Text 126] The Lord's Visit to Sri Vendavana 195
A person born in a brahmana family cannot perform Vedic sacrifices until he is
properly purified and has attained his sacred thread. However, according to this
verse, it is understood that even a lowborn person can immediately perform
sacrifices if he sincerely chants and hears the holy name of the Lord. Sometimes
envious people ask how Europeans and Americans in this Krsna consciousness
movement can become brahmanas and perform sacrifices. They do not know that
the Europeans and Americans have already been purified by chanting the holy
name of the Lord—Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama,
Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. This is the proof. Svado ‘pi sadyah savanaya
kalpate. One may be born in a family of dog-eaters, but he can perform sacrifices
simply by chanting the mahd-mantra.

Those who find fault in the Western Vaisnavas should consider this statement
from Srimad-Bhagavatam and the commentary on this verse by Srila Jiva Gosvami.
In this regard, Srila Jiva Gosvami has stated that to become a brahmana, one has to
wait for purification and undergo the sacred thread ceremony, but a chanter of
the holy name does not have to wait for the sacred thread ceremony. We do not
allow devotees to perform sacrifices until they are properly initiated in the sacred
thread ceremony. Yet according to this verse, an offenseless chanter of the holy
name is already fit to perform a fire ceremony, even though he is not doubly ini-
tiated by the sacred thread ceremony. This is the verdict given by Lord Kapiladeva
in His instructions to His mother, Devahiti. It was Lord Kapiladeva who instructed
Devahiti in pure Sankhya philosophy.

TEXT 126
CRS? HRT COAT SHWE |
RAY - ABC HlI—ACHMAHA | S2w Il
eita’ mahima —tomara ‘tatastha’-laksana
‘svarupa’-laksane tumi—— ‘vrajendra-nandana’
SYNONYMS

eita’—all these; mahima—glories; tomara—Your; tatastha-laksana—marginal
characteristics; sva-rupa—original; laksame—by characteristics; tumi—You; vra-
jendra-nandana—the son of Maharaja Nanda.

TRANSLATION

“These glories of Yours are only marginal. Originally You are the son of
Maharaja Nanda.’’

PURPORT

The original characteristics of a substance are called svartipa, and the subse-
quent corollaries are called tatastha-laksana, or marginal characteristics. The glo-
