Just like in Western countries, if you can eat meat you think that, "I am very much fortunate." Similarly, in India still, in villages also, they think that "If we can eat more ghee, we are very fortunate." (laughter) So ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet yāvaj jīvet sukhaṁ jīvet. So "Beg, borrow, steal—eat ghee." Eat ghee, because so long you live, you'll live very sumptuously eating ghee and become fatty. That's all. (laughter)
So ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet yāvaj jīvet sukhaṁ jīvet. Live very happily. And then if you say that, "I have no money. If I borrow from friends ghee, then I'll have to pay him." Because these are the injunctions in the śāstras. But he is atheistic. He says, bhasmī-bhūtasya dehasya kutaḥ punar āgamano bhavet. According to Vedic culture, the body is burned into ashes. So when the body is burned into ashes, who is coming again and paying him back? (laughter) "Don't think about it. Everything is finished."
This is the atheistic knowledge. But actually it is not. If you take real knowledge from Bhagavad-gītā, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). That is real knowledge. After destruction of this body, don't think you are finished. You will remain. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). This is the first instruction. If you want to enter into spiritual life, you must know that you, spirit soul, you are eternal. You don't die; you are not finished. That after the destruction of this body, you accept another body, tathā dehāntara prāptir. These are the versions in the Bhagavad-gītā, authoritative. And dehāntara means another body. There is no guarantee what kind of body you will get. That will depend on your work. You may get the body of a king or you may get the body of a hog, as you have done work in this life. This life is a preparation for the next life.
So here Śukadeva Goswāmī says that if one does not atone these sinful activities . . . that is prāyaścitta vidhi, according to Vedic culture. In Christian also they have got prāyaścitta: confession. Confession, the Christians are supposed to go into the church and confess the sinful activities and pay some fine, and then he becomes free. But that free, that excuse can be done once, twice, thrice, not perpetually. It is not possible. Suppose if you have done something wrong, and if you go to the court and say: "Sir, excuse me. I did not know," the court may excuse you one time, second time, but not for the third time. Third time you will be severely punished.
So these people who are thinking, "By going to the church, by confession, I become free from all sinful activities, and then let me go again, commit the same thing for the whole week, come again and confess," this is not very good business. (laughter) This is not very good business. Similarly, if you think also—you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra means you become free from all sinful reaction of life. But if you think that, "I have got an instrument, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, so let me commit all sinful activities, and I shall chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, it will be nullified," no. That is the greatest offense. That is the greatest offense. Out of ten kinds of offenses, this is the greatest offense. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ (Padma Purāṇa, Brahma-khaṇḍa).