Fifty years before in India, in every village there was a small school conducted by the brahmana, and the village children would be trained up there. So he was sent for training. And there was no school fee

Expressions researched:
"fifty years before in India, in every village there was a small school conducted by the brahmin, and the village children would be trained up there. So he was sent for training. And there was no school fee"

Lectures

Festival Lectures

Guru-gṛha means teacher's house. Formerly, for being trained, there was no such big scale school and colleges. Every village... Still, fifty years before in India, in every village there was a small school conducted by the brāhmaṇa, and the village children would be trained up there. So he was sent for training. And there was no school fee. The boys will go there, and on behalf of the teacher or spiritual master, they will go, brahmacārī, door to door, and beg and bring forth alms, rice, dahl, grains, and everything. That was the system.

Lecture Festival Appearance Day, Lord Ramacandra, Rama-Navami -- March 27, 1969, Hawaii:

Guru-gṛha means teacher's house. Formerly, for being trained, there was no such big-scale school and colleges. Every village . . . still, fifty years before in India, in every village there was a small school conducted by the brahmin, and the village children would be trained up there. So he was sent for training. And there was no school fee. The boys will go there, and on behalf of the teacher or spiritual master, they will go, brahmacārī, door to door, and beg and bring forth alms, rice, ḍāl, grains and everything. That was the system. There was no school fee. There was no problem how to send a boy to the school.

So saṁskāra. Now he's trained up. The teacher sees the psychology of the boy, in which way he should be trained. Either he should be trained as a vaiśya or he should be trained as a kṣatriya. So everyone was trained like that, but generally, the son of a kṣatriya . . . just like Mahārāja Rāmacandra or Arjuna, from the very beginning they were trained as kṣatriya.

Naturally, if somebody is the son of a medical man his father trains him to become a medical man in future. That is the natural tendency. If the boy is different altogether, that is another question; but naturally, that is the tendency. So a kṣatriya's son was trained as kṣatriya, a brahmin's son was trained as a brahmin and a vaiśya's son was trained as a vaiśya, and śūdra had no training.

So gradually this became a caste system. brahmin's son became brahmin. Because formerly, the training was there. But when it is vitiated, although a person born in the family of a brahmin, he is doing the work of a śūdra. So according to Vedic scripture, one is classified according to his work and quality, not by birth. That is the classification of śāstra. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13).

Guṇa means quality, and karma means work. One must be qualified for the work, and he must actually work. Then he is counted classified into that, I mean to say, category.

Just like if you are simply trained or educated as a lawyer, and if you are not practicing in the court, nobody comes to you to consult as a lawyer. Nobody cares for you. You must be practicing also. Similarly, to become a brahmin means first of all, he must know what is Brahman and he must be actually situated in the activities of Brahman.

So devotional service are activities of Brahman. Activities in Kṛṣṇa consciousness means activities in Brahman. Brāhme carati iti brahmā brahmacārī. Carati means acts. Actually he acts in life, applies the principles of brahmin in his life, he is called brahmacārī. So these were the trainings.

So just see how the training was, that a kṣatriya cannot refuse his promise. So Mahārāja Daśaratha, he fulfilled the promise of his youngest wife and asked his son, eldest son, Rāmacandra, "My dear boy, You'll have to go to forest for fourteen years. That is the desire of Your youngest mother. And I promised that I shall fulfill her promise, uh, request. So please accept." Rāmacandra said, "Yes, father, I am ready." Just see.

This is the quality . . . out of the six opulences of God, this is one quality.