Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.4.41

viprā gāvaś ca vedāś ca

tapaḥ satyaḿ damaḥ śamaḥ

śraddhā dayā titikṣā ca

kratavaś ca hares tanūḥ

SYNONYMS

viprāḥ — the brāhmaṇas; gāvaḥ ca — and the cows; vedāḥ ca — and the Vedic knowledge; tapaḥ — austerity; satyam — truthfulness; damaḥ — control of the senses; śamaḥ — control of the mind; śraddhā — faith; dayā — mercy; titikṣā — tolerance; ca — also; kratavaḥ ca — as well as sacrifices; hareḥ tanūḥ — are the different parts of the body of Lord Viṣṇu.

TRANSLATION

The brāhmaṇas, the cows, Vedic knowledge, austerity, truthfulness, control of the mind and senses, faith, mercy, tolerance and sacrifice are the different parts of the body of Lord Viṣṇu, and they are the paraphernalia for a godly civilization.

PURPORT

When we offer our obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, we say:

namo brahmaṇya-devāya

go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca

jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya

govindāya namo namaḥ

When Kṛṣṇa comes to establish real perfection in the social order, He personally gives protection to the cows and the brāhmaṇas (go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca). This is His first interest because without protection of the brāhmaṇas and the cows, there can be no human civilization and no question of happy, peaceful life. Asuras, therefore, are always interested in killing the brāhmaṇas and cows. Especially in this age, Kali-yuga, cows are being killed all over the world, and as soon as there is a movement to establish brahminical civilization, people in general rebel. Thus they regard the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement as a form of "brainwashing." How can such envious persons be happy in their godless civilization? The Supreme Personality of Godhead punishes them by keeping them in darkness, birth after birth, and pushing them lower and lower into wretched conditions of hellish life. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has started a brahminical civilization, but especially when it is introduced in the Western countries, the asuras try to impede it in many ways. Nonetheless, we must push forward this movement tolerantly for the benefit of human society.

<<< >>>

Copyright © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari