Transcend material qualities through unwavering devotional service; only thus can one become a true spiritual master.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.16.20 — January 16, 1974, Honolulu 740116SB-HONOLULU [27:16 Minutes] SB-01.16.20_740116SB-HONOLULU Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] pādair nyūnaṁ śocasi maika-pādam ātmānaṁ vā vṛṣalair bhokṣyamāṇam āho surādīn hṛta-yajña-bhāgān prajā uta svin maghavaty avarṣati [SB 1.16.20] [break] [01:34] Translation: "I have lost my three legs and am now standing on one only.
Are you lamenting for my state of existence? Or are you in great anxiety because henceforward the unlawful meat-eaters will exploit you? Or are you in a sorry plight because the demigods are now bereft of their share of sacrificial offerings because no sacrifices are being performed at present? Or are you grieving for living beings because of their sufferings due to famine and drought?" Prabhupāda: Read the purport.
Read. Long purport. Pradyumna: "With the progress of the age of Kali, four things particularly, namely the duration of life, mercy, the power of recollection, and moral or religious principles will gradually diminish. Since dharma, or the principles of religion, would be lost in the proportion of three out of four, the symbolic bull was standing on one leg only.
When three-fourths of the population of the whole world become irreligious, the situation is converted into hell for the animals. In the age of Kali, godless civilizations will create so many so-called religious societies in which the Personality of Godhead will be directly or indirectly defied. And thus faithless societies of men will make the world uninhabitable for the saner section of people. There are gradations of human beings in terms of proportionate faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The first-class..." Prabhupāda: Yes. Go on. Pradyumna: "The first-class faithful men are the Vaiṣṇavas and the brāhmaṇas, then the kṣatriyas, then the vaiśyas, then the śūdras, then the mlecchas, the yavanas, and at last the caṇḍālas. The degradation of the human instinct begins from the mlecchas..." Prabhupāda: Caṇḍālas means the dog-eaters. In the human society, the division of higher class and lower class is determined by the standard of eating.
So first-class men, just like brāhmaṇa, Vaiṣṇava, they eat very purified prasādam. Their responsibility is practically does not depend on them. Because Vaiṣṇava... Brāhmaṇa also.
Without becoming a brāhmaṇa, nobody can become Vaiṣṇava. So when you speak of Vaiṣṇava, it is to be supposed that he's already brāhmaṇa. Therefore, to bring the neophyte devotees to the perfectional stage, we offer the brāhmaṇa's sacred thread. But if people, after promising everything, and break their promise, that is very abominable.