Thus the Caste system, though worked by human agency, is founded upon natural laws. As originally created in the Silver Age, its object is to form people into groups according to the similarity of their natural casts of mind, according to their natural instincts and dispositions, with the view of uniting them by the bonds of their common as well as mutual interests, with the view of helping them to material, moral and spiritual elevation by compelling them to discharge their respective duties according to the injunctions of inspired codes of laws furnished by illumined Sages whose very pure, unselfish, spiritual and self-sacrificing life is the best guarantee of the wisdom, efficacy and usefulness of their advices and teachings. The relation of interdependence which these caste laws consolidate is in itself one of the grandest achievements of the caste system for the good of the human family. It is the most practical means of preserving unity and a natural preventive of the disintegration of the whole mass of humanity into individual units than which no greater calamity can happen to the general as well as individual weal of human beings. Yet, alas, among non-caste races this is happening, especially in the Western countries of the world, at the present time!
Look at the state of the human society at this moment, particularly that portion of it which is governed by the ideas of what is boastfully called "civilization"! Look at the external results of the internal influence of this civilization! Material comfort and pleasure has become the very ideal of life for its average votary. All, almost all are ever rushing on the path of securing the means for that one end. And in that mad rush they are jostling, hustling, hating, abusing, cheating, killing, and destroying one another physically and morally. In that mad rush for that one goal, in that selfish fight and quarrel, out of the exhaustion brought on by the efforts of that bustling and hustling, they have no time or opportunity or inclination to think of anything which has no immediate concern with that utterly material aim of life. They have no time to think of their mind, much less of their soul, which most of them have abolished as a delusion and an obstacle in the way of material success. They have even no time to look up into the blue heavens during night or during day, to look at the beauties of the stars and the moon, much less to think of what they are and if they have any relation with them. Material interests are fast taking the place of natural love and affection. Husbands and wives are fighting with each other; sons and daughters are ignoring and disobeying their parents; masters and servants have no other regard for each other than that inspired by personal gain; they are always trying to cheat instead of helping each other. Members of communities are divided against each other and only seemingly united for the sake of selfish ends. Society exists only in name. Envy, malice, greed, selfishness, conceit having gained predominance in all, have split society into units.
This chaotic state of modern human "society" in most parts of the world, the truth of which will be generally acknowledged, ought to convince all thoughtful people as to the wisdom and vital necessity of the caste system. Even now where the four-caste system still exists, it does serve to keep the communities within its rule as one compact body to a great extent, through the influence of its laws of interdependence and mutual harmonious relations. Thanks to Caste, even the degenerating Hindoos of to-day have not yet been split into units. This remnant race, a race which has still retained some of the instincts of the original human family of the Silver Age, is being more and more divided and subdivided, no doubt, at the present day. But these divisions and subdivisions are large coherent parts, linked together into one great whole. The entire race is divided into four castes; the castes are divided into sub-castes, the sub-castes again into communities, the communities into rural societies, the rural societies into large patriarchal joint-families. The members of families are ruled by the patriarchs, the patriarchs by the headmen of caste communities, the caste communities by the spiritual (Brāhman) guides, through the enforcement of the salutary Scriptural injunctions, the infringement of which is punished, in minor cases, by expiations involving physical hardships and spiritual austerities and purifying ceremonies, and, in serious cases, by expulsion from caste, which, in India, is a greater disaster than natural or material calamities. And all these rulers and ruled are related to one another by more or less natural love and affection or respect and sense of duty born in their blood through thousands of generations of hereditary habits of thought and life; all are inspired to command and obey by the spirit of the Veda which their mind absorbs through the performance of their respective spiritual, social, physical duties as enjoined by the later Scriptures—the Shāstras, which are modified embodiments of the revealed laws of the Basic Spirit of All Life, the all-cementing Spirit of Nature—Love.
SECTION VIII. THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE.
Simultaneously with the introduction of the Caste System in the Silver Age are instituted the Four Stages of Life, the object of which is to help the lower state of human consciousness to gradually attain to the highest spiritual realization. They are graduated processes of mental and physical application and discipline by the practice of which individuals are to recover the absolute illumination, being and bliss enjoyed by all human souls in the Golden Ago. They impart a scientific training to the human mind in order to enable it to subdue its Rājasic (active) and Tāmasic (darkening) attributes by developing the Sāttwic (illuminating) attribute through concentration upon the Basic Principles of Life—the Centre and Essence of Absolute Purity and Illumination.
The first stage is called Brahmacharjya or spiritual Pupilage. The second stage is called Grihastha or Householdership. The third stage is called Vānaprastha or Asceticism, The fourth stage is called the Bhikshu or Wandering Friarship. The first, third and fourth stages are enjoined for the three twice-born castes and the third and fourth are open even to a Sudra if he is found worthy of adopting them. The Brāhman, Kshatriya and Vaishya are called twice-born; the first birth is the physical birth, the second is the spiritual birth through the investiture of the holy thread from which begins the performance of daily spiritual duties and practices.
The first stage of life begins, soon after this spiritual initiation, at the age of twelve, when the boy goes to reside with the Gooroo (spiritual guide) for studying the Veda and for undergoing spiritual, mental and physical discipline. The Gooroo is an illuminated Brāhman sage whose love and affection for the pupils in his charge and anxious care and efforts for the unfoldment of their souls are not equalled by those of even their parents. He feeds, clothes and lodges them in his own abode free of any charge or consideration whatever. His one thought and concern is to help them to realize the Truth, to be freed from the bondage of matter and thus enter the Absolute Realm of Eternal Love and Happiness.
While every student has to perform the same regular spiritual rites and practices and to say the prayers daily after physical purification, the method of training adopted by the Gooroo for developing their soul is not the same in each case. To some he explains the truths of the Veda and asks them to meditate on their meanings. Others, who show natural instincts of devotion, he trains into practical realization of the same truths without teaching them a single word of the Veda.
The chief method of a Gooroo's teaching is to draw the student's mind away from worldly attractions and turn the direction of the mind's vision inwards into the soul. Devotion is the principal aim, for devotion means concentration and when that concentration is fixed upon the contemplation of the Essence of things which pervades them all and yet is unmixed with the outer substance and attributes of their manifested forms, the mind absorbs the perfect purity of that Essence and is filled with the serenity and the inexpressible joy born of absolute freedom from the influence of matter.
If the student obtains this practical realization of the Essence of Existence, he remains for the rest of his life in this stage of spiritual pupilage. But he is no more a pupil; he becomes a teacher of pupils—a Gooroo. It is this practical realization that invests a student of wisdom with the magnetic power of awakening that realization in others.