brÄhmaṇa-sevÄya kṛṣṇera prÄ«ti baá¸a haya
tÄá¹…hÄra santoá¹£e bhakti-sampad bÄá¸aya"

 brÄhmaṇa-sevÄya - by rendering service to a brÄhmaṇa; kṛṣṇera - of Lord Kṛṣṇa; prÄ«ti - the satisfaction; baá¸a - very great; haya - is; tÄá¹…hÄra santoá¹£e - by pleasing the Lord; bhakti - of devotional service; sampad - the opulence; bÄá¸aya - increases.


Text

“Lord Kṛṣṇa is very much pleased by service rendered to brÄhmaṇas, and when the Lord is pleased, the opulence of one’s devotional service increases.â€

Purport

In this regard, ÅšrÄ«la BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura comments that the younger brÄhmaṇa rendered service to the older one with the purpose of pleasing Kṛṣṇa. It was not a matter of ordinary worldly dealings. Kṛṣṇa is pleased when a Vaiṣṇava is rendered service. Because the younger brÄhmaṇa served the older one, Lord GopÄla agreed to become a witness of the marriage negotiation in order to maintain the prestige of both devotees. ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu would certainly not have liked to hear about marital dealings unless such dealings were exchanged between two Vaiṣṇavas. Marriage arrangements and ceremonies belong to ordinary material karma-kÄṇá¸a sections of the scriptures. The Vaiṣṇavas, however, are not interested in any kind of karma-kÄṇá¸a dealings. ÅšrÄ«la Narottama dÄsa ṬhÄkura says: karma-kÄṇá¸a jñÄna-kÄṇá¸a kevala viá¹£era bhÄṇá¸a. For a Vaiṣṇava, the karma-kÄṇá¸a and jñÄna-kÄṇá¸a sections of the Vedas are unnecessary. Indeed, a real Vaiṣṇava takes these sections as a poison pot (viá¹£era bhÄṇá¸a). Sometimes we take part in a marriage ceremony for our disciples, but this does not mean that we are interested in karma-kÄṇá¸a activities. Sometimes, not knowing the Vaiṣṇava philosophy, an outsider criticizes such activity, maintaining that a sannyÄsÄ« should not take part in a marriage ceremony between a young boy and a young girl. However, this is not a karma-kÄṇá¸a activity, because our purpose is to spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We are giving all facility to the general populace to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and in order to fix the devotees in concentration on the service of the Lord, marriage is sometimes allowed. We have experienced that such married couples actually render very important service to the mission. Therefore, one should not misunderstand when a sannyÄsÄ« takes part in a marriage ceremony. ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu and NityÄnanda Prabhu took great pleasure in hearing about the marriage ceremony between the young brÄhmaṇa and the daughter of the elderly brÄhmaṇa.