A Brahmin in Bali

I went into a shop in Bali. A young man who was working in the shop said to me, “Are you a Hindu? I am a Hindu.”

I asked him, “What is your name?”

He said, “My name is Normand.”

I said, “Normand is not a Hindu name.”

He said, “You do not know? There are four castes, and I come from the Brahmin caste. So Brahmins can have the name Normand.”

I said, “Although I am not a Brahmin, I know the Indian caste system well. I have read the scriptures and there is no such surname.”

— 28 December 1990

From:Sri Chinmoy,The world-experience-tree-climber, part 7, Agni Press, 1994
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/we_7