SEPERATING MEN FROM ANIMALS

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Sukadeva Gosvami said to King Pariksit: In the city known as Kanyakubja [Kanauj

in present-day India] there lived a brahmana named Ajamila who married a

prostitute maidservant and lost all his brahminical qualities because of the

association of that low-class woman. Ajamila gave trouble to others by arresting

them, by cheating them in gambling, or by directly plundering them. This was the

way he earned his livelihood and maintained his wife and children. (Srimad-

Bhagavatam 6.1.21-22)

The Law of Consequences

Although Ajamila was born of a brahmana father and strictly followed the

regulative principles--no meat-eating, no illicit sex, no intoxication, and no

gambling--he fell in love with a prostitute, and therefore all his good

qualities were lost. As soon as a person abandons the regulative principles, he

engages in various kinds of sinful activities. The regulative principles serve

to keep us on the standard of human life. But if we abandon them, we fall down

into illusory life, or maya. If we want to advance in spiritual life, we must

follow the regulative principles and rectify the mistakes of our past lives and

this present life. Only those who have become free from all kinds of sinful

reactions and are now engaged in pious activities can fully understand God.

Persons who commit sinful activities and who are overly attached to bodily

comforts and mundane friendship, society, and family affection cannot be

spiritually self-realized. The fault of illicit

connection with women is that it destroys all one's brahminical qualities.

Ajamila abandoned all the regulative principles due to

his association with a prostitute. He became a cheater and a thief. One who acts

dishonestly will be punished. He may escape the king's or government's law, but

he can never escape God's law. The materialists think, " I am cheating God, and I

can continue to gratify my senses by all nefarious activities. " But the sastras

scriptures) state that such persons are cheating their own happiness in the end,

because they will have to accept a material body again and suffer accordingly. A

man who is born in a brahmana family is expected to be truthful and

selfcontrolled, to be fully cognizant of spiritual life and its practical

application, and to have complete faith in the statements of the sastras. If a

person does not follow the sastras, he becomes degraded. The great sages and

rsis throughout the world have given guidance, and their words are recorded in

the sastras. But rascals and fools misinterpret the scriptures and misguide the

people. At present, the

Bhagavad-gita is interpreted in so many different ways, and these so-called

explanations are accepted by the innocent public as authoritative knowledge. One

interpreter explains that the battlefield of Kuruksetra refers to the material

body and that the five Pandava brothers are really the five senses of the

material body. But this is not the proper understanding. How can anyone explain

the Bhagavad-gita when he does not understand it? Such an attempt is nonsense.

To understand the bona fide science of God, one must approach a bona fide

spiritual master and hear the Bhagavad-gita from him. We have to follow the

great personalities, the previous acaryas (spiritual masters). That will be to

our profit. We should not speculate and make up our own statements. We should

simply accept the injunctions given by the great acaryas, because that is the

process of the Vedic system. One must approach a bona fide spiritual master and

inquire from him submissively.

The Absolute Truth is explained in the scriptures, and the scriptures are

explained by the spiritual master or a saintly person. Whatever the bona fide,

self-realized spiritual master says must be accepted. There is no room for

interpretation of the sastras. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said that Krsna

lifted Govardhana Hill just as a child lifts a mushroom. He did it so easily,

but people do not believe it. Those who do not believe in the Bhagavatam

interpret an indirect meaning. The meaning is clear, and there is nothing to be

misunderstood, but these rascals draw their own conclusions nonetheless. When

the language is clear, why should we interpret? By interpretation, socalled

scholars and theologians have played havoc with the Vedic literature. No bona

fide acarya has ever interpreted the sastras according to his own whims, but

many so-called modern scholars and leaders have done so, and therefore people

are gliding down into the most abominable

conditions of material

existence. In the interest of the people, these rascals should be exposed.

Therefore we are presenting the Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

The Degradation of Modern Society

Here the Srimad-Bhagavatam says that the brahmana Ajamila became attached to a

prostitute and thus lost his brahminical qualifications. He was a young man of

about twenty when this happened. Because of his illicit association with the

prostitute, Ajamila was forced to live by begging, borrowing, stealing, and

gambling.

These verses indicate how degraded one becomes simply by indulging in illicit

sex with a prostitute. Illicit sex is not possible with chaste women, but only

with unchaste women. The more society allows prostitution and illicit sex, the

more impetus it gives to cheaters, thieves, plunderers, drunkards, and gamblers.

Therefore we first advise all the disciples in our Krsna consciousness movement

to avoid illicit sex, which is the beginning of all abominable life and which is

followed by meat-eating, gambling, and intoxication, one after another. Of

course, restraint is difficult, but it is quite possible if one fully surrenders

to Krsna, since all abominable habits gradually become distasteful for a Krsna

conscious person. While in his time Ajamila was an exception, in the present age

there are millions of Ajamilas. But if illicit sex is allowed to increase, the

entire society will be condemned, for it will be full of rogues, thieves,

cheaters, and so

forth. Therefore, if we actually want to improve the world situation, we have

to take to Krsna consciousness, as that gives the best service to human society,

both materially and spiritually. Whatever abominable characteristics we have

developed, we have only to take to the process of bhakti-yoga, or devotional

service, in order to completely eradicate them. We have developed so many

anarthas, or unwanted habits, the chief of which are meat-eating, intoxication,

illicit sex, and gambling. But we can curb them by accepting the principles of

bhakti-yoga as they are presented in the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-

Bhagavatam. Scarcely anyone knows these Vedic scriptures, and therefore no one

heeds their instructions. People would rather read all kinds of books by all

kinds of rascals, but the result of such books is to kill Krsna consciousness.

In illusion a person may think he can get rid of unwanted habits and be saved by

some artificial, mystic meditation. And in fact at one time it was possible to

attain liberation by practicing astanga-yoga, or eightfold yogic meditation. But

at present almost no one can

follow this process, and artificial attempts at yoga will not help us.

Therefore to help the fallen people of this Age of Kali, the Supreme Lord

appeared five hundred years ago as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He knew that the

people of this age would not even be able to follow the regulative principles,

what to speak of practicing astanga-yoga. Therefore He gave the maha-mantra--

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,

Hare Hare--so that we can gradually be elevated to the highest position of

spiritual life. Other processes of purification or sacrifice cannot be followed

in this age, because for the most part people are too degraded. But anyone may

take to this process of chanting Hare Krsna. As it is said in the Brhan-naradiya

Purana (3.8.126),

harer nama harer nama

harer namaiva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva

nasty eva gatir anyatha

" 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. " 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 Sukadeva Gosvami through the history of

Ajamila, who was freed from the hands of Yamaraja, the universal judge, simply

because of chanting the holy name of Narayana.

TO READ THE COMPLETE STORY OF SINFUL AJAMILA-HOW HE ESCAPED FROM GOING TO HELL &

HOW HE WAS ULTIMATELY DELIVERED-CHECK THE ATTACHMENT ('A SECOND CHANCE-NEAR

DEATH EXPERIENCE)

HARE KRISHNA

Pranjal Johry

 

 

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