Prabhupāda: Prahlāda Mahārāja is considering himself to be unfit for worshiping the Lord. He says, kiṁ toṣṭum arhati sa me harir ugra-jāteḥ (SB 7.9.8). Ugra-jāteḥ, as I was speaking yesterday, that chili, chili caste, those who are very much in fallen condition by quality. His quality…, it is not that one is fallen in quality, he cannot be raised. It is not like that. The practical example is that our European-American students, actually they were fallen in quality. They were in the modes of ignorance and passion, the fallen quality. But they have been raised.
So even one is in fallen condition or in fallen quality, he can be raised. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. Prahlāda Mahārāja is considering himself that "I am fallen. I am born of a father who is fallen," ugra-jāteḥ. But he is actually not fallen, because he is a devotee. He is not fallen. Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was born in Muhammadan family. But these so-called brāhmaṇas, they thought that he is fallen. But actually he was not fallen. Why? Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted him as the greatest of all chanter, nāmācārya. He was the ācārya of spreading hari-nāma, ideal symbol, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra three lakhs' time, three hundred thousand time. Practically whole day and night, twenty-four hours, he was chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
So he was not fallen—but he considered himself as fallen. He was not entering the Jagannātha temple. He was living outside. Why he? Even Sanātana Gosvāmī, because he mixed with the Muhammadan emperors… His friends, his master, were the big, big Muhammadan kings and nawabs. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu reclaimed him. The brāhmaṇa society rejected, outcasted him, that "You have accepted…" (break) …also changed his name, Dabira Khāsa. His Hindu name was changed. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu claimed him, and they became gosvāmī. Vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau (Śrī Śrī Ṣaḍ-gosvāmy-aṣṭaka).
This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement. All Vaiṣṇava movement is like that. There is no consideration of fallen or high. No. Anyone. Yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei 'guru' haya (CC Madhya 8.128), Caitanya Mahāprabhu said. "Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is guru. It doesn’t matter by birth what he is." He may be a brāhmaṇa, he may be a śūdra, he may be a householder, gṛhasta, or he may be a sannyāsī. Because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is transcendental to this bodily concept of life.