Srila Prabhupada: In this connection Srila Rupa Gosvami gives evidence from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Eleventh Canto, Twenty-first Chapter, verse 2, in which Lord Krsna says to Uddhava, “The distinction between qualification and disqualification may be made in this way: persons who are already elevated in discharging devotional service will never again take shelter of the processes of fruitive activity or philosophical speculation. If one sticks to devotional service and is conducted by regulative principles given by the authorities and acaryas, that is the best qualification.”
This statement is supported in Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, Fifth Chapter, verse 17, wherein Sri Narada Muni advises Vyasadeva thus: “Even if one does not execute his specific occupational duty, but immediately takes direct shelter of the lotus feet of Hari [Krsna], there will be no fault on his part, and in all circumstances his position is secure. Even if, by some bad association, he falls down while executing devotional service, or if he doesn’t finish the complete course of devotional service and dies untimely, still he is not at a loss. A person who is simply discharging his occupational duty in varna and asrama, however, with no Krsna consciousness, practically does not gain the true benefit of human life.” The purport is that all conditioned souls who are engaged very frantically in activities for sense gratification, without knowing that this process will never help them get out of material contamination, are awarded only with repeated births and deaths.
In the Fifth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is clearly stated by Rsabhadeva to His sons, “Persons engaged in fruitive activities are repeatedly accepting birth and death, and until they develop a loving feeling for Vasudeva, there will be no question of getting out from these stringent laws of material nature.” As such, any person who is very seriously engaged in his occupational duties in the varnas and asramas, and who does not develop love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, should be understood to be simply spoiling his human form of life.
This is confirmed also in the Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Eleventh Chapter, verse 32, in which. the Lord says to Uddhava, “My dear Uddhava, any person who takes shelter of Me in complete surrender and follows My instructions, giving up all occupational duties, is to be considered the first-class man.” In this statement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is understood that people who are generally attracted to philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic, political and social welfare activities may be considered nice men only in the calculation of the material world. From Srimad-Bhagavatam and other authentic Vedic scriptures we learn further that if a person simply acts in Krsna consciousness and discharges devotional service, he is considered to be far, far better situated than all of those persons engaged in philanthropic, ethical, moral, altruistic and social welfare activities.
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