Therefore a devotee of Lord Krsna is actually a perfect brahmana. His situation is transcendental, for he is free from the four defects of conditional life, which are the tendencies to commit mistakes, to be illusioned, to cheat and to possess imperfect senses. A perfect Vaisnava, or Krsna conscious person, is always in this transcendental position because he speaks according to Krsna and His representative. Because Vaisnavas speak exactly according to the tune of Krsna, whatever they say is free from these four defects. For example, Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita that everyone should always think of Him, everyone should become His devotee, offer Him obeisances and worship Him, and ultimately everyone should surrender unto Him. These devotional activities are transcendental and free from mistakes, illusion, cheating and imperfection. Therefore anyone who is a sincere devotee of Lord Krsna and who preaches this cult, speaking only on the basis of Krsnas instructions, is understood to be virajam, or free from the defects of material contamination. A genuine brahmana or Vaisnava therefore depends eternally on the conclusion of the Vedas or Vedic versions presented by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Only from Vedic knowledge can we understand the actual position of the Absolute Truth, who, as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam, is manifested in three featuresnamely impersonal Brahman, localized Paramatma and, at last, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This knowledge is perfect from time immemorial, and the brahminical or Vaisnava culture depends on this principle eternally. One should therefore study the Vedas with faith, not only for ones personal knowledge, but for the sake of spreading this knowledge and these activities through real faith in the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Vedas.

The word mangala (auspicious) in this verse is very significant. Srila Sridhara Svami quotes that to do what is good and to reject what is not good is called mangala, or auspicious. To do what is good means to accept everything favorable to the discharge of devotional service, and to reject what is not good means to reject everything not favorable for discharging devotional service. In our Krsna consciousness movement, we accept this principle by rejecting four prohibited itemsnamely illicit sex life, intoxication, gambling and flesh-eatingand accepting the daily chanting of at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra and daily meditation three times a day by chanting the Gayatri mantra. In this way one can keep his brahminical culture and spiritual strength intact. By following these principles of devotional service strictly, chanting twenty-four hours a day the maha-mantraHare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hareone makes positive progress in spiritual life and ultimately becomes completely fit to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. Because the ultimate goal of studying or understanding the Vedic knowledge is to find Krsna, one who follows the Vedic principles as described above can from the very beginning see all the features of Lord Krsna, the Absolute Truth, very distinctly, as one can see ones own face completely reflected in a clear mirror. The conclusion is, therefore, that a brahmana does not become a brahmana simply because he is a living entity or is born in a brahmana family; he must possess all the qualities mentioned in the sastras and practice the brahminical principles in his life. Thus he ultimately becomes a fully Krsna conscious person and can understand what Krsna is. How a devotee continuously sees Krsna face to face within his heart is described in the Brahma-samhita (5.38) as follows: