Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.23

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [break]

na brāhmaṅais tulaye bhūtam anyat paśyāmi viprāḥ kim ataḥ paraṁ tu yasmin nṛbhiḥ prahutaṁ śraddhayāham aṣnāmi kāmaṁ na tathāgni-hotre [SB 5.5.23]

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Translation: "O respectful brāhmaṅas, as far as I am concerned, no one is equal or superior to the brāhmaṅas in this world. I do not find anyone comparable to them. When people know My motive, after performing rituals according to the Vedic principles they offer food to Me with faith and love through the mouth of a brāhmaṅa. When food is thus offered unto Me, I eat it with full satisfaction. Indeed, I derive more pleasure from food offered in that way than from the food offered in the sacrificial fire." [break]

Prabhupāda:

na brāhmaṅais tulaye bhūtam anyat paśyāmi viprāḥ kim ataḥ paraṁ tu yasmin nṛbhiḥ prahutaṁ śraddhayāham aṣnāmi kāmaṁ na tathāgni-hotre [SB 5.5.23]

So Ṛṣabhadeva is teaching us what is the value of brahminical culture. Human society without brahminical culture is animal society. We offer our obeisances to the Lord, namo brāhmaṅya-devāya go-brāhmaṅa-hitāya ca. Kṛṣṅa is first of all interested to see whether in the society the brāhmaṅa and the cow is properly respected. Namo brāhmaṅya-devāya go-brāhmaṅa-hitāya ca. His first business is to see that the brāhmaṅa and cow is being properly honored. Then jagad-dhitāya [Viṣṅu Purāṅa 1.19.65]. Then automatically the whole world will be peaceful. This secret of success they do not know. Nobody is prepared to become brāhmaṅa, and so far cow protection is concerned, it is in the oblivion. This is the whole world position. Therefore it is in chaotic condition. It must be, because this is animal society. When these two things are neglected, it is animal society, and then other animal qualities and paraphernalia follow.

Therefore Ṛṣabhadeva personally speaking that na brāhmaṅais tulaye bhūtam anyat. There are 8,400,000 of living entities, and as we have studied yesterday, how gradually evolution comes, elevated. So here it is the conclusion: the evolution must come to the topmost platform of brahminical culture. Satya śamo dama titikṣa ārjavaṁ, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam [Bg 18.42].

[Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness—these are the qualities by which the brāhmaṅas work.]

Now people are not at all interested. If you advertise that "We are opening one gurukula, where brahminical culture will be instructed. Send your boys," nobody will send. They are not concerned anymore that "My son should be truthful, self-controlled, mind controlled," śama dama. Śama means mind-control, samatā, and dama means sense-control. Without controlling the mind, how you can control the senses? The yoga system is practiced to control the mind, to control the senses, because we have to evolve from animal platform to brāhmaṅa platform or spiritual platform, sattva-guṅa.

tato rājas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye ceta etair anāviddhaṁ sthitaṁ sattve prasīdati [SB 1.2.19]

[As soon as irrevocable loving service is established in the heart, the effects of nature's modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear from the heart. Then the devotee is established in goodness, and he becomes completely happy.]

Unless we control the base qualities, namely the modes of ignorance and passion, you cannot be happy. It is not possible. Tato rājas-tamo-bhāvāḥ. Rājas tamo-bhāvāḥ means kāma and lobhā. So long I have lusty desires and so long I have greediness to acquire more and more and more, to enjoy senses more and more... That is greediness. One should be satisfied, the minimum possible.

Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṅām [Hitopadeśa 25].

[Both animals and men share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But the special property of the humans is that they are able to engage in spiritual life. Therefore without spiritual life, humans are on the level of animals.]

Āhāra means eating.

Āhāra, nidrā, sleeping, and fearing and sense enjoyment. These are required, but not for increasing but decreasing. Just like when a person is diseased he should not eat as he likes. Because he is diseased, doctor prescribes that "You take little barley water or glucose, no solid food, if you want to be cured." Similarly, these things are necessity so long this body is there, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna [Hitopadeśa 25].

But this should be decreased, not increased. That is human civilization, not to increase. Just like the Gosvāmīs in Vṛndāvana. They did not come here to increase āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna. No. They came here to decrease. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau. That is wanted. This is vṛndāvana-vāsī, not that to live in Vṛndāvana and increase this āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna. This is not vṛndāvana-vāsa. The monkeys are also living in Vṛndāvana, and the dogs are also and hogs are living in Vṛndāvana. But they do not know how to decrease āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam. You'll see the monkeys, they are also in Vṛndāvana. But you'll find one male monkey followed by three dozen female monkeys. That is not vṛndāvana-vāsa. Āhāra-nidrā. That means it requires brahminical culture, damo, śamo. That is wanted. That is brahminical culture.

Unfortunately the present civilization, they are not meant for decreasing. They are simply increasing. The Western civilization means increasing the means of sense gratification, "machine, machine, machine, machine." So..., and the brahminical culture means śamo damo titikṣa. Titikṣa means without something I may suffer. Suffer. So one should be practiced to suffer. Suffer, that is tapasya. Tapasā brahmacaryenā [SB 6.1.13].

