Srila Prabhupada’s Back to Godhead Magazine 1944 – 1960 BTGPY25:
Volume 3, Part 21, June 5, 1960, BTG PY25a: Bhakti-Rasamrita-Sindhu
Text 21
Yat nama dheya sraban anukirtanad
yat prahhanad yat smaranad api kwachit
swadopi sadyah sabanaya kalpate
kutah punah te bhagawat nu darsanat.
English Synonyms
Yat-of one, nama-name, srabananukirtanat-hearing and chanting, yat-of whom, smaranad-by remembering, api-also, kwachit-sometime, swadopi-even the dog eaters, sabanaya-for the matter of sacrifice, kalpate-become eligible, kutah-what is there, punah-then, te-of them, bhagawat-the Personality of Godhead, darsanat-by meeting.
Translation
A person who happens to be born in the family of the dog eaters becomes eligible for performing sacrifices at once even by occasional meditating upon, hearing and chanting or remembering the holy name of Him (the Lord) then what to speak of him who has actually met Him?
Purport
This is a stanza forming the part of conversation that took place between Devahuti and the Personality of Godhead Kapila. This is the version of Mother Devahuti. This is a very important sloka in the matter of caste distinction. According to the law of Karma a vicious living being has to take birth in the body of lower animals or in the body of man who indulges in the eating of dog. The dog eaters are called Chandala. The chandala come in the fifth or sixth grade of human being. The first-grade man is the Brahmin. The Brahmin by birth is eligible to conduct the ceremonies of scriptural sacrifices and other religious performances while a Chandala cannot even enter the arena of such sacrificial site. The chandala cannot enter the arena because by his birth he is untouchable on account of his low-grade habits and social atmosphere. A higher caste-born man is allowed to undergo penances if by chance he is obliged to eat the flesh of a dog. But for a chandala born man there is no such allowance even for undergoing prescribed penances as it is done in the case of higher caste men. But even such a man on the level of the chandala is also purified by chanting or hearing or remembering the holy name of God. He becomes so much purified as he becomes at once an eligible person to act as priest in the religious ceremonies. This confirms the power of devotional service how it can at once neutralize the effects of infectious vices by execution of devotional activities.
To be born of chandala family is certainly the result of past vicious life. And because such a man is also at once elevated to the position of a qualified Brahmin it proves definitely the neutralising effect of devotion. Srila Jiva Goswami says that to take birth in the family of a Brahmin is undoubtedly the result of past pious deeds but the chandala even surpasses him simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord. To take part in the ceremonial sacrifices is not an ordinary thing. Even a man who is born in the family of a Brahmin cannot take part in the ceremonial sacrifices until he gets the authority of sacred thread ceremony. The sacred thread of a man is a sort of certificate for him declaring thereby that the man has properly been initiated by an Acharya who has taught him the Vedas with paraphernalia and has given him the right to perform the religious rites. But the Chandala has no chance of undergoing such purificatory processes from the bonafide Acharya and because he adopts the first step of devotional service namely hearing and chanting the holy name of the Lord, he at once becomes more than the person born in the family of a Brahmin. This promotion of the chandala to the stage of a qualified Brahmin certainly supports the maxim that devotional service of the Lord purifies even the chandalas.
It may not be our place herein that the present movement of a casteless society is possible only by the propagation of this movement of devotional service of the Lord. Everyone even the Chandala has got the right to chant the holy name of the Lord or remember His holy pastimes and if those things are done in the prescribed ways the question of Harijan movement or a casteless society is automatically achieved.
Text No. 22
English Synonyms
Durjati-low caste, eba-only, sabana-sacrifice, ayogyatwe-in the matter of disqualification, karanam-cause, malam-concluded, durjati -low caste, arambhakam-beginning of, eba-alone, papam-vice, yat-that which is, prarabdham-current, tat-that.
Translation
Low caste birth is the concluded cause only for disqualification in the matter of taking part in the execution of sacrifices. Therefore, the low caste is the beginning of current result of past vices.
