नायं मार्गो हि साधूनां हृषीकेशानुवर्तिनाम् ।
यदात्मानं पराग्गृह्य पशुवद्भूतवैशसम् ॥१०॥

nÄyaá¹ mÄrgo hi sÄdhÅ«nÄá¹
hṛṣīkeÅ›ÄnuvartinÄm
yad ÄtmÄnaá¹ parÄg gá¹›hya
paśuvad bhūta-vaiśasam

 na - never; ayam - this; mÄrgaḥ - path; hi - certainly; sÄdhÅ«nÄm - of honest persons; hṛṣīkeÅ›a - of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; anuvartinÄm - following the path; yat - which; ÄtmÄnam - self; parÄk - the body; gá¹›hya - thinking to be; paÅ›u-vat - like animals; bhÅ«ta - of living entities; vaiÅ›asam - killing.


Text

One should not accept the body as the self and thus, like the animals, kill the bodies of others. This is especially forbidden by saintly persons, who follow the path of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Purport

The words sÄdhÅ«nÄá¹ hṛṣīkeÅ›ÄnuvartinÄm are very significant. SÄdhu means “a saintly person.†But who is a saintly person? A saintly person is he who follows the path of rendering service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, HṛṣīkeÅ›a. In the NÄrada-pañcarÄtra it is said, hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeÅ›a-sevanaá¹ bhaktir ucyate: the process of rendering favorable service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead with one’s senses is called bhakti, or devotional service. Therefore, why should a person who is already engaged in the service of the Lord engage himself in personal sense gratification? Dhruva MahÄrÄja is advised here by Lord Manu that since he is a pure servitor of the Lord, why should he unnecessarily engage, like the animals, in the bodily concept of life? An animal thinks that the body of another animal is his food; therefore, in the bodily concept of life, one animal attacks another. A human being, especially one who is a devotee of the Lord, should not act like this. A sÄdhu, a saintly devotee, is not supposed to kill animals unnecessarily.