19831105 The Importance of Dīkṣā

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Svāmī on November 05, 1983 in the United States. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 9^th Canto, Chapter 8, Verse 25 up to Chapter 9, Verse 5.

Jayapatākā Svāmī: (Leads the 25^th Verse 3 times with devotees repeat) (Reads translation of 9.8.25) (Reads 9.8.26 – 9.9.5 Verses, Translations and Purport)

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.

tvan-māyā-racite loke
vastu-buddhyā gṛhādiṣu
bhramanti kāma-lobherṣyā-
moha-vibhrānta-cetasaḥ
[SB 9.8.25]

Translation:

O my Lord, those whose hearts are bewildered by the influence of lust, greed, envy and illusion are interested only in false hearth and home in this world created by Your māyā. Attached to home, wife and children, they wander in this material world perpetually.

adya naḥ sarva-bhūtātman
kāma-karmendriyāśayaḥ
moha-pāśo dṛḍhaś chinno
bhagavaṁs tava darśanāt
[SB 9.8.26]

Translation

O Supersoul of all living entities, O Personality of Godhead, simply by seeing You I have now been freed from all lusty desires, which are the root cause of insurmountable illusion and bondage in the material world.

 

śrī-śuka uvāca
itthaṁ gītānubhāvas taṁ
bhagavān kapilo muniḥ
aṁśumantam uvācedam
anugrāhya dhiyā nṛpa
[SB 9.8.27]

Translation

O King Parīkṣit, when Aṁśumān had glorified the Lord in this way, the great sage Kapila, the powerful incarnation of Viṣṇu, being very merciful to him, explained to him the path of knowledge.

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
aśvo ’yaṁ nīyatāṁ vatsa
pitāmaha-paśus tava
ime ca pitaro dagdhā
gaṅgāmbho ’rhanti netarat
[SB 9.8.28]

Translation

The Personality of Godhead said: My dear Aṁśumān, here is the animal sought by your grandfather for sacrifice. Please take it. As for your forefathers, who have been burnt to ashes, they can be delivered only by Ganges water, and not by any other means.

 

taṁ parikramya śirasā
prasādya hayam ānayat
sagaras tena paśunā
yajña-śeṣaṁ samāpayat
[SB 9.8.29]

Translation:

Thereafter, Aṁśumān circumambulated Kapila Muni and offered Him respectful obeisances, bowing his head. After fully satisfying Him in this way, Aṁśumān brought back the horse meant for sacrifice, and with this horse Mahārāja Sagara performed the remaining ritualistic ceremonies.

 

rājyam aṁśumate nyasya
niḥspṛho mukta-bandhanaḥ
aurvopadiṣṭa-mārgeṇa
lebhe gatim anuttamām
[SB 9.8.30]

Translation:

After delivering charge of his kingdom to Aṁśumān and thus being freed from all material anxiety and bondage, Sagara Mahārāja, following the means instructed by Aurva Muni, achieved the supreme destination.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Ninth Canto, Eighth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “The Sons of Sagara Meet Lord Kapiladeva.”

śrī-śuka uvāca
aṁśumāṁś ca tapas tepe
gaṅgānayana-kāmyayā
kālaṁ mahāntaṁ nāśaknot
tataḥ kālena saṁsthitaḥ
[SB 9.9.1]

Translation:

Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: King Aṁśumān, like his grandfather, performed austerities for a very long time. Nonetheless, he could not bring the Ganges to this material world, and thereafter, in due course of time, he died.

dilīpas tat-sutas tadvad
aśaktaḥ kālam eyivān
bhagīrathas tasya sutas
tepe sa sumahat tapaḥ
[SB 9.9.2]

Translation:

Like Aṁśumān himself, Dilīpa, his son, was unable to bring the Ganges to this material world, and he also became a victim of death in due course of time. Then Dilīpa’s son, Bhagīratha, performed very severe austerities to bring the Ganges to this material world.

darśayām āsa taṁ devī
prasannā varadāsmi te
ity uktaḥ svam abhiprāyaṁ
śaśaṁsāvanato nṛpaḥ
[SB 9.9.3]

 

Translation:

Thereafter, mother Ganges appeared before King Bhagīratha and said, “I am very much satisfied with your austerities and am now prepared to give you benedictions as you desire.” Being thus addressed by Gaṅgādevī, mother Ganges, the King bowed his head before her and explained his desire.

