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96/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh
because the standards of life are formed on the basis of life; please do not measure them on the basis of birth. By birth, every person is a Shoodra. I would rather say that a man is not a Shoodra just by birth, because a Shoodra is he who lives with the body-sense.
You bathe, wash your face, shave daily. Look at the mirror. How strange! A mirror (body) is looking at the mirror. You have taken a bath but a black spot is still there. The blemish would not go off even if you continue to bathe throughout your life.
"Aakhi umar lagaye lidhi,
Lux Rexona saboo,
Pher bhee Kalo-ro-kalo,
Raigyo Jagjivan Ram Baboo."
The external blackishness would after all be shed off, but what would you do of the internal blackishness? You have embarked upon turning coal into gold. How can it be possible? If you have to remove darkness, light up a lamp, brightness would come up. But, how would you destroy blackishness of the body? Attentiveness towards body does make-'Shoodratva' (the state of being a 'Shoodra') rise. Infatuation for the body is but the 'shoodratva' of a person.
Women have menstruation. Do you know why? Because women have a very deep infatuation for the body. Therefrom begins the menstrual period. She who feels herself beyond the body, even while living in a woman's body, her menstrual periods cease to occur. The root of all the miseries is the infatuation for the body.
Menstruation occurs due to attachment towards the body and madness occurs due to attachment towards mind. You might have seen the lunatics. You must have found that ninety nine out of hundred lunatics are males, while one woman lunatic is seen. This is the reason attachment does not leave him. It is necessary to rise above it. The person who rises above a Shoodra becomes a Vaishya. Vaishya is the representative of mind. The function of a Vaishya to get goods from some place and send it to some other place. He goes on filling up his godown.
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