Vedic knowledge means to understand Kṛṣṇa. The more you understand Kṛṣṇa, then you will become vipra. And when you become vipra, then there are twelve qualifications. That is being stated here—viprād dvi-ṣaḍ-guṇa-yutād aravinda-nābha (SB 7.9.10).
Twelve items, just like controlling the senses, subduing the mind, subduing the tongue—sāma, dama, titikṣā—to be tolerant, then simplicity, then full faith in the scriptures, knowledge, understanding Kṛṣṇa. In this way there are twelve qualification.
So Mahārāja Prahlāda, Prahlāda Mahārāja says that even one is qualified with these twelve qualification and has attained the stage of vipra, still, if he has not attained devotional service, then it is useless. Simply becoming learned, simply becoming very purified is not all. The summit is that one should become the devotee of the Lord.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja says, viprād dvi-ṣaḍ-guṇa-yutād aravinda-nābha. Aravinda-nābha. Aravinda-nābha, aravinda means lotus, and nābha means this navel. That means Viṣṇu. Lord Viṣṇu is aravinda-nābha. From His lotus flower grown out of His abdomen, navel, Brahmā is born. Therefore His another name is aravinda-nābha.
If one becomes avaiṣṇava, not devotee of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, but he has all these qualifications, aravinda-nābha-pādāravinda-vimukhāt (SB 7.9.10). Pādāravinda means . . . aravinda-nābha, Kṛṣṇa is aravinda, mukhāravinda. Mukhāravinda means that His face is like lotus flower. His eyes are like lotus flower. From the navel a lotus flower has grown. His feet is called lotus feet. So here aravinda-nābha and pādāravinda. Pādāravinda means lotus feet.
So one who is detached from the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, from whose abdomen a lotus is grown for begetting Brahmā, if one is bereft of attachment to the Supreme Lord, then his qualification of vipra is not accepted, or not very fruitful. Rather, a person who has not become vipra, born of a very low family, caṇḍāla, śvapacaṁ variṣṭham—śvapacaṁ, śvapacaṁ means . . . śva means dog, a dog-eater's family, lowest family—if he is qualified in devotional service, he is better than a person who is a vipra. Why?
- manye tad-arpita-mano-vacanehitārtha-
- prāṇaṁ punāti sa kulaṁ na tu bhūrimānaḥ
- (SB 7.9.10)
Because if a person has dedicated his life and body and everything to the service of the Lord, he can deliver his family more than such vipra, that brahmin who is simply proud of his qualification but has no, actually, devotional service. This is the statement of Prahlāda Mahārāja.