The brain division is the brāhmaṇa, and the arm division is the kṣatriya, gives you protection. As soon as somebody is going to attack you, immediately, automatically you spread your hands. Kṣatriya. Kṣat means injury. In Hindu it is called kṣatra. So kṣat trāyate. A kṣatriya's business is one who can save you from being injured by others. That is kṣatriya. And brāhmaṇa means the intelligent class. So as in the body, the brain is also required the hand is also required the belly is also required, and the leg is also required. Although the activities of the leg is not so important than the activity of the brain. Comparatively studying, the brain is most important part of the body, this head. If you cut the head of a man, then, in spite of possessing the arms, belly and legs, he is dead man. But if you cut the hand or the leg, he can live, and the brain can work. This is an example.
Similarly, when the society is divided nicely in these four divisions, the brahminical culture, the kṣatriya culture, the vaiśya culture, and the śūdra culture... Brahminical culture means people should learn how to speak truth, satya, śama, how to control the mind, how to control the senses. Satya, śama, damaḥ, titikṣā, how to become tolerant, ārjavam, how to become simple in life, how to become cleansed, how to acquire knowledge and how to practically apply the knowledge in daily life.
Jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam. And āstikyam means full faith in the Vedic literature. That is called āstikya. Āstikya generally is called theism. So if one has full faith and full knowledge in Vedas, he becomes theist. If he has no sufficient knowledge in the Vedas, he becomes atheist. So just like Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, veda nā māniyā bauddha haila nāstika. The Buddhists, they did not accept the authority of the Vedas. Therefore they are called nāstika, or atheist. That is the definition, that if you do not accept the authority of the Vedas, then you become atheist. So this is the brahminical.... One of the brahminical qualification is how to live under the Vedic civilization. That is brāhmaṇa.
Similarly, kṣatriya. Tejaḥ, śauryam, very powerful, and kṣatriya will never go away from the battlefield. Kṣatriya's business is, in the battlefield, either to become victorious or lay down life. That is kṣatriya. He is not coming back from the battlefield without being victorious, no. That is kṣatriya's business. Not like.... kṣatriya, therefore, they are in charge of the government. Nowadays the kṣatriyas, they do not go to the government. Practically there is no kṣatriya. That is stated in the śāstras. Asaṁskṛtāḥ kriyā-hīnā mlecchā rājanya-rūpiṇaḥ. Mleccha. They have no that kṣatriya qualification, mleccha, unclean.
Mleccha means unclean, without any Vedic culture. They are called mleccha. Anyone. It does not mean that any particular class of men is called mleccha. Anyone who is unclean and does not abide by the injunction of the Vedas, they are called mleccha, yavana. That is the shastric term.
So Kṛṣṇa says for the upkeep of the society, there must be this cultural division of the society, namely varṇa and āśrama. But at the present moment people do not know what is the aim of life. They do not know.
- 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)
Uru-dāmni-baddhāḥ. Te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni-baddhāḥ, andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. People are.... Because the Vedic culture is lost, the system of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, is no longer existing, neither there is training. One politician, minister in Calcutta, he came to see me, I was talking. "Why there is chaotic condition?" And the simple reason is there is no this cātur-varṇya system is lost. Practically without any brahminical culture, kṣatriya culture, people remain śūdras, the fourth-class man. Or fifth-class men.
So unless there are first-class men, second-class men, at least third-class men, only fourth-class, fifth-class, sixth-class men, how they can conduct. That is not possible. Therefore it is enjoined that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13). This division of the society must be observed.
Educational institution, there should be, but the education.... Just like in a university, they have different departments: medical department, engineering department, or biological and so many, psychological, chemical, physical.... They have so many departments. But there is no department, brahminical, kshatriyacal, or vaiśya, nothing. Because they do not know what is the aim of life. They are simply interested with the bodily comforts of life. That's all. Never mind what is our next life, What kind of life we are going to. But that is, this is a fact.
Therefore we have to study Bhagavad-gītā very seriously. In the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā it is said by Kṛṣṇa, tathā dehāntara-prāptir. There is dehāntara. After leaving this body, I have to accept another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati (BG 2.13). Dhīraḥ means those who are sober, intelligent, they know that what is death. Death means giving up this body and accepting another, transmigration of the soul. That is death. So dhīras tatra na muhyati. A dhīraḥ who is learned, he knows, but others, adhīraḥ...
There are two classes of men: dhīra and adhīra. Adhīraḥ means not controlled, animals. Just like animal cannot control. So human being is gradually coming to the platform of the animals. Because they are being conducted on the bodily concept of life.