Text 15]
Nārada's Instructions on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
241
jugupsitam —verily condemned;  dharma-kṛte —for the matter of religion;  anuśāsataḥ —instruction;  sva-bhāva-raktasya —naturally inclined;  mahān- great;  vyatikramaḥ —unreasonable;  yat-vākyataḥ —under whose instruction;  dharmaḥ —religion;  iti —it is thus;  itaraḥ —the people in general;  sthitaḥ —fixed;  na —do not;  manyate —think;  tasya —of that;  nivāraṇam —prohibition;  janaḥ —they.
TRANSLATION
The people in general are naturally inclined to enjoy, and you have encouraged them in that way in the name of religion. This is verily condemned and is quite unreasonable. Because they are guided under your instructions, they will accept such activities in the name of religion and will hardly care for prohibitions.
PURPORT
Śrīla Vyāsadeva's compilation of different Vedic literatures on the basis of regulated performances of fruitive activities as depicted in the  Mahābhārata  and other literature is condemned herewith by Śrīla Nārada. The human beings, by long material association, life after life, have a natural inclination, by practice, to endeavor to lord it over material energy. They have no sense of the responsibility of human life. This human form of life is a chance to get out of the clutches of illusory matter. The  Vedas  are meant for going back to Godhead, going back home. To revolve in the cycle of transmigration in a series of lives numbering 8,400,000 is an imprisoned life for the condemned conditioned souls. The human form of life is a chance to get out of this imprisoned life, and as such the only occupation of the human being is to reestablish his lost relationship with God. Under the circumstances, one should never be encouraged in making a plan for sense enjoyment in the name of religious functions. Such diversion of the human energy results in a misguided civilization. Śrīla Vyāsadeva is the authority in Vedic explanations in the  Mahābhārata , etc., and his encouragement in sense enjoyment in some form or other is a great barrier for spiritual advancement because the people in general will not agree to renounce material activities which hold them in material bondage. At a certain stage of human civilization, such material activities in the name of religion (as sacrificing animals in the name of  yajña ) were too much rampant. The Lord incarnated Himself as Buddha and decried the authority of the  Vedas  to stop animal sacrifice in the name of religion. This was