According to Vedic system, unless the human society comes to the institution of varnasrama-dharma, they are not to be accepted as human society. The system, the whole system was to gradually educate people to be elevated to the spiritual platform

Expressions researched:
"According to Vedic system, unless the human society comes to the institution of varṇāśrama-dharma, they are not to be accepted as human society. The system . . . the whole system was to gradually educate people to be elevated to the spiritual platform"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

There are twenty kinds of dharma śāstra, so they have to be followed. That is human society. Not that to live like animal. That is human society. According to Vedic system, unless the human society comes to the institution of varṇāśrama-dharma, they are not to be accepted as human society. The system, the whole system was to gradually educate people to be elevated to the spiritual platform for understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lecture on SB 1.2.8 -- Bombay, December 26, 1972:

Svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya. A brahmin must be truthful: satya sama dama titikṣa ārjava, jñānam vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma karma svabhāva (BG 18.42). So the brahmins, those who are actually qualified brahmins, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Lord Kṛṣṇa said that cātur-varṇyaṁ māyā śṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ: by division of quality and activities.

So everyone, brahmin, must be qualified and must be engaged in his particular duties. Kṣatriyas also, they should be engaged in their particular duties. Vaiśyas and śūdras also. And it is the duty of the government that everyone is discharging his duties. That is king's business, rāja-daṇḍa. If one does not observe the regulative principle, then he should not declare himself as brahmin, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra.

So, just like at the present moment, the government has got inspectors to see . . . inspect the schools, whether the teachers are duly discharging their educational curriculum, similarly, formerly the king, he was rāja-daṇḍa-vit. So not only he was inspecting that everyone is discharging his professional or particular duties, but everyone has got employment. That was also the king's duty. No one should be unemployed. The brahmin should be employed, the kṣatriya should be employed, the vaiśya should be employed and the śūdra should be employed. If there is any difficulty, then it was the duty of the king to give them employment.

So since we have lost our responsible monarchical government, the four divisions of social order—means brahmin, kṣatriya, vaiśyas and śūdra—they have deviated due to unemployment. The brahmin could not get sufficient engagement in their duties, yajana yājana paṭhana pāṭhana dāna pratigraha. People became neglectful, so they thought, "What is the use of calling a brahmin for pūjā part? There is no necessity. Stop it."

So naturally the brahmins were obliged to accept to the business or the occupational duties of the kṣatriyas or the vaiśyas or even śūdras. What can be done? But in the śāstra it is said that a brahmin, if he's in difficulty, he may accept the profession of a kṣatriya or up to vaiśya, but never accept the occupation of a śūdra. These are described in the śāstras.

Besides that, the higher castes—the brahmins, kṣatriyas especially, and the vaiśyas also—they must observe the dāsa-veda saṁskāra, ten kinds of reformatory methods. The first method is garbādhāna-saṁskāra. Before giving birth to a child, there is a ceremony which is called garbādhāna-saṁskāra, and it is stated in the śāstras that if the higher castes do not perform the garbādhāna-saṁskāra and beget children like cats and dog, then he immediately comes to the position of śūdra. These are the śāstric injunction.

There are twenty kinds of dharma śāstra, so they have to be followed. That is human society. Not that to live like animal. That is human society. According to Vedic system, unless the human society comes to the institution of varṇāśrama-dharma, they are not to be accepted as human society. The system . . . the whole system was to gradually educate people to be elevated to the spiritual platform for understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That was the whole scheme. Viṣṇu . . . tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayo, to train people to become civilized, sūrayo, means that they will observe to the ultimate goal of life, viṣṇu paramaṁ padam: how to approach Lord Viṣṇu, how to approach the Vaikuṇṭha, paraṁ dhāma, by spiritual progressive life. That was there.

Every human being was given chance to go back to home, back to Godhead. That is considered as human civilization. Human civilization does not mean to improve the method of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, as it is going on now. The quality or . . . the quality has been polished, but actually the human civilization has not improved, because the quality . . . Eating, sleeping, mating and defending, that is given special stress, but not to the point of, goal of life, reaching Viṣṇu, oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paranaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayo (Ṛg Veda 1.22.20). That we have neglected.