12
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 1]
immediately speak to him about the strength of devotional service. As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā  (14.26):
māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
Devotional service is so strong that if one fully surrenders to Kṛṣṇa and takes fully to His devotional service, the reactions of his sinful life immediately stop.
Elsewhere in the  Gītā  (18.66), Lord Kṛṣṇa urges that one give up all other duties and surrender to Him, and He promises,  ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi : “I shall free you from all sinful reactions and give you liberation.” Therefore in response to the inquiries of Parikṣit Mahārāja, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, his  guru , could have immediately explained the principle of  bhakti , but to test Parikṣit Mahārāja’s intelligence, he first prescribed atonement according to  karma-kāṇḍa , the path of fruitive activities. For  karma-kāṇḍa  there are eighty authorized scriptures, such as  Manu-saṁhitā , which are known as  dharma-śāstras . In these scriptures one is advised to counteract his sinful acts by performing other types of fruitive action. This was the path first recommended by Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Mahārāja Parikṣit, and actually it is a fact that one who does not take to devotional service must follow the decision of these scriptures by performing pious acts to counteract his impious acts. This is known as atonement.
TEXT 8
तस्मात्पुरैवाश्विह पापनिष्कृतौ  
 यतेत मृत्योरविपद्यतात्मना ।  
 दोषस्य दृष्ट्वा गुरुलाघवं यथा  
 भिषक् चिकित्सेत रुजां निदानवित् ॥ ८ ॥
tasmāt puraivāśv iha pāpa-niṣkṛtau 
    yateta mṛtyor avipadyatātmanā