Cc. Madhya 19.157

tāte mālī yatna kari’ kare āvaraṇa
aparādha-hastīra yaiche nā haya udgama

tāteplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigtate

bank; on the bank; on the bank of; on the beach.—therefore; mālīplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigmali

exactly like a gardener; gardener; the gardener; the gardener devotee.—the gardener devotee; yatnaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigyatna

attempts; efforts; endeavor; endeavors. kari'plugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigkari

am putting; as; can I do; continue; devising; do; doing; finishing; I am simply giving; I can make; I do; I enumerate; I make; I may do; I may render; I offer; I perform; I say; I shall do; I shall execute; I shall make; let me accept; let me do; let us do; making; observe; perform; performing; shall adopt; shall I do; taking; taking as; we do; we execute; we perform.—with great attention; kareplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigkare

do; does; accept; accepts; are causes; arranges; became; becomes; began; by the hand; can do; causes; chant; chants; composes; did; do; does; engaged; engaged in; engages; engages himself; establishes; estimates; exclaim; exclaimed; execute; executes; exhibits; give; gives; gives in; He does; He makes; he may make; he performs; he renders; impregnates; in His hand; in the hand; into the hand; it induces; join; made; maintained; make; makes; manifests; offer; offered; offering; offers; one commits; perform; performed; performs; plans; prepares; puts; render; rendered; renders; She does; shows; takes; They do; they hanker; they make; they offer; they treated; transformed; transforms; was performing; with hands; within the hands (being anxious about what Kṛṣṇa might have eaten); would create; would do.—makes; āvaraṇaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigāvaraṇa

covering; covering circle; coverings; protective fencing; the covering.—protective fencing; aparādhaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigaparadha

an offense; any offense; of offenses; of the offense; offense; offenses; the offense; the offenses.—of offenses; hastīraplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bighastīra

of the elephant.—of the elephant; yaicheplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigyaiche

as; as far as; as if; as it is; as it may be; as it was; as much; as much as; as She did; exactly like; how; in what way; in which; in which way; is like; just as; just like; like; similarly; so that; what they are like; which.—so that; nāplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigna

never; not; are not; but not; cannot; certainly not; could not; did not; do not; does it not; does not; is not; it is not; it is not so; may not; neither; never; never does; never to be; no; no one; none; nor; not; not like that; not preceded by oṁ; not suitable; nothing; or not; shall not; should never; there is none; there is not; there should not be; was not; whether; without.—not; hayaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bighaya

are; is; appear; appears; are; are achieved; are there; assembled; awakened; awakens; became; become; become possible; becomes; becomes filled; becomes fulfilled; becomes manifest; becomes possible; becomes so; can be used; come out; happens; He is; here is; horse; increases; is; is certainly; is conducted; is it; is possible; is present; is there; it becomes; it becomes possible; it becomes so; it is; it is so; it so becomes; let it be; one becomes; remains; render; resounded; take place; takes; takes place; the horse; there are; there becomes; there can be; there is; there is awakening of; there was; there would be; they are; they become; they were; took place; was; were; will be; would be.—there is; udgamaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigudgama

appearance; awakening; birth; generating; the birth.—birth. ¶

“The gardener must defend the creeper by fencing it all around so that the powerful elephant of offenses may not enter. ¶

While the bhakti-latā creeper is growing, the devotee must protect it by fencing it all around. The neophyte devotee must be protected by being surrounded by pure devotees. In this way he will not give the maddened elephant a chance to uproot his bhakti-latā creeper. When one associates with nondevotees, the maddened elephant is set loose. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said: asat-saṅga-tyāga,-ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra. The first business of a Vaiṣṇava is to give up the company of nondevotees. A so-called mature devotee, however, commits a great offense by giving up the company of pure devotees. The living entity is a social animal, and if one gives up the society of pure devotees, he must associate with nondevotees (asat-saṅga). By contacting nondevotees and engaging in nondevotional activities, a so-called mature devotee will fall victim to the mad elephant offense. Whatever growth has taken place is quickly uprooted by such an offense. One should therefore be very careful to defend the creeper by fencing it in—that is, by following the regulative principles and associating with pure devotees. ¶

If one thinks that there are many pseudo devotees or nondevotees in the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society, one can keep direct company with the spiritual master, and if there is any doubt, one should consult the spiritual master. However, unless one follows the spiritual master’s instructions and the regulative principles governing chanting and hearing the holy name of the Lord, one cannot become a pure devotee. By one’s mental concoctions, one falls down. By associating with nondevotees, one breaks the regulative principles and is thereby lost. In the Upadeśāmṛta of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, it is said: ¶

atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca
prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ
jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca
ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati

“One’s devotional service is spoiled when he becomes too entangled in the following six activities: (1) eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required, (2) overendeavoring for mundane things that are very difficult to attain, (3) talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters, (4) practicing the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scriptures and working independently or whimsically, (5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and (6) being greedy for mundane achievements.” ¶