Once during a lunch my manager joined me & we slowly started talking about a lot of things.
He asked about my liking , hobbies.I answered i am interested in spirituality & reading Bhagavad gita & Srimad Bhagavatam.
He said "oh you are Vaishnava !"
My manager is a gujarathi , born & brought in Ahmedabad. And Gujarat is a place where
people are very religious & it has a very large number of followers in Vallabhacarya Sampradaya.
Lord Krishna is very famous diety & Janamastami is celebrated with great honour & festivity.
Even common people while greeting each other say " Jai Sri Krishna".
A Krishnas devotee is called a Vaishnava . In Gujarat the followers of Vallabhacarya are known as Vaishnavas.My manager seem to have good acquittance with many vaishnava families.
In our discussion i was explaining about Lord Krishna & Vaishnavism. But i found he had a very external & not indepth meaning of Vaishanavism or spirituality.I was avoiding any conflict there.
Out of curiosity i asked "What do you think is a Vaishnava?"
He answered with quite a good confidence "Vaishnavas are those who do Business!!!!"
In gujarat many Vaishnavas do good business & are very rich as he didnot had the
right meaning of Vaishnavas he linked it to their business ability.
He thought Vaishnavas are the best business people because he saw that in Gujarat.
Later i was reading Prabhupad pastimes & in one incident a devotee who had taken great responsibility in the movement fell down. He wrote Prabhupad a letter saying " I Quit"
Prabhupad read the letter & said one statement " How can anybody leave his Fathers business?"
Prabhupad here sees that a devotee is carrying the order of Lord Krishna or Lord Caitanya
to propagate his message & mission of preaching the holy name & sublime spiritual message.
So it is Krishnas or Lord Caitanyas preaching business when they appear in this material world
& as they are Father of all living entities it a Fathers business &
any soul who takes part in this mission or business is continuing his Fathers business.
So another definition of Vaishnava is one who continues , carries forward, takes responsibility
of Lord Krishna or Lord Caitanya (The Supreme Father) Business of Preaching.
So a vaishnava is a business man but his business is spiritual business, to preach to the lost souls of this material world & encourage them to come back home back to Godhead.
My manager has thus answered rightly " A Vaishnava is a businessman " except i pray that he gets to know what is their real business.