The Supreme Perfection 267

Master of many persons. There are plain instructions in Mahabharata and
Srimad Bhagwatam (Seventh Canto, 11th Chapter) in which it is stated that
a person should be accepted—cither a Brahmin or a Kshatriya or a Vaishya
or a Sudra—by his personal qualification, and not by birth.

And, if such personal qualifications become applicable to a person who
is born in a family outside the ordinary field of his actual qualification, he
should be accepted by his personal qualification alone. For example, if a man
is born of a Brahmin family but his personal qualification is that of a Sudra,
then he should be accepted as a Sudra. Similarly, if a person is born of a Sudra
family but his personal characteristics are those of a Brahmin, he should be
accepted as a Brahmin. All Shastric injunctions, and the version of great sages
and authorities—and their practical behavior as well—establish that a bona
fide Spiritual Master is notnecessarily of the caste Brahmin class. The only quali-
fication is that he must be conversant in the science of Krishna, Krishna Con-
sciousness. That will make him perfectly eligible to become a Spiritual Master.
That is the conclusion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in His discussions with
Ramananda Roy.

In the Hari Bhakti Vilasa there is the statement that, if there is a bona fide
Spriritual Master born of a Brahmin family, and another who is qualified but
born of a Sudra family, one should accept the Spiritual Master who is born
of the Brahmin family, and not of the Sudra family. This statement is somewhat
of a compromise to social understanding; but is not meant for spiritual under-
standing. For persons who prefer to count social status as more important than
spiritual status, this injunction of the Hari Bhakti Vilasa is applicable. But not
for the persons who are spiritually serious. For a person spiritually serious,
the instruction of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is that anyone—never mind what
he is—if he is conversant with Krishna science must be accepted as the Spiri-
tual Master.

There are many injunctions in the Padma Purana which state as follows:
a highly elevated, spiritually advanced devotee of the Lord is always a first
class devotee, and therefore he is a Spiritual Master. But a highly elevated person
born in a Brahmin family, who is not a devotee of the Lord, cannot be a Spiri-
tual Master. A person born in a Brahmin family may be conversant with all the
rituals of the Vedic Scripture, but if he is not a pure devotee of the Lord, he
cannot be a Spiritual Master. In all the Shastras, the chief qualification of a bona
fide Spiritual Master is that he must be a qualified person conversant in the
science of Krishna.

Lord Chaitanya therefore requested Ramananda Roy to go on teaching
