One who is vipra, these twelve qualification: that he must be very religious; he must be truthful; he must be controlling his mind; he must have austerities; he must be very intelligent; he must be tolerant; he must not be envious; he must have performed various kinds of yajñas, sacrifice; he must have given in charity, dhṛti; he is fixed up in his vows; and śrutaṁ ca, has got sufficient knowledge in the Vedas; vratāni, and he has followed all kinds of vratā.
Just like we sometimes observe—no, regularly observe—the Ekādaśī; it is called vratā. Vratā means fasting with a vow. Janmāṣṭamī . . . just like we fast on the birthday of Lord Kṛṣṇa or Lord Caitanya. These are called vratā. So brahmin is supposed to follow. These are all brāhmaṇa's qualification. Dvādaśa brāhmaṇasya yadva . . .
- śamo damas tapaḥ śaucaṁ
- kṣānty-ārjava-virakta yaḥ
- mauna-vijñāna-santoṣāḥ
- satyāstikye dviṣaḍ guṇāḥ
- (Muktāphala-tīkā)
Another department of twelve qualifications is that śama; śama means equilibrium of the mind. Dama, dama means controlling the senses; tapaḥ—austerity; and śaucaṁ—cleanliness; śaucaṁ . . . kṣānti—tolerance; ārjavam, ārjavam means simplicity; viraktata, renouncement, no more attachment for material things; mauna—gravity, vijñāna—knowledge in perfection; santoṣāḥ—santoṣāḥ means very much satisfied, in whatever condition, he is not agitated. These are the qualification. Santoṣāḥ, and satyā—satyā means truthful; āstikya—āstikya means to have staunch faith in the scriptural injunction. That is called āstikya. Dviṣaḍ guṇāḥ.
Kataṁ va viprās aravinda-nābhasy-pādāravinda-vimukhāt kataṁ va . . . (indistinct) . . . na tasmin āravinda nābhe arpita-mano-ādayah yena tam. What is the distinction? The so much qualified brahmin is rejected because if he is found to be out of devotional service, and a person born in the lowest family who are dog-eaters, he is accepted, why? Now, one . . . because he has dedicated his life and soul for Kṛṣṇa.
So we should remember that in the Western part of this world, where we are pushing on this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we should not be dejected that because you are not born in high family or not so much trained in the Vedic knowledge. It doesn't matter. If simply your life, your everything—life, body—three things especially: kāya-mano-vākye . . . kāya means body, and manaḥ means mind, and vacaḥ means words.
We accepted the tridaṇḍi—you will have seen in my name "tridaṇḍi." Tri means three. Three. What is that three? What that three? The mind, the body and the words. So if we simply dedicate our mind always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, if we dedicate our body—the body shall work simply for Kṛṣṇa—and words, and we shall talk only for Kṛṣṇa—if we take simply these three things as our life and soul, then you are perfect. Kāya manaḥ vacaḥ.