(8) Brahmans' Position

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Basirhat, morning, 29 January 2020, part 8
Translated from Bengali

There is another problem that concerns brahmans and Vaishnavs.

What is the difference between a Vaishnav and a brahman? There is a constant fight between them. You should read Guidance 3, especially the "Questions and Answers" chapter, and you can preach to people about it. Who is a Vaishnav? A Vaishnav is a devotee of Vishnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and a brahman is a devotee of nirguna Brahman (impersonal aspect of the Lord situated beyond the influence of the material modes of nature).

You can see many Vaishnavs around in this world now—they all look the same, they all wear the same clothes. I told you yesterday about it. Many will wear the clothes of a Vaishnav but will sit and drink tea at a tea stall. Some also take marijuana. I have seen many of them in Ganga Sagar—they smoke hookah with some drugs. You can see many naga-sannyasis in Ganga Sagar. They wear clothes in their daily life, but when they come to Ganga Sagar, they take off their clothes, smear some ashes on their bodies, and everybody thinks, "Oh, this is a such a great sadhu!" This is monkey renunciation (markata-vairagya). What does it mean? You can see monkeys—they live in forests, naked, eating fruits and roots, but if they see your glass or mobile phone, they become greedy and come to steal it. There are some yogis also in this country—they do not eat anything during the day (not breakfast, not lunch, not supper), they live "eating" air. One such person once came to our temple in Nabadwip. I saw him use the bathroom, so I thought, "All right, I shall see how he lives eating only air!" He had not stayed at the temple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj even for half an hour at that time, but he thought, "Let me go and check what your Gurudev is doing!" He wanted to enter Gurudev's room when Gurudev was about to take prasad, but I stopped him, "You cannot go there! Even we never go to Gurudev's private room. Gurudev has servitors, and only they have the right to go there." Everything must be kept private, but we forget about it.

“গোরার আমি, গোরার আমি” মুখে বলিলে নাহি চলে ।

গোরার আচার, গোরার বিচার লইলে ফল ফলে ॥

"gorara ami, gorara ami" mukhe balile nahi chale
gorara achara, gorara vichara la-ile phala phale

"Just saying, 'I am Gora's! I am Gora's!' will not do. Only when you follow Gora's practice and Gora's conception will you get the proper result."

(Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.6)

লোক দেখান গোরা ভজা তিলক মাত্র ধরি ।

গোপনেতে অত্যাচার গোরা ধরে চুরি ॥

loka dekhana gora bhaja tilaka matra dhari'
gopanete atyachara gora dhare churi

"You put on tilaks and show the whole world that you serve Gora, but secretly you do outrageous things. Gora will catch you, thief (hypocrite)!"

Sri Sri Prema-vivarta, 8.7

The knower of the impersonal aspect of the Supreme Lord is called a brahman, and the knower of personal aspect of the Lord is called Vaishnav. If a brahman practises Krishna consciousness in realisation of sambandha-jnana, then he can become a Vaishnav—by the mercy of Vishnu, he can be saved from the hands of impersonalists and become an 'unadulterated brahman', or Vaishnav. Sri Jiva Goswami writes in his book Bhakti-sandarbha (177), referring to Sri Vyasadev's Garuda Purana, that one priest performing sacrifices is higher than a thousand ordinary brahmans, one person learned in the Vedas and all the other scriptures is higher than a thousand such priests, a Vaishnav is higher than millions of such learned experts, and just one devotee is higher than thousands of Vaishnavs. All Vaishnavs are brahmans, but brahmanism stands on the lowest steps of the ladder of Vaishnavism. Vaishnavs' qualities are much greater than the qualities of brahmans. A brahman is a servant of Vaishnavs: just as when a man has a lakh of rupees, he also has a thousand rupees, the same is true here too—if someone is a Vaishnav, they are automatically a brahman as well. The qualities of a brahman are included within the qualities of a Vaishnav.

Always remember this. Always read these questions and answers in Guidance (Volume 3).

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Serve with Love
2) Deep Renunciation
3) Perverted Taste
4) Life of Awakened Consciousness
5) Genuine Spiritual Life
6) Service Through Self-Abnegation?
7) Service Is Not a Play
8) Brahmans' Position
9) Hari-Katha or Self-Deception?
10) "I Have Come to Help You"
11) Do Not Be Duped
12) Penniless Life
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