Revatīnandana: Purport: "Book knowledge without realization of the Supreme Truth is useless. This is said as follows in the Padma Purāṇa . . ."
Prabhupāda: Yes, Padma Purāṇa. There are eighteen Purāṇas. There are . . . men are conducted in three qualities: modes of goodness, modes of passion and modes of ignorance. To reclaim all these conditioned souls in different varieties of life, there are presentation of the Purāṇas.
The six Purāṇas are meant for the persons who are in the modes of goodness. And six Purāṇas are meant for the persons who are in the modes of passion. And the six Purāṇas who are in the modes of ignorance, those Purāṇas are meant for them.
This Padma Purāṇa is meant for the persons who are in the modes of goodness. In Vedic rituals, you find so many differences of ritualistic performances. It is due to different kinds of men. Just like you have heard that Vedic literature, there is a ritualistic ceremony offering goat sacrifice in the presence of Goddess Kālī. But this Purāṇa, Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, is meant for the persons who are in the modes of ignorance.
Just like a person is attached to eat meat. Now if all of a sudden if he is instructed that meat-eating is not good . . . or a person is attached to drink liquor. If he at once said that liquor is not good, he cannot accept. Therefore in the Purāṇas we'll find, "All right, if you want to eat meat, you just worship Goddess Kālī and sacrifice a goat before the goddess, and you can eat meat. You cannot eat meat or flesh by purchasing from the slaughterhouse butcher shop. You have to eat in this way." That means restriction.
Because if you want to perform the sacrifice before the Goddess of Kālī, there is a certain date, there is a certain paraphernalia, you have to arrange for that. And that pūjā, that worship is allowed on the dark moon night. So dark moon night means once in a month. And the mantras are chanted in this way: the goat is advised that "You are sacrificing your life before the goddess Kālī. So you get immediately promotion to have a human form of life."
Actually it happens, because to come to the standard of human form of life one living entity has to pass through so many evolutionary process. But the goat who agrees, or who is by force sacrificed before the goddess Kālī, he gets immediate promotion to the human form of life. And the mantra says that, "You have got the right to kill this man who is sacrificing." Māṁsa.
Māṁsa means that you will also eat his flesh next birth. So in this way, the man who is sacrificing will come to his senses: "Why eating this flesh? Then I'll have to repay with my flesh. Why shall I do this job?" You see. The whole idea is to restrain him.