- yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ
- janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām
- te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā
- bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ
- (BG 7.28)
This is the statement of the Bhagavad-gītā. Anyone who has become freed completely, yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ, janānāṁ, persons who are engaged in pious activity. Activity means you should be pious, not impious. If we implicate ourselves in impious activities, then you will be more and more implicated in this material way of life, and from Brahma you can become a hog or dog or an ant. This is the law of nature. It is not that by evolutionary process if one has come to the human form of life he is not going to be degraded. If he does not believe in God consciousness, if he does not act nicely, then he is surely to degrade.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, yeṣāṁ anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ: one who has checked his resultant action of sinful life, such person, always engaged in pious activity, they, such person, dvandva-moha-nirmuktā, without any hesitation, without any doubt, bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ, can be fixed up in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service. Therefore as you see, these boys were all addicted to all kinds of sinful life, because they are told from the very beginning of their life.
But when they took to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they gave up under my instruction or the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, and see how they are advanced in spiritual life. That is practical. Within three or four years, or even one year, simply by association many students are coming. Simply by their association they are becoming pure. This is a fact. You can examine. You can see.
So the primary principles of sinful life are four: illicit sex life. One cannot have sex life without his married wife. That restriction must be followed. Just like in our Cāṇakya community, the ordinary moral instruction of Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, who was the prime minister of India during the time of Chandragupta, and his name is still well known—in New Delhi there is a Cāṇakya Puri. He said that who is that learned man who is not judging from the academic qualification. He said . . . first of all he said, mātṛvat para-dāreṣu, one who sees all women as mother except his married wife, he is learned. So this illicit sex life must be stopped. This is the beginning of sinful life.
And similarly, intoxication. We are already intoxicated by the influence of māyā, and if we take still more intoxication, then how we are improving? How are we becoming designationless? We are becoming more and more engulfed by designation. So this must be given up: illicit sex life and intoxication and gambling and unnecessary meat-eating. There is no need of meat-eating.
For human being, God has given us so many things: varieties of grains, varieties of fruits, varieties of vegetables and varieties of milk and milk products. Why should we take animal food? Of course, when there is no possibility of getting all these things in the desert, they may kill some animals and eat. That is a different thing. But in cities and towns where these things are amply available, why should we take meat, fish and eggs? So they are not allowed in the śāstras. Just like Kṛṣṇa says:
- patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
- yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
- (BG 9.26)
Kṛṣṇa does not say: "Give me eggs and meat." He says patraṁ puṣpaṁ. So our position is we take kṛṣṇa-prasādam, and whatever is offered to Kṛṣṇa, patraṁ puṣpaṁ, we take it. So if one is serious about advancing in spiritual life he must try to become free from all sinful life, yeṣāṁ anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ.