Injunctions about Brahmana

[suchandra]

Amazing how Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami were immediately rejected when working for the Muslim Government and had to change their names to live in peace.

 

Narada Muni: "A brāhmana, if he’s in difficulty, he should not accept the business of a dog, service. He should not accept service. He may go to the profession of a ksatriya, or even up to vaiśya. Not of a śūdra. These are the injunctions."

 

Prabhupada (lecture Hyderabad): "So Caitanya Mahāprabhu selected him, nāmācārya. Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself came to broadcast the glory of Hare Krishna mahā-mantra. So instead of becoming Himself the ācārya, He designated Haridāsa Ṭhākura as ācārya. And similarly, Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, they also became Mohammedans. They were born in Hindu, sārasvata-brāhmana family, but due to their association as minister of the then Muslim government, they were rejected from the brāhmaṇa society. Formerly, the brāhmana society was very strict. Anyone becoming serving, serving, servant, he is immediately excluded: “Oh, you cannot become a brāhmana. You are serving.” In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also, by the, spoken by Nārada, he says a brāhmana, if he’s in difficulty, he should not accept the business of a dog, service. He should not accept service. He may go to the profession of a ksatriya, or even up to vaiśya. Not of a śūdra. These are the injunctions. So they were strictly being followed. These Sanātana Gosvāmī, they were very learned scholars, in Sanskrit, in Arabic language, Persian language, but because they accepted the ministership of Nawab Hussain Shah, immediately they were rejected. And they changed their name. Almost they became Muslim. Sakara Mallika, Dabhir Kasa. Their name was that. These are Mohammedan names. So they were living like that. But when Caitanya Mahāprabhu blessed them, they became the first-class gosvāmīs: Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mercy. And He therefore said, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma. He asked to spread this Krishna consciousness movement all over the world, in every village, in every town. Does He mean that let them become śūdras? Let them remain śūdras, and they become Krishna conscious? No. He did not mean like that. That means everywhere there should be Vaisnava. And a Vaisnava means above brāhmaṇa. That is the Krishna consciousness movement.

 

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna."

[Murali_Mohan_das]

It has yet to be officially announced, but the word on the street is that Srila Gurudev will be visiting Santa Cruz County (California, USA) on his upcoming World Tour.

 

Having received Hari Nama from His Divine Grace some 11 years ago, and not knowing when I'll be able to go to India, I'm feeling that it is time to finally ask Gurudev for Diksha (Gayatri).

 

The biggest hold-up is my hair After cutting it over the winter, it's just now getting long again .

 

But, seriously, in the past, I've resisted the temptation due to my poor adherence to the vows of Hari Nama initiation and my numerous un-Brahminical habits.

 

While I fear being a hypocrite (more so than I already am), it seems like this must be the time to take the plunge--if only so I can do some cooking service in the kitchen of Their Lordships!

 

Kindly pray to the Lord and bless me so that I will have the strength of will and character to do what I strongly feel is the right thing.

[Guruvani]

 

It has yet to be officially announced, but the word on the street is that Srila Gurudev will be visiting Santa Cruz County (California, USA) on his upcoming World Tour.

 

Having received Hari Nama from His Divine Grace some 11 years ago, and not knowing when I'll be able to go to India, I'm feeling that it is time to finally ask Gurudev for Diksha (Gayatri).

 

The biggest hold-up is my hair After cutting it over the winter, it's just now getting long again .

 

But, seriously, in the past, I've resisted the temptation due to my poor adherence to the vows of Hari Nama initiation and my numerous un-Brahminical habits.

 

While I fear being a hypocrite (more so than I already am), it seems like this must be the time to take the plunge--if only so I can do some cooking service in the kitchen of Their Lordships!

 

Kindly pray to the Lord and bless me so that I will have the strength of will and character to do what I strongly feel is the right thing.

 

You need to think carefully about what you are asking of your Gurudeva.

In the ISKCON I came through the qualifications for getting diksha were quite rigid.

I had to live as a brahmacary, keep up my 16 rounds, follow all the rules and regs and offer full time service for 2 years before I could get diksha.

 

So, if you aren't keeping up the principles and chanting all your rounds and doing proper service to the mission of the Gurudeva, then it's really not proper if you ask for diksha.

 

Harinama is given out quite liberally in many camps nowadays.

Even Harinama was not so easy to get in the ISKCON I came through.

