Text 8] Svayambhuva Manu Advises Dhruva Maharaja 457

sinful; yena—by which; punya-janan—the Yakgas; etan—all these; avadhif—
you have killed; tuam—you; anagasah—offenseless.

TRANSLATION

Lord Manu said: My dear son, please stop. It is not good to become
unnecessarily angry—it is the path to hellish life. Now you are going
beyond the limit by killing Yaksas who are actually not offenders.

PURPORT

In this verse the word atirosena means “with unnecessary anger.” When
Dhruva Maharaja went beyond the limits of necessary anger, his grand-
father, Svayambhuva Manu, immediately came to protect him from further
sinful action. From this we can understand that killing is not bad, but when
killing is done unnecessarily or when an offenseless person is killed, such
killing opens the path to hell. Dhruva Maharaja was saved from such sinful
action because he was a great devotee.

A ksatriya is allowed to kill only for maintenance of the law and order
of the state; he is not allowed to kill or commit violence without reason.
Violence is certainly a path leading to a hellish condition of life, but it is
also required for maintenance of the law and order of the state. Here Lord
Manu prohibited Dhruva Maharaja from killing the Yakgas because only
one of them was punishable for killing his brother Uttama; all of the Yakga
citizens were not punishable. We find in modern warfare, however, that
attacks are made upon innocent citizens who are without fault. According
to the law of Manu, such warfare is a most sinful activity. Furthermore,
at the present moment civilized nations are unnecessarily maintaining
many slaughterhouses for killing innocent animals. When a nation is
attacked by its enemies, the wholesale slaughter of the citizens should be
taken as a reaction to their own sinful activities—that is nature’s law.

TEXT 8

vat chal Nni A

nasmat-kulocitam tata
karmaitat sad-vigarhitam

vadho yad upadevanam
Grabdhas te *krtainasam
