Ata saba hari ara varnasrama-dharma, niskincana haya laya krsnaika sarana.(?) This is the... Varnasrama-dharma, that is material. Varnasrama is planned for material life in a systematic way so that, in due course of time, one may give up the family relationship and take sannyasa and completely devote for Krsna's service. This is the plan of varnasrama-dharma. Varnasrama-dharma is not meant for planning something, and you remain in the family. No. The Varnasrama... Varna means brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra. Catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah [Bg. 4.13]. Guna, not everyone is qualified in the same way. Therefore you... The acarya will pick up that "They are meant for becoming brahmanas. They are meant for ksatriyas." Or for coming from ksatriya family, or the brahmana family... So first of all, these varnas, then asrama. The brahmana, one who is qualified as a brahmana, he has to observe the four asramas, a brahmana: the brahmacari-asrama, the grhastha-asrama, the vanaprastha-asrama and sannyasa-asrama. The ksatriya, they'll have to observe three asramas: brahmacari, grhastha and vanaprastha. And the vaisyas, two asramas: brahmacari and grhastha. And sudra, only one asrama, only grhastha. A sudra is never offered sannyasa. A... Only the brahmana is offered.   (More...)

So in Sankara-sampradaya, strictly, unless one is born in brahmana family, he's not offered sannyasa. He's not given sannyasa. So far we are concerned, we also offer sannyasa to the brahmana, not to the sudras. But according to quality we create brahmana, not that we are offering sannyasa to the sudras, No. The principle is: sannyasa can be offered only to the brahmanas. So one may not mistake that we are offering to the..., offering sannyasa to the mlecchas, yavanas, as they complain. Some of my Godbrothers, they criticize like that, that I am offering sannyasa to the mlecchas, yavanas. This is wrong idea. This is naraki-buddhi. Actually, a Vaisnava is above this varnasrama-dharma. But we don't claim that we have become perfect Vaisnava. We are not so impudent. We want to remain under the Vaisnava. Under the Vaisnava. Otherwise Vaisnava means... In Caitanya-caritamrta you'll find the Vaisnava is paramahamsa. Vaisnava has no saffron cloth. Vaisnava is white cloth because Vaisnava is paramahamsa, above. But we don't claim the position of Vaisnava. We want to remain servant of Vaisnava. Therefore sannyasa order is below the position of Vaisnava. Sannyasa order means still in the material classification. But this Vaisnava is paramo nirmatsaranam satam. Dharmah projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmat... [SB 1.1.2]. This Vaisnavism is meant for paramo nirmatsaranam, paramahamsa. Sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate [Bg. 14.26].   (More...)