Guest: Yes, but if a brāhmaṇa is not behaving...
Prabhupāda: If you are claiming to become a brāhmaṇa, you must act as a brāhmaṇa.
Lady Guest: (indistinct) of a brāhmaṇas .
Guest: And actions and duty....
Prabhupāda: That should be the platform.
Guest: Because if a brāhmaṇa goes on drinking and abusing...
Prabhupāda: That is not brāhmaṇa. How can that be brāhmaṇa? That is a śūdra , caṇḍāla. Then what is the difference between a.... But they are claiming brāhmaṇa by birth. That is not allowed in the śāstra.
Guest: No, no. Prabhupāda: It is not allowed.
Guest: It is by our actions and faults(?).
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is said by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ BG 4.13 . Never says birth. Guṇa-karma, quality and karma.
Guest: One thing more I can do here for all the devotees...[break]
Prabhupāda: ...Sanskrit teaching in our books.
Guest: Language also.
Prabhupāda: Language doesn't matter. Suppose if I address your wife, "mātā" or if I call, "mother". It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.
Guest: No.
Prabhupāda: One has to understand that a lady should be respectfully called as mother. You call as mātā or mother, it doesn't matter. Yes, some rascals inquire from them that, "Do you know Sanskrit?" Where is the condition that unless one knows Sanskrit he cannot be a devotee? Where is that condition? " Room Conversation -- November 4, 1973, Delhi
-
Indian man (4): Therefore devotee must try to be honest and truthful.
Prabhupāda: Devotee becomes automatically. If he sticks to the devotional principles, he'll become good very soon. Just like he has stopped. Devotee means, just like we say, no illicit sex, no drinking or intoxication, no meat-eating. So he has adopted this, and chanting. That is perfect.
Indian man (4): Prabhu, these things (indistinct) we say. Indian women or even men, those who are in the village life. Well, I don't say all, but most of them, they obey these things right from the very childhood itself. So...
Prabhupāda: We are jumping to the village.
Indian: Well village is a little bit pure life you know, but in the cities of course people get involved too much in...
Prabhupāda: Pure life, village—doesn't matter village or city. If you become devotee, then pure life. It is not that because one is living in city, therefore he's polluted, one is living in village, no. Unless one becomes devotee, there is no question of becoming good."
Srila Prabnhupada, Morning Walk -- June 21, 1976, Toronto
-
Prabhupāda: A devotee, because a nondevotee has become a devotee, he is practicing how to simply accept Kṛṣṇa's orders. But by his previous habit he's still engaged in "do it" and "don't do it." That is his previous habit. Just like this fan is running. You take out the switch, the current is stopped, but it's still running, at least three, four rounds. So similarly, if you have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, your, that current of "do it" or "do not," is stopped. Because you have agreed to do only what Kṛṣṇa says. If you have actually decided like that, then you are free. There is no more current of "do it" or "not do it." But because you were habituated in your past life to this "do it" or "not do it," sometimes it is found. But that is... Therefore Kṛṣṇa says,
api cet sudurācāro
bhajate mām ananya-bhāk
sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ
samyag vyavasito hi saḥ
(BG 9.30)
He has got little practice of these nonsense things. But if he sticks to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this will be stopped very soon. That is the only remedy. So a devotee means he has taken vow before the spiritual master, before the fire, before... If he sticks to his principle, then he's free. Even though some bad habits found due to his past behavior. That will be stopped. But he must stick. Bhajate mām ananya-bhāk. That must stick. Kṛṣṇa consciousness must continue. Everything will be corrected. And if there is slackness in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then again he'll fall down. That I was telling this morning, that if you have determination, māyā will put forward so many impediments, and with all sufferings, if he remains determined in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then life is success." - Evening Darsana -- August 11, 1976, Tehran:
-
Prabhupāda: No, no, don't manufacture your ways of pleasing God. Don't manufacture. Suppose if I want to please you, then I shall ask you, "How can I serve you?" Not that I manufacture service. That is not pleasing you. Suppose if I want a glass of water. And if you manufacture that "Swamiji will be more pleased if I give him a glass of milk, hot milk," that will not please me. If you want to please me, then you should ask me, "How can I please you?" And what I order, if you do that, that will please me.
Bob: And pleasing Kṛṣṇa, then, is being a devotee of Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: The devotee means who is always pleasing Kṛṣṇa. He has no other business. That is devotee."
Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura
-
Prabhupāda: A devotee means, real devotee means, he has no purpose for material gain. That is real devotee. Now we have to see what kind of devotee he is." -Room Conversation with 3 Trappist Monks, Psychologists from University of Georgia, and Atlanta Lawyer, Michael Green -- March 1, 1975, Atlanta
-
"And devotee means he has no sense gratification. He is only busy how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is the devotee. Anyway, if you serve Kṛṣṇa sincerely, Kṛṣṇa is with you. You will never fall in danger." -Room Conversation with Tripurari -- March 2, 1975, Atlanta
-
"Prabhupāda: Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ: "To become My devotee means you shall think of Me twenty-four hours," man-manā. Then you become a bhakta. Not that meditation—I meditate fifteen minutes and twenty-four hours thinking of something else."Morning Walk -- April 13, 1976, Bombay
-
"Prof. Hopkins: So that would then be the deciding test, as it were, of whether one were a serious devotee or not.
Prabhupāda: Devotee means serious devotee.
Prof. Hopkins: Not only that one is devoted now, but that one sees the goal as perpetual devotion.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Nitya-yukta."
Conversation with Professor Hopkins -- July 13, 1975, Philadelphia
Srila Prabhupadas Peace Formula http://womeninkrsnaconsciousness.blogspot.com/2010/07/peace-formula.html
.
