Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6.1.16

na tathā hy aghavān rājan

pūyeta tapa-ādibhih

yathā krishnārpita-prānas

tat-purusha-nishevayā

SYNONYMS

na — not; tathā — so much; hi — certainly; agha-vān — a man full of sinful activities; rājan — O King; pūyeta — can become purified; tapah-ādibhih — by executing the principles of austerity, penance, brahmacarya and other purifying processes; yathā — as much as; krishna-arpita-prānah — the devotee whose life is fully Krishna conscious; tat-purusha-nishevayā — by engaging his life in the service of Krishna's representative.

TRANSLATION

My dear King, if a sinful person engages in the service of a bona fide devotee of the Lord and thus learns how to dedicate his life unto the lotus feet of Krishna, he can be completely purified. One cannot be purified merely by undergoing austerity, penance, brahmacarya and the other methods of atonement I have previously described.

PURPORT

Tat-purusha refers to a preacher of Krishna consciousness, such as the spiritual master. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Thākura has said, chādiyā vaishnava-sevā nistāra pāyeche kebā: "Without serving a bona fide spiritual master, an ideal Vaishnava, who can be delivered from the clutches of māyā?" This idea is also expressed in many other places. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.5.2) says, mahat-sevām dvāram āhur vimukteh: if one desires liberation from the clutches of māyā, one must associate with a pure devotee mahātmā. A mahātmā is one who engages twenty-four hours daily in the loving service of the Lord. As Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā (9.13):

mahātmānas tu mām pārtha

daivīm prakritim āśritāh

bhajanty ananya-manaso

jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

"O son of Prithā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible." Thus the symptom of a mahātmā is that he has no engagement other than service to Krishna. One must render service to a Vaishnava in order to get freed from sinful reactions, revive one's original Krishna consciousness and be trained in how to love Krishna. This is the result of mahātma-sevā. Of course, if one engages in the service of a pure devotee, the reactions of one's sinful life are vanquished automatically. Devotional service is necessary not to drive away an insignificant stock of sins, but to awaken our dormant love for Krishna. As fog is vanquished at the first glimpse of sunlight, one's sinful reactions are automatically vanquished as soon as one begins serving a pure devotee; no separate endeavor is required.

The word krishna-rpita-prānah refers to a devotee who dedicates his life to serving Krishna, not to being saved from the path to hellish life. A devotee is nārāyana-parāyana, or vāsudeva-parāyana, which means that the path of Vāsudeva, or the devotional path, is his life and soul. Nārāyana-parāh sarve na kutaścana bibhyati (Bhāg. 6.17.28): such a devotee is not afraid of going anywhere. There is a path toward liberation in the higher planetary systems and a path toward the hellish planets, but a nārāyana-para devotee is unafraid wherever he is sent; he simply wants to remember Krishna, wherever he may be. Such a devotee is unconcerned with hell and heaven; he is simply attached to rendering service to Krishna. When a devotee is put into hellish conditions, he accepts them as Krishna's mercy: tat te 'nukampām susamīkshamānah (Bhāg. 10.14.8). He does not protest, "Oh, I am such a great devotee of Krishna. Why have I been put into this misery?" Instead he thinks, "This is Krishna's mercy." Such an attitude is possible for a devotee who engages in the service of Krishna's representative. This is the secret of success.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness