Gita and Varna-dharma - 1

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Part 1 of three articles

 

Namaste.

 

Ram chandranji has given me a tall order to write about Varna Dharma

which Venky’s selection from Paramacharya’s speeches dwelt on. I

shall try to write what I have understood. The three articles I

propose to write now are given in more elaborate form in a book

‘Science and Spirituality – A vedanta perception’ to be published by

the end of this month by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mumbai, India.

After a reading of these three articles perhaps, the presentation by

Paramacharya as reported by Venky would make sense, hopefully.

An earlier version of this portion of my explanation of Varna

dharma caught the attention of His Holiness Sri Sankara Vijayendra

Swmigal of Kanchi Mutt and was blessed by him. Actually he liked the

chart form presentation of this so much that now a laminated version

of that colour chart is now in his reference library and I hear, is

being mentioned by him to others. This chart is also available in the

form of four charts on the web, the first of which is at the address

 

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/btype.html

 

In the eighteenth chapter of the Gita, the Lord focusses on six

entities that contribute to the genetic roots of the present life of

an individual. According to Krishna, these are to be watched,

analysed and monitored by self-effort. These are: Knowledge

(jnAnam); Action (karma); Doer (kartA); Intellect (buddhi); Will

-Power (dhRti) ; (Attitude to) Happiness (sukham)

 

For each of these six entities, Krishna classifies human behavior

into three categories. Human behavior is generally attributed to what

is usually called one’s nature (sva-bhAva) and to the training that

one gets due to the environment and upbringing. This is not denied by

Hindu metaphysics. But the tendencies that one brings along from

one’s own past, including all previous lives, also contribute to the

sva-bhAva or own-nature. The aggregate of behavior that results thus

is broadly categorized into three major categories by Indian

metaphysics. These are the three categories which Krishna also uses

in analyzing the six entities that he takes for discussion and thus

comes up with 18 response-modes. The three categories of behavior,

called guNas

(modes, attitudes) are: satva, rajas and tamas, meaning roughly,

divine, dynamic and dark (or dull). In reality no man or woman has

any one of these in an exclusive manner. It is always a mixture of

the three. These are the three strands which constitute the prakRti.

prakRti means Nature, in general, but actually stands for it in its

broadest sense encompassing the entire universe of matter and

material, in fact anything which is inert. They are actually Nature's

concomitant and indispensable strands.

satva is that of equilibrium and serenity.

rajas is that of dynamism and kinesis.

tamas is that of ignorance and inertia.

They are inextricably interwoven in all forms of cosmic existence

and phenomenon The imperishable resident of the body, namely the jIva

or the individual soul

is by itself free but what binds it to the transmigratory cycle of

births and deaths is the prakRti

through the three guNas.

Of these, the rajo-guNa

is made up of desire, attraction, repulsion, likes and dislikes,

and attachment to objects of desire. It binds man by repeatedly

involving him in the dynamics of work. Dynamism broadly includes

excitement, reaction to action, a constant distraction and so an

antithesis to peace and calm. It attaches one to action.

The tamo-guNa is born out of ignorance and deludes man from his real

nature. It binds man by the dark qualities of indolence, sleep and

negligence. It attaches him to error and inaction.

The satva-guNa because of its purity of quality is the cause of light

and illumination. It binds man, however, by creating an attachment to

knowledge, happiness and bliss.

This three-fold qualitative division of man's behavior into satva,

rajas and tamas is done by Krishna with respect to the six entities

chosen by Him. Each of these is dissected into what shade of

behavioral response belongs to the satva mode, what belongs to the

rajas mode, and what belongs to the tamas mode. Thus here are six

entities and three modes of responses to each, altogether making 18

different response-modes. Krishna devotes one verse (Sloka) to each

of these eighteen in the 18th chapter of the Gita

Using almost the very words of the Lord, we can rephrase these 18

verses into 18 leading questions that one is supposed to ask oneself.

The honest answers to these questions will point out in a broad

macro-way the cumulative ‘character-type’ of oneself.

Krishna's hypothesis is that we bring along these attitudes or

tendencies from our previous lives. For those who have difficulty in

accepting this fundamental hypothesis of Hinduism

it might be a good exercise to do a self-analysis (of this life!)

in search of one's own character-type by means of these questions

‘Understanding the genetic roots of personality will help you find

yourself and relate better to others. … People are unique from the

moment of conception, they do not begin as indistinguishable lumps of

stone sculpted by life into individuals. Each of us is born into the

world as some one; we spend the rest of our lives trying to find out

who.’ p.25 of Living with our Genes, by Hamer and Copeland. (Anchor

Books, Doubleday. 1997). For each of the six entities the 3 questions

are framed in such a way that the answer is either Yes or No. But the

assumption however is that these three constitute, as it were, a

multiple choice question and only one of these three can be answered

affirmatively. In other words the three are mutually exclusive

alternatives and you have to categorize yourself into one of those

three modes of response as far as that entity is concerned. For each

entity you therefore end up with one of satva, rajas or tamas modes

of responses. It could be, for instance, in the case of the

respective questions/alternatives,

 

a satva response for KNOWLEDGE,

a rajas response for ACTION,

a rajas response for DOER,

a rajas response for INTELLECT,

a tamas response for WILL, and

a tamas response for HAPPINESS.

 

This string of six responses, then, is your cumulative type. Purely

for convenience of discussion, we shall specify the above string of

six responses as:

 

one satva, three rajas, and two tamas.

 

Note that we blur the issue of which one is satva, which three are

rajas and which two are tamas. Surely such a distinction is necessary

to be nearer to reality but we shall not make that distinction. Note

that the questions may be phrased in the third person purely for the

sake of not hurting an individual's sensibilities. Also since the

conventional interpretation is that the character-type is carried

over from the nature of responses in the previous life, the phrasing

in terms of the third person is meaningful. If the reader wants to

phrase them as questions for himself he is welcome to do so. Note

also that each set of three questions is actually a set of three

alternatives, the best fit of which is to be chosen. Since the texts

of the questions are rather cryptic, adapted as they are from the

scripture, a detailed comment follows each set of questions. (In

order to economise on space, we shall only illustrate with two of the

six entities.)

(TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2).

 

praNAms to all advaitins

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

 

 

 

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