Eighth Class

Expressions researched:
"eighth class" |"eighth-class"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Father says, "My dear boy, if you can pass this eighth class, then I can make you a magistrate. I shall make you a magistrate." Boy is very enthusiastic. "I shall become a magistrate."

Lecture on BG 9.15-18 -- New York, December 2, 1966:

"Oh, I am the Lord. I am everything."

So this is a sense that in that process one may understand, if one day comes into his sense "Well, I am God. I am worshiping myself, but if I go to the street, nobody asks me. What kind of God I am?" So this sense should come. I may think, "Well, I understand that God lifted the hill. Kṛṣṇa, He lifted the hill at the age of seven years. Oh, I cannot lift even hundred pounds or fifty pounds. What kind of God I am?" So this sense should come. You can worship yourself as God. That's all right. That's a process. That process is to understand that you study yourself, and then you understand the real constitution of God, not that you become God. So these are different methods, of course. But we should not be satisfied simply by the method. We should try to go further, on and on. Just like a little boy. He is promised by the father... He is in the eighth class. Father says, "My dear boy, if you can pass this eighth class, then I can make you a magistrate. I shall make you a magistrate." Boy is very enthusiastic. "I shall become a magistrate." You see. So similarly, these are some of the encouragement.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

We should know that this is the defect of civilization, that by education, by practice, by examples we are simply creating eighth-class, tenth-class of men, so there cannot be any peace.

Lecture on SB 6.1.22 -- Chicago, July 6, 1975:

If you are fifth-class man, then go to the jungle and hunt some animal and eat. Then these persons, they, cheating, stealing, these are the occupation of the tenth class, eighth class, like that. This is not honest. So if you produce such tenth-class and eighth-class and seventh-class men, then how you can expect without crime in the society? That is not possible. So we should know that this is the defect of civilization, that by education, by practice, by examples we are simply creating eighth-class, tenth-class of men, so there cannot be any peace. Therefore the human society must take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and teach people at least how to become second class, third class, if not first class. But there must be first-class men, second-class men. Then everything, social affair, political affair, will go very smoothly, without any trouble. Otherwise you have to meet with this class of profession, stealing, cheating, and so on.

General Lectures

We are all student. We are trying. But there are degrees also. Just like in a educational institution there is tenth class, eighth class, fifth class, sixth class.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 18, 1968:

We are all student. We are trying. But there are degrees also. Just like in a educational institution there is tenth class, eighth class, fifth class, sixth class. And with the yoga, it is just like a staircase or a lift. So there are different stages of perfection. The highest perfection is who is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. That is yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntarātmanā śraddhāvān bhajate... (BG 6.47). The highest perfectional is Kṛṣṇa, thinking always Kṛṣṇa, and Rādhārāṇī. That is the highest perfectional stage. She has no other business: simply thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Everyone is in the eighth class. Does it mean that he cannot pass MA examination? If he is trained up, he can pass M.A. exam.

Morning Walk -- April 23, 1974, Hyderabad:

Akṣayānanda: You said that everyone could become a brāhmaṇa, in your lecture, last night. But at the same time there must always be the legs of society.

Prabhupāda: Legs are already there. Everyone is now legs. So they can be promoted to become heads. What is the difficulty? Everyone is in the eighth class. Does it mean that he cannot pass MA examination? If he is trained up, he can pass M.A. exam...