Bhakti-yoga is the safeguard against material nature's infection; devotional service frees one from all three modes.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Morning Walk [partially recorded] — June 27, 1974, Melbourne 740627MW-MELBOURNE [03:02 Minutes] Walk_740627MW-MELBOURNE Prabhupāda: ...has got the body of a tree and one has got the body of human being, demigod. So the reason is kāraṇam—kāraṇam means reason—guṇa-saṅgo 'sya [Bg. 13.22], as he is infecting the modes of material nature. Infection. If we infect some choleric diarrhea, we'll suffer.
Nature's law is. Therefore human being should be cautious not to infect. Just like educated man or civilized man, he is cautious not to infect some kind of contaminated disease. Similarly, human form of body with higher consciousness is there just to remain always cautious not to infect material, I mean, modes of nature.
And that is devotional service. māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate sa guṇān samatītyaitan brahma-bhūyāya kalpate [Bg. 14.26] "One who is always engaged in My service, without any deviation..." Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya.
Devotee: Say "Haribol, Prabhupāda." [talking to child]
Prabhupāda: Oh, he has got beads? Or what...? Madhudviṣa: No, those are mittens. [baby cries]
Prabhupāda: That's all right. That's all right. [japa] [break] Madhudviṣa: ...to understand a mode. Is a mode a personality?
Prabhupāda: Mode? What is the meaning of mode? Madhudviṣa: Mode. I do not know what a mode is.