A wealthy landlord called upon a goldsmith in his village and, handing him a lump of pure gold, said, “I want you to make a nice pot with this amount of gold. But don’t you dare corrupt this gold by mixing in another metal just to steal the excess!”

Bowing and srcaping, the goldsmith readily agreed and took the gold into his workshop. He was sorely tempted by the great wealth that would fall into his hands if he just found a way to cheat the landlord. Sitting at his workbench, he thought to himself, “That man will immediately recognize gold alloy. He’ll have me arrested, flogged and probably killed if I attempt to trick him in that way. But there must be another way to do it.” Suddenly a plan that he was sure was foolproof popped into his head. A few days later the goldsmith delivered a gold-plated stone pot to the landlord. The rich man’s eyebrows rose high in astonishment when he saw it. “Now what is that?” he demanded.

The goldsmith replied, “My lord, this is the golden pot you ordered.” The landlord stared at the goldsmith in amazement that was turning to anger. “Are you joking with me? Anyone can see that this is a stone-pot with a gold plating on it!” The goldsmith shook his head and grinned. “Oh no, my lord. I have made you a gold pot fashioned after a stone-pot. It is a golden stone-pot!”

—–

The moral is that just as it is a mockery to claim that one has made a golden stone-pot, or a mango-cake of jackfruit, it is a mockery to speak of brahmana Vaisnava, sudra Vaisnava, candala Vaisnava, yavana Vaisnava or Hindu Vaisnava. Either one is a Vaisnava or he has some other designation according to Varnasrama considerations. But when one is accepted as a Vaisnava, then mundane classifications simply do not apply.