Jati means

Expressions researched:
"jati means"

CC Madhya-lila

The word jāti means birth.

CC Madhya 1.189, Translation and Purport:

“Sir, we belong to the lowest class of men, and our associates and employment are also of the lowest type. Therefore we cannot introduce ourselves to You. We feel very much ashamed, standing here before You.

Although the two brothers, Rūpa and Sanātana (at that time Dabira Khāsa and Sākara Mallika), presented themselves as being born in a low family, they nonetheless belonged to a most respectable brāhmaṇa family that was originally from Karṇāṭa. Thus they actually belonged to the brāhmaṇa caste. Unfortunately, because of being associated with the Muslim governmental service, their customs and behavior resembled those of the Muslims. Therefore they presented themselves as nīca-jāti. The word jāti means birth. According to śāstra, there are three kinds of birth. The first birth is from the womb of the mother, the second birth is the acceptance of the reformatory method, and the third birth is acceptance by the spiritual master (initiation). One becomes abominable by adopting an abominable profession or by associating with people who are naturally abominable. Rūpa and Sanātana, as Dabira Khāsa and Sākara Mallika, associated with Muslims, who were naturally opposed to brahminical culture and cow protection. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Seventh Canto) it is stated that every person belongs to a certain classification. A person is identifiable by the special symptoms mentioned in the śāstras. By one's symptoms, one is known to belong to a certain caste. Both Dabira Khāsa and Sākara Mallika belonged to the brāhmaṇa caste, but because they were employed by Muslims, their original habits degenerated into those of the Muslim community. Since the symptoms of brahminical culture were almost nil, they identified themselves with the lowest caste. In the Bhakti-ratnākara it is clearly stated that because Sākara Mallika and Dabira Khāsa associated with lower-class men, they introduced themselves as belonging to the lower classes. Actually, however, they had been born in respectable brāhmaṇa families.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Jāti, big nation. Jāti means big nation.

Lecture on SB 2.3.14-15 -- Los Angeles, May 31, 1972:

Big nation. You Americans, you are big nation. But bhagavad-bhakti ... There is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Jāti, big nation. Jāti means big nation. Bhagavad-bhakti-hīnasya jātiḥ japaḥ, their activities, tapaḥ, tapasya... They are trying to invent so many nice things, scientifically, mechanically. Or invented machine. Everything. Jātiḥ śāstraṁ japas tapaḥ. Activities, very methodical. On the road there is light arrangement. Everything is all right. But if it is less Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is... What is that? Aprāṇasyeva dehasya maṇḍanaṁ loka-rañjanam. Just like a dead body, if you decorate. A body, dead body, and you apply pomade and nice dress and scent. What is the meaning? Loka-rañjanam. Loka-rañjanam means you may please some of the people, "Oh, how you are decorating a dead body." But it has no meaning. It is useless waste of time. Similarly very nice arrangement, big nation, politics, everything, minus Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like that.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Nīca jāti means those who are born in lower families. They are called nīca jāti, as śūdras or less than the śūdras.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.97-99 -- New York, November 22, 1966:

So Sanātana Gosvāmī in this way, directly, here received instruction from Lord Caitanya about bhakti-yogam, what is bhakti. Tattvaṁ sanātanāyeśaḥ kṛpayopadideśa saḥ. Īśa. Īśa means the Lord, the supreme controller. So he is also... Just like Arjuna received instruction directly, similarly, Sanātana Gosvāmī also received instruction directly from the Supreme Lord. Now, here, how to receive instruction, that is given by example by Sanātana Gosvāmī.

tabe sanātana prabhura caraṇe dhariyā

dainya vinati kare dante tṛṇa lañā

"Sanātana Gosvāmī very humbly fell down on the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and most humbly he submitted." What is that submission?

'nīca jāti, nīca-saṅgī, patita adhama

kuviṣaya-kūpe paḍi' goṅāinu janama!

