View source for If you want to advance in spiritual life, you must follow the regulative principles to rectify your mistakes in the past life and this present life. Without being freed from all contamination nobody can understand God

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{{terms|"If you want to advance in spiritual life, you must follow the regulative principles to rectify your mistakes in the past life and this present life. Without being freed from all contamination nobody can understand God"}}
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{{compiler|SharmisthaK}}
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[[Category:If You Want To]]
[[Category:Advancing in Spiritual Life]]
[[Category:You Must]]
[[Category:Must Follow]]
[[Category:Following the Principles]]
[[Category:Regulative Principles]]
[[Category:Rectify the Mistake]]
[[Category:Past Life]]
[[Category:Present Life]]
[[Category:Without Being]]
[[Category:Free From...]]
[[Category:Contamination]]
[[Category:Nobody Can]]
[[Category:Understanding God]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - SHARMISTHA]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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If you want to advance in spiritual life, you must follow the regulative principles to rectify your mistakes in the past life and this present life. Without being freed from all contamination nobody can understand God. That is not possible.
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[[Vanisource:701212 - Lecture SB 06.01.21 and Conversation - Indore|701212 - Lecture SB 06.01.21 and Conversation - Indore]]
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Ajāmila nāmnā. His name was Ajāmila. (aside:) Why the sound is in . . .? It is not possible to chant? "Cut, cut cut, cut." Naṣṭa-sadācāraḥ. Sadācāra means good behavior. Why good behavior was lost? Dāsyaḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ: because he was associating with a prostitute, illegal sex.

Therefore, anyone who wants to make progress in spiritual life, he must be sadācāra. His behavior must be very regulated. Asadācārī, unclean, non regulated, cannot make any progress. If somebody says that, "Whatever you like, you can do. There is no difference. You can imagine your own way . . ." This is going on nowadays. "Whatever you like, you can do. You can imagine your own way of self-realization."

But that is not recommended in the Vedic literatures. One must be sadācāra. This is the beginning of sadācāra: to rise early in the morning, to cleanse, then chant, or chant the Vedic mantras or, simplified as in the present age, Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, mahā-mantra. This is the beginning of sadācāra.

So sadācāra means to become freed from sinful reaction. Unless one follows the regulative principles he cannot be freed. And unless one is fully freed from sinful reaction, he cannot understand what is God. Those who are not in sadācāra, regulative principles, for them . . . just like animals, they are not expected to follow any . . . of course, by nature they follow regulative principles. Still, but human beings, having advanced consciousness, so instead of using it properly, they misuse the advanced consciousness, and thus they become lower than animals.

The animals, for want of advanced consciousness, cannot follow any regulative principles. But by nature they have got some regulative principle. A human being, advanced consciousness, instead of using it for advance in spiritual life, they use it for sense gratification, and thus they become lower than the animals.

So as soon as one becomes irregulated, without any sadācāra, then he doesn't care for any sinful activities for maintaining his body and soul together. He doesn't mind. Their philosophy is . . . what is called? "Existence is the first law of nature," or something like . . .

Guest (1): Self-preservation.

Prabhupāda: Self-preservation. So self-preservation . . . they do not know what is self-preservation. That is another ignorance. They consider this body as the self. Their self-preservation means to keep this body. And that is also not possible. If you do not follow regulative principles, it is not possible to keep your body in good condition. That is also not possible.

Those who do not follow the regulative principles, mostly they are diseased, some kind. We find in the medical . . . modern medical shop, the customers are educated people. Mass of people, they are not customers in the medical shop. You'll find it. They are not so much diseased. In every gentleman's house, modern, you'll find so many bottles of medicine. But you won't find such medical bottles in any house of less educated persons. They are not so diseased.

So this is one of the items. If you want to advance in spiritual life, you must follow the regulative principles to rectify your mistakes in the past life and this present life. Without being freed from all contamination nobody can understand God. That is not possible. Bhagavad-gītā says, yeṣāṁ anta gataṁ pāpaṁ: "One who has become completely freed from all kinds of sinful reaction . . ." Yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām, "Persons who are engaged in pious activities only," te, "such person," te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā. ([[Vanisource:BG 7.28 (1972)|BG 7.28]]).

This life, the material life, is dvandva. Dvandva means fighting or quarreling. Every one of us has got nature for fighting with others unnecessarily. Even some people come here with a spirit of fighting with me. So this is called dvandva. And moha. How this fighting spirit becomes developed? On account of illusion. What is that illusion?

