26
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 1]
(3)  ābhāsa-rūpā , a slight glimpse of devotional service. As for atonement, if one has caught even a slight glimpse of devotional service, all needs to undergo  prāyaścitta , atonement, are superseded. Therefore atonement is certainly unnecessary when one has achieved spontaneous love and, above that, attachment with love, which are signs of increasing advancement in  kādācitkī . Even in the stage of  ābhāsa-rūpā bhakti , all the reactions of sinful life are uprooted and vanquished. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī expresses the opinion that the word  kārtsnyena  means that even if one has a desire to commit sinful actions, the roots of that desire are vanquished merely by  ābhāsa-rūpā bhakti . The example of  bhāskara , the sun, is most appropriate. The  ābhāsa  feature of  bhakti  is compared to twilight, and the accumulation of one's sinful activities is compared to fog. Since fog does not spread throughout the sky, the sun need do no more than merely manifest its first rays, and the fog immediately disappears. Similarly, if one has even a slight relationship with devotional service, all the fog of his sinful life is immediately vanquished.
TEXT 16
न तथा ह्यधवान् राजन् पूयेत तपश्रादिभिः ।
यथा कृष्णार्पितप्राणस्तत्पुरुषनिषेधया ॥१६॥
na tathā hy aghavān rājan pūyeta tapa-ādibhiḥ yathā kṛṣṇārpita-prāṇas tat-puruṣa-niṣevayā
na —not;  tathā —so much;  hi —certainly;  agha-vān —a man full of sinful activities;  rājan —O King;  pūyeta —can become purified;  tapaḥ-ādibhiḥ —by executing the principles of austerity, penance,  brahmacarya  and other purifying processes;  yathā —as much as;  kṛṣṇa-arpita-prāṇaḥ —the devotee whose life is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious;  tat-puruṣa-niṣevayā —by engaging his life in the service of Kṛṣṇa's representative.
TRANSLATION
My dear King, if a sinful person engages in the service of a bona fide devotee of the Lord and thus learns how to dedicate his life