Caste Consciousness

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj

All  Glories  to HDG Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada

To consider the deity of Vishnu to be stone ,to see the divine spiritual master as ordinary and material ,to perceive the devotee of the Lord as mundane and under the influence of the three modes of nature will warrant that one gets demoted to the hellish regions instead of Vaikuntha. Those with such mentality usually give great importance to one's  higher birth accordingly as with  one's close blood ties with particular family  relations. The pure devotees understanding the sad plight of those  ignorant people  engrossed in material enjoyment are always hoping to bring auspiciousness on  their miserable lives. Those bewildered by the modes of nature  falsely think themselves as the doer and consequently become attached to the fruits of work obtained by their actions. It is only when the genuine  spiritual master advents in this world and by his pure character attracts the wayward living entities with bestowing mercy to them that they are able to obtain spiritual knowledge. The living entity gives proper reception to the revealed scriptures, faithfully strives to follow the rules and regulations ordained in such scriptures.     The eternal function of the soul  is devotional service to the Supreme Lord. Only the grace of the bona fide spiritual master  that can save the living entity from the clutches of the illusory energy.  The  pure devotee is glorious having no other  goal other than  devotional service to the Supreme Lord There is no other thing that he aspires for in the  vast fourteen worlds. Being  fully engaged  in the service of the Lord ,he does not become bewildered by other insignificant aspirations and that is the reason why there are only few of such magnanimous persons. In the Chaitanya Charitramrta  the stated verses  are translated as follows ; 

The living entity traverses through eighty million four hundred  thousand species of life including those moving and non moving beings .the moving  entities include those on land ,water and the air. Of  all these  entities, the ratio of the human species are small in comparison  which includes the uncivilised people ,tribals and those who reject the Vedas .Of  those who  respect the  Vedas ,only half of them ever strive to follow it. Many people engage in sinful activities against the tenets of religion. Of those who follow pure religion ,the  majority of them  aspire for the fruits of their work. Of these millions of people  steadfast in  work, a  knowledgeable person is  considered superior  and of millions of such  knowledgeable people ,there may  happen to be one liberated person and of millions of such liberated persons ,rarely do we find a pure devotee of Krishna, Only the devotee of Krishna is known to be  peaceful while the rest become agitated by the material nature. 

Also there are  other verses in the Charitramrta that depict the purity of a devotee of Krishna .The  serious mad elephant offence  destroys  and dries up  all the plants in a garden meaning  serious offences  can  actually destroy  our  main creeper of devotion. Other than that there is the branch creepers  that grow  with the main creeper of devotion which are compared to  desires for  material enjoyment , attaining perfections including liberation.  Then there are the weeds as  the  prohibited practices like violence to living entities and also  offences due to weaknesses of the heart  as duplicity and jealousy. Then other side weeds  compared to  fame, worship and adoration .If all these unwanted creepers are allowed to grow side by side , that will  only stunt the main creeper of devotion. Therefore ,first one has to weed out all these secondary creepers in order to nourish the main creeper which only can  lead us to attain  the divine realm of Vrnadavan where by one can relish the mellows of devotional bliss which is so much greater while in contrast the four main goals of human life are insignificant in measure.

