Srimad-Bhagavatam: Canto 9 - Chapter 1 - Verse 10


Sanskrit:

तद् विदित्वा मुनि: प्राह पत्नीं कष्टमकारषी: ।घोरो दण्डधर: पुत्रो भ्राता ते ब्रह्मवित्तम: ॥ १० ॥

ITRANS:

tad viditvā muniḥ prāhapatnīṁ kaṣṭam akāraṣīḥghoro daṇḍa-dharaḥ putrobhrātā te brahma-vittamaḥ

Translation:

When the great sage Ṛcīka returned home after bathing and understood what had happened in his absence, he said to his wife, Satyavatī, “You have done a great wrong. Your son will be a fierce kṣatriya, able to punish everyone, and your brother will be a learned scholar in spiritual science.”

Purport:

A brāhmaṇa is highly qualified when he can control his senses and mind, when he is a learned scholar in spiritual science and when he is tolerant and forgiving. A kṣatriya, however, is highly qualified when he is fierce in giving punishment to wrongdoers. These qualities are stated in Bhagavad-gītā (18.42-43). Because Satyavatī, instead of eating her own oblation, had eaten that which was meant for her mother, she would give birth to a son imbued with the kṣatriya spirit. This was undesirable. The son of a brāhmaṇa is generally expected to become a brāhmaṇa, but if such a son becomes fierce like a kṣatriya, he is designated according to the description of the four varṇas in Bhagavad-gītā (cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ). If the son of a brāhmaṇa does not become like a brāhmaṇa, he may be called a kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, according to his qualifications. The basic principle for dividing society is not a person’s birth but his qualities and actions.