In this connection I shall recite one historical incident from the Puranas. There was a hunter in Prayag. Prayag you know, in Allahabad. So he was hunting in the forest indiscriminately. So Narada Muni was passing through the jungle and he was very compassionate to see the animals being half-dead and half-killed by the hunter. Narada Muni, being Vaisnava, he was very kind to all living entities, so he went to the hunter whose name was Mrgari. So the Mrgari thought that “This saintly person is coming to me for some deerskin,” so he said, “Sir, don’t disturb in my business. If you want deerskin I shall give you. Please get out of my activities for the present.” Narada Muni said that “I have not come here to ask for deerskin, but I simply ask you that if you want to kill the animals, you kill them total. Why you are killing half?” The hunter said, “What is the difference between killing whole and killing half?”

Actually he had no idea about papa and punya. Actually, those who are animal-hunter, they cannot understand what is spiritual life, what is God, what is sinful life, what is pious life. There is a verse in the Srimad-Bhagavatam quoted by Maharaja Pariksit,

nivrtta-tarsair upagiyamanad bhavausadhac chrotra-mano-’bhiramat ka uttamasloka gunanuvadat puman virajyeta vina pasughnat [SB 10.1.4]

Unless one is animal hunter, he cannot be away from chanting this Hare Krsna mantra. So Narada Muni said that “If you kill the animal totally it is less sinful than you kill them half.” Narada Muni said, “No, if you kill the animal half, it is more sinful than you kill them whole.” The hunter said that “From my childhood I have been taught like this by my father. I do not know which is sinful, which is pious.” Narada Muni, as Vaisnava, advised him that “You stop this hunting business and I will give you your livelihood.” So hunter, having seen a Vaisnava, was little convinced about spiritual life. Then he said that “Sir, if you give me my livelihood, then I can give up my, this business.” Then Narada Muni suggested that “You and your wife may come with me. I shall arrange for your livelihood. You give up this business.”

So they followed the instruction of Narada Muni, the spiritual master, and they came with Narada Muni and sat down in a place on the bank of the Ganges at Prayag. Narada Muni gave them one tulasi plant, and they sat down near the tulasi plant, and he advised that “Go on chanting Hare Krsna mantra.” In the meantime, in the village it was advertised that “The hunter has become a Vaisnava. Let us go and see.” So people who were coming to visit, they were bringing… It is the custom still now, India, that when you go to see some Deity or a Vaisnava, sadhu, you bring some…, one must give rice or attar; you give them as contribution. So he thought that Narada Muni was sending the attar, rice, dahl, and everything. So he became confident that he would not die because he is chanting Hare Krsna mantra. In this way he gradually became a perfect Vaisnava because he was chanting under the instruction of the spiritual master and committing no sinful activities. So we being in the disciplic succession of Narada Muni, this Krsna consciousness movement, we are advising the same principle, that “Don’t commit sinful activities, and chant Hare Krsna mantra.”

Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.9
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada