September 7, 1973 : Stockholm

Vedavyasa: After Srila Prabhupada concluded his talk, a lively question-and-answer session ensued, with one student in particular taking the initiative. Annoyed by the idea of a society based on what seemed to him to be the detestable caste system, he challenged Prabhupada, "Why do you have these distinctions?"

"Distinction..." Prabhupada paused for a second thoughtfully, "exists only as long as you are not a devotee. You must have these distinctions. There is already the distinction." But the student hadn't grasped the distinctions which Prabhupada had explained. He insisted, "But why?" "Why?" Prabhupada asked with surprise. "Because there are third-class men, fourth-class men, first-class men - there are. How you can say, 'Why?'"

His opponent avoided answering and began another argument, but Prabhupada interrupted him to correct his stubborn attitude, "Do you think everybody is a first-class man? Do you think?" When the student admitted that he did not, Prabhupada concluded, "Therefore, a first-class man should be like this, a second-class man should be like this. There is already first-class, second-class, third-class, fourth-class."

Seeing that he was about to lose the debate, the student changed his tactic by focusing the attention on Prabhupada, "So you are saying that you are a first-class man, yes?" But he was wrong if he thought he had embarrassed or cornered Prabhupada.

As a humble Vaishnava, Srila Prabhupada didn't have to juggle words to deflect the attack; he simply had to speak from personal realization, "I am a fifth-class man," he said matter-of-factly. "I don't claim anything, because I am the servant of everyone. I am a servant of the fourth-class man also."