Purport:

The King’s desire was to deliver his forefathers, who had been burnt to ashes because of disrespecting Kapila Muni.

ko ’pi dhārayitā vegaṁ
patantyā me mahī-tale
anyathā bhū-talaṁ bhittvā
nṛpa yāsye rasātalam
[SB 9.9.4]

Translation:

Mother Ganges replied: When I fall from the sky to the surface of the planet earth, the water will certainly be very forceful. Who will sustain that force? If I am not sustained, I shall pierce the surface of the earth and go down to Rasātala, the Pātāla area of the universe.

 

kiṁ cāhaṁ na bhuvaṁ yāsye
narā mayy āmṛjanty agham
mṛjāmi tad aghaṁ kvāhaṁ
rājaṁs tatra vicintyatām
[SB 9.9.5]

Translation:

O King, I do not wish to go down to the planet earth, for there the people in general will bathe in my water to cleanse themselves of the reactions of their sinful deeds. When all these sinful reactions accumulate in me, how shall I become free from them? You must consider this very carefully.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead says:

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.” (Bg. 18.66) The Supreme Personality of Godhead can accept the reactions of anyone’s sinful deeds and neutralize them because He is pavitra, pure, like the sun, which is never contaminated by any worldly infection. Tejīyasāṁ na doṣāya vahneḥ sarva-bhujo yathā (Bhāg. 10.33.29). One who is very powerful is not affected by any sinful activity. But here we see that mother Ganges fears being burdened with the sins of the people in general who would bathe in her waters. This indicates that no one but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is able to neutralize the reactions of sinful deeds, whether one’s own or those of others. Sometimes the spiritual master, after accepting a disciple, must take charge of that disciple’s past sinful activities and, being overloaded, must sometimes suffer — if not fully, then partially — for the sinful acts of the disciple. Every disciple, therefore, must be very careful not to commit sinful activities after initiation. The poor spiritual master is kind and merciful enough to accept a disciple and partially suffer for that disciple’s sinful activities, but Kṛṣṇa, being merciful to His servant, neutralizes the reactions of sinful deeds for the servant who engages in preaching His glories. Even mother Ganges feared the sinful reactions of the people in general and was anxious about how she would counteract the burden of these sins.

Thus end the text five of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Chapter Nine, Canto Nine, the Bhaktivedanta Purport in the matter of “The Dynasty of Aṁśumān”.

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Actually, ISKCON could not fulfill Śrīla Prabhupāda's desire, more specifically myself. He told me that he wanted to come, bathe in the Ganges every day, if there will only be a direct road to the Ganges, right in front of our temple. But we tried various ways to get the road, but even till today we were not able to do that. Still the devotees have to walk across the fields and so on. Although Prabhupāda did go and visit the Ganges, on a couple of occasions by walking through the fields with the devotees he took bath. You know that according to the prayers of Vidura wherever a pure devotee goes that is the place of pilgrimage, even the Ganges is purified.

Here we can see that the Ganges is very concerned, afraid to come to this planet earth, because all the people would bathe in her to dump their accumulation of sinful reactions. She is worried about how she is going to be purified from them. Now, if the Ganges is worried about sinful reactions, it’s very significant, then how worried, or how afraid or cautious should any other devotee be? We can understand that because Śrīla Prabhupāda has accepted so many disciples, and his consciousness was of course unaffected. He was very powerful. But… but he gives a secret here actually that Kṛṣṇa being merciful to his servants neutralizes the reactions of sinful deeds for the servant who engages in preaching His glories. So, by being constant engaged in preaching the glories of the Lord then Kṛṣṇa's mercy can be attracted. Even then it doesn't mean that the spiritual master doesn't suffer, may not suffer totally, but partially may suffer.

When Śrīla Prabhupāda was very sick, his final pastimes at one point he showed, his very thin, thin arms became very thin in the end. He couldn't eat, a lot of problems. And he said, “This is the result of taking too many unqualified disciples.” Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda suffered for the sinful reactions of his disciples. He said sometimes. In Māyāpur one time, he said that, “Sometimes he had to suffer hellish dreams that Kṛṣṇa would give him the reactions to the sinful activities of the disciples after initiation. In his dreams, he will be taken literally to hell.” And he specifically said, “This is because my disciples are breaking regulative principles. He was forced to suffer excruciating trials.”

The disciple should understand that the bond at the time of initiation is something very serious. So, for preaching Prabhupāda was very liberal, he was very merciful in accepting disciples, just to allow fallen souls in the Western countries to take shelter of him. Sometimes maybe the other disciples who have recommended these candidates were not so responsible or expert at seeing who was actually qualified. Prabhupāda was also little disgusted that how lightly people in the West took their promises or their words, their oaths.

I remember that in India once Prabhupāda told us how incredibly honest, what great integrity the British had. One time he made a deal with a British man when he was in business, that, he would give, he would purchase something at a certain time, would be this price, and after the deal was made, before the delivery could be made, the market price had changed considerably. As a result of which that English man was going to lose lot of money. But nevertheless, he came through and at the rate he agreed, he purchased all the goods, medicine, whatever it was. [whatever the…]

Prabhupāda said, “Why you are going through with this? You are losing money.”

He said, “It is our business integrity, we have given our word, we have to do it.”

Prabhupāda was very impressed by that. He saw that, now in recent day business, even if the person has a signed contract, they break it without thinking, and let people take me the court. But previously people were much more conscientious that their good name and their word was worth more than money. Money you could get but to get reputation, to get a good name, to get… that was something which was considered much more valuable than money. But now people have become so sinful.

I asked one devotee who had promised to follow certain rules and regulations that, “Why you are not following?” “Ah, one more promise in the water. So many promises I have given in my life. This is one more.” Very carefree attitude.

Actually, that is probably the one single obstacle to break through, is that a candidate for initiation, new devotee could, or even initiated devotees, already initiated could actually understand the seriousness of the relationship between the spiritual master and the disciple. Because even in the West now, such a serious contract is marriage, which say in India, South America, most of the less civilized, modern, in term less sophisticated nations, in terms of, sarcastically I am saying in terms of the Western idea, that they consider very serious to be married, normally there is not much instance of divorce. But here without a second thought they can breakup.

Even many devotees that Prabhupāda personally married in fire sacrifice, after a short time, they would approach him and say, “We want to get divorce, we don't like each other”. Where in India, we were just discussing yesterday how once they get married, their social pressure, the whole culture is such that, even if they don't like it, they will never give up their… you know. Some exceptions now in the cities, but the tradition is that they would not, they just tolerate it. It’s only one life, it's not worth going to hell for it to give up your husband, give up your wife.

But now people, they are trying to squeeze out everything in this one life. They don't consider there is going to be an afterlife or that there is law of karma, they just try to squeeze out. “Ah, this one didn’t work. I got another eighty years or sixty years or forever…” (They don't think they are going to die) “…to live. Come, just get someone else. I’m going to try to get as much as possible, squeeze out every bit of pleasure from this body.” So, they rack up, accumulate so much bad karma, incredible situation.

So when even such an important promise as uh, to get married, every church they say, “Until we die…”

[Aside: What is it? In uh…]

Devotee: Till death do us part.

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Death do us part.

Even my mother she got divorced. She was excommunicated from the Lutheran church. It was considered to be very orthodox I imagine. Very bad, she had to go to some other church, that was a little more liberal. So, people take promises very lightly. So when they take this promise of initiation, actually they don't realize that this is not a temporary situation, it's actually eternal link. Unless there is a serious infracture on either side of that obligation, then the obligations, they don't dissipate, they don't end, they are there. Then the disciple by acting irresponsibly is simply creating a very very precarious situation for the spiritual master. And obviously when someone creates a very dangerous situation for his spiritual master, you can imagine that Kṛṣṇa is not going to be very favorably inclined to that person as well.

