Human civilization degrades to animal life when society forgets God; varnashrama alone restores proper human society.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
ī[q>aGavaNauvac MaYYaaSa¢-MaNaa" PaaQaR YaaeGa& YauṚNMadaī[Ya" ) ASa&XaYa& SaMaGa]& Maa& YaQaa jaSYaiSa TaC^*<au )) 1 )) Prabhupāda: mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu [Bg 7.1] [translated throughout into Oriya] Last night some gentleman questioned, "What is God?" Bhagavān, especially in our country, Bhārata-varṣa, Bhagavān personally comes. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham [Bg 4.7]. So Bhārata-varṣa is not an ordinary country. It is puṇya-bhūmi, where Bhagavān comes. So in this land at the present moment our young men are inquiring what is God. Here Bhagavān comes personally, He leaves His instruction, He's accepted by the ācāryas, and our young men have become so much advanced in education that they're asking what is God. So we should understand what is the situation at the present moment. So why this has happened? It has happened because we are making progress towards animal civilization. Because in the śāstra it is said, yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ [Bg 3.40, purport] Anyone who has got this bodily conception of life, and in relation to the body the family, country, society, we are thinking they are our kinsmen... And bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, the land on which the body is produced, we are taking that land as worshipable. And when we go to the holy places... Just like people come Jagannātha Purī. They take bath in the sea water, salile, tir…yat-tirtha-buddhi salile, but do not associate with experienced men who are advanced in spiritual consciousness—such person is nothing but cow or ass or animal. Therefore the question has been raised, "What is God?" We shall be careful, at least in India, that we may not glide down more and more to the animal platform of life. [aside:] Why they are being driven away? Let them sit down. Ask them to sit down. That's all. Let them sit down. They'll simply hear. That will also benefit. So anyway... Let them sit down. Even they cannot understand, if they hear the voice they will be benefited. Gaur-Govinda: [Transl. Sit down. Sit down. Don't make noise.] Prabhupāda: Therefore, because in this material world people are inclined to stand on the animal platform of life, that is dharmasya glāniḥ. So Kṛṣṇa said, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati [Bg 4.7]. This is dharmasya glāniḥ. Means when human society forgets God, or Kṛṣṇa, or Bhagavān, and simply lives like ordinary animal, cats and dogs, for eating, sleeping, sex life and defense, such society is animal society. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca etat paśubhir narāṇām [Hitopadeśa 25(1)]. This business—eating, sleeping, sex life and defense—this is common to the animal and to the human being. A cat, a dog also eat, and we are also eating. They are eating in their standard and we are eating in our standard. Sometimes we are eating less than their standard. So eating, the satisfaction of eating, anything you eat, the pleasure is the same. A hog is eating stool. He's enjoying the pleasure of eating. And a human being eating very nice palatable food up, he's also enjoying the same pleasure. There is no difference. Similarly, sleeping also; similarly sex life. A dog is enjoying sex life on the street, and the king is enjoying sex life in the palace. But the pleasure is the same. Similarly defense. If you attack one animal, he knows how to defend himself. He has got also nails and jaws. And he..., a tiger or a dog or a cat, if you attack he knows how to defend himself. We may defend with atomic weapon, but the business is the same: āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhiḥ. The particular business of human being is stated in the Vedānta-sūtra: athāto brahma-jijñāsā. So these four principles of life, āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam, there is no difference. Only difference is a human being can inquire about what is God, or what is Brahman, athāto brahma-jijñāsā. [Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.1(2)] That is the only business of human life. So a cat, a dog cannot inquire about Brahman, but the gentleman inquire about what is God. Because he is human being he could inquire like that. So there is no cause of disappointment. At least our young men in India, at least still inquiring. That is the culture, "What is God?" So this is the beginning of human life, when one inquires about Brahman. So to inquire about Brahman and to understand Brahman by proper inquiry and by proper answer from the proper source, the cultivation of this knowledge is the business of human being. Therefore a class of men in the society known as brāhmaṇa—brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ—there is need, there is necessary. The Vedic injunction is tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12(3)]. In order to understand tad-vijñāna, brahma-vijñāna, one must approach the proper guru, or spiritual master. Unfortunately we have rejected at the present moment the persons who are actually brāhmaṇa. On the other hand, in the name of brāhmaṇa, some persons claiming as brāhmaṇa, they are ruling over the society. But that is not the way. The brāhmaṇa or kṣatriya or vaiśya, śūdra, they are ascertained by the symptom. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ [Bg 4.13]: "I have created these four divisions of society, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra." So that should be divided according to the qualification and work. Just like if you are qualified as a medical man and if you are practicing as a medical man, then you are medical man. Simply by posing yourself that "I am the son of a medical man; therefore I am medical man," this is useless. In the śāstras, a person born of a brāhmaṇa family or a person born of a kṣatriya family but his qualities are not brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, he is called brahma-bandhu, kṣatri-bandhu, not brāhmaṇa. So in the Bhāgavata it is stated, strī-śūdra-dvijabandhūnāṁ trayī na śruti-gocarā [SB 1.4.25]. Strī, woman, and śūdra and dvija-bandhu. Dvija means brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. Especially brāhmaṇa. So dvija-bandhu, who is not qualified as a brāhmaṇa but born in the brāhmaṇa family, they are called dvija-bandhu. So śāstra says strī-śūdra-dvijabandhūnāṁ trayī na śruti-gocarā. Woman, śūdra and brahma-bandhu or dvija-bandhu, they cannot understand Vedic knowledge. Unfortunately, we are creating, trying to create, real brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya... And śūdra means everyone. One who cannot become a brāhmaṇa or a kṣatriya or vaiśya, simply they are satisfied by serving a suitable master, vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam. Paricaryātmakaṁ kāryaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam [Bg 18.44]. A person who is satisfied only getting some salary from a suitable master, that is śūdra. So in this age it is said, kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ. It is very difficult to find out a qualified brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya. We may find out some śūdras and some vaiśyas. Therefore, if you want to raise the standard of human society, you must create a class of brāhmaṇa, a class of kṣatriya. Vaiśya and śūdras maybe there are, but it is necessary that a class of brāhmaṇa, a class of kṣatriya must be there. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to reestablish daiva-varṇāśrama, where brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, everyone. Systematic. We are therefore proposing to start a college, varṇāśrama college. It is proposed... We are trying so many things, but this is also one of the program, that the people of the world, they should be educated according to the quality and work: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa it is said when Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired from Rāmānanda Rāya... Rāmānanda Rāya belonged to your province. So when there was talk between Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Rāmānanda Rāya, the first topic was "Where is the beginning of human society?" Rāmānanda Rāya replied, quoting from Viṣṇu Purāṇa 3.8.9(4)], varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān viṣṇur ārādhyate puṁsāṁ nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam [Cc Madhya 8.58] The human society is meant for not only inquiring Brahman but to worship Brahman, Para-brahman. That is human society.
So there is necessity of the four classes. At the present moment they are trying to create classless society. That is chaotic society. That is not real society.
That is not Vedic civilization. Vedic civilization means when there is classified society begins: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. And without this classification, the whole society will remain in chaotic condition. Just like the comparison is given, mukha-bāhūru pādebhyaḥ [SB 11.5.2].
Just like in our body there is mouth, there is ūru, there is leg, there is bāhu. These divisions are required. Mukha means brāhmaṇa, bāhu means kṣatriya, and ūru means the vaiśya, and pāda means śūdra. The body can be maintained when four things are properly maintained.
So these things are required, and they should be classified by varṇā..., I mean to say, quality and work. In this way we have to organize society. Then there will be no scarcity of real human being. Otherwise they will remain as animal. So a systematic society means varṇāśrama-dharma.
But there is another way. That is another way, that is called transcendental society, or Vaiṣṇava society. As it is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata, kecit kevalayā bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ [SB 6.1.15] Simply by becoming devotees of Vāsudeva, vāsudeva-parāyaṇa, everything can be adjusted. When Rāmānanda Rāya answered Caitanya Mahāprabhu about the systematic society of human being, Caitanya Mahāprabhu rejected.
He said eho bāhya āge kaha āra [Cc Madhya 8.59]. So Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya replied, quoting from other verses from śāstra, karma-tyāga, sannyāsa. [Cc Madhya 8.61] In this way, step by step. But when he said that sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṭ-manobhiḥ...