Purport
The rigidity of caste system according to the law of Karma is undoubtedly very scientific and the Vedic shastras which accept this divisions of castes are right in that scientific estimation. It does not however mean that a low caste born man cannot rise up to the standard of a qualified Brahmin. It depends on the undaunted desire of the candidate for rising up to that standard. Those who are supporters of the caste system by birth right only are as much mistaken as those who fight to dismantle the scientific institution of caste system without being qualified for the purpose. Here is a right adjustment for the two opposite schools in the matter of supporting and breaking the caste system respectively.
In the Bhagwat Geeta it is admitted that the caste system is a scientific plan made by the Personality of Godhead Himself. He does not however give much stress on the point of birth right because for a devotee of the Personality of Godhead the birth right of caste system is quite immaterial. What is the difference between a born Brahmin and born Chandala? It is the difference of the material semen only. The body is made out of the semen of the father and in the case of a born Brahmin it is taken for acceptance that the semen is pure while in the case of the chandala the semen is impure. Purity and impurity of the semen depend also on the purity of the father in respect of his daily habits in life. It depends on the quality of the foodstuffs the father takes. Dr. Barnard Shaw said that you are what you eat. Therefore, even to the modern man it depends on the eating of a man to constitute the different secretion of the bodily glands. This is a vast subject however not to be dealt with here, but our point of discussion is that a man even born of a Chandala semen it does not make any barrier for his rising up to the plane of pure Brahmin provided he has adopted the devotional services of the Lord under bona fide guidance of the spiritual master. As stated in the stanza 20 the devotional service is like the blazing fire and therefore it is able to purify even impure birth semen of the Chandala, if he is in the line. One may argue that in order to change the impure blood in the body of Chandala it will be necessary for him to wait for the change of the body. But Srila Jiva Goswami who is one of the authorized Acharya by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu answers this question very saliently as follows:-
“Children of the Brahmin family may be freed from the vice which causes the low caste birth but to become qualified for the office of performing sacrifices such children have to undergo the process of pious actions like the second birth by initiation from an Acharya generally known as the sacred thread ceremony. This means that the Chandala has to wait for the next birth in the family of a Brahmin as much as the Brahmin boy has to wait for the thread ceremony for the particular office. It may be an argumentative point that even though a Chandala on account of his pure devotional service is freed from the vice which caused his birth in the Chandala family yet according to social custom a Chandala born man cannot be allowed to have the facility of second birth by thread ceremony. But that sort of argument is invalid in the presence of evidence of the Shastras. It is clearly mentioned that such devotee becomes at once eligible for the purpose.”
He becomes at once pure and cleansed of all vices of his previous birth and thereby he becomes at once venerable as much as a qualified Brahmin. By dint of his actual activities in the devotional line under the guidance of a bonafide Acharya he is at once washed of all sins and therefore this example is quite appropriate with reference to the context that a devotee of Vasudeva has nothing like inauspicity. He is transcendental to all the bodily reactions of birth, death, old age and diseases.
Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur a powerful Acharya as Srila Jiva Goswami in the recent years (1874-1936) reformed the Goudiya Vaishnava association by establishment of the Goudiya Math establishment which institute initiates all persons without any caste and creed distinction and gives them the right of a qualified Brahmin by initiation in terms of the Hari-Bhakti- Vilas, an authorized law book compiled by Srila Sanatan Goswami.
Lord Chaitanya wanted that everybody from all corners of the world shall be initiated in the cult of Bhakti as it is propounded by Him and the Gaudiya Math institution has taken up the initiative action on this behalf very timely. Solution of all problems like the dissolution of the caste system and other similar social movement can actually take a valid form only under the auspicious direction of the Goswamins. All contending elements of the world problems can be easily mitigated by the blessings of Lord Chaitanya if the path is followed strictly under direction of the Goswamins headed by Srila Rupa Goswami the author of the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu.