Varna, Jaati, Janma

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In a message dated 4/28/01 3:14:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

krishna writes:

 

>

> #1: One's varna is based on one's birth. In other words, if you are born in

> a braahmin family, then if you take up the brahminical qualifications you

> can be braahmin. If you are not born in braahmin family, no matter what

> qualifications develop in you, you cannot be considered a braahmin.

 

Haribol,

 

The hereditary caste system which disregards guna and karma is a perverted

manifestion of the the pure seminal system that existed in the three previous

yugas. Members of the four varnas obtained children who were also qualified

according to the same varna. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta says in "Brahmana and

Vaishnava":

 

"It is an established fact that the descendants of those who were even once

known in society as brahmanas are all considered brahmanas. The descendants

of those who have once somehow been designated brahmanas--in Satya, Treta, or

Dvapara-yugas--have kept their claims to the brahminial designation and

authority intact with the help of the twenty Dharmasastras and social customs

(p.14).

 

In Anusasana chp 27 Bhishma relates how Matanga born of a candala father

could not attain brahmanhood despite his penances. He says "The status of a

brahmana...is incapable of acquisition by persons begotten on uncleansed

souls. By coveting that foremost status, thou wilt insure sure destruction."

This was the norm in previous yugas.

 

 

However, there are instances when the normal succession of varna doesn't

occur such as when the varnas don't follow their duties properly. Then they

become degraded and don't neccesarily obtain the right kind of children:

 

"The caste of those belonging to brahmana and other caste dynasties coming

fom Lord Brahma and said to be purely descendng to the present day cannot be

known in truth without definitely validating every person in the line." (p.15)

 

Therefore, at times particularly at the tail end of Dvapara and in Kali, a

person's varna can't be always judged by that of the parents, and therefore,

it is seen that people of the other castes can become brahmanas.

 

"In regards to a brahmana's qualification by birth: in the Anusasana-parva of

the Mahabharata and in other scriptures, the apasadas, anulomajas,

murdhabhisiktas, and ambasthas are specifically accepted as authorized

brahmanas." (p. 10, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, Brahmana and Vaisnava)

 

 

It says in Brahmana and Vaishnava (p. 45) Sridhara Swami also rejects an

exclusively-jaati-based varna system: SamAdibhir eva bhrAhmaNAdi-vyavahAro

mukhyo na jAti-mAtrAd ity Aha yasyeti.... The brahmanas' main characteristics

are qualities such as peacefulness, not birth (jaati). na tu

jaati-nimitenetyarthaH..."They should be not be considered according to their

caste by birth (jaati)."

 

Therefore, we should understand that brahmana-hood can be practiced by anyone

regardless of their parents' statuses *if* they are qualified.

 

 

Now the question is, what is that qualification and is it attainable within

one's present life?

 

 

>

> #2: One's varna is fixed by birth. In other words, you can be born into any

> family, but what varna you take up is more or less predestined. This is

also

> known as the "intrinsic varna" theory. According to this theory, one's

varna

> is intrinsic to the soul (or perhaps to the mind, intelligence, ego, I'm

not

> sure).

>

 

The theory of predestination is acceptable insofar as it falls within the

parameters of the law of karma. Everyone is generally destined to get

results according to the acts in the previous life. Some results are

momentary, and some last for the duration of a lifetime. For an example of

the latter, we hear that King Puranjana thought of a woman before death and

became a woman in the next life. Another example is one's dosha-constitution.

The pulse at birth is an indication of one's life's constitution until death.

Similarly, varna-hood is also an example, of something that endures. This is

evident in Anusasana-parva (chp 38 in Ganguli's trans) where Bhishma

describes how a soul progresses through the four different varnas over the

course of "innumerable orders of existence." That means that one's varna

hardly changes over many lives, what to speak of a single one.

 

The story of Matanga (Anusasana 29), shows the folly of thinking that

brahmana-hood can be attained by a non-brahmana through spiritual practices.

"Why is it that I, who am contented with my own self (eka-ramaH), who am

above all couples of opposites, who am dissociated from all worldy objects,

who am observant of the duty of compassion towards all creatures and of

self-restraint of conduct, should not be regarded as deserving of that

[brahmana] status?"

 

The story concludes with Matanga admitting his failure and Bhisma stating:

"that status is incapable of being acquired here*** as said by the great

Indra himself." (***Note--here the translator adds "(except in the natural

way by birth)" implying that one cannot attain brahmanhood here "in this

life-birth" )

 

Yudhisthira then accepts Bhisma's conclusion and asks in Anusasana 30 for

the following clarification: how it is that Vitahavya was able to change his

varna in the very same life. The answer that Bhishma gives is of spectacular

warfare that ended with a trip to Brghu Muni in the heavenly planets who

facilitates the change of Vitahavya's varna. In context, this story (as well

as that of Visvamitra in Adiparva chp 174) is presented as an extraordinary

*exception*, not as a common-place occurrence.

 

Now, we know that Srila Prabhupada said that any non-brahmana can become a

brahmana. According to some, the above understanding of the sastra blatantly

contradicts Srila Prabhupada and is wrong. This apparent contradiction,

however, is resolved if one notes the double usage of the varna terms such as

"sudra" and "brahmana". Sometimes the words may be used in the sense of

*jaati* and at other times in the sense of *actual* *varna*.

