View source for You say we should lose the designations. Now, would you consider the caste system as designations?

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{{terms|"You say we should lose the designations. Now, would you consider the caste system as designations"}}
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{{compiler|Mangalavati|Rishab}}
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{{first|29Apr11}}
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1968]]
[[Category:Questions On... Class, Divisions of Society]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="General_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="11" parent="Lectures" text="General Lectures"><h3>General Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureLosAngelesDecember41968_0" class="quote" parent="General_Lectures" book="Lec" index="31" link="Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1968" link_text="Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1968">
<div class="heading">Yes. For a devotee there is no caste, because he's servant of God. He does not belong to any material consciousness. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is transcendental.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1968|Lecture -- Los Angeles, December 4, 1968]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Guest: You say we should lose the designations. Now, would you consider the caste system as designations?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Guest: You would be, then, for abolishing the caste system.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. For a devotee there is no caste, because he's servant of God. He does not belong to any material consciousness. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is transcendental. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate ([[Vanisource:BG 14.26 (1972)|BG 14.26]]). In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that one who is engaged in the service of the Lord, he is on the platform of becoming Brahman. Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān.... Guṇān means this world, this material world is full of three qualities: the quality of goodness, the quality of passion, and the quality of ignorance. Or mixed. Three into three into nine, nine into nine equal to eighty-one. There are so many mixture of qualities and different kinds of men, because they are within the material qualities. But as soon as you engage yourself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, you are no more within these qualities; therefore you are freed from designation. Just like these boys, they are not thinking that they are American. I am not thinking "I am not Indian," "I am Indian." Actually, our platform is Kṛṣṇa. We are loving each other. So we have forgotten our designation. Otherwise, how they can work so nicely? Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 19.170|CC Madhya 19.170]]). They are now thinking in terms of Kṛṣṇa, that's all. Similarly, if this consciousness is spread, so simple, then they will lose designation, there will be no more distinction, "Oh, I am Chinese," "I am Russian," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this," "I am that." The fighting is on the platform of designation. But if you say that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is also a designation, but that is not designation, because in the Vedic literature it is said that ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is pure consciousness. Asmi, my identification, shall continue because I am an individual soul. That cannot be abolished. So when I am thinking that "I am God's," that is my designation-free stage. And when I think that I belong to this family, this country, this society, this group, so many things, then I am designated.</p>
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