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one should be rude or intolerant to those who do not belong to one's faith, but only that one should avoid undue intimacy and constant companionship with them. As no one who values his peace of mind should associate with anarchists, sedition-mongers, robbers, murderers and the like, howsoever agreeable they be, so should one avoid, so far as possible, all those men whose association is likely to seduce one from the true path, and only mix with those of a holy and pious temperament. Such, briefly, is the nature of the reason of caste exclusiveness, and there is no reason to doubt that any one who realises the importance of keeping the spiritual goal in view, in all forms of activity, would never range himself against its observance. This, however, furnishes no license for the absolute exclusiveness of different castes in the same community, beyond certain limits to be shortly pointed out.
THE PRACTICAL PATH.
There are two main principles governing castedivision, namely,
(1) the religious, and
(2) the secular.
The former of these recognises only one community or caste of true believers, while the latter classifies men according to their occupations. The earliest legislator, Shri Rishabhadeva Bhagwan, divided men into kshatryas, vaishyas and shudras, with regard to their
*The Hindu idea that the brahmanas, kshatryas, vaishyas, and shudras issued from the mouth, arms, heart and thighs of Brahmâ is evidently a mythological metaphor, resting upon the personifications of manhood' as a being.
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