Sometimes I am questioned why there is caste system in India. Well, this caste system is there. It is by nature. Bhagavad-gītā says, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13): "The four classes of men are there. That is My law." How they are four classes? Guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. Guṇa means quality, and karma means work. If you have got very nice quality, intelligence, brahminical qualities . . . brahminical qualities means if you speak truth, you are very clean and you are self-controlled, your mind is in equilibrium, you are tolerant, and so many qual . . . you believe in God, you know scriptures practically. These qualities are for the higher class, brahmin.
The first qualification of a brahmiṇ is that he's truthful. He'll disclose everything, even to his enemy. He'll never, I mean to say, hide anything. Satyam. Śaucam, very clean. A brahmiṇ is expected to take bath daily thrice and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bahyābhyantaram: clean outside, clean inside. These are qualities. So when these opportunities are there, then the Vedānta-sūtra, Vedānta, advises, "Now you begin to inquire about Brahman." Athāto brahma jijṣāsā.
Athāto brahma jijṣāsā. When one has reached to the material perfection, then the next business is to inquire. If we do not inquire, if we do not try to understand what is Brahman, then we must be frustrated. Because the hankering is there, advancement, advancement of knowledge. The theory of advancement of knowledge is that nobody should be satisfied by the knowledge what he already knows. He must know more and more. So in your country in comparison to other country at the present age, you have advanced materially very nicely. Now you take to this brahma-jijṣāsā, inquiry about the Supreme Absolute: What is that Absolute? What I am?
I am also Brahman. Because I am part and parcel of Brahman, therefore I am also Brahman. Just like part and parcel . . . a little particle of gold is also gold. It is no other thing. Similarly, we are also particle of Brahman, or the Supreme. Just like the molecules of sunshine, they are also as illuminating as the sun globe, but they are very small. Similarly, we living entities, we are also the same as God. But He is just like as big as the sun globe or the deity in the sun globe, but we are small particles, the molecules of sunshine. This is the comparison between the Supreme and us.
We cannot become the Supreme. At least, we don't find in authorized Vedic literature that a living entity can become as powerful as God. No. It is not possible. God is great. He's always great. Even if you are liberated from the material clutches, still He is great. That is . . . therefore this verse, govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. Our perpetual relationship with God is to worship Him, or to serve Him.
That service is very pleasant. Don't take it . . . as soon as we talk of service, we may think that, "Oh, we are suffering here by adopting service." Just like the next . . . the other evening one boy was questioning, "Why should we bow down?" I do not know if he's present here. The bow down to surrender to somebody is not bad, but because we are in a different situation, by surrendering to other, it is very uncomfortable.
Just like nobody wants to be dependent on other nation, nobody wants to be dependent on other people. Everyone wants to be independent, because this material world is perverted reflection of the spiritual world. But in the spiritual world, the more you surrender, the more you are servant, you are happy. You are happy.
But we have no such understanding at the present moment. We have no spiritual idea, no spiritual realization; therefore we shudder as soon as we hear that we have to become servant of God. But there is no question of shuddering. It is very pleasant to become servant of God.
You see so many great reformers, they came, they served the mission of God, and they are still worshiped. So to become servant of God, servitor of God, is not very insignificant thing. It is the most important thing. Govindam adi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. But don't accept it. First of all try to understand. Therefore Vedānta-sūtra says, athāto brahma jijṣāsā. Try to understand what is Brahman.
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Try to understand what is Brahman and try to understand your relationship. And then, when you actually surrender, you'll feel your eternal blissful life, full of knowledge. And this is very nicely explained in the Teachings of Lord Caitanya.