Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Every man is burdened with one body and four births! He is born a Sudra; for, as a child he has no sense of cleanliness or definite ideas of right and wrong. By the rite of initiation into spiritual life, that is to say, when he is taken as a pupil by a guru, who takes up the responsibility of leading him to the Goal of Human Life, he becomes dwija, twice-born, entering into the second chapter of his human career. When he has finished the spiritual disciplines and studied the scriptures, he becomes a Vipra (the wise); at last, when as a result of those practices and experiences, he visualises Brahman as immanent in all, he is a Brahmana. A Vipra attains Brahmajnanam and becomes a Brahmana. This is therefore the first step, but the most important step, in the process of self-realisation.