If people can develop the broader vision that what is life, that this life is just a short life in our whole eternal life, and therefore we should act responsibly considering that this is just one life in our eternal life, and this particular life very wonderful opportunity for those who want to achieve the maximum happiness in this very life is. Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu's very special benediction is that in this very life you can achieve Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, you can achieve complete perfection. Actually, it's a great benediction. Because I don't know if the modern-day people would be so patient to have to wait several lives, you see. At least the opportunity to achieve in this life is very attractive to everyone.

We have to be very careful not to put the spiritual master into difficulty. Not to put ourselves into difficulty. Actually because of over attachment to sense gratification, person becomes cruel and violent. By being so attached to sense gratification that they even are becoming cruel and violent to the spiritual master, what else can it be? Isn't it cruelness and violence if they break regulative principles knowing that it is going to put their spiritual master into difficulty. To willfully, intentionally put someone else into difficulty in modern law, and in, just.. in justice it's considered to be violence. If a worker knows that a Boeing 747 doesn't have an essential part and willingfully doesn’t put it in, and it crashes and 500 people die, isn’t he considered to be responsible, violent neglect of his duty?

If a doctor knows that the patient is too weak for the operation, but to get money operates anyway and the patient dies, and they can prove it, that he knew he was too weak, they sue. So even just neglecting our… no. This is more than that because we know that, “Whatever am doing after I take initiation, my spiritual master is directly responsible for the reaction.” So, if someone even in spite of understanding that, is so attached to sense gratification that doesn't consider what would be the reaction to the spiritual master, we can understand that person has become very cruel and very violent. If… if only out of ignorance.

So even the Ganges is very cautious, we can see here that to take so many reactions. Therefore our preachers they are advised to be very cautious in accepting disciples. Why should it… we find that there are many devotees in the sampradaya like Lokanātha Gosvāmī, he refused. He would not take even one disciple. “It's too much of a burden. I’m not strong enough. I am not advanced enough. I just want to serve Kṛṣṇa. I am not strong enough”, he thought. (laugh)Nitya siddha, eternally liberated soul, direct associate of Lord Caitanya, he didn’t want to accept any disciples. Because he thought he was not advanced enough. He had to be… even he was ordered to, he was reluctant, he didn’t want to. In the absence of a direct order, he was completely opposed to accepting any disciple. It was Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura was serving him, when he asked him for initiation, he refused. He said, “No. This is your intention.” He says, “You cannot… I will not give you initiation.”

“At least allow me to serve you.” He was even reluctant to accept service, because… once he realized that was the motive.

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura for years had to follow his spiritual master, hiding in the bushes when he will go into the forest, and find where he would go for his morning nature call and he would clean that place, put cow dung, make it very clean, put a water jug out, whatever. “Who is doing this?”

If he changed location, it would happen at the other place. When he went back, when he be gone, he would clean up the whole ashram for his spiritual master that he accepted in his heart. You see, when he wouldn’t accept willingly, then even somehow or another he knew that the service had to be done, so he did it. Finally, Lokanātha Gosvāmī, he became so curious, who is doing this service. He hid and he saw, it was Narottama. Challenged Narottama, “What you are doing?”

“I am serving”, he fell at his feet. “Whether you accept me or not as your disciple, I have accepted you as my spiritual master and am going to serve you my whole life.” That determination was so… that devotion which was so selfless, that impressed Lokanātha Gosvāmī so much that he said, “Your service has defeated me.” Then he accepted him as his disciple, initiated him.

So, there are basically three types of disciples. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, “uttama, madhyama and kaniṣṭha”. Uttama disciple is the disciple who even without the spiritual master giving a direct order that, “I want this to be done” can understand the mind of the spiritual master that the spiritual master desiring that this particular thing should be done. And he does that even without being given the order and correctly. Of course, one shouldn't imitate that, it requires a considerable amount of experience to be able to come to that. If one will speculate and do the wrong thing then he will be in trouble. We have seen that Prabhupāda sometimes in Vṛndāvana, he was relax, just do like this, just raise his finger, there was no way of indicating, understanding but immediately the servant would jump up and close the window, or turn on the light, or somehow or other they would just do exactly what he wanted, sometime they would do the wrong thing and he would go. (gestures) Then you know (laughing). But 85%... about 3/4 to… almost 95% of the time they get it right, once in a while they wouldn’t. Even a little… of course if a devotee would do something which was in a crisis, which was the correct thing, Prabhupāda will be very pleased, even without asking him. Of course, if they did the wrong thing they are responsible, that's uttama level.

