Sneha is, another meaning of sneha is oil, liquid. So sneha means affection. So this sneha word is used that there is a liquid, how you say it, goes to down. Liquid does not go up. Slow. Similarly, we have got some affection, the affection goes to the lowest. Therefore father, mother's affection generally goes to the youngest. So here also Ajāmila, although he's a cheat, he's a rogue, he's a thief, he has learned all the bad quality, but still the sneha, the affection, that is not lost. So this is natural. Similarly, we have got a natural feeling for Kṛṣṇa. If you study thoroughly, that is called meditation, that "Whom I love." Say for the first time, I love my body. If there is some danger I try to protect myself from the danger. That means I love my body. So the next question will be: "Then why don't you love a dead body?" Suppose your wife or husband, you love, because the husband and wife is in the body, within the body, dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). So I love the body because the spirit soul is there. This is right conclusion. Otherwise who is going to love a dead body? Nobody. Now if one's husband has died, or son has died, he's crying. You can say that "Why you are crying?" "Now my son is gone, my husband is gone." "No one has gone. It is lying here." "No, no, no. He's not." So after death we understand that this dead body is neither my husband nor my son. Late experience. But in the beginning there is no such experience. That is called illusion. He will understand it that this dead body is not neither my father, nor my husband, nor my son. He's different from. And that is practical example. Otherwise why not take the dead body of your husband or son, and keep it? No. That is not possible.
So it is clear that the soul is different from the body. But because we are fools and rascals, we learn it after death. That is foolishness. Not in the beginning. In the beginning the Bhagavad-gītā says, Kṛṣṇa says, that asmin dehe, "Within this body, the soul is there." "No, no. I don't believe." Dull brain cannot understand. But after death, he sees, "Yes. The body is not my son. The body is not my husband." So that is foolishness. The foolish person understands late, and intelligent person understands very quickly. That is the difference. So I love my body. I love my husband's body or wife's body. Why? The real husband, wife or son is within the body. Therefore I love. Then the conclusion is that the soul is important more than the body. Then the question will be that "Why you love the soul?" Then the answer will be, "Because the soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa." Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūta (BG 15.7). So ultimately the conclusion is that I love Kṛṣṇa and, because the soul is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, therefore I love the soul. And because the soul loves within this body, therefore I love . . . There is no difficulty to understand. But so long one is under illusion, he's under the bodily concept of life. Therefore śāstra says that one who is in the bodily concept of life, he's animal. He's animal.
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
- yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
Go-kharaḥ. Go means cow and kharaḥ means ass. I repeatedly say this. So unless we understand that I or you, we are not this body, there is no question of spiritual understanding or spiritual education.
So here the Ajāmila, because, although he was a brāhmaṇa, but due to association of a prostitute he lost everything. This is the version. We have already studied, that,
- kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid
- dāsī-patir ajāmilaḥ
- nāmnā naṣṭa-sad-ācāro . . .
- (SB 6.1.21)
Sad-ācāra. Sad-ācāra, just like we are teaching sad-ācāra, rise early in the morning, take your bath, change your cloth, wash your mouth, and then go to the Deity room and have maṅgala ārotika, then study, so many, so many, simply sad-ācāra. Sad-ācāra means . . . Sat means "that will exist," and ācāra means "behavior." Sad-ācāra. So here it is said that Ajāmila, he became the husband of a prostitute. It is not the śāstric injunction. You can become husband, but not the husband of a prostitute. Then your life is finished. Naṣṭa sad-ācāra. You will be lost all . . . (indistinct) . . . Therefore so much stress is given that wife should be chaste and the husband should be very well behaved, then life will be successful. Arjuna argued with Kṛṣṇa that "You're asking me to kill my brothers and relatives on the other side, so don't You think that if I kill them, their wives will be widowed and they will be polluted? And as soon as they will be polluted, there will be varṇa-saṅkara." Varṇa-saṅkara, the practical example of varṇa-saṅkara is the hippie in your country: no caste, no creed, neither useful for the material world, neither useful for the spiritual. That is called varṇa-saṅkara. Then he said, "My . . ." Arjuna . . . Strīṣu duṣṭāsu varṇa-saṅkara virabhyati (BG 1.40): "My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are asking me to kill my . . . There will be widow, and they will be polluted, and there will be varṇa-saṅkara, and what is the loss? And when there'll be varṇa-saṅkara, then the whole world will be hell. It will be no more suitable for habitation of gentlemen. Finished."
Therefore in the Vedic civilization two things are very much stressed: to teach the man from childhood how to become expert in sad-ācāra, and woman trained up how to become chaste. So this chaste woman and this sad-ācāra, brāhmaṇa—ideal is brāhmaṇa —if they combine then there will be peace, there will be progress, there will be peace in the society, peace in the family. There is a poetry in English, "Society, friendship and love, divinely bestowed upon you." But that society is not this society. If we become husband of the prostitute, no, that is not possible. Then sad-ācāra will be finished. Nāmnā sad-ācāra. Dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ (SB 6.1.21): as soon as you become associated with prostitute, then everything will be lost. Sad-ācāra lost means your progress in spiritual life is lost. Therefore we are stressing so much on the four points: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling. This is the way. If you are serious . . . But if you take it as a fashion, that is another thing. But if you take it seriously, to progress, then these things should be done. This is the basic principle of spiritual progress.