- prāyaścittāni cīrṇāni
- nārāyaṇa-parāṅmukham
- na niṣpunanti rājendra
- surā-kumbham ivāpagāḥ
- (SB 6.1.18)
Ivāpagāḥ. So here is one significant word, surā-kumbham. Everything is washed very nicely. If you go to the river, you can wash very nicely. But just see how much infectious is liquor that the any pot or any bottle which was filled up with liquor, they cannot be purified. This is Vedic civilization. How much condemned is liquor! Because a pot was filled up with liquor, you cannot use it for any other purpose. It is lost. Even if you wash it very nicely, no, it will not be accepted. Finished. Similarly, there are many processes of purification; they cannot be as useful as bhagavad-bhakti. Bhagavad-bhakti is so nice that Kṛṣṇa says that "You surrender to Me," sarva-dharmān parityajya, "and immediately you become immune from all reaction of sinful activity. Immediately."
- sarva-dharmān parityajya
- mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
- ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
- mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
- (BG 18.66)
Bhagavad-bhakti is so strong. In many places it is stated in the śāstra.
- dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
- viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
- notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
- śrama eva hi kevalam
- (SB 1.2.8)
So there are different varieties of religious system, but if you execute your particular type of religious system very perfectly, but the result—if you do not become attached to Kṛṣṇa, your love for Kṛṣṇa is not awakened—then simply by performing such ritualistic ceremony or rules and regulation of your religious system, if you do not become, develop yourself to love God, then it is all useless waste of time. It has no meaning. That is the test, how to become, how to advance in loving service of the Lord. That is the. . . Then you are religious, you are philosopher, you are great man, you are everything. Otherwise, if you do not awaken your dormant love for Kṛṣṇa, or God, then all such labor is useless. Śrama eva hi kevalam. Dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ, notpādayed yadi (SB 1.2.8). By performing religious ceremonies or following the religious principle, the test is how one has become advanced in the loving service of the Lord. This is required. And his example is very strong, that surā-kumbham ivāpagāḥ. Surā-kumbha, the pot which contained liquor, it cannot be purified. Therefore it is so strictly prohibited about liquor. So,
- sakṛn manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor
- niveśitaṁ tad-guṇa-rāgi yair iha
- na te yamaṁ pāśa-bhṛtaś ca tad-bhaṭān
- svapne 'pi paśyanti hi cīrṇa-niṣkṛtāḥ
- (SB 6.1.19)
Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī has recommended that "Somehow or other, you become Kṛṣṇa conscious." Yena tena prakāreṇa manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet. That is the recommendation of Rūpa Gosvāmī: "Somehow or other, you engage your mind in Kṛṣṇa." Then your life will be successful. Somehow or other. Do anything, but you remember Kṛṣṇa. That is the instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā also.