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Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 4, Ch. 21]
tional life, which are the tendencies to commit mistakes, to be illusioned, to cheat and to possess imperfect senses. A perfect Vaiṣṇava or Kṛṣṇa conscious person is always in this transcendental position because he speaks according to Kṛṣṇa and His representative. Because Vaiṣṇavas speak exactly according to the tune of Kṛṣṇa, whatever they say is free from these four defects. For example, Kṛṣṇa says in  Bhagavad-gītā  that everyone should always think of Him, everyone should become His devotee, offer Him obeisances and worship Him, and ultimately everyone should surrender unto Him. These devotional activities are transcendental and free from mistakes, illusion, cheating and imperfection. Therefore anyone who is a sincere devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa and who preaches this cult, speaking only on the basis of Kṛṣṇa's instructions, is understood to be  virajam , or free from the defects of material contamination. A genuine  brāhmaṇa  or Vaiṣṇava therefore depends eternally on the conclusion of the  Vedas  or Vedic versions presented by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Only from Vedic knowledge can we understand the actual position of the Absolute Truth, who, as described in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , is manifested in three features—namely, impersonal Brahman, localized Paramātmā and at last the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This knowledge is perfect from time immemorial, and the brahminical or Vaiṣṇava culture depends on this principle eternally. One should therefore study the  Vedas  with faith, not only for one's personal knowledge, but for the sake of spreading this knowledge and these activities through real faith in the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the  Vedas .
The word  maṅgala  (“auspicious”) in this verse is very significant. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī quotes that to do what is good and to reject what is not good is called  maṅgala , or auspicious. To do what is good means to accept everything which is favorable to the discharge of devotional service, and to reject what is not good means to reject everything not favorable for discharging devotional service. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we accept this principle by rejecting four prohibited items—namely, illicit sex life, intoxication, gambling and flesh-eating—and accepting the daily chanting of at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Kṛṣṇa  mahā-mantra  and daily meditation three times a day by chanting the Gāyatrī  mantra . In this way one can keep his brahminical culture and spiritual strength intact. By following these principles of devotional service strictly, chanting twenty-four hours a day the  mahā-mantra —Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—one makes positive progress in spiritual life and ultimately becomes completely fit to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. Because the ultimate goal of studying