236 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

energy, and in every action such a devotee sees Me only, and nothing else.

“My dear Srutadeva, you may therefore accept all these great saintly
persons, brahmanas and sages as My bona fide representatives. By wor-
shiping them faithfully, you will be worshiping Me more diligently. I con-
sider worship of My devotees to be better than direct worship of Me. If
someone attempts to worship Me directly without worshiping My devotees,
I do not accept such worship, even though it may be presented with great
opulence.”

In this way both the brahmana, Srutadeva, and the King of Mithila,
under the direction of the Lord, worshiped both Krsna and His followers,
the great sages and saintly brahmanas, on an equal level of sptritual im-
portance. Both brahmana and King ultimately achieved the supreme goal
of being transferred to the spiritual world. The devotee does not know
anyone except Lord Krsna, and Krsna is most affectionate to His devotee.
Lord Krsna remained in Mithila both at the house of the brahmana
Srutadeva and at the palace of King Bahulagva. And after favoring them
lavishly by His transcendental instructions, He went back to His capital
city, Dvaraka.

The instruction we receive from this incident is that King Bahulasva
and Srutadeva the brahmana were accepted by the Lord on the same level
because both were pure devotees. This is the real qualification for being
recognized by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because it has become
the fashion of this age to become falsely proud of having taken birth in the
family of a ksatriya or of a brahmana, we see persons without any qualifi-
cation other than birth claiming to be brahmana or ksatriya or vaisya. But
as it is stated in the scriptures, kalau siidra-sambhava: ‘In this age of
Kali, everyone is a Sidra.” This is because there is no performance of the
purificatory processes known as samskaras, which begin from the time of
the mother’s pregnancy and continue up to the point of the individual’s
death. No one can be classified as amember of a particular caste, especially
of ahigher caste—brahmana, ksatriya or vaisya—simply by birthright. If one
is not purified by the process of the seed-giving ceremony, or Garbhadhana-
samskara, he is immediately classified amongst the sitdras, because only
the sidras do not undergo this purificatory process. Sex life without the
purificatory process of Krsna consciousness is merely the seed-giving process
of the sidras or the animals. But Krsna consciousness is the highest per-
fection, by which everyone can come to the platform of a Vaisnava. This
includes having all the qualifications of a brahmana. The Vaisnavas are
trained to become freed from the four kinds of sinful activities—illicit sex,
indulgence in intoxicants, gambling, and eating animal foodstuffs. No one
