Text 38]
Punishment and Reward of Kali
919
TRANSLATION
Sūta Gosvāmī  said:  Mahārāja Parīkṣit , thus being petitioned by the personality of Kali, gave him permission to reside in places where gambling, drinking, prostitution and animal slaughter were performed.
PURPORT
The basic principles of irreligiosity, such as pride, prostitution, intoxication and falsehood, counteract the four principles of religion, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness. The personality of Kali was given permission to live in four places particularly mentioned by the King, namely the place of gambling, the place of prostitution, the place of drinking and the place of animal slaughter.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī  directs that drinking against the principles of scriptures, such as the  Sautrāmaṇi-yajña , etc., association with women outside marriage, and killing animals against the injunctions of scripture, are irreligious. In the  Vedas  two different types of injunctions are there for the  pravṛttas , or those who are engaged in material enjoyment, and for the  nivṛttas , or those who are liberated from material bondage. The Vedic injunction for the  pravṛttas  is to gradually regulate their activities towards the path of liberation. Therefore, for those who are in the lowest stage of ignorance and indulge in wine, woman and flesh, drinking by performing  Sautrāmaṇi-yajña , association of woman by marriage and flesh-eating by sacrifices are sometimes recommended. But such recommendations in the Vedic literature are meant for a particular class of men, and not for all. But because there are injunctions of the  Vedas  for particular types of persons, such activities by the  pravṛttas  are not considered  adharma . One man's food may be poison for others; similarly, what is recommended for those in the modes of ignorance may be poison for those in the modes of goodness.  Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī  Prabhu, therefore, affirms that recommendations in the scriptures for a certain class of men are never to be considered  adharma , or irreligious. But such activities are factually  adharma , and they are never to be encouraged. The recommendations in the scriptures are not meant for encouragement of such  adharmas , but for regulating the necessary  adharmas  gradually toward the path of  dharma .
Following in the footsteps of  Mahārāja Parīkṣit , it is the duty of all executive heads of states to see that the principles of religion, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness, are established in the state,