 

So SP's statement "a sudra may become a brahmana" can be reconciled with the

sastra if we take "sudra" in the *Jaati* sense and brahmana in the *actual*

varna sense. This example of double usage in a single line of thought occurs

throughout the Ramananda Raya section of CC M 8.127 in which the term "sudra"

actually means "sudra in the jaati sense" (amidst the normal "gauna"-usages

of the varna terms). This jaati sense is exemplified by Ramananda Raya

himself who though low-born is fit to do brahminical duty (in this case being

a guru). Lord Caitanya doesn't say that a sudra in the gauna or varna sense

(or a woman for that matter) can become a brahmana and an actual diksa guru.

 

There is an important passage on "the changing" of varna that Srila

Bhaktisiddhanta cites from the Mahabharata (from Anusasanaparva 163)

Uma-devi asks Maheshvara how a non-brahmana can become a brahmana. One would

suspect an answer along the lines of "when a person becomes spiritually

advanced he can start acting as a brahmana". However, all that Lord Shiva

carefully says is that a person of "low jaati" can become a brahmana when he

behaves correctly:

 

etaiH karma-phalair devi byUna-jAti-kulodbhavaH SUdro 'py Agama-sampanno

dvijo bhavati saMskRtaH "...by taking initiation through the pancaratrika

system, then a low-born sudra also becomes a brahmana."

 

Again the lord says that one's descent (yoni) does not determine one's varna.

Rather it is vRttam (behavior).

 

"Na yonir nApi saMskaro na SrautaM na ca antatiH kAraNAni dvijatvasya vRttam

eva kAraNamBirth, purificatory processes, study of the Vedas, and good

birth are not the criterion for being a brahmana. The only criterion is

vRttam (one's behavior)."

 

He concludes: "I have thus explained to you the secret of how a person who is

born as a sudra becomes a brahmana."

 

Lord Shiva *never* says that anyone regardless of their prarabdha karma can

become a brahmana, as some may misconstrue from the passage.

 

Now what exactly is vRtta? Can anyone one day give up his own vRtta and start

behaving with the vRtta of another varna (or gender)? Maybe one can imitate

another's vRtta temporarily, but that would be "falsely directed". Lord

Krishna says, "By your nature , you will have to be engaged in warfare. Under

illusion you are now declining to act according to My direction. But

compelled by the work born of your own nature, you will act all the same."

(18.59) One is bound, fettered, constrained, by this nature that you are

(nibaddhaH-yantritastvaM) (Sridhara 18.60).

 

In other words, one's life duty (karma) or behavior (vRtta) is determined

prior to or at the time of birth. In 18.60, Visvanatha Cakravarti and

Sridhara Swami explains that Arjuna's duty (karma) is based on his

ksatriya-qualified birth which was determined by his past acts: (svabhAvaH

kSatriyatve hetuH purva-saMskAras-tasmAj-jAtena) [jAtena = with/by/through

(being) born; Note Arjuna's jaati, in this context, is consistent with nature

(svabhava) at birth (janma) and so is a good determinant of his duty and

overall behavior unlike today where a person's jaati may have nothing to do

with his nature]. Therefore, one's prior history determines one's

birth-condition (jaati/janma) which determines one's life's varnic

duty/activity/behavior.

 

In light of 18.60, this point can also be seen in BG (18.48): "One should not

give up the duty to which one is born (saha-jaM karma...na tyajet)." (Note

Srila Prabhupada gives a different though compatible bonafide translation of

18.48: One should not give up the work born of his nature.)

 

Lord Krishna has also just said: every man can attain perfection *directly*

*through* *the* *performance* of *his* *own* *duties*.(BG 18.45-46) There is

nothing about change of varna according to spiritual advancement either here

in the Bhagavad-gita or in the Mahabharata. Aside from some extreme examples

like Vitahavya and Visvamitra, all so-called changes of varna is actually the

recognition of a person's true life-long varna.

 

 

 

In the context of practicing devotional service today, Srila Baladeva

Vidyabhusana informs us that generally even very advanced devotional service

does not normally change one's varna:

 

phalo tu taratamyah bhavi

 

"The [jivan-mukta's] bliss is graded [according to varna]." (Govindabhasya

1.3.37)

 

Once one passes this jivanmukta stage, one becomes purely liberated and he

has nothing to do with any varna (such as Visvamitra or Lord Parasurama who

are in the "complete stage of Krishna consciousness" BG 3.35p, Adi parva

174). Thus, brahmana-hood (like male-gender-hood) is not a common pathway to

spirituality and liberation. Brahmana-hood is merely a karmicly-determined

situation in a material body (albeit rather elevated) that a soul may or may

not get embodied in on the way to liberation.

 

In summary, the Bhagavadgita and the Mahabharata give no support to the

tenets of automatic-brahmana-conversion by bhakti within in the same life.

Except for a handful of cases, all such "conversions" are merely the

recognition of one's guna and quality over jaati.

 

ys

Gerald Surya