Now, suppose if there are hundred person in a society, twenty-five percent students, twenty-five percent retired life, and twenty-five percent sannyāsa, renounced order of life. Now, out of 100 persons, seventy-five percent, they are engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord. The rest twenty-five percent who are gṛhasthas, they are meant for sacrificing fifty percent of their income for this seventy-five percent. That is the whole program of varṇāśrama-dharma. That is a kind of spiritual communism. Spiritual communism. For spiritual advancement of a society, the whole social order is so arranged that seventy-five percent of the people, they are engaged in the matter of spiritual advancement of knowledge and twenty-five percent of the population, those who are earning, those who in family life, those who have got factories, business and so many things, they should sacrifices fifty percent of their income for these seventy-five percent persons who are engaged in spiritual emancipation. So that is the whole program. (aside:) Oh, I am very glad to see you. (laughs)
That is the whole program of varṇāśrama-dharma, varṇa and āśrama. Varṇa means that... You have perhaps heard, the caste system in India. That is called varṇa. The caste system which is now going on, that is a vitiated form of caste system. You have heard in the Bhagavad-gītā that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). This varṇa and āśrama is also creation of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is not man-made. That is not man-made. So how that varṇāśrama is created?
Now, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. The guṇa... As I have already told you, that we are being controlled in three qualities or three modes of nature, so anyone, he must be either under the spell of these three qualities. So according to the quality and according to the karma, the varṇas are there. I have several times explained to you. So the varṇa and the āśrama. Āśrama means the brahmacārī-āśrama, the gṛhastha-āśrama, the vānaprastha-āśrama and the sannyāsa-āśrama.
Āśrama, this very word, indicates that it is spiritual. And perhaps most of you know that āśrama means... Āśrama, this very word, means that this place... Just like temple or church. There are so many buildings on this Second Avenue. And when you see a church or a temple, you at once understand that "This building is meant for spiritual understanding." Similarly, when we call āśrama, āśrama means that that, I mean to say, function is meant for spiritual realization. So all the four classes of social order—the brahmacārī, the gṛhastha, and the vānaprastha and the sannyāsa—they are called āśrama. Āśrama means they are meant for spiritual emancipation. The student is also given instruction so that before entering family life, he gets complete instruction of spiritual life so that when he enters into family life, he is not just like a cat and dog, so-called sense gratification. They are meant for... Although they live with wife and children, they are meant for spiritual emancipation. This is called āśrama, gṛhastha-āśrama.
So that was the idea. The whole program was aiming at spiritual emancipation. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum.
- na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ
- durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ
- andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās
- te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ
- (SB 7.5.31)
It is a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that Prahlāda Mahārāja... That is a statement of Prahlāda Mahārāja before his father. His father was very much materialistic, so he was explaining to his father, "My dear father," na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum, "general people..." Because he was in the materialistic family, his father was a great materialistic, so he is explaining... He was a great devotee. The son was a great devotee, and the father was a great materialist, and there was a quarrel between father and son. So father questioned, "Where you have got all this nonsense knowledge or spiritual knowledge?" So he was explaining, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ: (SB 7.5.31) "My dear father, these people, these materialistic people—that means men of your nature—they do not know what is their self-interest."
Everyone is very busy for fulfilling his self-interest, but actually he does not know what is his self-interest. Na te viduḥ. The self-interest is Viṣṇu, to go back to Godhead. That is self-interest. Self-realization, self-interest, and so many things—everything is meant for going back to Godhead. That is self-interest.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja said that "Because people are very much illusioned by this external energy..." The material energy is called external energy. "Because people are deluded by this external, by the glimmer of this external energy, they have forgotten that their self-interest is Viṣṇu, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And they are conducting their life, general process of life in a manner..."
How? Now, andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ: "Just like one blind man is leading several other blind men." That's all. He is the leader. A blind man has become the leader of several other blind man. So what benefit is there? If the man is blind, how can he... Because blind... Why blind? Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Īśa-tantra, īśa-tantra means by the laws of God or by the laws of nature, they are bound up tight, hands and feet, and they are trying to get free from the control of the nature.