Volume 7 - Prabhupada

Text 17] The Lord Instructs Srila Riipa Gosvami 253TRANSLATIONThe greedy masters of his clerical and secretarial staff performed thegovernment duties while Sanatana personally remained home and discussedrevealed scriptures.PURPORTSanatana GosvamT was the minister in charge of the government secretariat,and his assistants-the undersecretaries and clerks-all belonged to the kayasthacommunity. Formerly the kayasthas belonged to the clerical and secretarial staff ofthe government, and later if one served in such a post, he was called a kayastha.Eventually if a person could not identify himself as a brahmal)a, k?atriya, vaisya orsudra, he used to intoduce himself as a kayastha to get a wealthy and honorableposition. In Bengal it is said that if one cannot give the identity of his caste, he callshimself a kayastha. On the whole, the kayastha community is a mixture of allcastes, and it especially includes those engaged in clerical or secretarial work. Materiallysuch people are always busy occupying responsible government posts.When Sanatana GosvamT was relaxing and feeling inclined to retire fromgovernment service, many kayasthas on his secretarial staff were very eager to occupyhis post. In this regard, SrTia Bhaktivinoda Thakura states that when SanatanaGosvamT was a government minister and the kayasthas who assisted him saw thathe was reluctant to continue, they became very expert in their duties. SanatanaGosvamT was a brahmal)a belonging to the Sarasvata brahmal)a community. It issaid that when he resigned, an underworker named Purandara Khan, who was akayastha, occupied his post.TEXT 17wt "Ptfu -t fi11-t l'f$1 I t til tt