Brahmananda: Brahmana is not to accept any employment.
Prabhupada: No. He’ll die of starvation, he’ll not accept any employment. That is brahmana. Kshatriya also that, and vaisya also. Only sudra. A vaisya will find out some business. So there is a practical story. One Mr. Nandi, long, long ago, in Calcutta, he went to some friend that, “If you can give me a little capital, I can start some business.” So he said, “You are vaisya? Mercantile?” “Yes.” “Oh, you are asking money from me? Money’s on the street. You can find out.” So he said, “I don’t find.” “You don’t find? What is that?” “That, that is a dead mouse.” “That is your capital.” Just see.
So in those days, plague in Calcutta, plague was going on. So Municipal declaration was any dead mouse brought to the Municipal office, he’ll be paid two annas. So he took that dead body of the mouse and took to the Municipal office; he was paid two annas. So he purchased some rotten betel nuts with two annas, and washed it and sold it at four annas or five annas. In this way, again, again, again, that man became so rich man. One of their family member was our godbrother. Nandi family. That Nandi family still, they have got four hundred, five hundred men to eat daily. A big, aristocratic family. And their family’s regulation is as soon as one son or daughter is born, five thousand rupees deposited in the bank, and at the time of his marriage, that five thousand rupees with interest, he can take it. Otherwise there is no more share in the capital. And everyone who lives in the family, he gets eating and shelter. This is their… But the original, I mean to say, establisher of this family, Nandi, he started his business with a dead rat, or mouse.
That is actually fact that if one wants to live independently… In Calcutta I have seen, even poor class vaisyas, and in the morning they’ll take some dal, bag of dal, and go door to door. Dal is required everywhere. So in morning he makes dal business, and in evening he takes one canister of kerosene oil. So in the evening everyone will require. Still you’ll find in India. Nobody was seeking for employment. A little, whatever he has got, selling some ground nuts or that peanuts. Something he’s doing. After all, Krishna is giving maintenance to everyone. It is a mistake to think that, “This man is giving me maintenance.” No. Sastra says, eko yo bahunam vidadhati kaman. It is confidence in Krishna that, “Krishna has given me life, Krishna has sent me here. So He’ll give me my maintenance. So according to my capacity, let me do something, and through that source, Krishna’s maintenance will come.” Just like we are maintaining so many people in the Krishna consciousness movement. So what business we are doing? But we are confident that Krishna will send us our maintenance. That confidence is required.
A sudra means he becomes disturbed, “Oh, I have no employment. How shall I eat? Where shall I go? Where shall I live?” He has no faith in Krishna. The brahmana has got full faith, the kshatriya has got little less faith, the vaisya, little less faith, and the sudra has no faith. This is the difference.
