Himavatī: Vyāsadeva, you say, lived with his wife and children in a cottage, and people would come and bring them foodstuff from the village. Now, the four divisions of brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and so on, I thought that the gṛhasthas' duties in the āśrama, varṇāśrama-dharma, was to supply the other three.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Himavatī: How is this . . .? How is this connected with Vyāsadeva and his situation?
Prabhupāda: Vāsudeva?
Devotees: Vyāsadeva.
Prabhupāda: Vyāsadeva? Vyāsadeva was a gṛhastha. He was a householder man. He was brahmiṇ.
Himavatī: But he had no luxuries.
Prabhupāda: No. Those who will depend on the charities and alms of the society, they are not allowed to make any luxury at the cost of others. They can simply ask help for the bare necessities of life.
Himavatī: And that's permitted to the gṛhasthas?
Prabhupāda: No. Gṛhastha . . . when a brahmiṇ is gṛhastha, he shall be a teacher. Paṭhana-pāṭhana yajana-yājana dāna-pratigraha (SB 5.17.11 purport). Generally, the brahmiṇs, those who are gṛhasthas . . . there are four varṇas, four division of castes. The brāhmaṇas, they are generally teachers, priests and writers, philosophers. So society requires all these things, so they take up this charge.
And the kṣatriyas, they are administrators, so they rule over the country. They exact taxes from the citizens. They live on the tax, and the brahmiṇs, on the contribution of the public. Just like we are teaching, we are living on the contribution of the public. The public knows that there is an important institution, they are giving good lessons. So public contributes. So we can accept contribution.
But a king is not allowed to take contribution. Because he is administrator, he can tax, so his source of income is tax. And the brahmiṇs' source of income is contribution, because they are rendering transcendental service. Similarly, the vaiśyas, or the mercantile class, their means of living: trade, cow protection and agriculture.
And those who are śūdras, laborer class, they will serve these three higher classes, brahmiṇs, kṣatriyas and the vaiśyas, because they have no independent means. They cannot do anything, neither they are educated, nor they are king, princely order, nor they have money to do business. Therefore they have to serve. Paricaryātmakaṁ karma śūdra-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.44). Śūdra means they earn their livelihood by serving others.
And in the Kali-yuga, in this age, ninety-nine percent, or at least ninety percent, they live by serving others. Therefore it is said, kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ: "In the Kali, in this age, almost everyone is śūdra." There is no brahmiṇ, no kṣatriya, no vaiśya. Of course, there are vaiśyas.
Factually, at the present moment the population are the vaiśyas and the śūdras. And there is fight, that your American nation, they are vaiśyas, and the Russians, they are śūdras. So there is always fight between the vaiśyas and śūdras. Actually, there is no brahmiṇ or kṣatriyas. They are extinct.