गाण्डीवमुक्तैर्विशिखैरुपाहरे त्वाक्रम्य यत्स्नास्यसि दग्धपुत्रा ॥१६॥
tadÄ Å›ucas te pramá¹›jÄmi bhadre
yad brahma-bandhoḥ Å›ira ÄtatÄyinaḥ
gÄṇá¸Ä«va-muktair viÅ›ikhair upÄhare
tvÄkramya yat snÄsyasi dagdha-putrÄ
2 times this text was mentioned in purports to other texts: LSB(2)
tadÄ - at that time only; Å›ucaḥ - tears in grief; te - your; pramá¹›jÄmi - shall wipe away; bhadre - O gentle lady; yat - when; brahma-bandhoḥ - of a degraded brÄhmaṇa; Å›iraḥ - head; ÄtatÄyinaḥ - of the aggressor; gÄṇá¸Ä«va-muktaiḥ - shot by the bow named GÄṇá¸Ä«va; viÅ›ikhaiḥ - by the arrows; upÄhare - shall present to you; tvÄ - yourself; Äkramya - riding on it; yat - which; snÄsyasi - take your bath; dagdha-putrÄ - after burning the sons.
O gentle lady, when I present you with the head of that brÄhmaṇa, after beheading him with arrows from my GÄṇá¸Ä«va 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.
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 brÄhmaṇa or a so-called son of a brÄhmaṇa, has to be punished in all circumstances. When Arjuna promised to behead the aggressor named AÅ›vatthÄmÄ, he knew well that AÅ›vatthÄmÄ was the son of a brÄhmaṇa, but because the so-called brÄhmaṇa acted like a butcher, he was taken as such, and there was no question of sin in killing such a brÄhmaṇa’s son who proved to be a villain.
