Is a shudra devotee better than a brahmana nondevotee? How?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
the purpose of varanashram is to please Krishna then if a shudra is doing the shudra activities with the intention of pleasing Krishna then is the shudra better than a brahmana who may not have the devotional disposition definitely in fact Prahlad Maharaj in the 7th canto in the 9th chapter he analyzes this his prayers start from 7.9.9 and then they go on till almost 7.950 so the 4th prayer which he mentions is 3rd and 4th prayers in fact he talks about this the 3rd prayer he mentions is very famous vipraadbhishadgunayutadaravindanabha padaravindavimukha chapachamvarishtam manyetadarpitmanovachnehitatha pranampunatisakulam natbhurimanah so he says that if you compare with a brahmana vipraadbhishadgunayutad a brahmana may have many of the brahmanical qualities also but if that brahmana is padaravindavimukha if that brahmana is not favorably disposed towards krishna, if the brahmana is not a devotee of krishna so brahmana is basically an intellectual brahmana doesn’t necessarily have to be a devotee, brahmana can be a brahmavadi a brahmana can be a demigod worshipper if that brahmana is not a devotee infact if the brahmana is unfavorably disposed towards devotion then as compared to that chapachamvarishtam chapacham is a dog eater so dog eater is actually not even a chudra is considered to be outside the fold of varnashra chapachamvarishtam, varishtam means is better what kind of chapachamvarishtam is better mannetadarpitmanovachinehitarthah that one who is completely devoted to krishna with manovachinehitarthah with the mind, with the speech and with ones endeavors such a person will pranam punatisakulam will not only purify oneself but even ones dynasty in contrast with that nathubhurimana means a person who is puffed up with ones brahmanical birth will not be able to purify even oneself so definitely actually if a person has devotion so there is a normal material hierarchy where chudra is lower and brahmana is higher but that hierarchy we have to understand we have to understand varnashram varnashram itself is not a spiritual hierarchy its a material hierarchy a brahmana is also a material designation and a chudra is also a material designation its not that the soul is brahmana the body has a particular nature which is brahmanical so just as a soul is not male or female similarly the soul is not brahmana or chudra the soul is not having any material designation so yes the brahmanical nature is more conducive for practicing spiritual life is more conducive for devotional service also but if a person doesn’t have doesn’t use that conducive facility that is there but turns away from Krishna then that person is not definitely not as situated high as a devotee so that’s why a person who has devotion that devotion can invert the normal hierarchy there is a material hierarchy where brahmana is higher than a chudra but devotion inverts the hierarchy and we see this repeatedly in the past times of the Bhagavatam also where we see the yajnik brahmana patnis they normally women are considered subordinate to men but their husbands although they are learned brahmanas they do not understand the position of Krishna and actually they are not at all glorified but their wives they go forward towards Krishna and they are glorified similarly we have Durvasa Muni and Ambarish Maharaj Durvasa Muni is a sanyasi and a grahastha, he is higher in both varna and ashram whereas Ambarish Maharaj is a sanyasi and a brahmana Durvasa Muni and Ambarish Maharaj is a grahastha and a kshatriya, lower in terms of both but still we see Ambarish Maharaj is higher in fact Durvasa Muni has to come back and apologize after he offends Ambarish Maharaj I won’t go into the past time, most of you know the past time so there are many examples like this so in our practice of devotional service we shouldn’t bother too much about what is the varna of a particular person we should focus on the devotional attitude with which a person is trying to serve Krishna