So-called sudras

Expressions researched:
"so-called sudras" |"so-called sudra"

SB Canto 1

Vidura was not actually a śūdra. He was to play the part of a so-called śūdra for one hundred years, being cursed by Maṇḍūka Muni.

SB 1.13.15, Purport: According to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, anyone who is conversant in the transcendental knowledge, or the science of Godhead, be he a brāhmaṇa or a śūdra, a householder or a sannyāsī, is eligible to become a spiritual master. Even in the ordinary moral codes (maintained by Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, the great politician and moralist) there is no harm in taking lessons from a person who may be by birth less than a śūdra. This is one part of the answer. The other is that Vidura was not actually a śūdra. He was to play the part of a so-called śūdra for one hundred years, being cursed by Maṇḍūka Muni. He was the incarnation of Yamarāja, one of the twelve mahājanas, on the level with such exalted personalities as Brahmā, Nārada, Śiva, Kapila, Bhīṣma, Prahlāda, etc. Being a mahājana, it is the duty of Yamarāja to preach the cult of devotion to the people of the world, as Nārada, Brahmā, and other mahājanas do. But Yamarāja is always busy in his plutonic kingdom punishing the doers of sinful acts. Yamarāja is deputed by the Lord to a particular planet, some hundreds of thousands of miles away from the planet of earth, to take away the corrupt souls after death and convict them in accordance with their respective sinful activities.

SB Canto 4

Caitanya Mahāprabhu had many so-called śūdra disciples like Haridāsa Ṭhākura and Rāmānanda Rāya.

SB 4.2.26, Purport: If someone from a non-brāhmaṇa family (for example, one born in a family of śūdras) tries to become a brāhmaṇa by being properly qualified under the instruction of a bona fide spiritual master, these so-called brāhmaṇas will object. Such brāhmaṇas, having been cursed by Nandīśvara, are actually in a position where they have no discrimination between eatables and noneatables and simply live to maintain the perishable material body and its family. Such fallen conditioned souls are not worthy to be called brāhmaṇas, but in Kali-yuga they claim to be brāhmaṇas, and if a person actually tries to attain the brahminical qualifications, they try to hinder his progress. This is the situation in the present age. Caitanya Mahāprabhu condemned this principle very strongly. During His conversation with Rāmānanda Rāya, He said that regardless of whether a person is born in a brāhmaṇa family or śūdra family, regardless of whether he is a householder or a sannyāsī, if he knows the science of Kṛṣṇa he must be a spiritual master. Caitanya Mahāprabhu had many so-called śūdra disciples like Haridāsa Ṭhākura and Rāmānanda Rāya. Even the Gosvāmīs, who were principal students of Lord Caitanya, were also ostracized from brāhmaṇa society, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by His grace, made them first-class Vaiṣṇavas.

Festival Lectures

And gradually it developed that the so-called śūdras and Muhammadans, politically the Britishers took advantage, agitated them. They cut up India into Pakistan and Hindustan.

His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Appearance Day, Lecture -- Los Angeles, February 7, 1969: Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu is not liked by the hereditary brāhmaṇas. They dislike. Whenever there is Caitanya movement, they pose another counter. This Rama-Krishna is a counteraction of Caitanya. Because Caitanya, the Vaiṣṇava-sampradāya, accept Caitanya Mahāprabhu as incarnation of God, so they presented this Gadādhara Chatterjee as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, and by worshiping Kālī. You see? So this competition is since a very long time between the Vaiṣṇava and the other sect. Anyway, when these Gosvāmīs... My point is that originally the Gosvāmīs came from ordinary person. There is no caste. But they manufactured a caste of Gosvāmī, you see, this brāhmaṇa class. This brāhmaṇa class, the hereditary brāhmaṇa class, played so many havocs in the history of India. The Pakistan is also due to this hereditary brahmanism. You see? They hated so much the Muhammadans and the śūdras. First of all they hated the śūdras, and then, when the śūdras, they became Muhammadans, they hated the Muhammadans. And gradually it developed that the so-called śūdras and Muhammadans, politically the Britishers took advantage, agitated them. They cut up India into Pakistan and Hindustan.

So there are many histories. So it is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He accepted everyone to this movement. So my Guru Mahārāja's contribution is that he defeated these caste gosvāmīns. He defeated this brahmanism. He created that the same way as Caitanya Mahāprabhu did, that, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,

kibā śūdra kibā vipra nyāsi kene naya

yei kṛṣṇa tattva vetta sei guru haya

[Cc. Madhya 8.128]

"There is no consideration whether a man is a sannyāsī, a brāhmaṇa, or a śūdra, or a this or a gṛhastha, householder, or... No. Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he is all right. He is gosvāmī. He is brāhmaṇa." That is the contribution, say, within hundred years. That is the contribution.