Text 10] King Purafijana Goes to the Forest to Hunt 1221

Sasdn—rabbits; varahdn—boars; mahisdn—buffaloes; gavaydan—bisons;
ruru—black deer; salyakan—porcupines; medhyan—game animals; anyan—
others; ca—and; vividhan—various; vinighnan—by killing; sramam adh yagat—
became very tired.

TRANSLATION

In this way King Purafijana killed many animals, including rabbits,
boars, buffaloes, bisons, black deer, porcupines and other game animals.
After killing and killing, the King became very tired.

PURPORT

A person in the mode of ignorance commits many sinful activities. In
the Bhakti-rasdmrta-sindhu, Srila Ripa Gosvami explains that a man
becomes sinful out of ignorance only. The resultant effect of sinful life
is suffering. Those who are not in knowledge, who commit violations of
the standard laws, are subject to be punished under criminal laws. Similarly,
the laws of nature are very stringent. If a child touches fire without knowing
the effect, he must be burned, even though he is only a child. If a child
violates the law of nature, there is no compassion. Only through ignorance
does a person violate the laws of nature, and when he comes to knowledge
he does not commit any more sinful acts.

The King became tired after killing so many animals. When a man comes
in contact with a saintly person, he becomes aware of the stringent laws of
nature and thus becomes a religious person. Irreligious persons are like
animals, but in this Krsna consciousness movement such persons can come
to a sense of understanding things as they are and abandon the four
principles of prohibited activities—namely, illicit sex life, meat-eating,
gambling and intoxication. This is the beginning of religious life. Those who
are so-called religious and indulge in these four principles of prohibited
activities are pseudo-religionists. Religious life and sinful activity cannot
parallel one another. If one is serious in accepting a religious life, or the
path of salvation, he must adhere to the four basic rules and regulations.
However sinful a man may be, if he receives knowledge from the proper
spiritual master and repents his past activities in his sinful life and stops
them, he immediately becomes eligible to return home, back to Godhead.
This is made possible just by following the rules and regulations given by
the sastra and following the bona fide spiritual master.

At present the whole world is on the verge of retiring from a blind
materialistic civilization, which may be likened to hunting animals in the