"My dear Sir, I have wasted my time in simply sense gratification. That is my qualification. And I belong to the lowest caste," nīca jāti nīca-saṅgī, "and my association is also of the lowest type." And patita: "I am fallen, and I am the lowest of all. This is my qualification." Now, why he is submitting himself as nīca jāti? Nīca jāti means those who are born in lower families. They are called nīca jāti, as śūdras or less than the śūdras. According to Vedic system the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, and vaiśya, they are higher caste, and the śūdras, they are lower caste. And less than śūdras, they are lowest.

Philosophy Discussions

Our jāti means of the same culture. He may be Gujarati, he may be Bengali, he may be American.

Philosophy Discussion on Charles Darwin:

Śyāmasundara: You mean like Bengalis are a different species than Gujaratis? Something like that?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Why do you mix, we have already explained? Our jāti means of the same culture. He may be Gujarati, he may be Bengali, he may be American.

Śyāmasundara: So, for instance, carpenters are different than field workers-like that, different interests?

Prabhupāda: Why different interest? The interest is to earn money. So you may earn money in some way, I may earn money in some way, he may earn money in some way.

Karandhara: So is the primary factor of the variation is how much advanced they are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and how least advanced they are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes.

Śyāmasundara: So there are only two species.

Karandhara: The demons and the devas.

Prabhupāda: This consciousness is coming through so many species, animals, then they're trees, they have no consciousness, but there is living..., the soul is there.

Śyāmasundara: I'm still trying to understand what you mean by the species of human life. It's not clear to me. I don't understand what you mean by the different species of human life.

Prabhupāda: By culture.

Śyāmasundara: By culture.

Prabhupāda: Yes. One class of human being...

Śyāmasundara: But everyone is looking for money. You said the field worker is not the same as, or is the same as the carpenter, because they're both looking for money.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But one who knows how to earn money very easily, and one may not know. That is culture. That is culture. One man is sitting in one place earning daily one lakhs of rupees.

Śyāmasundara: So big industrialists and field workers are two different species of men.

Prabhupāda: Not species, class. Jāti.

Śyāmasundara: Jāti. So when you say 400,000 species of human life...

Prabhupāda: It is difference of culture.

Śyāmasundara: It's different from what we think of as species.

Prabhupāda: Culture.

Devotee: It's not species in the bodily...

Karandhara: So the angle of vision is not from the bodily, it's from the closeness of the soul to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as far as they're able...

Prabhupāda: Unless you accept soul and consciousness, there cannot be question of culture.

Śyāmasundara: But when the scientists say "species," they mean different types of bodies.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We say 400,000 different forms of body, so human body, just like Negroes, they are also human beings, and you are also human beings. So this, scientists will say they are all one species, human being. But we say that Negro culture and the Āryan culture is different.

Śyāmasundara: They also say their bodies are different, Negroid bodies or Caucasian bodies, or Oriental bodies...

Prabhupāda: Then you can say species. Species and the different bodies.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Jīva means living entity; jāti means species.

Room Conversation -- May 4, 1972, Mexico:

Prabhupāda: Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. And 2,000,000 of leaves and plants, botany, botanical. Jalajā nava-lakṣāni sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati, kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ. Insects, there are 1,100,000 forms. (Sanskrit) Then (Sanskrit). From insect, they become flies and birds. (Sanskrit) One million. Then from birds, the beasts come, four-legged. (Sanskrit). Three million species of beasts. Then from beasts, the human form comes—either from monkey or from lion or from cows. Out of these three, sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. Those who are coming through rajo-guṇa, their last birth before human form of birth is lion. And those who are coming in the form ignorance, Darwin's father-in-law, (laughs) monkey, and ignorance. And those who are coming in goodness, their last form of birth is cow. So this is our scientific information from the Vedas. We haven't got to make research. Everything is there. That is Vedic knowledge. They have got already everything written there. The astronomy, everything is written there; simply you have to calculate. Astrology, we say simply mathematical calculation. If the moon is in this position and the other stars is in this position, the effect will be like this and the result will be like this. Like that. So you haven't got to make search or research. It is already there. Similarly, this Darwin's theory is there in two lines. (Sanskrit) Asati, asati means eighty. Catura means four, eighty and four lakṣāṇi, lakhs, 400,000. Eighty-four hundred thousand, that means eighty million, four hundred thousand. (Sanskrit) Jīva means living entity; jāti means species. Jīva-jātiṣu, brahmadbhiḥ. The living entity is wandering or transmigrating from aquatics to trees, plants, then insect, then birds, then beasts. In this way the last is human form of life. Brahmadbhiḥ, brahmadbhiḥ, wandering. (Sanskrit), last he is getting (Sanskrit), by the evolution of birth. Now this form is for understanding Govinda, God. The other forms, they cannot. So if in this form the living entity does not contact Govinda... Contacting Govinda means surrendering unto Govinda. As Kṛṣṇa says, "Surrender unto Me." Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate (BG 7.19). So after many, many, many millions of births, when one is actually in full knowledge, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection. Then he goes back to home, back to Godhead. That is our program, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

