Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 16: Lakṣmaṇa’s Description of Winter
Text 3.16.6
नवाग्रयणपूजाभिरभ्यर्च्य पितृदेवताः।
कृताग्रयणकाः काले सन्तो विगतकल्मषाः॥
navāgrayaṇa-pūjābhir abhyarcya pitṛ-devatāḥ
kṛtāgrayaṇakāḥ kāle santo vigata-kalmaṣāḥ
nava-āgrayaṇa-pūjābhiḥ = through fresh worship during āgrayaṇa rituals; abhyarcya = and who honor; pitṛ-devatāḥ = their forefathers and the celestial deities; kṛta-āgrayaṇakāḥ = who have previously executed the āgrayaṇa rituals; kāle = at the prescribed time; santaḥ = saintly persons; vigata-kalmaṣāḥ = have become free from contamination.
Saintly persons who have previously executed the āgrayaṇa rituals and who honor their forefathers and the celestial deities through fresh worship during āgrayaṇa rituals at the prescribed time have become free from contamination.
Āgrayaṇa is a fire sacrifice to be carried out at the time of eating new grains and other such occasions as stated by Āpastamba 2. Here Lakṣmaṇa refers to those who personally execute the āgrayaṇa ceremony, not those who execute it through representatives.
NOTE. When the rules and regulations of the varṇāśrama system are carefully followed in accordance with the teachings of śāstra and as demonstrated by the exemplary conduct of liberated ācāryas of the past, one attains hṛd-viśuddhi or purification of the heart from lust, anger and greed.
Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa notes the following in his commen-tary to Bhagavad-gītā 16.23:
kāmādi-tyāgaḥ sva-dharmād vinā na bhavet, sva-dharmaś ca śāstrād vinā na sidhyed, ataḥ śāstram evāstheyaṁ sudhiyā.
“One cannot give up lust, anger and greed without engaging in his sva-dharma and one cannot execute his sva-dharma without [resorting to] the Vedic scriptures. Therefore the intelligent should have implicit faith in the Vedic scriptures alone.”
He concludes his commentary on Chapter 16 of the Gītā as follows:
vedārtha-naiṣṭhikā yānti svargaṁ mokṣaṁ ca śāśvatam
veda-bāhyās tu narakān iti ṣoḍaśa-nirṇayaḥ
“Chapter 16 [of the Gītā] states that those fixed in the teachings of the Vedas attain svarga and liberation for eternity. But those who do not accept Vedic authority go to hell.”