Verse 2.3.134

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.3.134:

বণিক্ অধম মূর্খ যে করিলা পার ব্রহ্মাণ্ড পবিত্র হয নাম লৈলে যাঙ্র ॥ ১৩৪ ॥

वणिक् अधम मूर्ख ये करिला पार ब्रह्माण्ड पवित्र हय नाम लैले याङ्र ॥ १३४ ॥

vaṇik adhama mūrkha ye karilā pāra brahmāṇḍa pavitra haya nāma laile yāṅra || 134 ||

vanik adhama murkha ye karila para brahmanda pavitra haya nama laile yanra (134)

English translation:

(134) The entire universe is purified by chanting the names of He who delivered the fallen, the foolish, and the merchants.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

When the eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa situate themselves within the varṇa principles of this world, they engage in trade as members of the third varṇa. Such communities are called vaiśyas or vaṇiks. In order to direct their propensities, they spend their time protecting cows, cultivating land, trading, and loaning money on interest. When one forgets Kṛṣṇa, he develops a taste for the propensities of a merchant and as a result of such desires he takes birth in the house of a merchant. Being dependent on such merchants, other communities award them such titles as śreṣṭhi (aristocratic), āḍhya (rich), and mahājana (wholesale merchant). As a result of being respected in this way, such merchants become proud. The superiority and inferiority of a merchant is determined by the items in which he trades. Those whose business is to sell intoxicants are also merchants, but they are comparatively inferior to other merchants.

Nevertheless they are also considered vaiśyas. Since a living entity’s propensity for serving Hari is greatly disturbed by becoming absorbed in exchanging gold, the gold merchants are condemned and also considered inferior vaiśyas. Persons who appeared in such families as well as those who had similar propensities as a result of impressions from previous lives were delivered by Nityānanda Prabhu from their absorption in matter and awarded the title of Ācārya. External identifications are temporary. When all such identifications are removed, the living entity awakens to his constitutional position. He is then liberated and engages in the service of Hari.

According to material consideration, people are of higher, middle, or lower classes. According to the consideration of intelligent persons, people are either learned, uneducated, or foolish. These external

identifications temporarily cover the intelligence of Kṛṣṇa’s eternal servants and cause them to become absorbed in matter. Due to forgetfulness of one’s spiritual consciousness a dormant spirit soul is bereft of the Lord’s service and forgets his eternal identification. By His instructions, Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu removes the living entities’ absorption in matter and bestows eternal benefit on them. The living entities are then freed from material conceptions and travel to the spiritual kingdom. The external identification of liberated souls bewilders those who are engaged in identifying themselves with matter and entangles them in the laws of karma. In order to benefit persons who have mercantile propensities and those born in merchant families as well as fools who are condemned by people in general, Nityānanda Prabhu, who is unlimitedly merciful, relieved them from their material conceptions.

Just by hearing the name of Nityānanda Prabhu, the people of the entire world are purified from the propensity for committing sin. Even the merchants, the fallen, and the foolish are purified and become knowers of the Absolute Truth and devotees of the Supreme Lord. Then no one can doubt their purity. See Antya-khaṇḍa, Chapter Five.