Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6.1.21

kānyakubje dvijah kaścid

dāsī-patir ajāmilah

nāmnā nashta-sadācāro

dāsyāh samsarga-dūshitah

SYNONYMS

kānya-kubje — in the city of Kānyakubja (Kanauj, a town near Kanpur); dvijah — brāhmana; kaścit — some; dāsī-patih — the husband of a low-class woman or prostitute; ajāmilah — Ajāmila; nāmnā — by name; nashta-sat-ācārah — who lost all brahminical qualities; dāsyāh — of the prostitute or maidservant; samsarga-dūshitah — contaminated by the association.

TRANSLATION

In the city known as Kānyakubja there was a brāhmana named Ajāmila who married a prostitute maidservant and lost all his brahminical qualities because of the association of that low-class woman.

PURPORT

The fault of illicit connection with women is that it makes one lose all brahminical qualities. In India there is still a class of servants, called śūdras, whose maidservant wives are called śūdrānīs. Sometimes people who are very lusty establish relationships with such maidservants and sweeping women, since in the higher statuses of society they cannot indulge in the habit of woman hunting, which is strictly prohibited by social convention. Ajāmila, a qualified brāhmana youth, lost all his brahminical qualities because of his association with a prostitute, but he was ultimately saved because he had begun the process of bhakti-yoga. Therefore in the previous verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī spoke of the person who has only once surrendered himself at the lotus feet of the Lord (manah krishna-padāravindayoh) or has just begun the bhakti-yoga process. Bhakti-yoga begins with śravanam kīrtanam vishnoh [SB 7.5.23], hearing and chanting of Lord Vishnu's names, as in the mahā-mantra — Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Chanting is the beginning of bhakti-yoga. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu declares:

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

[Adi 17.21]

"In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way." The process of chanting the holy name of the Lord is always superbly effective, but it is especially effective in this age of Kali. Its practical effectiveness will now be explained by Śukadeva Gosvāmī through the history of Ajāmila, who was freed from the hands of the Yamadūtas simply because of chanting the holy name of Nārāyana. Parīkshit Mahārāja's original question was how to be freed from falling down into hell or into the hands of the Yamadūtas. In reply, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is citing this old historical example to convince Parīkshit Mahārāja of the potency of bhakti-yoga, which begins simply with the chanting of the Lord's name. All the great authorities of bhakti-yoga recommend the devotional process beginning with the chanting of the holy name of Krishna (tan-nāma-grahanādibhih).

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