for liberated souls / never given up

The next stage is reached when one regularly performs the primary principles of devotional service under the guidance of the spiritual master. Then, gradually, all the misgivings of material life are vanquished. There are many habits we acquire in the association of material contamination, chief of which are illicit sex relations, meat eating, intoxication and gambling. One who engages in the regulative principles of devotional service is first of all restricted by the expert spiritual master to abstain from these four principles of sinful life. One cannot rise to the highest perfectional stage of love of Godhead unless he is purified, for God is pure. In Bhagavad-gita, when Arjuna accepted Krsna as the Supreme Lord, he said, "pavitram paramam bhavan." Pavitram paramam means the purest. The Lord is the purest, and if one wants to serve the Supreme Lord, he must also be pure. Unless one is pure, he cannot understand what the Personality of Godhead is, nor can he engage in His service in love, for devotional service, as stated before, begins from the point of self-realization, when all misgivings of materialistic life are vanquished.    (More...)