मुक्तसङ्गप्रसङ्गोऽयं दण्डपाणिरसाधुषु ॥१८॥
dehinÄm Ätmavat-preá¹£á¹haḥ
suhá¹›dÄá¹ nandi-vardhanaḥ
mukta-saá¹…ga-prasaá¹…go 'yaá¹
daṇá¸a-pÄṇir asÄdhuá¹£u
dehinÄm - to all living entities having a body; Ätma-vat - as himself; preá¹£á¹haḥ - considering dear; suhá¹›dÄm - of his friends; nandi-vardhanaḥ - increasing pleasures; mukta-saá¹…ga - with persons devoid of all material contamination; prasaá¹…gaḥ - intimately associated; ayam - this King; daṇá¸a-pÄṇiḥ - a chastising hand; asÄdhuá¹£u - to the criminals.
The King will consider all embodied living entities as dear as his own self, and he will always be increasing the pleasures of his friends. He will intimately associate with liberated persons, and he will be a chastising hand to all impious persons.
The word dehinÄm refers to those who are embodied. The living entities are embodied in different forms, which number 8,400,000 species. All of these were treated by the King in the same way he would treat himself. In this age, however, so-called kings and presidents do not treat all other living entities as their own self. Most of them are meat-eaters, and even though they may not be meat-eaters and may pose themselves to be very religious and pious, they still allow cow slaughter within their state. Such sinful heads of state cannot actually be popular at any time. Another significant word in this verse is mukta-saá¹…ga-prasaá¹…gaḥ, which indicates that the King was always associating with liberated persons.
