214 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 4

stri-siidra-dvijabandhiinam
trayi na Sruti-gocara

karma-sreyasi midhanam
Sreya evam bhaved iha

iti bharatam akhyanam
krpaya munina krtam

stri-the woman class; siidra—the laboring class; dvija-bandhiinam—of
the friends of the twice-born; trayi—three; na—not; sruti-gocara—for
understanding; karma—in activities; §reyasi—in welfare; midhanam—of the
fools; §reyah—supreme benefit; evam—thus; bhavet—achieved; iha—by this;
iti—thus thinking; bharatam—the great Mahabharata; akhyanam—historical
facts; krpaya—out of great mercy; munina—by the muni; krtam—is
completed.

TRANSLATION

Out of compassion, the great sage thought it wise that this would
enable men to achieve the ultimate goal of life. Thus he compiled the
great historical narration called the Mahabharata for women, laborers
and friends of the twice-born.

PURPORT

The friends of the twice-born families are those who are born in the
families of brahmanas, ksatriyas and vaisyas, or the spiritually cultured
families, but they themselves are not equal to their forefathers. Such
descendants are not recognized as such for want of purificatory achieve-
ments. The purificatory activities begin even before the birth of a child,
and the seed-giving reformatory process is called Garbhadhana-samskara,
One who has not undergone such Garbhadhana-samskara, or spiritual
family planning, is not accepted as being of an actual twice-born family.
The Garbhadhana-samskara is followed by other purificatory processes
out of which the sacred thread ceremony is one. This is performed at the
time of spiritual initiation. After this particular sarmskara, one is rightly
called twice-born. One birth is calculated during the seed-givirlg sarskara,
and the second birth is calculated at the time of spiritual initiation. One
who has been able to undergo such important sarmskaras can be called a
bona fide twice-born.

If the father and the mother do not undertake the process of spiritual
family planning and simply beget children out of passion only, their
children are called dvija-bandhus. These dvija-bandhus are certainly not as