[To concentrate the mind, one must observe a life of celibacy and not fall down. One must undergo the austerity of voluntarily giving up sense enjoyment. One must then control the mind and senses, give charity, be truthful, clean and nonviolent, follow the regulative principles and regularly chant the holy name of the Lord. Thus a sober and faithful person who knows the religious principles is temporarily purified of all sins performed with his body, words and mind. These sins are like the dried leaves of creepers beneath a bamboo tree, which may be burned by fire although their roots remain to grow again at the first opportunity.]

Tapasya begins from celibacy. We are practiced to sex life or sense gratification. Tapasya means first of all stop this. Tapasā brahmacaryeṅa. This is practice.

So to become fit for going back to home, back to Godhead, it is not so easy. It is not so easily... We have to make our material life almost zero. Not almost zero—practically zero. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11].

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

That is wanted, practice. Therefore this, our Kṛṣṅa consciousness center, is meant for practicing this śamo damo titikṣa. Therefore we want to see how far he is eligible to practice the śamo damo titikṣa. So some new boy come, and as soon as they are given some work, not very good for sense gratification, they go away. That means they are not prepared. It is better they may go away. In Bengal it is said, dusta gorute sunya gwaloa[?]: "If there is troublesome cows, better keep the cowshed zero, without cow. Don't allow." So this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is meant for elevating the animal class of men to the platform of brāhmaṅa. Therefore the sacred thread ceremony is given as second initiation, that "He has practiced now śamo damo titikṣa ārjava, and he has learned what is Kṛṣṅa, what he is, what is his relationship with Kṛṣṅa, now how to act for satisfaction of Kṛṣṅa." These are brahminical qualification. If one is elevated to this platform... This platform is called sattva-guṅa. Sattva-guṅa.

There are three guṅas—sattva-guṅa, rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa. If you remain in the lower platforms, tamo-guṅa, rajo-guṅa... Tamo-guṅa, rajo-guṅa means, as I have already explained, greediness and lust, desires. That is tamo-guṅa, rajo-guṅa. Tadā rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye [SB 1.2.19].

What is that rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa? Now, kāma, lusty desires, and greediness, not satisfied with the minimum necessities of life, want to increase more and more, more and more. That is called greediness. The Vedic civilization teaches that "Be satisfied with the minimum necessities of life. Don't increase unnecessary necessities of life, and then you have to work for it very hard like hogs and dogs." That's all. Then you have to work very... Modern world, they have increased their unnecessary necessities of life, and therefore you'll find how hard-working. In European and American cities we have seen how people are working very hard, beginning from morning at five o'clock till four o'clock next night, for sense gratification. So this is not civilization. This is condemned civilization. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye [SB 5.5.1].

[Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.]

This is not civilization. This is animal civilization, working so hard day and night for eating. That is the business of the hogs and dogs. You will find the hogs and dog, they are loitering on the street whole day and night: "Where is food? Where is sex?" That is not civilization. They must be peaceful, brāhmaṅa. Of course, not that everyone can be elevated to the position of a brāhmaṅa, but at least they must have the chance to see that "Here is a class of men, brāhmaṅa." That is wanted. Otherwise the civilization is failure.

Therefore it is said, na brāhmaṅais tulaye bhūtam anyat. Actual brāhmaṅa, not the so-called brāhmaṅa. That was the Vedic culture. Just like Kṛṣṅa Himself. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When He received Sudāmā Vipra, a brāhmaṅa, He immediately vacated His own seat: "My dear friend, sit down here." And, hmm... Kṛṣṅa's first wife?

Devotee: Rukmiṅī.

Prabhupāda: Rukmiṅī. He [she] took immediately the cāmara. He [she] said, "My husband is respecting." But he was dressed very poorly, lean and thin. Brāhmaṅa, because they refuse unnecessary necessities of life, sometimes they look very poor, poverty-stricken. They are not poverty-stricken; they are the richest. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtiṁ śritāḥ, bhajanty ananya-manaso [Bg 9.13].

[O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.]

Those who are engaged in bhajana never think of their poverty. No. They are not poor. Otherwise, if Sudāmā Vipra, externally he looked very poor, lean and thin, not very nice cloth... Kṛṣṅa is: "My dear friend, sit down here." He brought water, washed the feet, just respectable person, guru, brāhmaṅa. This is etiquette. Kṛṣṅa is showing personally. He is the king. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He also respects a brāhmaṅa. When Nārada used to come to Kṛṣṅa, immediately He would get down from the seat and offer obeisances, and Nārada was smiling, "Just see Kṛṣṅa's līlā."