Madyama level is that whatever the spiritual master orders, that disciple very expertly, very enthusiastically, very efficiently performs. Madyama - to follow explicitly the order of the spiritual master without any deviation, is the middle class.

Kaniṣṭha or the neophyte level is that one trying to follow the order of the spiritual master but is not cent percent expert or capable. He is trying to follow, but he is not always able to do it in the most enthusiastic way, or in the most perfect way. That is the Kaniṣṭha level. Desire is there to try.

Apart from this, Prabhupāda said there is another level, it's not actually even a disciple. That level is called ādhamāḥ. It's like narādhamāḥ, āsuraṁ narādhamāḥ. narādhamāḥ this is ādhamāḥ disciple. Ādhamāḥ means fallen, doesn't follow the order of the spiritual master, disobeys the instruction of the spiritual master, isn't trying very hard at all to follow the instruction of the spiritual master. May be name only disciple, but in practicality he is not actually fulfilling the obligations. Regular… irregular devotee. Still because someone, they… still they are called ādhamāḥ-sisya. They are still disciple, because at least they are recognizing some relationship, but they are not following, so they are considered ādhamāḥ, they are fallen; they are not actually a real disciple. In the strict sense of the word, fallen disciple.

So if a disciple can give a load to the spiritual master, then we can understand that the disciple by acting very nicely can actually free the spiritual master from any burden from himself. So that's the least that a disciple can do. And an advanced disciple can also help other junior disciples to become more Kṛṣṇa conscious, more strict, more enthusiastic in their service which would be a very great service to the spiritual master.

And if the Ganges has got some doubt about her capacity, we can understand that a spiritual master also will have a capacity, depending on how much mercy he gets from the spiritu... from Kṛṣṇa. Because Kṛṣṇa is the only one that can ultimately neutralize. Just like you can put on some antiseptic on your sore, there is a limit how much that antiseptic, how many microorganism or infections they can neutralize. If you just put one small micro part of a drop on it, it will only able to cover so many.

So, Kṛṣṇa is unlimited, and he can give that unlimited potency to his pure devotee, to whatever extent he wants to. Pure devotee of course takes the humble attitude and knows that uh, he will be at least held partially responsible for all the reactions. And if he is irresponsible, he can be held fully to task. So, it’s very serious. Kṛṣṇa has unlimited potencies; spiritual master has to be very careful. So, if disciples are very expert in keeping their Godbrothers Kṛṣṇa Conscious that means that would enhance whatever capacity their spiritual master has for delivering more souls, by not over burdening. If he is over-burdened that means that with few fallen disciples whatever mercy he is getting from Kṛṣṇa is being expended. [Aside: Don’t look with one eye.] Anyway, if he is… if the disciples are all very serious then so many more disciples can be increased, without being a burden on the spiritual master excessively. So to make this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement expand that means every disciple must be very careful to be strict and they should try to encourage others who are initiated to come up to the same platform. Initiation should not be taken lightly, very serious because it means if a person follows that person is guaranteed to reach Kṛṣṇa.

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Might be time for one question.

Yes Bhakta Dhir.

[break]

Jayapatākā Svāmī: There is very little that one can change the direction. A human being in the mode of goodness has got slight scope for changing the direction within his material life. If he follows 100 years perfectly varṇāśrama dharma for 100 lifetimes, then he could become a Brahmā. But that means gradually over a long period of time of perfect material pious activity, good karma, one could achieve a certain direction. But the whole process of yoga being transcendental is completely beyond and above this whole chain of material activities; therefore, just by the process of yoga specifically bhakti-yoga is the most powerful. But, all transcendental yoga processes, they actually can change one's destiny.

It's set, unless you practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In general, what you are going to suffer enjoy in this life is already set, no matter what you do. But in material life you can what you are doing in this life will change what your next life is going to be to certain extent. It's not that you get all the reaction for the next life just from this life's activity, you get reactions from many lives.

So even if a person acts perfectly in this life, it doesn't mean that he is only going to be happy in this life because the previous lives reactions are coming. It doesn't mean that his next life is going to be only happy because if he… it would depend on the other birth that he had done before them. So after a period of time if you act materially say after a hundred births, every life you just… the way… you tolerated all the difficulty and just acted very properly according to the material side of good karma, well then theoretically so many other things may come up, you would become actually materially very happy like a Lord… like a Brahmā… like a demigod. Well that's a very gradual process, and basically nobody can do that, especially in such a yuga like the Kali-yuga. May be in Satya-yuga, other yugas, it was more possible.

You see, but Kṛṣṇa consciousness is completely beyond this whole law of chain and effect, what is accumulated for literally millions of births of which say the last hundred are been credited to your present account, can be wiped off, and just in moment by even a little bit of sincere devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, you can get a complete new slate. So that's not possible by any amount of material work, you understand, what's possible for Kṛṣṇa. Because he can absorb unlimited amount of karma otherwise no one is going to absorb your karma, you just have to work it off.

There is a story about a Buddhist monk. See the Buddhists don't believe in God, so they have to accept all the karma, they believe in law of karma, reincarnation, but they don't believe in God. So, there is one disciple of Buddha called, he was a, he was a man eater, cannibal. He used to go around, and he would attack people, rob them and do different thing. Just to show that he had defeated them, he would cut off their little fingers and he would wear them as a bracelet. He was called angulimala asura, angula-asura that he was, to say the least, he was a demon. But somehow by the association with Lord Buddha he became purified, according to the Buddhist history. And Lord Buddha convinced him that he should become a monk.

[break]

and the suffering and misery in the material world. He became a monk and he was begging door to door, you see. And one time somebody who lost a finger to him saw that, “This is angulimala asura, he cut off my finger now he is a monk.” and they took… and they just literally tortured and beat him and killed him. And that was considered that, “His karma was caught up to him.” In this way next birth he will be a little better off, after so many births this type of austerity, he’ll be purified and gradually he can work his way up to nirvana, which is a type of material impersonal realization.

So, the normal chain of events, if a person gets a human birth they can actually decide to work in a certain direction, but it would take a long time, they have to work off all the karmas in the past. The special you see thing about Kṛṣṇa consciousness which the impersonalists don’t understand. Kṛṣṇa is saying ready salted

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
[BG 18.66]

That if you surrender to Me, abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me, I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction, do not fear. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions.

That means all the karmas, that means that whatever that person destiny was, that all the negative aspects were completely taken off just by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa. Then there’s… there is only Kṛṣṇa can offer this, nobody else can offer. Only Kṛṣṇa through His representative this offer can be made, no one else can make this offer. Buddha never made the offer. Even if you surrender to Buddha in terms of the material, his… his teaching that he was giving, he was giving the materialistic teaching, even though he was an avatar of Viṣṇu. They had to take the karma, that facility they didn't get, even he was very austere, he was may be more austere than we were, he was eating once a day, not eating after 12 noon to be a Buddhist monk is… is very… especially in those days it was very strict. Whatever they put in your begging bowl you will eat, nothing else, they were very austere. Only wearing one cloth, certain way, type of sannyās doesn’t. That good karma does not neutralize bad karma. He was doing good karma, for that austerity he will get happiness if he wants to cash in on it, but it won't neutralize his bad karmas, that he’ll have to suffer. But actually, by surrendering unto Kṛṣṇa one is rid of karma.

Prabhupāda once he advised us, “Don't do any sinful activity, don't create any bad karma and don't do any pious activity; Simply serve Radha and Kṛṣṇa. Don't do sin, don't do pious activity, we are not interested in artificial austerities, artificial charity, which is based on material karma. Neither we are interested in any sinful activity. We aloof from both. We just serving Kṛṣṇa therefore we were aloof from the whole chain of karma. That actually, within the service of Kṛṣṇa, we can do the most work, with the maximum benefit for the most people in this world without the uh… unless you’re an unfortunate spiritual master that has unfaithful disciples. (Scoffs) Hare Kṛṣṇa.