Chaturvarnyam maya srustam Guna karma vibhagasa
Tasya kartaramapi mam vidhyakartaramavyayam
(The Bhagavad Gita Chapter IV Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yogam sloka 13)
"I have devised the scheme of Chaturvanya according to one’s natural guna and the resultant karma. Please understand that the variation in guna is its base. I can even restructure or demolish the entire scheme in accordance with the wish of the person concerned."
This means that ascend is possible from the level of sudra (sudratwa) to that of brahmana (brahmanatwa) or vice versa , even within one's life-span itself. It is also possible to transcend all these levels to become a stithaprajna(realised one) too. The deciding factor being the guna-combination and the karma arising out of it. In other words, we can zero-in the varna of a particular person analysing his/her guna and karma.
It does not matter where you are born, neither does it matter what you are doing to make a living, all that matters is just the gunas engrained in your deeper self which solely decide your varna. If you have the will to change the varna, well, you can become ‘upwardly mobile’ and cut across all varnas. In fact, you are indirectly urged to do just that. Take for example, Vyadhan, the butcher (from Mahabharatha). He climbed the spiritual ladder to assume the highest office of the Perfect Master while attending his nine-to-five job all the way, knife in hand. No external straight-jackets can stand in the way of your quest for Truth and its experience, provided you have the longing.
The three gunas – satwa, rajas and tamas – stem from the interaction of prakriti (energy)with purusha (Consciousness). The three gunas are distributive and not lumped in nature. Everybody has all the three gunas ingrained and as per the external stimuli, one of the gunas gets predominance over the other two.
Each guna has its distinctive characteristic, satwa stands for light, rajas for action and tamas for desire. Each one is a shacke by itself, satwa included, that being the shackle made of gold. Ultimately you have to make free from all bondages, from all chains, whether they are made of lesser metal or gold.
When you start feeling the lightness of being, through knowledge acquired by the senses, you can assume fairly right that you are driven by satwa guna. Coming to think of rajas, it has an element of doubt involved. The rajasik person harbours strong likes (and dislikes) and he/she strives his/her best to accomplish the never-ending wish-list. Naturally, apprehensions arise whether/when/where the grand designs would come true. What- if, else and interestingly, no endifs ! Rajogunis seek pleasure which gives way to craving and they always need more! At one stage the body, mind and intellect become too weak to assimilate any more pleasure but the cravings still remain. A pathetic situation indeed! Whereas the satwik won’t fall into this trap as he/she is propelled by happiness (and not pleasure) generated from within. Even if his/her body gets affected, the pleasantness does not wither away!
The tamas is in direct contrast to satwa. The intellect loses its discriminatory power and a total black-out follows. It is not an aberration, but a disorder! Tamas destroys viveka. Everything turns upside down; adharma is taken for dharma, Truth gets obscured and finally disappears.
Satwa does have a cleansing effect on the mind. You get increasingly purified. Rajas results in sadness and tamas, in absolute darkness. The satwik ascends steadily to Truth. Its a mixed fare for the rajasik and darkness awaits the tamasik.
One should play down tamas and rajas in the beginning to cultivate satwa first. This does not mean that rajas and tamas are completely undesirable. Employed wisely, all the three gunas are required for the betterment of life. Once the mind is balanced, satwa also should be chucked out like ballast from a hot-air balloon!
The gunas are akin to waves of the ocean. Just a tiny part, nothing beyond. The Brahman, according to the Gita, transcends the gunas ...too!
The varna system is a classification of sorts where each of the three gunas get predominance over the others one after the other. There are three varnas thus derived - Brahmana, Kshatriya , Sudra – with satwa, rajas and tamas becoming the major player in each. The fourth combination is one where equal measures of rajas and tamas are added to denote Vaisya – one who is ideally suited for doing business. There is no hard and fast rule for mixing the various gunas. It can be equal or in any other measure. Four main psychological models are show-cased and you can select one according to your character traits. Karma can’t be evaded at any rate and hence how best to perform it is the fundamental question.
The trouble started when people, by virtue of their birth, were forced to take up certain models. The sudra siblings became sudras by default! The worst mishap ever happened to our great country, by any reckoning. We are still reeling under it and continue to remain so till equal opportunities are provided to all. That’s a different issue altogether. I have a feeling that the Gita is not to be blamed squarely for this.
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar, in his famous “Essays on Gita” has come out strongly against the guna-varna system. He particularly finds fault with the ‘lowly language’ used to describe the sudras in the Gita. No soft corner shown to them, he says! Frankly, I don’t know how far this allegation holds good because the chaturvarnya is not based on one’s birth/lineage. He further questions the “Gita theory” that Kshatriyas can kill without accumulating any sin since it is their dharma! In fact, no such theory exists! No licence is being given to kill (or for anything else). The act of killing can be a purifier! Kindly read my last post on violence for details.
Yet another point of divergence is on the number of classifications. Dr.Ambedkar wonders how there can be more than three categories when the total number of gunas is limited to three! I have a feeling that he ignored the mix of gunas, perhaps. These are all just simulations based on EQ, IQ and physical fitness of a person and we can have many combinations.
There are a couple of other issues too, raised by Dr.Ambedkar. Since they are not directly related to guna-varna, we shall discuss it later.