- cīrāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi diśanti bhikṣāṁ
- naivāṅghripāḥ para-bhṛtaḥ sarito 'py aśuṣyan
- ruddhā guhāḥ kim ajito 'vati nopasannān
- kasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadāndhān
- (SB 2.2.5)
So Śukadeva Gosvāmī was in renounced order of life from the very beginning of his life. As soon as he came out of the womb of his mother he immediately left home. He was within the womb of his mother for sixteen years. So he was in favor of renounced order of life, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. There was no question of his following the other āśramas. Generally, for ordinary man, there are four āśramas..., eight āśramas. For social upkeep there are four āśramas, namely brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. This is for spiritual. And for social, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra. This is social division. And there is spiritual division also, because we are combination of matter and spirit. I am the soul. I am living within this material body. This is actual position. I am not this body. This is the beginning of spiritual education, that "I am not this body." One who understands fully well that he's not this body, then the spiritual education begins. And so long we are in the bodily concept of life, there's no question of spiritual education. Spiritual education for whom? For the human being. Also very advanced human being, not ordinary human being. At least the civilized human being.
Therefore in the human society, in the civilized human society, there is acceptance of religious principle. Maybe it is Hindu religion or Muslim religion or Christian religion or Buddha religion, but there is some religion. A civilized society is not without religion. Without religion means animal society. The animals, they have no religion. Cats and dogs, they have no church, no temple that they have to go. It is for the human beings. Therefore śāstra says that dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. If in the human society there is no culture of religion, then it is animal society. It is not human society.
So this human society should be divided into eight divisions. That is first-class human society. Just like any organization, any establishment, there are divisions of labor: the directing board, board of directors there are, then the secretarial board, then ordinary clerks, then menial, then workers. There must be division; otherwise it is chaotic. Nowhere you'll find without division it is going on very smoothly. There must be division. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). It is ordered by God that there should be four divisions for the materialistic condition of life and four divisions for spiritual upliftment. So there must be the brāhmaṇa, cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam. Varṇa means four divisions of society. Varṇa means class. It has been taken now as caste; but actually class. Class is not caste. Caste, of course... Throughout the whole world there is no such thing as caste. But anyway, in India there is caste. But Kṛṣṇa says that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam (BG 4.13): "Four divisions of classes I have created—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra." Who is a brāhmaṇa? That is also described in the Bhagavad-gītā: satya, śama, dama, titikṣā, ārjava, āstikyam, jñāna, vijñānam, so many qualifications required to become a brāhmaṇa. Not that because I was born in a brāhmaṇa family. This is discussed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that to take birth in a brāhmaṇa family is not all. You must be qualified, śamo damas titikṣā. That is required. The Indian culture has failed at the present moment because instead of considering the qualification, they accept only the birth: "The birth in a brāhmaṇa family makes a man a brāhmaṇa." No. That is not the śāstric injunction. Qualification. There must be qualification.
So without such division... Therefore there is no such thing as Hindu dharma. No. There is no such word in the whole Vedic literature. You won't find in the Bhagavad-gītā or Bhāgavata as Hindu dharma. There is one word as Bhāgavata-dharma, but there is no such word as Hindu dharma. This Hindu dharma or Hindu... This is creation by our neighbor, Indian neighbor, the Middle-East Muhammadans. They gave the name, Indian people, as "Hindu." "Hindu" means... There is one river, Sindhu. The Muhammadans, they pronounce sa as ha. So those who were on the riverside of the Sindhu River, Hindu River, they were called Hindus. But actually Vedic religion is neither for Hindus nor for Christian nor for... It is meant for the human being. Vedic literature. So in the Vedic literature... This Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are Vedic literature. So there is injunction for observing the rules and regulation of varṇa and āśrama, four classes and four āśrama. Āśrama means where spiritual cultivation is practiced. That is called āśrama. So brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. Cātur-varṇa and cātur-āśrama, material and spiritual. So sannyāsī is supposed to be on the topmost of the human society. Cātur-varṇa, four classes, then among the varṇas there are four classes: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. Sannyāsa is the topmost order of human society.
So here the Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he's a sannyāsī. He's renounced order from the very beginning of his life. He never entered into any āśrama or varṇa. He's paramahaṁsa. Paramahaṁsa means the topmost amongst the sannyāsīs. Sannyāsī is the topmost. Above... Within the sannyāsī the paramahaṁsa is the topmost. Sannyāsīs are also, they are called kuṭīcaka, bahūdaka, parivrājakācārya and paramahaṁsa. Kuṭīcaka means after accepting sannyāsa order... One has to accept the sannyāsa order. After gṛhastha there is vānaprastha and then sannyāsa; brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. In the beginning the, especially the brāhmaṇas and the kṣatriyas, two classes, higher classes, they have to take sannyāsa at the end. If not, at least the brāhmaṇas must take sannyāsa. The brāhmaṇas have got four āśramas: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. The kṣatriya have got three āśramas: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha. No sannyāsa. And the vaiśya, two āśramas: brahmacārī, gṛhastha. Neither vānaprastha nor sannyāsa. And the śūdras, they are simply one, gṛhastha, that's all. This is the Vedic order.