Toward a Peaceful Society
41
Bhagavad-gītā  clearly explains that this  cātur-varṇyam  system was established by Kṛṣṇa, but He is outside of this system. When Kṛṣṇa comes as an incarnation, He does not come as a member of any social order, not as a  brāhmaṇa  or anything else. When Kṛṣṇa came, He came as the son of Devakī and Vasudeva. Vasudeva belonged to the royal family and was therefore a  kṣatriya . As such, Kṛṣṇa played the part of a  kṣatriya , but this does not mean that Kṛṣṇa belonged to the  kṣatriya  class. There are many incarnations of Kṛṣṇa in many forms of life. In one incarnation He appeared as a fish, as a member of the community of fishes, but this does not mean that He is a fish. If we think upon seeing a fish that it belongs to Kṛṣṇa's family, we are mistaken. Of course, from another point of view, everything is Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa is all of from everything. This is the transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa, and if we understand it, we will be liberated from birth and death. Although Kṛṣṇa has established the four divisions of human society, He is not in anyone of them ( tasya kartāram api mām viddhy akartāram avyayam ). As soon as we understand that although Kṛṣṇa was born into a  kṣatriya  family, He is not a  kṣatriya , we actually become liberated. If we think that because Kṛṣṇa acts in a particular way—as on the battlefield He gave instructions to Arjuna to fight—He is bound by the reactions of His activities, we are mistaken. “Works do not defile Me,” Śrī Kṛṣṇa says ( na mām karmāṇi limpanti ). In conclusion, we must accept the fact that when Kṛṣṇa comes as one of us, He is not in actuality “one of us.” He is transcendental. This