Janmaná jáyate shúdrah saḿskárát dvija ucyate;
Veda pát́hát bhavet viprah Brahma jánáti bráhmańah.

[By birth everybody is a shúdra, i.e., with an animal-like mentality. Going through a [[renewal]], the person becomes a dvija, i.e., expresses the desire to become human. By studying scriptures, a person next becomes a vipra, an intellectual. And finally, when the person realizes Brahma (through psycho-spiritual initiation), he or she becomes a bráhmańa.]

You know about vipra, kśatriya, vaeshya and shúdra. Vipra means an intellectual who helps the society with the help of his or her intellect, who teaches others, guides others; he or she is a vipra. A kśatriya protects the society, protects the weak. How? With his or her valour, with his or her strength. A kśatriya utilizes his or her strength and courage in protecting the society. And vaeshya means – ? [to a sádhaka] You – vaeshya means – ?

[Sádhaka replies, “Capitalist.”]

Vaeshya means producer, manufacturer. That is, agriculturists (a farmer is an agriculturist), factory labourers, technicians – they are all vaeshyas. And shúdra – the unskilled labourer, or one who does nothing, or wastes his or her time, or depends on others. They are all shúdras.

Now you see, so far as mental colour is concerned – according to the mental tendency, the mind has colour, and that colour is according to the wavelengths of thoughts. For a vipra it will be whitish, for a kśatriya reddish, for a vaeshya yellowish, and for a shúdra blackish. Black here means not the colour of the skin, not the complexion, you know, but the mental colour. Actually it concerns – what? Mental colours. And one may change one’s mental colour by dint of one’s sádhaná.

There are certain misunderstandings in India regarding these shúdras. Some people used to think that those non-Aryan people – Austrics, Mongoloids, and the Negroid population of India, Austrico-Negroid – that they were the shúdras because of their black skin. No, it’s not a matter of black skin, but of a black mind. The son of an intellectual may be a shúdra if he is mentally black. A person may be a vipra even if he or she is physically black.

Janmaná jáyate shúdrah [“By birth, one is a shúdra”]. A newborn babe just after taking birth is a shúdra. All newborn babes are shúdras, because they do nothing and they depend solely on their parents. So a babe is a shúdra – certainly a shúdra – depending on the mother.

Saḿskárát dvija ucyate [“going through a renewal, the person becomes dvija”] – and after a few years, after five years, when one is initiated, one becomes dvija.

In Sanskrit, dvi means “two” and ja means “born”, so dvija means “twice born”, “born twice”. In Sanskrit the word dvija has several meanings. The actual meaning or derivative meaning is “born twice”. But in the practical field, it has three other meanings.

One meaning is an initiated person – because the first birth was the physical birth, and the second birth was the spiritual birth, during initiation. Such a person is dvija, born twice: First, you are born simply as an animal being. But this second time, as a human being. So unless and until one is initiated one is not, one cannot be, treated as a human being.

The second meaning of dvija is birds or reptiles – the first birth in the form of an egg and the second birth in its proper form – so dvija.

And the third meaning of dvija is “tooth”. It is born twice. So teeth are also dvija.

But don’t be dvija like teeth or birds or snakes. (They are also dvija.) A snake is – what?

[A sádhaka replies, “It sheds its skin.”]

No, first in the form of an egg, and secondly in the form of a snake. Birds are also dvija.

Janmaná jáyate shúdrah – “In the first phase all are shúdras.” Saḿskárát dvija ucyate – “and after one is initiated, one becomes dvija, human.” Not simply a living being, but a human being.

Veda pát́hát bhavet viprah – “and after that, one may become a vaeshya, one may become a kśatriya, or one may become a vipra.” One must be initiated, and after that, according to his or her tendency, he or she may become a vaeshya, a good vaeshya; or a kśatriya, a good kśatriya; or a vipra, a sadvipra [a true vipra]. After initiation, if one becomes an intellectual, one is to be treated as a vipra. Veda páthát bhavet viprah.

And Brahma jánáti bráhmańah – “and after initiation, after becoming dvija, when one knows Brahma, one is a bráhmańa.” The spiritual aspirant who knows Brahma, who has become one with Brahma (Brahmavid Brahmaeva bhavati⁽¹⁾), is to be treated as a bráhmańa.

Footnotes

(1) “The knower of Brahma will become Brahma.” –Eds.