260
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 8, Ch. 24]
silver or gold becomes purified;  pumān —a person;  vijahyāt —can give up;  malam —all the dirty things of material existence;  ātmanah —of one's self;  tamah —the mode of ignorance, by which one performs pious and impious activities;  bhajeta —may revive;  varṇam —his original identity;  nijam —one's own;  eṣah —such;  sah —He;  avyayah —inexhaustible;  bhūyāt —let Him become;  sah —He;  īśah —the Supreme Personality of Godhead;  paramah —the supreme;  guroh guruh —the spiritual master of all other spiritual masters.
TRANSLATION
One who wants to be free of material entanglement should take to the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and give up the contamination of ignorance, involving pious and impious activities. Thus one regains his original identity, just as a block of gold or silver sheds all dirt and becomes purified when treated with fire. May that inexhaustible Supreme Personality of Godhead become our spiritual master, for He is the original spiritual master of all other spiritual masters.
PURPORT
In human life one is meant to undergo austerity to purify one's existence.  Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyet . Because of contamination by the modes of material nature, one continues in the cycle of birth and death ( kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu ). Therefore the purpose of human life is to purify oneself of this contamination so that one can regain his spiritual form and not undergo this cycle of birth and death. The recommended process of decontamination is devotional service to the Lord. There are various processes for self-realization, such as  karma ,  jñāna  and  yoga , but none of them is equal to the process of devotional service. As gold and silver can be freed from all dirty contamination by being put into a fire but not merely by being washed, the living entity can be awakened to his own identity by performing devotional service ( yat-sevayā ), but not by  karma ,  jñāna  or  yoga . Cultivation of speculative knowledge or practice of yogic gymnastics will not be helpful.
The word  varṇam  refers to the luster of one's original identity. The original luster of gold or silver is brilliant. Similarly, the original luster