Swamy Dayananda Saraswati on BG Verse 4.13 - Part-3

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CAturvarNyam -Verse 4.13 Bhagavad Gita Home study by Swami Dayananada

Sarasvatiâ€" Continued -2

 

 

Duty based division among people

 

There is another kind of division inherent in the system, also four-fold,

the people of each division are called by same name. This division is based

on duty â€" karma vibhAga. The duty of a brAhmana, for example, is to teach

and to officiate at rituals. His life is one of prayer for the welfare of

the society and he lives very simply with no more than the barest

essentials. He must practise shama and gain dama. He studies the Veda,

teaches, and serves as an officiating priest, undertaking all those

liturgical activities that are the duties of the priest. The society

requires that certain activities be conducted and the brAhmaNa is

responsible for them. He is a priestly person.

Thus, there is a guNa wise brAhmaNa and a duty wise brahmaNa. Similarly

there is a guNa wise kshatriya and duty wise kshatriya, whose duty is to

protect dharma, be committed to knowledge and protect the Vedas. As a

kshatriya, Arjuna�s duty was to rule and protect the people in terms of

administration, judiciary, law enforcement, and defence. All these

functions fall under kshatriya-dharma and are duties to be done in every

society.

A vaishya is a person who deals in commerce, wealth, farms,agriculture, and

so on. Commerce involves bringing things from place where they were

produced and selling them in other places where they were needed. Thus a

vaishya is the one whose duty is to make things available to the people.

The people in the fourth division, ShUdra provide the hands and the legs,

eyes and ears, for the others. Their duty is to serve and, without such

people, nothing could be accomplished. The activities they perform are

found in all societies in the world and must be done if the society is to

function.

In the Vedic religion, the activities of each of the four groups of people

are converted into duties and are enjoined according to family. We do not

know when all this started, but whoever was performing the duties of a

shUdra, or a vaishya, or a kshatriya, or a brAhmaNa kept passing these same

duties down to his or her children.

Strictly speaking anyone who was doing the work of a particular group

should be known by the name of that group regardless of which group he or

she is born into. A person who is born in a brAhmaNa family, but does

vaishya karma is a vaishya. A true brahmaNa, on the other hand, is one who,

having been born into a brAhmaNa family, lives a simple life so as not to

exploit the society, studies and teaches the Veda, and performs the

obligatory rituals for the welfare of the people, just as his father,

grandfather, and great-grandfather did before him.

Duties being there, we have these four groups of people. Offcourse, duties

can be transgressed, but that is not the point here. The duties themselves,

the karma, are the basis for the division of people, each group having its

respective duties. Thus, there are brAhmaNa-duties, kshatriya-duties,

vaishya-duties and shUdra-duties.

A man who is a brAhmaNa in terms of karma, duty, may chant the Veda,

officiate art rituals, and so on, but guNa â€"wise, he may be ambitious and

may want recognition. Such a person is not sattva-rajas-tamas. If, however,

he carries out his duties with the attitude of karma-yoga, he is

sattva-rajas-tamas. Then his attitude is, �This is my karma, my duty.

These duties are to be done by me. They are my offering to the Lord.�

 

 

Karma - yoga and a duty based society

 

Karma â€" yoga is relatively easy for a person who is born into a structure

where the concept of duty is so clearly defined. When the spirit behind the

structure is understood, all the person has to do is what has to be done.

The person need not choose a vocation in life. He or she knows exactly what

is to be done based on which family he or she is born into. One�s duty is

written all over one�s forehead at birth, so to speak.

 For a person who believes in the law of karma, there is no other reason

for him or her to have been born into a particular family.Some karma is the

governing factor and what is now to be done is clear. For example, a man

who is born into a brAhmaNA family knows that he has to do study, perform

yajnas and so on â€" and he does so happily. While performing his duties,

he does not mutter, �if only I were an administrator, I would have earned

a lot of money by now. Instead I have nothing!�

If earning money is the main criterion, a system based on duty cannot work.

Everyone will look to see which vocation produces the most money and do

only that. If medicine produces money, you will become a doctor. And when a

glut develops in the field of medicine, you will turn to another field

where there is more opportunity, more money. If money and power are the

main criteria, there will be no structure, really speaking. The money and

the power will set up the structure for one�s education, marriage and so

on.

But here, in the Vedic vision, moksha, liberation, is the main aim. The

veda says that you are perfect and that you have to achieve this knowledge,

which is moksha. To do this, you must have a mature mind and this kind of

mind can be gained only living a life of karma-yoga. For karma-yoga you

must certainly have a certain duty and be clear about what you are to do.

When you are clear about what your duty is, then you can perform all karma,

all activity, as duty.

We have seen how the duties of a brAhmaNa are very evident to the person.

Similarly, the duties of a kshatriya are very clear to him and he performs

his karma as a duty, cheerfully. A vaishya also knows what exactly is to be

done by him. His father is engaged either in commerce or in cultivation or

he may have a cattle farm. The son chooses one of the three or involves

himself in all of them. Whatever he chooses to do is done as a duty and for

a reasonable profit. A vaishya also is not supposed to exploit the society

in anyway. For example, he must not create a scarcity by buying all

available stock, storing it somewhere, and then releasing it in small

amounts at large profits when the people begin clamouring for it. Such

practices are definitely not inconformity with the dharma nor are they

vaishya-dharma. Thus, when a vaishya performs his duty happily, according

to his own dharma, it can be yoga for him. The duties of a shUdra,

shUdra-karma, are the same. They are not lowly or demeaning karma; they are

simply duties to be done.

To be continued.

Om namo narayanaya

Lakshmi Muthuswamy