Conversations with Yogananda: Stories, Sayings, and Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

by Kriyananda

"Society even in those days was not so simply stratified as to contain only peasants, merchants, soldiers, and priests! These were symbolic designations of the stages of spiritual refinement. They were not intended as social categories. And they were not intended to be hereditary. "Things changed as the yugas [cycles of time] descended toward mental darkness. People in the higher castes wanted to make sure their children were accepted as members of their own caste. Thus, ego-identification caused them to freeze the ancient classifications into what is called the `caste system.' Such was not the original intention. In obvious fact, however, the offspring of a brahmin may be a sudra by nature. And a peasant, sometimes, is a real saint."