Despite birth in a lower family, if one is a devotee he is eligible to return home, back to Godhead. The shastras do not speak of untouchables. Everyone is eligible to practice Krishna consciousness and return to Godhead, provided the necessary spiritual qualifications are there.

Transforming the Untouchables

Equality and fraternity not possible on bodily platform

The men in Vedic society who engage in public sanitary activities like picking up stool and sweeping the street are called hadis. Sometimes they are untouchable, especially when engaged in their profession, yet such hadis also have the right to become devotees. This is established by Sri Bhagavad-gita (9.32), where the Lord declares:

mam hi partha vyapashritya ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah
striyo vaishyas tatha shudras te 'pi yanti param gatim

"O son of Pritha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth—women, vaishyas [merchants], and shudras [workers]—can attain the supreme destination."

There are many untouchables of the lower caste in India, but according to Vaishnava principles everyone is welcome to accept this Krishna consciousness movement on the spiritual platform of life and thus be freed from trouble. Neither equality nor fraternity is possible on the material platform.

When Lord Chaitanya declares trinad api su-nichena taror iva sahishnuna, He indicates that one must be above the material conception of life. When one thoroughly understands that he is not the material body but a spiritual soul, he is even humbler than a man of the lower castes, for he is spiritually elevated. Such humility, in which one thinks himself lower than the grass, is called su-nichatva, and being more tolerant than a tree is called sahishnutva, forbearance. Being situated in devotional service, not caring for the material conception of life, is called amanitva, indifference to material respect; yet a devotee thus situated is called mana-da, for he is prepared to give honor to others without hesitation.

Mahatma Gandhi started the hari-jana movement to purify the untouchables, but he was a failure because he thought that one could become a hari-jana, a personal associate of the Lord, through some kind of material adjustment. That is not possible. Unless one fully realizes that he is not the body but is a spiritual soul, there is no question of his becoming a hari-jana. Those who do not follow in the footsteps of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His disciplic succession cannot distinguish between matter and spirit, and therefore all their ideas are but a mixed-up hodgepodge of problems. They are virtually lost in the bewildering network of Mayadevi.

Everyone is eligible

DISCIPLE: In his writings on religion, Nietzsche expressed a dislike for the nihilism of the Buddhists and the caste system of the Hindus, especially the Hindu treatment of the untouchables.

PRABHUPADA: That is a later concoction by the caste Hindus. The true Vedic religion does not speak of untouchables. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself demonstrated His system by accepting so-called untouchables like Haridasa Thakur, who was born in a Muslim family. Although Haridasa Thakur was not accepted by Hindu society, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu personally indicated that he was most exalted. Haridasa Thakur would not enter the temple of Lord Jagannatha because he did not want to create a commotion, but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself came to see Haridasa every day. It is a basic principle of the Vedic religion that one should not be envious of anyone. Krishna Himself says in Bhagavad-gita [9.32]:

mam hi partha vyapashritya ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah
striyo vaishyas tatha shudras te 'pi yanti param gatim

"O son of Pritha, those who take shelter in Me—though they be lowborn, women, vaishyas, or shudras—can approach the supreme destination." So despite birth in a lower family, if one is a devotee he is eligible to return home, back to Godhead. The shastras do not speak of untouchables. Everyone is eligible to practice Krishna consciousness and return to Godhead, provided the necessary spiritual qualifications are there.

Temporary covering

The other day I was speaking to some... Where I was? In Bombay, I think, I was speaking some respectable gentlemen that "Krishna says:

mam hi partha vyapashritya
ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah
striyo vaishyas tatha shudras
te 'pi yanti param gatim [Bg. 9.32]

Krishna says, 'Even those who are low-born, papa-yoni—the striya, vaishya and shudra, they are also included—but by accepting Me, accepting my shelter, they are also elevated to the transcendental position.' Now, why the higher class of Hindu society, they neglected this injunction of Bhagavad-gita? Suppose one is papa-yoni. Krishna says that 'They can be elevated to the transcendental position if they accept Me.' Why this propaganda was not done by the higher class people so that the so-called papa-yoni could be elevated? Why you rejected them? The result was that the Mohammedans... Instead of accepting them, you rejected them, and they have partitioned, and they have gone away, and they have become eternal enemy of India." You see? So this is the first time that we are trying to elevate to the highest position of Krishna consciousness, even one is in the papa-yoni. It doesn't matter because soul is pure. Asango 'yam purushah. The Vedas says, "The soul is untouched by any material contamination." Simply, temporarily, he is covered. This covering should be opened. Then he becomes pure. That is the mission of human life, to uncover ourselves from this material envelopment and come to the spiritual understanding, surrender to Krishna. Life is perfect.