḥ tvam - you have behaved like a śūdra; karmaá¹‡Ä - therefore by your fruitive reaction; bhavitÄ - you shall become a śūdra; amunÄ - because of killing the cow.
It appears that Vasiá¹£á¹ha was not free from tamo-guṇa, the mode of ignorance. As the family priest or spiritual master of Pṛṣadhra, Vasiá¹£á¹ha should have taken Pṛṣadhra’s offense very lightly, but instead Vasiá¹£á¹ha cursed him to become a śūdra. It is the duty of a family priest not to curse a disciple but to give him relief through the performance of some sort of atonement. Vasiá¹£á¹ha, however, did just the opposite. Therefore ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« ṬhÄkura says that he was durmati; in other words, his intelligence was not very good.