Yes, brahmana is a material designation, like a caste, a varna or ashrama. Still, everybody has to be someplace, as the joke goes. So, for devotees, brahminical duties are involved, so we are permitted to receive gayatri and similar brahminical mantras to ensure nice standards of Deity worship etc. Some brahmanas specialize in mathematics, some in agricultural sciences, some in astrology; all learned fields, of all concerns to the different varnas and ashramas. Brahamans are empowered, but they are also held more accountable for mistakes!
SP says that a turtle swimming in the ocean, and there is a board with hole in it. What are the chances of that turtle somewhere in that ocean coming up for a breath precisely in the centre of the hole in that one board? Kinda thin? So, the odds of a living entity being born in the time or close to it, of the sankirtan movement of Mahaprabhu, is similarly rare.
In Vedic communism or monarchies, really, all living entities are citizens and have rights. Men abusing animals are subject to sever punishment by the King, for example. And the King is subject to severe punishment by the brahmanas, and the brahmanas are subject to severe punishment by the Demigods and Godhead.
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Yes, brahmana is a material designation, like a caste, a varna or ashrama. Still, everybody has to be someplace, as the joke goes. So, for devotees, brahminical duties are involved, so we are permitted to receive gayatri and similar brahminical mantras to ensure nice standards of Deity worship etc. Some brahmanas specialize in mathematics, some in agricultural sciences, some in astrology; all learned fields, of all concerns to the different varnas and ashramas. Brahamans are empowered, but they are also held more accountable for mistakes!
SP says that a turtle swimming in the ocean, and there is a board with hole in it. What are the chances of that turtle somewhere in that ocean coming up for a breath precisely in the centre of the hole in that one board? Kinda thin? So, the odds of a living entity being born in the time or close to it, of the sankirtan movement of Mahaprabhu, is similarly rare.
In Vedic communism or monarchies, really, all living entities are citizens and have rights. Men abusing animals are subject to sever punishment by the King, for example. And the King is subject to severe punishment by the brahmanas, and the brahmanas are subject to severe punishment by the Demigods and Godhead.