So in India there is such examination. We had to pass first matriculation, then I.A., then B.A., so . . . then M.A. So intermediate stage . . . to be brahmin means spiritually graduate, and vipra means spiritually intermediate, and initiation means spiritually he is school leaving certificate, and to become a Vaiṣṇava means to pass M.A. examination in spiritual science. These are the different stages.
So here it is stated, viprād dvi-ṣaḍ yutād, how one can become a vipra. The first stage is śūdra. Śūdra means almost animal life—no cleanliness, no hygienic principle, simply working for living. No other ambition, no spiritual education, but some way or other filling our life. Just like animals, they become dependent on somebody. Whatever he likes, he can do on that animal.
Śūdra is not so dependent, but actually they were dependent. Just like in you country the Negroes were slaves, but fortunately they have been made free. Actually, they were being treated just like animals. So śūdra life means completely dependent on the other three higher class.
So everyone is born śūdra. Just like this child. This child is dependent completely. Just like animal is dependent, the child is also dependent. So they say, Vedic learned scholars, they say janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. (Prema-vivarta)
Everyone is born a śūdra, completely dependent. Saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ: but when he is initiated by purificatory processes, he is called twice-born. This initiation process means he surpasses the ordinary birth.
Ordinary birth is made by the father and the mother. That father and mother is there even in animal life. So to take birth from father and mother is not very important. Anyone, janame janame sabe pitā mātā pāya, in any birth, it doesn't matter human being, even in animal life or any life, there must be one father and mother.
So that birth is not very important. Janmanā jāyate. Therefore by birth by the father and mother, everyone is śūdra. But if he is purified, if he gets association of a spiritual master, if he approaches . . . for second birth one has to approach the spiritual master, the bona fide spiritual master. That was the system.