“To keep Elephant means it is very expensive Job”

Prabhupada, San Francisco, September 12, 1968: Kunjara means elephant. In your country you don’t see elephant. We are… In India, we have seen. Not nowadays. Still, there are some, but fifty years before there were many elephants. Especially the zamindars, the landlords and the native princes, they used to keep so many elephants.

They used to spend for it… To keep elephant means it is very expensive job. So elephant, there is a particular type of lake where elephants are allowed to take their bath. So if anyone has not seen it, the elephant will take bath very nicely, wash the body very nicely. And as soon as he come over the land, he takes some dust from the land and throws over the body again. Immediately. In that wet body he will cover the whole body with dust. So Pariksit Maharaja is giving very nice example, kunjara-saucavat: just like cleansing the body of an elephant. It cleanses very nicely, that’s all right, but as soon as come out of the water… We have to study all these things from nature. The elephant is so big, and it is supposed to be the biggest animal. And he has got great strength, but how fool he is, just see. Just after taking bath it will cover the whole body with dust.
Badarayanir uvaca—now he’s answering. Rujam roganam nidanavid yatha vaidyas tad anurupam cikitseta. Atra codayati dvabhyam. Hm. This is already finished. Yatha kunjara-snana rajobhir atmanam malini karoti tatha papasya punar durnivaratvena naraka-patasya avasyam prayascittam vyartham iti So if there is possibility of gliding down to the hellish condition of life by committing sinful activities, now supposing one makes atonement for such activities and again he commits, then what is the use of it? Simply… Just like you kindle fire and pour water on it. Then what is the use of kindling fire? So,

karmana karma-nirharo na hy atyantika isyate avidvad adhikaritvat prayascittam vimarsanam

Now Sukadeva Gosvami is answering the question, that so long one is in ignorance, so long one is in the…, one’s heart is full with dirty things, so he may commit sinful activities or he may counteract it by atonement. But so long the dirty thing is within the heart, it is all useless. Therefore our process, this Krsna consciousness, as it is said by Caitanya Mahaprabhu that ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12], one has to cleanse the dirty things from the heart. That is real atonement. If the dirty things are there as it is, simply… Just like one man is diseased. The dirty things are within his body, and he cleanses outwardly with soap and water very nicely, that does not mean that he is freed from the diseased condition. The cause of the disease must be removed. Then he’ll be healthy.