We are also doing that, that "Don't associate with the four principles of sinful life: illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling." Tyaja durjana-saṁsargaṁ bhaja sādhu-samāgamam: "You associate with sādhus." Who are sādhus? That is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā: sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyag vyavasito hi saḥ (BG 9.30). Who? Api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ. That is sādhu. Sādhu means who is fully engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord. He is sādhu.
So in this way we have to acquire knowledge. Jñānāvasthita-cetasaḥ. Full knowledge. Then we can avoid the association of the three modes of material nature. Gata-saṅgasya muktasya. Then we become liberated even in this life, if you are actually situated in knowledge. And how to . . . how one can understand that "This man is mukta. He is not associating with any material modes of nature"? How? Yajñāyācarataḥ karma. For yajña, yajñāya. Yajña karma-samudbhavaḥ. Just like I was explaining, you have to perform yajña, yajñāya, only for yajña. Yajñārthe. Another place Kṛṣṇa has ex . . . yajñārthe karma anyatra karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). If you do not act for yajña, then you will be entangled in the karma-bandhanaḥ.
This is the science. One has to be situated in full knowledge, and full knowledge is . . . the beginning of knowledge is that one must understand that, "I am not this body." This is knowledge. And if one is working like cats and dogs, thinking himself, "I am this body," he has no knowledge. Just like animals—they are not expected to be in knowledge. A man is expected to be in knowledge, and he must know that, "I am not this body." Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So one has to know that, "I am not this body, but circumstantially and according to my association with the modes of nature, I am transferring, transmigrating from this body to another body."
So therefore in the Vedic culture the karma-kāṇḍīya-yajña is recommended. At least, you get a better body. Don't go to the lower body. Ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthāḥ (BG 14.18). Better body in higher planetary system. That is karma-kāṇḍīya-vicāra. Therefore yajña. Yajñāyācarataḥ karma. Everything should be easier. Yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ (BG 3.13), the same thing. Just like here, we are performing yajña, the saṅkīrtana-yajña. We are preparing food for Kṛṣṇa. That is yajña. And when we eat the remnants of foodstuff, that is also yajña-avaśiṣṭa, remnants of foodstuff. Yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santaḥ. Aśina. Aśina means eating. After offering in the yajña, if you eat, yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santaḥ, you become a santaḥ, saintly person. And yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ, mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. He becomes free from all sinful reaction. And bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt (BG 3.13). And who is cooking for himself very palatable dishes, he is bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā: he is simply eating sins, and he has to suffer. Therefore we have to eat, we have to work, we have to do everything only for yajñāya, not for any other purpose. Then we are entangled. As soon as we do anything for my sense gratification, then we are entangled immediately—goodness or badness, goodness, passion or ignorance.