Devotee: I wasn't sure of this, but I believe that one of the qualifications of the brāhmaṇa is that he had firm religious faith. Is that a qualification of a brāhmaṇa, that he has firm religious faith?
Prabhupāda: No. There are at least nine qualifications. He must be truthful; he must be controlling the senses, mind; he must be tolerant; then satya śama dama—śauca (BG 18.42), he must be cleansed; and he must believe in the śāstra, in the scriptures; and he must be conversant with the śāstric knowledge.
These are the qualification of brahmins. The first qualification is that he must be truthful, just like this Satyakaṁ. He plainly, plainly said the real truth, and he was immediately accepted, "Yes, you have got the qualification of a brahmin. You can speak the truth."
Truth may be palatable or unpleasant—that does not matter. Everything is palatable to somebody, unpalatable to others—"One man's food, another man's poison." That does not matter. But the thing should be presented as it is. That is required. There is no hide-and-seek policy.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu especially was very much against untruthfulness. The Haridāsa . . . that Junior Haridāsa Ṭhākura was rejected because he showed a little symptom of untruthfulness. He was living in the company of Caitanya Mahāprabhu as in renounced order of life, but he had at his heart for sex life, so immediately he was rejected.
Of course, this was a great stricture. But He never rejected gṛhastha s. He knows that gṛhastha has sex life, so He never rejected. So if you want sex life, become a gṛhastha. Just have a wife and live peacefully. But if you want to have sex life and at the same time you want to keep yourself as brahmacārī, this is not truthful. This is condemned.
That is the, I mean to say, instance shown by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that Junior Haridāsa, he was keeping himself as renounced but thinking of sex. He was rejected. But there are many householder devotees, Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted them.
So truthfulness in spiritual life . . . truthful is very essential. That is the first qualification, brahminical qualification: satya, śama, dama, titikṣā, ārjavam, and āstikyaṁ, jñānaṁ, vijñānam brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42), it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.
And there are many other qualifications; especially, specifically, a brāhmaṇa should have these nine qualifications. But another point is that if one is sincerely in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all the good qualifications will come, automatically. Therefore we give more stress on Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and if he is very sincere in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all good qualification will come.