A person in devotional service, even though born of a very low family who are eating dogs’ flesh, he is better than a qualified brahmin who is not a devotee of the Lord. The only disqualification—that he is not a devotee of the Lord—that makes everything null and void. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāh (SB 5.18.12).
The Bhāgavata school does not give any credit for all material acquisitions. Simply they say it is simply a waste of time. Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). If by your worldly acquisition, if by your religious principles, if you are becoming very highly thoughtful man of character—all good qualifications materially estimated—but if your aptitude is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then Bhāgavata says śrama eva hi kevalam, it is simply laboring, that’s all.
- dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
- viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
- notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
- śrama eva hi kevalam
- (SB 1.2.8)
Śrama means "labor" and kevalam means "only." Dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ: everyone has got some particular type of duty. I’m not speaking of those who are not following the Vedic prin . . . duty means to follow the duty enjoined by the scriptures. That is called duty.
Duty, you cannot make anything, manufacturing duty that, "This is my duty." No. Duty means it is authorized. So according to Vedic principle, everyone has some authorized duty. The classification is brahmin, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. They are followers of the enjoined duties. Others, they are called pañcama; they are out of this core.
So even those who are following the duties—brahmin's duty, kṣatriya’s duty, vaiśya’s duties, śūdra’s duty . . . the more you come lower, the duty’s charge becomes smaller. Just like the brahmin, they have to qualify in twelve kinds of qualifications. The kṣatriyas, they have to qualify themselves in seven kinds of qualifications. The vaiśyas, they have to qualify themselves in three kinds of qualifications. And the śūdras, they have to qualify themselves in one, that’s all. What is that one? Simply to serve the master faithfully. That’s all. Paricaryātmakaṁ karma śūdrasyāpi svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44).