So this is the way, brāhmaṅa. That brāhmaṅa, the India, the brāhmaṅas, their sons later on, later ages, taking advantage of the facility offered to the brāhmaṅas, so without qualification of brāhmaṅa, they wanted the facility for nothing, very cheap. Therefore the brahminical culture is failure now. They are... They should be real brāhmaṅas, śamo damo. But nobody is prepared to practice śamo damo titikṣa, but he wants the respect of a brāhmaṅa. This is the cause of India's culture being failure at the present moment. They... "First deserve, then desire." So without deserving, they desired. Therefore whole thing is..., it became false. So that is not the purpose. Even somebody says that "Without culture one can remain a brāhmaṅa," but śāstra does not say that. Śāstra says culture is the first consideration.

yasya hi yad lakṣaṅaṁ proktaṁ varṅābhivyañjakam yady anyatrāpi vinirdṛśyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiśet [SB 7.11.35]

[If one shows the symptoms of being a brāhmaṅa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, as described above, even if he has appeared in a different class, he should be accepted according to those symptoms of classification.]

So lakṣaṅam must be, lakṣaṅam, the symptom, what is brāhmaṅas' symptoms.

So my request to you, the Europeans and American boys, you have been initiated as brāhmaṅa but you must practice the lakṣaṅa. Otherwise, if you think, puffed up, that "Now I have got the sacred thread. My business is finished. I can do whatever I like," no. That is not. Lakṣaṅam. Lakṣaṅam means symptoms. That you must observe, lakṣaṅam. Yasya hi yad lakṣaṅaṁ proktam. Then nobody can check you. You will be very much dear of Kṛṣṅa. Namo brāhmaṅya-devāya go brāhmaṅa-hitāya ca. If you keep yourself in the platform of a true brāhmaṅa as you are expected... It is not difficult. We have selected the four principles: no illicit sex, no meat-eating, no intoxication and no gambling. That's all. If you keep to these practices, then you remain. And if you chant, then above brāhmaṅa, you become Vaiṣṅava. Manmanā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru [Bg 18.65].

[Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.]

Qualify yourself as a brāhmaṅa. Qualify yourself as a Vaiṣṅava. Then your position is guaranteed. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṅaśyati [Bg 9.31].

[He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.]

Sure. Guranteed.

Here also said, na brāhmaṅais tulaye bhūtam anyat [SB 5.5.23]. Namo brāhmaṅya-devāya go brāhmaṅa-hitāya ca. So when Kṛṣṅa takes care of you, He..., attention is on you. Then who can...? Māyā's... There is no strength of māyā to touch you. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te [Bg 7.14].

[This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.]

Māyā may be there. Police may be there. Police is there, so what business I have got with the police if I am honest? If I am properly observing the rules and regulation of the government, what business police has got to touch me? Māyā is there. Māyā must be there. Māyā... [aside:] Don't stop. Māyā is there, but it does not mean māyā can touch you if you are actually surrendered to Kṛṣṅa. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te [Bg 7.14]. So here it is [aside:] Sitting there. So Kṛṣṅa personally will take care. And to come to the brāhmaṅa stage, this is also... Everything is described. Everything is prescribed. If you have to follow again and again... We can come to the brāhmaṅa stage by a simple method, as we are practicing, that nityaṁ bhāgavata. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā [SB 1.2.18].

[By regular attendance in classes on the Bhāgavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.]

Bhāgavata-sevayā. The book Bhāgavata and the person bhāgavata. Person bhāgavata... The guru is the symbolic representation of person bhāgavata, whose life is bhāgavata; and book Bhāgavata. So you have to serve two bhāgavata, nityaṁ bhāgavata, not the bhāgavata-saptāha. This is another cheating. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. There is no such thing as bhāgavata-saptāha in authoritative literature. They have manufactured as a business. But bhāgavata should be served nityam. Nityaṁ bhāgavata.

Who can do that? Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu. By developing Kṛṣṅa consciousness, whose sinful life is almost nil, not completely nil but almost nil, prāyeṣu. How? Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. If you engage yourself to serve, to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and to serve the person bhāgavatam. Nityam bhāgavata-sevayā. Bhaktiḥ, uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī: then your bhakti will increase uttama-śloke, to the Supreme. Uttama-śloka means the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And when you come to that stage, not that completely pure—almost pure—by nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā [SB 1.2.18], and increasing your devotional service, then you'll immediately be situated in the brāhmaṅa qualification. As soon as you increase your devotional service by serving person Bhāgavatam and hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, immediately you become situated on the sattva-guṅa. Tato rājas-tamo-bhāvāḥ kāma-lobhādayaś ca ye, ceta etair anāviddham [SB 1.2.19].

Then this rajo-guṅa, tamo-guṅa cannot touch your heart. The whole process is purification of the heart. Ceto-darpaṅa-mārjanam [Cc Antya 20.12].

[Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṅa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṅa expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.]

Everything is there. Kṛṣṅa-bhakti is there. It is not an artificial thing. Nitya siddha kṛṣṅa bhakti. It is our natural relationship with Kṛṣṅa because we are part and parcel. Just like father and son. Son may be rebel for some time, but the affection between father... [break] [end]