18
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 1]
TEXT 12
नाश्नतः पथ्यमेवान्नं व्याधयोऽभिभवन्ति हि। एवं नियमकृद्राजन् शनैः क्षेमाय कल्पते ॥१२॥
nāśnataḥ pathyam evānnaṁ vyādhayo 'bhibhavanti hi evāṁ niyamakṛd rājan śanaiḥ kṣemāya kalpate
na —not;  aśnataḥ —those who eat;  pathyam —suitable;  eva —indeed;  annam —food;  vyādhayaḥ —different types of disease;  abhibhavanti —overcome;  hi —indeed;  evam —similarly;  niyama-kṛt —one following regulative principles;  rājan —O King;  śanaiḥ —gradually;  kṣemāya —for well-being;  kalpate —becomes fit.
TRANSLATION
My dear King, if a diseased person eats the pure, uncontaminated food prescribed by a physician, he is gradually cured, and the infection of disease can no longer touch him. Similarly, if one follows the regulative principles of knowledge, he gradually progresses toward liberation from material contamination.
PURPORT
One is gradually purified if one cultivates knowledge, even through mental speculation, and strictly follows the regulative principles enjoined in the  śāstras  and explained in the next verse. Therefore the platform of  jñāna , speculative knowledge, is better than the platform of  karma , fruitive action. There is every chance of falling from the platform of  karma  to hellish conditions, but on the platform of  jñāna  one is saved from hellish life, although one is still not completely free from infection. The difficulty is that on the platform of  jñāna  one thinks that he has been liberated and has become Nārāyaṇa, or Bhagavān. This is another phase of ignorance.
ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