Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 628

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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The Divine And Demoniac Natures
Chapter 16: Verse- 1-3
PURPORT

That should be the advantage of children born of a father and mother absorbed in krsna consciousness. The social institution known as varnasrama-dharma—the institution dividing society into four divisions of social life and four occupational divisions or castes—is not meant to divide human society according to birth. Such divisions are in terms of educational qualifications. They are to keep the society in a state of peace and prosperity.The qualities mentioned herein are explained as transcendental qualities meant for making a person progress in spiritual understanding so that he can get liberated from the material world. In the varnasrama institution the sannyäsI, or the person in the renounced order of life, is considered to be the head or the spiritual master of all the social statuses and orders. A brähmana is considered to be the spiritual master of the three other sections of a society, namely, the ksatriyas, the vaiSyas and the Südras, but a sannyäsi, who is on the top of the institution, is considered to be the spiritual master of the brahmanas also.

For a sannyäsI, the first qualification should be fearlessness. Because a sannyäsi has to be alone without any support or guarantee of support, he has simply to depend on the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one thinks, “After I leave my connections, who will protect me?” he should not accept the renounced order of life. One must be fully convinced thatkrsnaor the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His localized aspect as Paramätmä is always within, that He is seeing everything and He always knows what one intends to do. One must thus have firm conviction that krsna as Paramätmä will take care of a soul surrendered to Him. “I shall never be alone,” one should think. “Even if I live in the darkest regions of a forest I shall be accompanied by Krsna, and He will give me all protection.” That conviction is called abhayam, fearlessness. This state of mind is necessary for a person in the renounced order of life.


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