कामं स्वभावो यो यस्य न शक्यः परिमार्जितुम्।
न हि दुष्टात्मनामार्यमावसत्यालये चिरम्॥
kāmaṁ svabhāvo yo yasya na śakyaḥ parimārjitum
na hi duṣṭātmanām āryam āvasaty ālaye ciram
kāmam = fully; svabhāvaḥ = inborn nature; yaḥ = a certain; yasya = he who has; na śakyaḥ = cannot; parimārjitum = cleanse it; na = not; hi = certainly; duṣṭa-ātmanām = of evil souls; āryam = nobility; āvasati = does reside; ālaye = in the hearts; ciram = for a long time.
He who has a certain inborn nature cannot fully cleanse it. Nobility certainly does not reside in the hearts of evil souls for a long time.
1 From Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura’s commentaries to the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is clear that the type of bhakti-yoga that he refers to in the above excerpt is technically of the kevala variety in which its practitioners engage in nothing but one or more of the nine activities headed by śravaṇam, kīrtanam and smaraṇam. The Skanda Purāṇa verse quoted above is also quoted in Caitanya-caritāmṛta as Madhya 24.278. The hunter being referred to is Mṛgāri. It is clear from Caitanya-caritāmṛta that Mṛgāri was ordered to exclusively engage in certain activities of bhakti all day. Prior to this, he had to give up all sinful activities as well as his endeavor to earn wealth for his maintenance, and donate all of his accumulated wealth to brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. If one can engage in exclusive bhakti-yoga like this uninterruptedly, it will rapidly purify him of his extremely sinful nature. But as noted in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.15, that is rare to be seen—kecit kevalayā bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ / aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ: “Only a rare person who has adopted complete, unalloyed devotional service to Kṛṣṇa can uproot the weeds of sinful actions with no possibility that they will revive. He can do this simply by discharging devotional service, just as the sun can immediately dissipate fog by its rays.” After Prabhupāda established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, he initially attempted to engage his disciples in such exclusive practice of bhakti-yoga. After a few years, he began to instruct his disciples that they should also follow the system of varṇāśrama for public welfare. In the last year of his physical presence on earth, he informed them that they should follow varṇāśrama-dharma for their own welfare. See the appendix entitled “Prabhupāda’s Application of Varṇāśrama to ISKCON” by His Grace Sureśvara dāsa. This is clear evidence that Prabhupāda initially wanted his disciples to become nirapekṣas and that when that plan didn’t fructify, he wanted them to become pariniṣṭhitas and that when that plan didn’t fructify too, he wanted them to become svaniṣṭhas. This matches with Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s recommendation that one should become a svaniṣṭha and then pariniṣṭhita and then a nirapekṣa. (Of course, one can either directly become a pariniṣṭhita and then a nirapekṣa, or one can directly become a nirapekṣa.) See footnote 29 in the summary of Canto 1, note to Rāmāyaṇa 1.1.35 as well as footnote 14 in Chapter 102 of Canto 2 for more details about these three categories of Vaiṣṇavas.
2 Obviously they will need to be compassionately and persistently guided by those who are fixed and experienced in such exclusive engagement in bhakti-yoga.
Even after this much of appeasement, Rāvaṇa didn’t release Sītā-devī. Therefore, Jaṭāyu felt that instructing Rāvaṇa was pointless.
“He who has a certain inborn nature cannot fully cleanse it” means “One cannot suppress a person’s inborn nature by instructing [him about it].” Nobility, that is, good instructions don’t stay in the hearts of evil souls for a long time.
GLOSS. [The glossator reads the same second line as na hi duṣṭāmanām ārya mā vasaty ālaye ciram with the following meaning:] “Noble one, Mother Lakṣmī does not stay in the residence of evil souls for a long period of time.” Jaṭāyu refers to Rāvaṇa as “noble one” because of the seriousness of Jaṭāyu’s work at hand.
NOTE. While commenting on Bhagavad-gītā 3.33, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura anticipates an objection from Arjuna thus:
nanu rājña iva tava parameśvarasya matam ananutiṣṭhanto rāja-kṛtād iva tva-kṛtān nigrahāt kiṁ na bibhyati?
Don’t those who don’t carry out Your instructions—the instructions of the Supreme Lord who is like a king—fear Your punishment the way [they would fear] a king’s [punishment]?
The ācārya then paraphrases the Gītā verse 3.33 as an answer to this objection:
satyam. ye khalu indriyāṇi cārayanto vartante, te vivekino ’pi rājñaḥ parameśvarasya ca śāsanaṁ mantuṁ na śaknuvanti. tathaiva teṣāṁ svabhāvo ’bhūt. […] jñānavān api evaṁ pāpe kṛte saty evaṁ narako bhaviṣyaty, evaṁ rāja-daṇḍo bhaviṣyati, evaṁ duryaśaś ca bhaviṣyatīti vivekavān api svasyāḥ prakṛteḥ cirantana-pāpābhyāsottha-duḥkha-bhārasya sadṛśam anurūpam eva ceṣṭate. tasmāt prakṛtiṁ svabhāvaṁ yānty anusaranti. tatra nigrahas tac-chāstra-dvārā mat-kṛto rāja-kṛto vā. tenāśuddha-cittān ukta-lakṣaṇo niṣkāma-karma-yogaḥ śuddha-cittān jñāna-yogaś ca saṁskartuṁ prabodhayituṁ ca śaknoti, na tv atyantāśuddha-cittān. kintu tān api pāpiṣṭha-svabhāvān yādṛcchika-mat-kṛpottha-bhakti-yoga eva uddhartuṁ prabhavet, yad uktaṁ skānde—aho dhanyo’si devarṣe kṛpayā yasya te kṣaṇāt / nīco ’py utpulako lebhe lubdhako ratim acyute.
Yes. Those who let their senses loose [in the enjoyment of sense objects], even if they possess discrimination, are unable to heed the law of a king or the Supreme Lord. That is their nature. […] Even if a person in knowledge commits a sin, even if he has distinguished understanding that he will go to hell, he will be punished by a king and he will become infamous, he only acts according to his nature, which leads to abundant distress because of his habit of engaging in sinful activities for a long period of time. Therefore, [such beings] follow their natures. What can punishment from Me through the scriptures or from a king [accomplish]?
Therefore, niṣkāma-karma-yoga and jñāna-yoga as defined here can cleanse and awaken those whose minds are [slightly] impure and those whose minds are pure respectively, but they cannot [cleanse and awaken] those whose minds are extremely impure.
But bhakti-yoga arising out of My mercy due to one’s good fortune has the power to deliver even those whose natures are most sinful.
This is stated in Skanda Purāṇa: “My dear friend Nārada Muni, you are glorified as the sage among the demigods. By your mercy, even a lowborn person like this hunter can immediately become attached to Lord Kṛṣṇa.”1
In other words, those who are most sinful by nature can become fully pure if they exclusively engage in bhakti-yoga.2