So actually, if one becomes too much attached to family life, and one has to become—this is the way—then he has to earn money by risking life. He has to earn money. Similarly, the vaṇik, mercantile community, they also risk imprisonment by so many illegal activities. So formerly, these classes of men were after money. The higher class, namely the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, they were very, I mean to say, pious. They did not do anything for risking life, for earning money. The brāhmaṇa, they were trained up not to earn money but to learn how to become self-controlled, śama, dama, satyam, how to speak truth, or how to understand the Absolute Truth. Then cleanliness, śama dama satyaṁ śaucam (BG 18.42). Titikṣa, how to become tolerant. Ārjava, simple. Jñānam, fully aware of all kinds of knowledge. Vijñānam, practical application of knowledge. So then āstikyam. Āstikyam means to accept the authority of the śāstra. That is called āstik. That is theism. Theism means just like Veda, one who accepts the authority of Vedas, he is called āstik. And one who does not accept the authority of the Vedas, he is called nāstik. Āstik and nāstik.
According to Vedic civilization, one who does not follow the Vedic principle, he is called nāstik. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has explained about the Buddhist. Buddhists, they do not believe in the Vedic injunction. Or the Muslims. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta' nāstika. Buddhists are called nāstik, atheist. Why? Veda nā māniyā: he does not believe in the Vedas.
- veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta' nāstika
- vedāśraya nāstikya-vāda bauddhake adhika
- (CC Madhya 6.168)
But a person, hypocrite, who accepts the Vedas but he preaches atheism. . . Just like you are praying that śūnyavādi, nirviśeṣa śūnyavādi pāścātya deśa tāriṇe. These two, very dangerous position, nirviśeṣa. The Buddhists, they say there is no God—śūnyavādi. "Everything, at the end, everything is zero. You have got this body. When the body is finished, then everything becomes zero." Because they do not believe in the soul, not in God. There are many nāstik. Vasu bhūta sa dehasya kuta pūrna . . . (indistinct) . . . bhavet: "The body, I see it is burnt into ashes. Where is life? There is no life. There is no soul." So this is bauddhya-vāda, śūnyavāda—everything becomes zero.
And the vedāśraya nāstikya-vāda, the Māyāvādīs, they do not say there is no God, because in the Vedas there is God. So they do not say directly, but they say, "Yes, there is God, but He has no head, no leg, no hand. He cannot talk. He cannot eat." Then what remains? He is making zero, God, zero, by negative definition—"He has no head, He has no hand. He has no leg." So both of them are zero, advocate of zero. But one directly says, "No, there is no God. Everything is zero." And these Māyāvādīs, nirviśeṣa-vādi, they say the same thing—zero—but in a different way.