 

I had to live full time as a brahmacary, keep up all the regs and offer full time service for almost 8 months before I even got Harinama.

 

So, think about what you are doing and be fair to your guru before asking him for diksha.

 

If you are living a brahminical lifestyle, then that is good.

[Murali_Mohan_das]

 

If you are living a brahminical lifestyle, then that is good.

 

Well, I would like to think that my lifestyle is becoming *more* brahminical, but I'm certainly not there yet.

 

When I expressed similar concerns to a Godbrother, I was told that, in a sense, receiving Gayatri may give us the blessing by which we may *become* Brahminical.

 

I would like to be living as a pukka brahmana prior to receiving the thread, but, perhaps, I will never rise to that standard unless I jump in and make the vow.

 

I cheat myself daily without remorse, but I am not so keen on trying to cheat Gurudev!

[suchandra]

 

If you are living a brahminical lifestyle, then that is good.

Prabhupada, LA 13 June 72: "Just see our education at the present moment. Very advanced education. Many Indian students come here also to take advanced education. But actually, we consider this education creating dogs. Why? Now, because however technologist you may be, if you don’t get a suitable service, all your education is finished.

 

Therefore, after education you’ll have to write application, “My dear sir, I am such and such qualified dog. (laughter) If you’ll kindly give me some service.” And the tail is like this. (laughter) You see? Just imagine. If by education he becomes independent … Just like Vedic culture. The brāhmaṇas, the kṣatriya, the vaiśyas, they are independent. The śūdras are compared with the dogs because they cannot live without a master. Brāhmaṇa, he will not accept anyone’s service. That is real brāhmaṇa. A kṣatriya will never accept anyone’s service. Why the battle of Kurukṣetra was there? The Kurus, they took away the whole kingdom of the Pāṇḍavas. But they were kṣatriyas. How they will live? Therefore the fight was necessity. The kṣatriyas must be, must have some land to collect taxes. That is the kṣatriya’s source of income. The brāhmaṇa’s source of income, paṭhana pāṭhana yajana yājana … They must be learned scholar, they must teach others, they must be devotee and teach others how to become devotee.

 

They must take contribution and must spend for Kṛṣṇa. This is brāhmaṇa. No service. Formerly, no brāhmaṇa … Sanātana Gosvāmī, Rūpa Gosvāmī, they were born in high-class brāhmaṇa family, Sārasvata brāhmaṇa, but because they accepted the service of Nawab Hussein Shah, immediately they were rejected from brāhmaṇa society. It is by the grace of Caitanya Mahāprabhu that they again became gosvāmī. Otherwise, they were rejected. No brāhmaṇa could take service and especially service of a low-class man. That is … In Bhāgavata you will see especially that if a brāhmaṇa is in difficulty, he may accept the profession of a kṣatriya

or utmost of a vaiśya, but never take the profession of a śūdra. What is the profession of śūdra? Śūdra … Paricaryātmakaṁ kāryaṁ śūdra- karma śvabhāva-jam. One who is hankering after service, he is śūdra. He has no capacity to live independently. The brāhmaṇa, real brāhmaṇa, he will starve, he will die out of starvation.

 

Not very long ago, say about 300 years ago, there was a brāhmaṇa, a very rigid brāhmaṇa, in Kṛṣṇa-nagara, near our Māyāpura. And brāhmaṇa’s business, he was teaching. So the king of that place, means a big zamindar, Rājā Kṛṣṇa-candra … By his name, that place is Kṛṣṇa-nagara. So he heard about the brāhmaṇa, very learned brāhmaṇa, but very poor.

So he one day came to him and asked him, “Brāhmaṇa, can I help you any way?” So he said, “No, I don’t require any help from you.”

 

“No, I see you are so poverty-stricken. You have no sufficient means.” “No, I am not poverty-stricken. My students, they get some alms of rice. So my wife boils the rice, and here is a tamarind tree.

So I take some leaves and boil it, and that’s sufficient. Why I am poverty-stricken?” He’s satisfied, whatever is coming automatically, that’s all. He doesn’t require any higher standard of life, any botheration. He is satisfied, little rice and tamarind juice. That’s all.

So in each and every home, formerly, this independence was very much valued. So at the modern education this independence is being killed. People are becoming unemployed, machine. Machine … High technologist means he must find out a job where technological machines are there. Otherwise he will starve, and he will have to go round, factory to factory: “Will you give me some service?” “No vacancy.”