Accepting this body as self. So if one is contaminated by sinful activity—if he is in illusion, how he . . . illusion of accepting this body as self—what is the meaning of their self-realization? He's illusioned. He'll keep himself in all kinds of contaminated life, and artificially he thinks that by some kind of mystic meditation he'll be all right. This is going on.

No. One must follow. Meditation, yogic meditation, is also possible when there is yama, niyama, āsana, praṇāyāma—the eight principles of yoga system. And nobody follows the eight principles of yoga system, and simply sitting down and meditating, that will not help. The first two steps are yama, niyama, then āsana, then praṇāyāma, then pratyāhāra, then dhyāna, then dhāraṇā, then samādhi. These are explained in the yogic śāstra or Bhagavad-gītā.

So this man, although born of a Brahmin father . . . Now, here it is said that naṣṭa-sadācāra. Although he is born of a Brahmin father, his ācāra, his dealings for advancing in spiritual life . . . A Brahmin is expected to be truthful, to be self-controlled, to be fully cognizant of spiritual life, practical application in life, jñānam, vijñānam, āstikyam, to have complete faith in the statement of the śāstras. That is . . . that is called āstikyam.

We, according to our Vedic system, we do not accept any other system of religion, because we consider them nāstika. That is the primary principle. Nāstika means one who does not believe in the Vedas. He is called nāstika. Not that he does not believe in God. One may believe in God, but one who does not believe in the Vedic literature, he is called nāstika. Veda na manīyā bauddha haila nāstika. Lord Buddha, although he is accepted as incarnation of God, but because he defied the Vedic principles it is said, nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātaṁ (Śrī Daśāvatāra Stotra 7).

Lord Buddha criticized the, I mean to say, sacrificial ceremonies, because in the sacrificial ceremonies sometimes there is recommendation of killing an animal. But he was preaching nonviolence. So he criticized even the sacrifice in yajña. He criticized. Nindasi . . . but a Vaiṣṇava is praying, "My dear Lord, You are defying the Vedic principles."

He knows why the Lord is now defying the Vedic principles; therefore he is devotee. In spite of Lord Buddha's defying the Vedic principles, a devotee is offering him obeisances: keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare. He knows the Lord, how He is playing, how He is bewildering the atheistic class of men.

The atheistic class of men did not believe in God. Lord Buddha says: "Yes, you don't require to believe in God. There is no God. But you feel yourself that when you are attacked with violence you feel pain. Why should you offer to others?" Because his mission was to stop animal killing. Sadaya-hṛdaya-darṣita-paśu-ghātam.

The Supreme Lord became too much compassionate when he saw that people are unnecessarily killing animals, as it is going on still. Instead of . . . at least those who are claiming Buddhist, they are killing animals. Hmm? Bruce, is it not? Yes. But in the Buddhist religion there is no sanction for killing animals. Yes?

Guest (2): . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: (Hindi: . . . (indistinct) . . . Why should I say something?) Muhammad, he also did not believe in the Vedic literature. But according to Vedic literature, anyone who does not believe in the Vedic literature, he is nāstika. Just like the Muhammadans, they say, "Anyone who does not believe in Koran, he is kafir." The Christians say: "Anyone who does not believe in the Bible, they are heathens." That is there everywhere. Similarly, Lord Caitanya said that veda na manīyā bauddha haila nāstika.

He is giving the definition, because we have to follow the great personalities, great ācāryas. That is our process. We do not make any research, or we do not make any statement made by us. We simply accept the injunctions given by great ācāryas. Ācāryopāsanam. That is the process of Vedic system. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12).

One must approach a spiritual master and learn from him. So whatever spiritual master says, that is accepted. Sādhu guru śāstra vākya. Real evidence is, it must be stated in the scriptures, it must be explained by the spiritual master or saintly persons. That is evidence.

Guest (3): Śastra-vākya-pramāṇa.

Prabhupāda: Śāstra-vākya-pramāṇa. And it should be known through the spiritual master. Just like nowadays Bhagavad-gītā is being interpreted in so many foolish ways, because they do not accept explanation from the authority. They become themselves authorities. Therefore misused. That is not explanation. Somebody is explaining that Kurukṣetra means this body, pañca-pāṇḍava means the senses. These are all nonsense. You have to accept Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

When you cannot understand, you should get it explained by your spiritual master. Therefore one has to accept a spiritual master to understand. Tad-vijnanārtham. In order to understand that transcendental science one must approach the bona fide spiritual master. That is injunction.
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