This I have explained several times, that if a man is pious, he has to take his birth in rich family, janmaiśvarya-śruta (SB 1.8.26), in a very aristocratic family, rich family. He may become next life very learned scholar, very beautiful. These are the results of pious activities. But pious or impious, you have to enter into the womb of some mother. That tribulation is very severe. That we have forgotten. That we have forgotten. Either you take birth in a very rich family, aristocratic family, or you take birth in the animal womb, so the pangs of birth, death, disease and old age will continue.
So Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to make a solution of these four things: birth, death, old age and disease. So if we act sinfully and if we eat sinfully, then this life of birth, death, old age will continue. Otherwise, you can make a solution, and as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9): "After leaving this body," tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti, "he does not take birth again in this material world." Then where does he go? He's finished? Just like voidist? No. Mām eti: "He comes to Me." Mām eti. "He comes to Me." "And what is the benefit of going there, to You?"
- mām upetya kaunteya
- duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
- nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
- saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ
- (BG 8.15)
"To come back to Me, that is the highest perfection of life. He does not come to this miserable world."
So we should be careful not to eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa, prasādam. That should be determination. We cannot purchase things from the market and eat. No. That is not possible. We cannot eat. We can simply eat such things which are offered to the Deity, Kṛṣṇa. That is yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ (BG 3.13). Even if we have committed some sin, by eating this prasādam we counteract it. Mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Yajña-śiṣṭa . . . Aśiṣṭa means the remnants of foodstuff after offering yajña. If one eats, then mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. Because our life is sinful, so we become . . . ah freed from the sinful activities. How it is? That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66): "If you surrender unto Me, then I'll give you protection from all sinful reaction."
So if you make it a vow that, "I shall not eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa," that means it is a surrender. You surrender to Kṛṣṇa that, "My dear Lord, I shall not eat anything which is not offered to You." That's vow. That vow is surrender. And because there is surrender, you are protected from the sinful reaction.