Prahlāda Mahārāja is giving preference to a person who is born in a family of dog-eaters.
Then to a brahmin, qualified brahmin, with twelve qualifications—education, qualification—but still if he is impersonalist, or voidist . . . generally when, at the modern age, when one becomes very much advanced in so-called education, he becomes impersonalist, voidist. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, through Prahlāda Mahārāja's authority, is condemning.
He says that "Such kind of learned brahmin, even though he is qualified academically and other brahminical qualification, but if his only disqualification is that he is not a devotee, then he is lower . . . he is not even equal to the person who is born in a family of dog-eaters, but he is a devotee."
So two things have to be studied here: that to become a devotee does not require to take birth in high aristocratic family or brāhmaṇa family, because here it is said śvapacaṁ variṣṭham. That means the person who is considered to be the less than the fourth-class man, he also exalted if he is devotee. What is the reason? Because devotee means:
- prāṇaṁ punāti sa kulaṁ manye
- tad-arpita-mano-vacanehitārtha
- (SB 7.9.10)