Do vaishyas have to do brahminical occupation to come to goodness for practicing bhakti?
Thank you Hare Krishna it is said that to practice Bhakti we should come to the mode of goodness does that mean that Kshatriyas Vaishyas and everyone has to give up their occupational duties to practice Bhakti by coming to the by coming to the mode of goodness answer no not necessarily actually the principle is we have to understand that goodness can be at multiple levels that means that at the very least if somebody is accepting scripture scripture authority one is accepting the authority of God and is willing to regulate one's life at whatever level it may be able to regulate one's life according to God's guideline that itself is a sign of goodness so when we say that Kshatriyas are in the mode of passion they are not only in the mode of passion they are in goodness and passion if there were no goodness then they would not be ready to subordinate themselves to Brahmanas they would not have such a charitable spirit so the Vedic culture recognizes that people are predominantly in certain modes but that does not mean that either they have to just let themselves stay completely under those modes or that they have to totally give up those modes both are the first is undesirable and second is usually impossible that means just staying under the modes people will just become puppets and they will fall to immorality and sin and depravity especially in the lower modes whereas trying to give up one's mode completely is mostly impossible for most people so in general the idea is when we say that everybody should come to the mode of goodness that means one accepts the principle of regulation by higher authority by scripture authority by God and God's representative that level of regulation may vary depending on individual situation and individual inclination and commitment and other things but the point is the principle of accepting regulation itself is a sign of goodness and further the activities of other varanas which are not directly in goodness they can also be done either passionately or with some level of goodness A Vaishya who is very much steeped in passion and ignorance alone Vaishya will be just concerned with gaining money, money, money by hook or by crook but a Vaishya who is in goodness will give due respect to ethics will give due respect to ultimately transcendental ethics also to devotion and that way there will be a regulation and there will be purification and elevation by that so the point of coming to goodness is not meant to say that everybody has to become brahminical entirely in guna and karma that means everybody has to develop all kinds of brahminical qualities yes to practice serious sadhana bhakti one needs to have certain level of brahminical qualities that is definitely true but that doesn't mean one has to become accept the karma of a brahmana and one may accept the karma according to one's karma here I refer to not karmic reaction but I am talking about guna karma in the Bhagavad Gita there I am talking about karma as one's prescribed duty the activity according to one's nature so now here what we understand is that we may do according to prescribed duty but we don't have to do it in the mode of passion we can do it with greater and greater element of goodness so greater calmness, greater deliberation greater valuing for principles and ethics and that way even that work will not entangle us and that work we will be able to do it with remembrance of Krishna so of course if some devotees in Kali Yuga it is very difficult to determine anyone's varna and most people may also have a mixture of various varna qualities because of there has been so much intermixing in the past generations between members of different varna so rather than trying to stick to some formulary that this is the way I should be behaving each devotee should find out how best I can serve Krishna and devotees should primarily be focusing on how can I best serve Krishna and we shouldn't be stereotyping others oh this person is in goodness and this person is in passion no it depends on every devotee how much the devotee can become can practice bhakti in the best possible way so what exactly is every devotee's nature and background will vary so when we say we should try to come to goodness that basically means we should have regulation in our activities regulation in a way that our mind stays calm and we don't get fuzzy confused disoriented in the priorities of life but we with a sense of balance and perspective we are able to focus on our spiritual life and also giving due attention to our material life so that is the essential import of coming to the mood of goodness it essentially means regulating so it doesn't necessarily mean adopting the all the activities that characterize the mood of goodness or adopting the occupation of the mood of goodness it essentially means adopting the regulation and balance that is the characteristic of the mood of goodness Hare Krishna.