Text 36] The Son of Drona Punished 355
TRANSLATION

Lord Sri Krsna said: O Arjuna, you should not show mercy by re-
leasing this relative of a brahmana [brahma-bandhu], for he has killed
innocent boys in their sleep.

PURPORT

The word brahma-bandhu is significant. A person who happens to take
birth in the family of a brahmana but is not qualified to be called a
brahmana is addressed as the relative of a brahmana, and not as a
brahmana. The son of ahigh court judge is not virtually a high court judge,
but there is no harm in addressing a high court judge’s son as a relative of
the Honorable Justice. Therefore, as by birth only one does not become a
high court judge, so also one does not become a brahmana simply by
birthright but by acquiring the necessary qualifications of a brahmana. As
the high court judgeship is a post for the qualified man, so also the post of
a brahmana is attainable by qualification only. The sastra enjoins that even
if good qualifications are seen in a person born in a family other than a
brahmana, the qualified man has to be aceepted as a brahmana, and simi-
larly if a person born in the family of a brahmana is void of brahminical
qualification, then he must be treated as a non-brahmana or, in better
terms, a relative of a brahmana. Lord Sri Krsna, the supreme authority of
all religious principles, the Vedas, has personally pointed out these differ-
ences, and He is about to explain the reason for this in the following slokas.

TEXT 36

ae Taga ad Us fat aey |
e J e m™ > Le
med free att a fey afer sata RI
mattam pramattam unmattam
suptarm balam striyarh jadam
prapannarh viratham bhitam
na ripum hanti dharma-vit

mattam—careless; pramattam— intoxicated: unmattam—insane; suptam—
asleep; balam—boy ; striyam-- woman: jadam—foolish: prapannam-—surren-
dered; viratham—one who has lost his chariot; bhitam—afraid of; na—not:
ripum—enemy; hanti—kill; dharma-vit—one who knows the principles of
religion.