Hence those  people who compare the divine devotees of Krishna to be like  those lusty individuals having obtaining the three types of  births  as being designated  as a brahmana  who strive to enjoy their senses by mundane  fruitive work are ignorant and actually destined to go to  hellish regions . Mahaprabhu instructed  Rupa Goswami on the above verses stated in the Chaitanya Charitramrta  for educating  all  these ignorant people  out of compassion . The faithful Rupanuga devotees should avoid all such bad association while  giving full  attention to these nectarine instructions of Mahaprabhu. One has to be fortunate to be in the above category for that reason such devotees are rare. Although one may have  listened to the sublime  instructions of the spiritual master at some time  still by the  dark influence of Kali one may unwittingly commit  offences unwittingly from time to time. Even though these people  may  seem to understand the glories of Vaishnavas, still they become implicated in the mood of caste consciousness thus leading them  to destruction .If they were to maintain  association of the pure devotees together with  the discussion of the sacred books then they would realize that whatever they have been doing will  eradicate all their  innate spiritual piety with nothing to gain. In this way ,by being blinded by mundane identification, they will assume Satyavati had committed fault as a mother, Haridas Thakur as being born from the low Yavana dynasty, Jada Thakur as  a low caste person ,Uddaharana Thakur as appearing from the gold merchant class. Syamananda Prabhu had  made  his Sadagap caste renowned,  Rasikananda  born of the Karana caste from Utkal. Narahari was from a Kaviraj family(considered low)  that Narottama Das was  from the Kayastha caste. Similarly Raghunath Das Goswami attributed to the Kayastha caste and so on .Thus according to one's apparent mundane birth great devotees are lumped without discrimination, not understanding their great offence  being commited,  Also  in contrast those who are non devotees are sometimes unecessarily given a status quo   as Purandar Vasu as being aristocratic, Narakasura as the son of Lord Vishnu, Hiranyakasipu as the son of Kasyapa Rsi Those in the line of   Vishnu incarnations,Matsya ,Varaha ,Kurma all to be regarded as the sons of Vishnu.  Those  who are brahmin born ritualistic performers  to be regarded as family  gurus ,Ravana who was the son of Visvasrva Rsi to be regarded as a Rshi.  Those aspirants  pretending  to  delve in higher ecstatic  loving moods and forehead  anointed with the sacred tilak to be regarded as  Vaishnavas.   Further to consider  and worship those  devotees wearing the  ochre robes while simply engaged  in gratifying their senses without service to  Lord Hari  to be  Vaishnavas .All these type of thinking are  mundane and simply demonstrates our lack of any spiritual discrimination without any advancement   whatsoever. All living entities are in identity the servants of Krishna ultimately .However ,by the covering of the illusory energy then the sense of superiority and inferiority overcomes one's judgement   which leads to delving in caste consciousness.  The origin of this tendency are those lower qualities of envy and jealousy  at the very root .For those treading the path of devotion these  bad qualities are definitely to be rejected.  It was in that type  of  analysis that the Durvasa Rsi made some very bad judgement regarding the pure devotee Ambarish  .In understanding Pundarik Vyaniddhi and Ray Ramanada  sometimes one  may become confused. As in perceiving Vishnu and the Vaishnavas, we have a tendency  to perceive  unwanted extras in them  .In perceiving the birth ,procrastination and  sleep  of a Vaishnava  with our mundane judgement will mean that he will no more exist as a Vaishnava in our vision. In attempting to evaluate a Vaishnava unfortunately our concocted speculations made lead one to view him otherwise as mundane  and engrossed in the material worldly affairs which forms  the basis of  caste consciousness.  The Vaishnava is transcendental and when we  estimate him  by envy to be mediocre or in the  material  vision in the mood of higher and lower  then this means clearing our passage to  the hellish destinations. Sometimes we think that Vaishnavas are meant for our service and pleasure and this makes us equate them in a worldly light and  forgetting their divine identity, we eventually become blinded in to thinking them as mundane devotees. If Vaishnavas were regarded in a class as respected elders or masters then such a title would be auspicious for all.   But to see a transcendental devotee in the light of mundane judgement would simply lead to seeing him in the light of envy and for selfish exploitation. It is this type of serious offence that leads the aspirant to fall away from spiritual life and become more entrenched in sense gratification .Lord Gaura Sundara has informed us in his instructions on this type of  behavior as the mad elephant offence. He has clarified that the Vaishnava    is a person who understands the  science of Krishna Consciousness  and that title does not depend on his righteous  individual stance in any stage and order of life .Only such a person who is expert in that science   of Krishna  can be accepted as a   sanyassi or a brahmin guru whatever other people may evaluate by their material judgement. A sanyassi or guru can not be simply  anybody who is situated  in a certain  stage and order of life .In this sense, only a  elevated Vaishnava can be the guru in the established Varnashrama system   .In that respect to consider a Vaishnava devotee in the light of his apparent birth will be tantamount to a serious  offence against him .In the path of spirituality to be engrossed in the mundane position of one's high caste and order of life will not be very auspicious and lead to great offensive behavior. Without accepting the teachings of Mahaprabhu those caste conscious non devotees  become entangled in the web of the external Varna ashrama system based on work aspiring for enjoyment  and their offences will lead them to perdition. In contrast ,if one follows the  recommended divine Varna ashrama system then that will lead to  gradual eradication of  qualities of envy and jealousy which will be beneficial for the spiritual advancement  of all concerned.