Mahārāja Daśaratha said: "Yes, I remember. You want some benediction just now?" She said: "Yes." "And what is that?" She said that, "Rāmacandra cannot be seated on the throne. My son should be, Bhārata." Oh, he was surprised. It is a big demand. So he said: "All right. That will be done. Your son."
Because formerly, the . . . not only formerly; even up to date there are many kṣatriya kings in India, they have more than one wife. And they are . . . there is rivalry between different wives. So the same thing. Human psychology is same. Even two million years ago the same mentality was there, and she asked that "My son should be the king, not Rāmacandra." Rāmacandra happened to be the son of Kauśalyā, the elder queen.
So Mahārāja Daśaratha agreed and called for Rāmacandra. "My dear boy, your . . ." She asked also . . . she was very diplomatic. She wanted that Rāmacandra go to forest for fourteen years. The idea was political that, "The king may agree to install my son just now. Now, after a few days, this Rāmacandra may come with His army, and there may be some difficulty to continue the kingdom." So she wanted that Rāmacandra should go to the forest and she (He) should not come back till the end of fourteen years from this day.
So Mahārāja Daśaratha agreed, because he was kṣatriya. Just see the promise. A kṣatriya never goes back from the promise, never refuses any challenge. If a kṣatriya is challenged by somebody that, "I want to fight with you," oh, he cannot refuse. This is kṣatriya spirit. He cannot say that, "I am now busy."
Suppose somebody comes to you that, "I want to fight with you." You may say: "What nonsense fight? I have no time. We are in the temple." But a kṣatriya cannot deny that. A kṣatriya at once must accept, "Oh, yes. Come on." And the weapon should be, if he has no sword or weapon, he should be supplied weapon and fight. This is kṣatriya spirit. They were highly charitable and chivalrous, and keeping promise, and with a great tendency for ruling over. They shall rule over. Administrators. Their business . . .
There are different prescription for different classes of men for their livelihood. The brahmins, they can pull on their livelihood by six ways: paṭhana pāṭhana yajana yājana dāna pratigraha. (SB 5.17.11 purport).
Six. And they must be qualified with twelve high qualities. We have many times discussed. Out of that qualification, truthfulness is the first item for a brahmin. A kṣatriya may speak lies. That is allowed, because he has to be diplomat, politician. But a brahmin, oh, he's not allowed to speak lie. This is the system, caste system or varṇāśrama system.
Everyone was trained. Because these four classes of men are required in a society. For proper upkeep of society, one class of men must be very intelligent, highly qualified, with all good qualities. They must be trained in that way, ideal character, so that people can see and follow them. Therefore brahmin were taken to so much respect, because they're ideal character, learned and godly, knows the science, spiritual science. Therefore they're held in high estimation and topmost of the society.
The next, the administrator, administrator class, kṣatriya. They were trained how to kill. The kṣatriyas were allowed to hunt in the forest to learn the art of killing, because that was necessity for the kṣatriyas. Kṣatriyas, if . . . if the king, if he finds somebody is doing wrong, he can immediately chop off his head if he likes. The king was so powerful. And it is not that if there was some war, it is not that the president or the king shall sit down comfortably at home and ordinary soldiers will go and lay down their life. No.
Formerly, the king or the head of the state, he should first of all go there in the fight. You see in the picture, the chief men of the fighting in the Kurukṣetra, both sides, they were arrayed, this side, that side, with their chariot. Not that the head man, the chief man, or the commander is taking shelter back side, protecting himself, and poor soldiers are (chuckles) thrown into the fighting. No. These were kṣatriya spirit. And it is necessary that a class of men should be trained up in that way, kṣatriya, fighting men.
In India, because this training was there since a very long time, so there is no difficulty in recruiting soldiers there. There is a class of men, they are very much forward in fighting, still. They are called . . . just like the Gurkhas, the Nepalese. You have heard the name of Nepal. Still a small state, independent state. They are not within India. Between China and India. The whole Nepal population, they are kṣatriya. Oh, they are very good fighters. Similarly, the Sikhs, the Jātas. There are classes. So they're always forward for fighting. And you'll be surprised that the British Empire was voluntarily liquidated because they lost India.
The Britishers, they understood that, "Because we are now losing India, there is no more possibility to keep our Eastern empire." Therefore they liquidated. Why? Actually, the whole British Empire were being administered, or managed, by Indian soldiers, these Sikhs and Gurkhas. They extended their empire. After taking their position in India, they extended British Empire in the Middle East and Far East simply by these Sikhs and Gurkha soldiers. They got supremacy on the Burma and everywhere.
So there is necessity of a class of fighting men. You are finding in your country difficulty in recruiting, because the recruiting process is wrong. You are recruiting from persons . . . you are training persons just like śūdras, and you want them to fight. How they can fight? It is not possible.
So as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa karma vibhāgaśaḥ . . . (BG 4.13).
Lord Kṛṣṇa said that, "The four classes or orders of the society, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, is planned by Me according to work and quality." So this kṣatriya quality men is also required, the brāhmaṇa quality of men is also required, the mercantile style of community, they are also required, and the laborer class, they are also required.
Of course, laborer class, they do not require any training. Laborer class means one who cannot do anything, neither become brahmin, nor become kṣatriya, nor become vaiśya. That means the last balance of the population, they are called laborer class, śūdra. Śūdra means one who has no training. Śūdra has no saṁskāra. Saṁskāra means training. Everyone is accepted as śūdra by birth. Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. Janmanā means by birth. By birth, everyone is born a śūdra, a fourth-class man. It is to be accepted, and actually so. Just like a child, innocent child, what does he know? He has to be trained. Either you train him as a brahmin or train him as a kṣatriya or train him as a vaiśya. Or otherwise, he is śūdra already, born śūdra. Śūdra has no training. Everyone, the basic principle, basic foreground, everyone, it is accepted śūdra. Now, if you train him as a brahmin, then he becomes a brahmin. If you train him as a kṣatriya, then he becomes a kṣatriya. If you train him as a vaiśya . . .
So I think this is . . . this system is very scientific, so that if you want really help of a really intelligent man or God-realized man, it is ready, the brahmin class. Just like if you require the help of a lawyer, you have got so many lawyers. If you require the help of medical man . . . because there are trained men. Similarly, the society requires to train a certain class of men to become brahmin. Just like we are training the Kṛṣṇa conscious. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness is meant for the brahmins. They are not meant for fighting, because they are not being trained for fighting. They have been trained for becoming brahmin.