Text 42] Pastimes of the Lord in His Youth 279

TEXT 41

AWS AG Corrs Aa eatfary catSs |
watca ce Gara sifaw ethan ss ui

baga baga foka saba Gnila bolaiya
sabare kahe Srivasa hdsiya hasiya
SYNONYMS

bada baga—respectable; /oka—persons; saba--all; dnifa—brought them; boldiya—
causing to be called; sabdre—to everyone; kahe—addresses; Srivdsa—Srivasa Thakura;
hasiya hasiy@—while smiling.

TRANSLATION

Srivasa Thakura called for ail the respectable gentlemen of the neighborhood and
smilingly addressed them as follows.

TEXT 42

Frwy alee ofa ertfin Sarey-2fera |
VTas Alea coe, Sterel-RewTe 1 82H

nitya ratre kari Gmi bhavéni-pijjana
amara mahima dekha, brahmana-sajjana

SYNONYMS

nitya ratre—every night; kari—| do; émi—|; bhavani-pijana—worship of Bhavani,
the wife of Lord Siva; a@mara—my; mahima—glories; dekha—you see; brahmana-
sat-jana—all respectable brahmanas.

TRANSLATION

“Gentlemen, every night | worship the goddess Bhavani. Since the paraphernalia
for the worship is present here, now all you respectable brahmanas and members of
the higher castes can understand my position.”

PURPORT

According to the Vedic system there are four castes—the brahmanas, ksatriyas,
vaisyas and sidras—and below them are the paricamas, who are lower than the
Sidras. The higher castes—the brdhmanas, the ksatriyas and even the vaisyas—were
known as br@hmana-sajjana. The br@ahmanas especially were known as sajjana, or
respectable gentlemen who guided the entire society. If there were disputes in the
village, people would approach these respectable brahmanas to settle them. Now it
