The First Stages of Devotion
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brahman . Because the  brāhmaṇa  is the head, he has to preach the transcendental sound, and he also has to eat on behalf of the Supreme Lord. According to Vedic injunctions, when a  brāhmaṇa  eats it is to be understood that the Personality of Godhead is eating through him. It is not, however, that the  brāhmaṇa  should simply eat on behalf of the Lord and not preach the message of the  Bhagavad-gītā  to the world. Actually, one who preaches the message of the  Gītā  is very dear to Kṛṣṇa, as is confirmed in the  Gītā  itself. Such a preacher is factually a  brāhmaṇa  and thus by feeding him one feeds the Supreme Lord directly.
Similarly, the  kṣatriya  has to protect people from the onslaughts of  māyā . That is his duty. For example, as soon as Mahārāj Parīkṣit saw that a black man was attempting to kill a cow, he immediately took his sword, wanting to kill the black man, whose name was Kali.* That is a  kṣatriya's  duty. Violence is required in order to give protection. In the  Bhagavad-gītā , Lord Kṛṣṇa directly gave His order to Arjuna to commit violence on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, just to give protection to the people in general.
The  vaiśyas  are meant for producing agricultural products, trading them and distributing them. And the working class, or  śūdras , are those who haven't the intelligence of the  brāhmaṇas  or the  kṣatriyas  or the  vaiśyas , and therefore they are meant to help these higher classes by bodily labor. In this way, there is full cooperation and spiritual advancement amongst all the different orders of society. And when there is no such cooperation, the members of society will fall down. That is the present position in the  kali-yuga , this age of quarrel. Nobody is doing his duty, and everyone is simply puffed-up by calling himself a  brāhmaṇa  (intellectual) or a  kṣatriya  (soldier or statesman). But actually, such people are without status. They are out of touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead because they are not Kṛṣṇa conscious. Therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is intended to set the whole of human society in proper condi-
*Not to be confused with Kālī, the demigoddess who is the devastating feature of material nature. The latter is actually pronounced  kāh-lee , whereas the Kali under discussion here (as in the age of kali) is pronounced  kuh-ly .