कच्चिन्न परदारान्वा राजपुत्रोऽभिमन्यते।
कस्मात्स दण्डकारण्ये भ्रूणहेव विवासितः॥
kaccin na para-dārān vā rāja-putro ’bhimanyate
kasmāt sa daṇḍakāraṇye bhrūṇaheva vivāsitaḥ
kaccit na = has; para-dārān vā = someone else’s wife; rāja-putraḥ = the prince; abhimanyate = desired; kasmāt = why; saḥ = He; daṇḍaka-araṇye = to Daṇḍakāraṇya; bhrūṇahā = a killer of a faithful graduate of Vedic studies; iva = like; vivāsitaḥ = has been exiled.
Has the prince desired someone else’s wife? Why has He been exiled to Daṇḍakāraṇya like a killer of a faithful graduate of Vedic studies?
1 Bhrūṇa more commonly refers to a child in the womb: bhrūṇaḥ strī-garbha-ḍimbhayoḥ (Medinī). And the killer of a bhrūṇa refers to one who murders the child in the womb. The second half of the above verse then means, “Why has He been exiled to Daṇḍakāraṇya like one who has committed abortion?”
Bhrūṇahā refers to a person who kills a bhrūṇa, that is, a faithful graduate of Vedic studies, who is described in the Smṛti thus:
anūcāno guṇair yukto vrata-svādhyāyavāñ chuciḥ
bhrūṇa ity ucyate sadbhis tv eṣa yo vijitendriyaḥ
“A bhrūṇa is described by the saintly as he who can repeat from memory [the Vedic scripture he has studied], endowed with good qualities, fixed in his vows and self-study, pure in character and sense-controlled.”1
NOTE. Appropriate punishment is the best means of suppressing lawlessness. In Bhagavad-gītā (10.38), the Supreme Personality of Godhead states:
daṇḍo damayatām asmi
“Among all means of suppressing lawlessness I am punishment.”
And Prabhupāda explains:
There are many suppressing agents, of which the most important are those that cut down miscreants. When miscreants are punished, the agency of chastisement represents Kṛṣṇa.