Prabhupāda: There were thirteen pseudo-Vaiṣṇavas, thirteen sects: Āula, Bāula, Karttābhajā, Neḍā, Daraveṣa, Sāṅi, Sahajiyā, Sakhībhekī. Sāṅi community . . . you have heard that in London there is a Sāṅi community. Sāṅi Hindu center you have heard from Mukunda? The Sāṅi is there still. So there are thirteen pseudo pretenders belonging to the Caitanya-sampradāya. They are called first Āula, Bāula, Karttābhajā, Neḍā, Daraveṣa, Sāṅi, Sakhībhekī, Gaurāṅga-nagarī, Cūḍādhārī, Ativāḍī and Smārta, Jāta-gosāñi. Like that, thirteen.
So if I describe these thirteen, it will take thirteen hours. So I don't describe all them. But one or two must be described. The most important is the Jāta-gosāñi. Jāti-gosāñi. They created a caste of gosvāmīns, just like they created a caste of brahmins, a caste of gosvāmīns. So this gosvāmī will come by hereditary birth, just like brahmin. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was very sorry to see the condition of the society. So these gosvāmīns . . .
The original history of gosvāmī is the six Gosvāmīns. Now, out of the six Gosvāmīns, none of them were priestly class. So far Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī, they were great politicians: prime minister, a finance minister in the government of Nawab Hussain Shah. So . . . and similarly, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was a big zamindar. His father is . . . Zamindar means landholder. During British period—no, at that time not British period; Muhammadan period—they distributed land among some, I think, in the Western countries the bourgeois (pronounces "burg weez") they call? Bourgeois? Or in England, the landholders, what they are called?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There's a word for it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So zamindar, landholder. So he belonged to a very big land . . . his father, his father and uncle, two brothers. So he was the only son. So naturally, he was to inherit the whole property, and at that time it was twelve hundred thousands dollars' income. Just see how much he was rich man.
When he used to see Caitanya Mahāprabhu or Nityānanda in his youthhood, when he was eighteen years', twenty years' age—he was almost of the contemporary of Lord Caitanya—he used to distribute gold to the brahmins and Vaiṣṇavas, gold, so much gold. What is the price of so much gold? He used to distribute. He was rich man, so he was doing like rich man. So that is the history of Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. That is the history of Sanātana Gosvāmī. None of them were belonging to the Vaiṣṇava sect or nothing. Caitanya Mahāprabhu turned them.
This Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī were rejected from the brahmin community, because at that time the brahmin society was so strict, if somebody takes service of a Musselman or anyone, oh, he is immediately exterminated: "Oh, you cannot be accepted as a pure . . . " brahmin, kṣatriya, according to Vedic system, the brahmin, kṣatriya, and vaiśya, they'll not accept any service, even it is worth 200,000-worth dollars. No. That he will not . . . then that is degradation. Only the śūdras can accept. That was the Vedic system.
To accept another's service was so abominable. In the Bhāgavata also it is stated that if the brahmins, kṣatriyas and vaiśya, especially the brahmins, they have no livelihood, then they can adopt the business of kṣatriya and vaiśya, but never accept the occupation of these dog, śūdra. That is stated. You see? So to accept service of others was so abominable, even five hundred years ago.
So this Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī, they were also belonged to very rich family, but because they accepted ministership in the government of a Muhammadan, they were rejected. They were exterminated from the society. What is the extermination of society? He will never be invited. Nobody will offer his daughter to their family, because according to Vedic system, daughters and sons are not loitering in the street. The father and mother must engage. So if one is exterminated, oh, it is very difficult to get his daughter married. Nobody will accept.
That was their condition. Actually, they also became hopelessness. They became almost Muhammadan. They changed their name, Dabira Khāsa—this is Muhammadan name—and Sākara Mallika. Caitanya Mahāprabhu made them Gosvāmī, this Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he belonged to the Muhammadan community. He was made nāmācārya, the principal ācārya of this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is the revolutionary method of Caitanya.
Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu is not liked by the hereditary brahmins. They dislike. Whenever there is Caitanya movement, they pose another counter. This Ramakrishna is a counteraction of Caitanya. Because Caitanya, the Vaiṣṇava-sampradāya, accept Caitanya Mahāprabhu as incarnation of God, so they presented this Gadādhara Chatterjee as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, and by worshiping Kālī. You see? So this competition is since a very long time between the Vaiṣṇava and the other sect.
Anyway, when these Gosvāmīs . . . my point is that originally the Gosvāmīs came from ordinary person. There is no caste. But they manufactured a caste of Gosvāmī, you see, this brahmin class. This brahmin class, the hereditary brahmin class, played so many havocs in the history of India. The Pakistan is also due to this hereditary brahmanism.
They hated so much the Muhammadans and the śūdras. First of all they hated the śūdras, and then, when the śūdras, they became Muhammadans, they hated the Muhammadans. And gradually it developed that the so-called śūdras and Muhammadans, politically the Britishers took advantage, agitated them. They cut up India into Pakistan and Hindustan. So there are many histories.
So it is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He accepted everyone to this movement. So my Guru Mahārāja's contribution is that he defeated these caste gosvāmī. He defeated this brahmanism. He created that the same way as Caitanya Mahāprabhu did, that, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu said:
- kibā śūdra kibā vipra nyāsi kene naya
- yei kṛṣṇa tattva vetta sei guru haya
- (CC Madhya 8.128)
"There is no consideration whether a man is a sannyāsī, a brahmin or a śūdra or a this or a gṛhastha, householder, or . . . no. Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he is all right. He is gosvāmī. He is brahmin." That is the contribution, say, within hundred years. That is the contribution there. And for this reason he had to face so many vehement protests from this brahmin-class gosvāmīns.
He . . . they conspired to kill him. Guru Mahārāja told me personally. Others . . . because, by his grace, when I used to meet alone, he used to talk so many things. He was so kind that he used to talk so many things with me. So he personally told me that, "These people, they wanted to kill me. They collected 25,000 rupee and went to bribe the police officer in charge of that area that, 'You take this 25,000 rupees. We shall do something against Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. You don't take any step.' " He could understand that they want to kill him. Just like in your country also, the polit . . . Kennedy, was killed. You know. He wanted to kill.
So the police officer frankly said: "Of course, we accept bribe, and we indulge in such things, but not for a sādhu, not for a saintly person. I cannot dare this." And the police officer refused and came to my Guru Mahārāja that "You take care. This is the position." You see? So vehemently protested.