The stone heart purifies through lotus-feet service to God, not through austerity alone.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.2.17 — September 20, 1975, Vṛndāvana 750920SB-VRNDAVAN [23:05 Minutes] SB-06.02.17_750920SB-VRNDAVAN Prabhupāda: Go on. Harikeśa: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.
[Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sixth Canto, Second Chapter, seventeenth verse. [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [break] [02:07]
Prabhupāda: tais tāny aghāni pūyante tapo-dāna-vratādibhiḥ nādharmajaṁ tad-dhṛdayaṁ tad apīśāṅghri-sevayā [SB 6.2.17] tais tāny aghāni pūyante tapo-dāna-vratādibhiḥ nādharmajaṁ tad-dhṛdayaṁ tad apīśāṅghri-sevayā [SB 6.2.17] So yesterday we have explained that we are put into such position in this material world that we have to commit sinful activities. This is our position. Even if I do not want to do it... Just like a man accustomed to steal, he is dictated from within, "Don't steal." Otherwise why he goes at night to steal?
He knows that "This is not good." He does not steal openly. Secretly, without any knowledge. Because he knows that "What I am going to do is not good." That's a fact. Therefore sometimes it is called black.
So he is forced to do it. It was questioned by Arjuna to Kṛṣṇa that "How one man is forced to commit sinful activities?" So Kṛṣṇa replied, kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavam [Bg. 3.37]. There are three modes of material nature: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. So those who are in tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, they are forced to commit sinful activities, forced. There is no alternative.
Therefore we have to come. Just like we go to school, college for education. What is the purpose? That "We are ignorant.
We are illiterate, uneducated. Therefore I must go to school to learn, to become enlightened." Similarly, from the lower animal status we are coming by evolution, and in the human form of life, especially in the civilized human form of life, the enlightenment is that one should come from this tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa to sattva-guṇa. That is required. Therefore the brahminical culture is so much adored in India to make one from the lower status of life to the higher status of life.