Even the most qualified spiritual practitioner falls through illicit association; bad company destroys all accumulated spiritual merit.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.56–62 at Adubhai Patel's House — January 3, 1971, Surat 710103SB-SURAT [49:47 Minutes] SB-06.01.56–62_710103SB-SURAT Haṁsadūta: The following lecture is recorded in the morning January 3rd [indistinct]. Prabhupāda: [aside:] Just sprinkle, not individual. Sprinkle. Minimize time. Don't waste time. So the point is here that Ajāmila was so qualified just as a brāhmaṇa, perfect brāhmaṇa, born of a brāhmaṇa father and educated, qualified, and acquired the qualities.
All the qualities are mentioned, that śruta-sampannaḥ. Śruta-sampannaḥ means well studied in Vedas. That is a brāhmaṇa's qualification. Veda-pāṭhād bhaved vipraḥ. Vipra, brāhmaṇa, [laughs] without any knowledge of the Vedas, that is not a brāhmaṇa. So he was actually brāhmaṇa, śruta-sampannaḥ.
And after... Simply reading of Vedas as a scholar is useless. Just like foreign Western scholar... [aside:] Now stop. One must practically apply the knowledge, not like armchair politician or armchair Vedāntist, smoking cigarette and reading Vedānta. This kind of study of Vedas is useless.
Now, we have seen so many sannyāsīs, so-called sannyāsīs, talking on Vedānta and smoking at the same time. You see? So Ajāmila was not like that. He was a scholar in the Vedic literature.
Ayaṁ hi śruta-sampannaḥ śīla-vṛtta-guṇālayaḥ [SB 6.1.56-57]. And he was very well behaved and reservoir of all good qualities. Guṇālayaḥ. Dhṛta-vrataḥ, and avowed to follow the regulative principles. This point we have already discussed, that the most important point is that even one is such qualified, there is chance of falldown as Ajāmila.
Because in the beginning Ajāmila was introduced, the story of Ajāmila was introduced, kānyakubje dvijaḥ kaścid dāsī-patir ajāmilaḥ nāmnā naṣṭa-sadācāro dāsyāḥ saṁsarga-dūṣitaḥ [SB 6.1.21] Dāsyā. Dāsyā means prostitute. In India it is the old custom that a prostitute quarter is maintained for the lusty people. Those who are not satisfied with one wife, they should not pollute the society, but they should go to the prostitutes.
So that means illicit sex. Sex without the, hmm... I mean to say, intention for begetting a nice child, that is illicit sex. There are two kinds of illic...