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Brahmana means the most intelligent class of men who can understand even up to the knowledge of Brahman, brahma janati iti brahmana

Expressions researched:
"Brāhmaṇa means the most intelligent class of men who can understand even up to the knowledge of Brahman, brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇa"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Brāhmaṇa means the most intelligent class of men who can understand even up to the knowledge of Brahman, brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇa. And the second class are the kṣatriyas, or the administrative class of men, and the third-class are the mercantile class of men, industrialists, traders, agriculturalists.

Realizing the Absolute Truth as the localized Paramātmā, and some of them are realizing the Absolute Truth as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Absolute Truth is one, but because we are under different modes of material nature, we are understanding the Absolute Truth in three modes of material nature.

So Kṛṣṇa says that these three modes of material nature is current all over the universe, even in the topmost planet down to the lowest planet. Therefore he says, na tad asti pṛthivyāṁ vā divi deveṣu vā punaḥ. Pṛthivyām means on this earth, or in the other higher planetary system or even the heavenly planets. Everywhere. Sattvaṁ prakṛti-jair muktam. Nowhere anyone is free from the influence of these modes of material nature. Sattvam means existence. Sattvaṁ prakṛti-jaiḥ. Prakṛti-jaiḥ means by the material nature, guṇaiḥ, means the modes, this goodness, passion and ignorance. Yad ebhiḥ syāt tribhir guṇaiḥ.

Everything, everywhere, even amongst the plant life, beast life, there these three guṇas are working. Just like some trees, they're useless—neither produce any nice fruit nor flower. That is third class, in ignorance. And in animals also. Just like cows, they are first-class animal, in the modes of goodness, supplying so valuable, nutritious food, milk. But the cats and dogs, they are third-class animal. This is the calculation of the three modes of material nature. Either human being or animals or trees, birds, everywhere, Kṛṣṇa says, or in the higher planetary system, everywhere these three modes of material nature is working.

Therefore, in the human society, because there are three modes of material nature, the classification should be made scientifically, according to these three modes of material nature. And that is explained by Bhagavān, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, in the Bhagavad-gītā, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13), four classes of men: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra. Brāhmaṇa means the most intelligent class of men who can understand even up to the knowledge of Brahman, brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇa. And the second class are the kṣatriyas, or the administrative class of men, and the third-class are the mercantile class of men, industrialists, traders, agriculturalists. Everything will be explained. And the fourth-class men means workers. They have no intelligence, but they find out some good master and get some money. That's all. So there are four classes. So here Kṛṣṇa says:

brāhmaṇa-kṣatriya-viśāṁ
śūdrāṇāṁ ca parantapa
karmāṇi pravibhaktāni
svabhāva-prabhavair guṇaiḥ
(BG 18.41)

According to the modes of material nature, the brāhmaṇa should be selected, the kṣatriya should be selected, the vaiśyas, or the mercantile people, should be selected, and the śūdras, the worker class, should be selected.

Page Title:Brahmana means the most intelligent class of men who can understand even up to the knowledge of Brahman, brahma janati iti brahmana
Compiler:Nabakumar
Created:2023-03-10, 10:01:41
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1