One of the principal Upanisads Sri Isopanisad describes the nature of God as antiseptic and prophylactic. The exact Sanskrit words used in this connection are suddham and apapa-viddham. God is antiseptic in the sense that even an impure thing can become purified just by touching Him. God is also described as prophylactic to emphasize the power of His association.Anything which is prophylactic in nature prevents the occurrence of disease.
Life in the material world means dealing with the three modes of material nature — goodness, passion and ignorance. The Vedas describe even the mode of goodness (sattva-guna) as a contamination, what to speak of the lower modes of passion (rajo-guna) and ignorance (tamo-guna)?
Here are four aspects to understanding these two qualities of God:
1. Hearing about Krishna is purifying:
The Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam are two specific books that contain narrations of Krishna (Krishna -katha). By regularly hearing these two narrations, anyone can purify his life. The Bhagavatam describes that the gopis of Vrindavan approached Krishna with lusty desires, but Krishna , being supremely pure, purified them of their lust and transformed it into spiritual love.
2. Krishna ’s name is pure:
Especially for this degraded age of quarrel and hypocrisy (Kali-yuga), Krishna descends in the form of His holy names. The meaning of God being omnipotent is that there is no difference between Him and His names. Krishna purified His devotees when He was personally present five thousand years ago, and today Krishna ’s names can have the same effect. He is compared to the sun: We can become infected with disease-causing germs because we are not powerful enough, but the germs cannot infect the sun; rather the sunshine will sterilize the infection. So anything infectious, anything sinful, cannot infect Krishna . Rather sinful activities in touch with Krishna will become purified.
3. Krishna can go beyond ordinary behaviour because He is pure and powerful.
Krishna ’s pastimes give the superficial impression of being grossly unethical — for example, His stealing butter, lying, cheating, and dancing with gopis in the dead of night or His diplomacy in the battle of Kuruksetra. But He is so powerful that for Him there is no wrong. He is never the wrongdoer.
4. Krishna and the spiritual master can purify others
Krishna promises that whoever takes shelter at His lotus feet will be saved from all sinful reactions. But when a living entity plays the part of saving sinful souls by acting as their guru or spiritual master, he also takes responsibility for the sins of the disciples. So to become a guru is not an easy task. He has to take all the poisons and absorb them. Since the guru is acting on behalf of Krishna , he also gets all protection for his service rendered.