SB 1.17.32

The principles of religion, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness, as we have already discussed, may be followed by the follower of any faith. There is no need of turning the coat of a Hindu to Mohammedan to Christian or some other faith and thus become a renegade without following the principles of religion. The Bhagavatam religion urges following the principles of religion. The principles of religion are not the dogmas or regulative principles of a certain faith. Such regulative principles may be different in terms of the time and place concerned. One has to see whether the aims of religion have been achieved. Sticking to the dogmas and formulas without attaining the real principles is no good. A secular state may be impartial to any particular type of faith, but the state cannot be indifferent to the principles of religion as above mentioned. But in the age of Kali, the executive heads of state will be indifferent to such religious principles, and therefore under their patronage the opponents of religious principles, namely greed, falsehood, cheating, pilfery, etc., will naturally follow, and so there is no meaning in a propaganda crying to stop corruption in the state.