In2-MeC

Belgrade, Yugoslavia
28 June, 2003 In this age, everyone is at best a sudra.   Sudra means laborer. Yes, a ditch-digger is a laborer no doubt. But a medical doctor is also a laborer. He is just a mechanic who works on the body, like an auto
mechanic working on a car. And for that labor, he gets paid. A ditch-digger is called a common laborer, whereas a doctor is an educated, qualified, specialized laborer. But both are sudras. So if a sudra requires education and qualification to be accepted in his special field, then what to speak of a brahmana?  It often happens that I have to stop and ask myself whether we Western devotees have a real grasp on what it means to be a brahmana. For example, I so often get questions from devotees about "the proper technique" how something in devotional service should be done, or about "the mechanism" that is behind some principle of our philosophy. Of course there is a technical and mechanical aspect to practical Krsna consciousness, to brahminical engagements. But just mastering technique and mechanism does not make one a brahmana. Such mastery may make one a very good sudra. Samo damas tapah saucam ksantir arjavam eva ca, says Lord Krsna to Arjuna about the essential qualifications of a brahmana. "He must be peaceful, self-controlled, clean, truthful, austere, learned, wise, and renounced. "  (B. g. 18. 42) Peaceful means he is not agitated by so-called "needs. " Everyone has needs in this body, but the brahmana is not agitated by them. He does not permit himself to be forced to go to work for others in order to satisfy bodily needs. He remains steady in his brahminical duty and depends on Krsna. He doesn't get a job in the factory, thinking, "It's OK, I'm a brahmana and my father is a brahmana," as he tightens bolts on machinery with a greasy wrench. Again, a sudra may not be so grossly engaged as that factory wrench-monkey. He may instead be engaged in tightening muscular tissue in a patient's body, or even tightening up his students' understanding of physics or chemistry in the university. But the relative refinement of one's labor is not what makes a difference between a brahmana and a sudra. Self-controlled means that the brahmana is free of lust, anger and greed; thus he does not engage in meat-eating, illicit sex, gambling or intoxication. Tapah: a brahmana is inclined to austerity. Given a choice between filling up his belly and thus succumbing to self-satisfied complacency and dullheadedness, or eating less but thus remaining alert, the brahmana will prefer to eat less. He is clean inside and outside--clean in his thoughts, clean in his habits. He always tells the truth because his mind is absorbed in the Absolute Truth:
brahmajnana iti brahmana.   A brahmana must be a pandita, learned. He lives by his brahminical knowledge, just as a ksatriya lives by his martial skills and a vaisya lives by his business acumen. He is not
only learned but wise, a vijnani, which means he has realization. His knowledge is not  merely parrotted facts and figures. Ksantih, he is tolerant. Parasara Muni began burning all the asuras in his fire of sacrifice because a demon had devoured his father. But when Pulastya Muni requested he forgive the demons, Parasara did so immediately. Pulastya Muni thus acknowledged Parasara Muni's greatness as a brahmana and blessed him with the ability to speak nicely from the Vedic scriptures.   Arjava, a brahmana does not cheat.   He is astika, he adheres to the Vedic dharma.    Endowed with these qualities, such a brahmana does brahma-karma, his brahminical duty, as an expression of his very nature. He does not do his karma as a "job. "  It is his nature to be fully independent from matter and fully dependent upon Krsna. "In other words, a pure brahmana voluntarily accepts a life of poverty and lives in complete dependence on the mercy of the Lord. Not very many years ago, a brahmana in Krsnanagara, near Navadvipa, was offered some help from the local Zamindar, Vraja Krsnacandra. The brahmana refused to accept the help. He said that since he was very happy in his householder life, taking
rice given by his disciples and cooking vegetables of tamarind leaves, there was no question of taking help from the Zamindar. " (Bhag. 6. 7. 37p)

Blissful Belgrade devotees gathered for kirtana and class in a pizza restaurant operated by someone friendly to the movement.

Speak-a on da Gita at da Pious  Pizzeria.

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