- Swami Vivekananda

Every Dwijati (twice-born) has a right to investiture with the holy thread. The Vedas themselves are authority in this matter. Whoever will come here on this sacred birthday of Shri Ramakrishna, I shall invest him with the holy thread. These people have fallen from their true status, and the scriptures say that after proper expiation, those fallen in the way earn the right to investiture with the holy thread. This is the great day of Shri Ramakrishna’s nativity, and men will be purified by taking his name. So the assembled devotees are to be invested with the holy thread today; do you now understand?

To the Bhaktas who are not Brahmins, give this Mantra of Gayatri (here Swamiji communicated to the disciple the special Gayatris for them.) By degrees all the people of the land have to be lifted to the position of Brahmins, not to speak of the Bhaktas of Shri Ramakrishna. Each Hindu, I say, is a brother of every other, and it is we who have degraded them by our outcry, “Don’t touch, don’t touch!” And so the whole country has been plunged to the utmost depths of meanness, cowardice, and ignorance. These men have to be uplifted; words of hope and faith have to be proclaimed to them. We have to tell them, “You are men like us, and you have all the rights that we have.” Do you understand?

Now, ask those who will take the holy thread to finish their bath in the Ganga. Than after prostration before Shri Ramakrishna, they will have their investiture.

 “Really you all belong to the twice-born castes, only it is long since you lost your status. From this day again you become the twice- born. Repeat the Gayatri at least a hundred times daily, won’t you?” The householder expressed his assent.