Devanagari
देहिनामात्मवत्प्रेष्ठ: सुहृदां नन्दिवर्धन:
मुक्तसङ्गप्रसङ्गोऽयं दण्डपाणिरसाधुषु ॥ १८ ॥
Verse text
dehinām ātmavat-preṣṭhaḥ
suhṛdāṁ nandi-vardhanaḥ
mukta-saṅga-prasaṅgo ’yaṁ
daṇḍa-pāṇir asādhuṣu
Synonyms
dehinām
—
to all living entities having a body
;
ātma
—
vat — as himself
;
preṣṭhaḥ
—
considering dear
;
suhṛdām
—
of his friends
;
nandi
—
vardhanaḥ — increasing pleasures
;
mukta
—
saṅga — with persons devoid of all material contamination
;
prasaṅgaḥ
—
intimately associated
;
ayam
—
this King
;
daṇḍa
—
pāṇiḥ — a chastising hand
;
asādhuṣu
—
to the criminals .
Translation
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.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
He will consider all beings as himself, will increase joy for his friends, take association of the detached and punish the wicked.
He will increase happiness (nandi-vardhanaḥ) in friends. He will take association of materially detached persons (mukta-saṅga).
Purport
The word
dehinām
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-saṅga-prasaṅgaḥ,
which indicates that the King was always associating with liberated persons.