View source for Forgive me if I'm not using the right expression, but the caste system is written into the law of Godhead?

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{{terms|"Forgive me if I'm not using the right expression, but the caste system is written into the law of Godhead"}}
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1974]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1974_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="7" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1974 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1974 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="RoomConversationwithReverendGordonPowellHeadofScotsChurchJune281974Melbourne_0" class="quote" parent="1974_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="130" link="Room Conversation with Reverend Gordon Powell, Head of Scots Church -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne" link_text="Room Conversation with Reverend Gordon Powell, Head of Scots Church -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne">
<div class="heading">No, no. No, we have no caste system.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation with Reverend Gordon Powell, Head of Scots Church -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne|Room Conversation with Reverend Gordon Powell, Head of Scots Church -- June 28, 1974, Melbourne]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Reverend Powell: There was a reference to something you said about plants having a feeling. Some years ago I carried out an experiment at the request of one of our magazines in praying for plants and seeds growing and so on, and there seemed to be a relationship between these prayers for the plants and the opposite, in a negative way, against the plants. And I didn't have an opportunity to carry it out too far, much, but in two experiments, there was apparently a clear indication that the plants responded to prayer. And the peas and the beans in particular, (laughs) there was a significant, a very significant increase in the plants that were...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hmmm. Find out. Jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya.</p>
<p>Satsvarūpa:</p>
:jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya
:mām āśritya yatanti ye
:te brahma tad viduḥ kṛtsnam
:adhyātmaṁ karma cākhilam
<p>"Translation: Intelligent persons who are endeavoring for liberation from old and death, take refuge in Me in devotional service. They are actually Brahman because they entirely know everything about transcendental and fruitive activities."</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: What does devotional service mean in that context?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Purport?</p>
<p>Satsvarūpa: "Purport: Birth, death, old age and diseases affect this material body, but not the spiritual body. There is no birth, death, old age and disease for the spiritual body, so one who attains a spiritual body, becomes one of the associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and engages in eternal devotional service, is really liberated. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: I am spirit. It is said that one should understand that he is Brahman—spirit soul. This Brahman conception of life is also in devotional service, as described in this verse. The pure devotees are transcendentally situated on the Brahman platform, and they know everything about transcendental and material activities."</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: "Transcendental" means spiritual, does it?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: As opposed to material. And...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So they are always engaged in transcendental devotional service.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Always.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Always. Then they'll be freed from birth, death, old age and disease.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: And... Were the papers correct in reporting you as... Well, they reported opposite things that... But you, of course, hold to transmigration, I gather. And this is... Death really doesn't happen. It's a change of form. Is that it?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. As soon as the..., everyone dies, so a devotee, after death, in his transcendental form, he goes, back to home, back to Godhead.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Thank you. I take it from what you've just been saying, Your Grace, that this explains what is said here in the..., referring to illicit sex as being anything that's not in marriage and not for procreation within marriage.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Only, the sex allowed only for begetting nice children.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: You don't feel that...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: And beyond that, sex, that is illicit sex.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: And that is out.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is not good.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: What is your attitude to Jesus?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: I have already explained in the meeting.</p>
<p>Satsvarūpa: Yes.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: We, we respect him as transcendental representative of God, son of God. Yes. He's...</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Is there some sort of relationship with Lord Kṛṣṇa? I mean...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, there is relationship. He's coming from Kṛṣṇa. He... Jesus the Christ. Christ means Christo or Kristo or Kṛṣṇa.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Yes? Hm. Another thing. We, of course, have been impressed by the number of young Australians who have become interested in the Hare Krishna Movement and we really congratulate you, sir, on the very fine work (Prabhupāda chuckles) that you've done, and the ones who have rescued the ladies from the fire the other day. But I think everybody recognizes that they're most sincere, that they're not involved because they're not being blessed. They feel they're getting something out of it. But how do you explain... I gather that most countries, in Britain and America and so on that there are many thousands...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: In Africa. In China, in Japan. Everywhere.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: And now, how do you explain this? Why are people...? Why are...?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Because they are on the spiritual platform, they forget the material designation.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: They're mostly young people, aren't they, or are they, you have all ages?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, young, young people, they have got brain, (Reverend Powell laughs) receptive.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Yes, yes, rightly. And I might also inquire... I take it that you feel... Forgive me if I'm not using the right expression, but the caste system is written into the law of Godhead.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, no. No, we have no caste system.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Well, I'm sorry. The brāhmaṇa, the śūdras and so on, per se.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. That is qualification. This is a division according to... Find out the cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 4.13|BG 4.13]]).</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Your base there is in Bombay?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: My birthplace is in Calcutta.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Calcutta, ah. I was there many years ago, I knew...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: You have been in Calcutta?</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: Yes, I have. I crossed from Karachi and Delhi, I went down to Agra, and I gather this...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, for people coming from England to Australia, they passed through Calcutta or Bombay, like that.</p>
<p>Reverend Powell: That's right. Yes. We came by air. Was there some reference?</p>
<p>Satsvarūpa: Yes.</p>
:cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ
:guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ
:tasya kartāram api māṁ
:viddhy akartāram avyayam
:([[Vanisource:BG 4.13|BG 4.13]])
<p>"Translation: According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me, and although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Read the purport.</p>
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