So jāti means that. Jāti means born of a particular species. That is jāti.

Morning Walk -- May 12, 1973, Los Angeles:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Do we have anything, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the reference, saying that all the living entities are already there?

Prabhupāda: Yes, that jīva-jātiṣu.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, and that implies?

Prabhupāda: Jīva-jāti, different grades of jīva. Jāti, you know jāti?

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like there are different nations. They are already existing. So jāti means that. Jāti means born of a particular species. That is jāti. Jīva-jātiṣu. Ṣu, plural number. So many jīva-jātiṣu. He's simply Bhramadbhiḥ. Just like I am traveling, sometimes America, some Australia, sometimes... But they are already there. I am going sometimes in America, sometimes Australia, sometimes Africa, but they are already there. I am the man; I am traveling. Not that because I have to come to America, I create America. This is nonsense. And there are many countries I have not gone there. Does it mean that they are not existing? They have no even human reason, these rascal scientists. The common sense reason. And Bhagavad-gītā clearly says they are already existing. Wherever you like, you can go. You can go even up to the kingdom of God if you so desire. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Jāti means the form of the body. So the form of the body is already there, and the living entity is being transferred from one body to another.

'Life Comes From Life' Slideshow Discussions -- July 3, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Prabhupāda: There is no question of evolution. It is already there. This is a wrong theory. The monkey is there, the man is there. The soul is going from monkey to man. It is not the evolution. Just like you have got apartment, ten rupees, five rupees, twenty rupees, thirty rupees, like that. Now, as you pay, "Come on, here." There is no question of evolution. It is already there. Jantur dehopapattaye. These dehas, these bodies, are already there. So immediately it develops a particular type of desire, "Yes, come here, sit down." First class, second class, third class, fourth class is already there. As you pay, "Yes, come here." It is not evolving; it is already there. He is transferred from one apartment to another. This has to be convinced. We don't find that monkey's body became a human body. That is not in the experience, anyone. The monkey is there, the human being is there. But the soul is going from monkey's body to human's body, or monkey's body to another body. That is by superior administration. Their theory is the body is evolving and some body is missing. Nothing is missing. Every body is there. The soul is being transferred from one body to another. Asatims caturam caiva laksams jīva jātiṣu.(?) Jāti means the form of the body. So the form of the body is already there, and the living entity is being transferred from one body to another. This is called transmigration. We have come here, not that that room developed. This room is here, that room is there, but I am transferring. Because they have no idea of soul, they are thinking that this nice room, now transform into this room or this room, transform... This is foolishness. A civil man transferred into jail—not that his civil house becomes jail. They are thinking wrongly like that, Darwin's theory. Body becoming changed. No. The different types of bodies are already there. The living entity is being transferred from one body to another. Just try to explain. So evolution you take that this apartment is better than that apartment, that apartment better than, and a living entity's going from one after another. So this is evolution. That you are now getting salary, one thousand dollar, now you get fifteen hundred dollars. So according to your qualification, you are getting.