The Four Types -- Castes चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः । तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम् ॥ (4-16) This quote from the Bhagvad Gita has been misinterpreted by many non-Hindus and Pseudo-secularists who tells dat Gita supports Caste-system... Let us open their eyes Variety is the inherent law of nature - no two persons are the same in their emotional profile or in their intellectual stature; each is an expression of his ownvasanas. These gathered impressions of past thoughts and actions are calledvasanas, are not uniformly the same in all. Thevasanasare mainly of 3 kinds: The highly sensitive and peaceful -- theSattwic; the dynamic and active -- theRajasic; and the dull and the low -- theTamasic. Every individual has in him all these 3 modes mixed up in different proportions. But there can be a preponderance of the one over the other two. Thus there can be one in whom theSattwic vasanasare more predominant than theRajasicor theTamasic. Such a one in whomSattwictemperaments are more are classified as aBrahmans, the intellectual thinkers and scientific investigators. WhenRajasis predominant with a liberal dash ofSattwa, and a light shade ofTamas, the type is called theKshatriyas: the dynamic men of action; the politicians. WhenRajasis predominant with moreTamasand less ofSattwa, the type is called as theVaisya--the traders, the commercial men. When the proportion ofTamasis predominant, the dull and the idle ones are classified under the title of theSudra--the employee class, the workers and the labourers. In them there is neither the intellectual sharpness of the 'Thinkers' nor the dynamic restlessness of ambitious visions for the community seen in the 'politicians' nor the calculating insight into the wealth potential of the community which is the quick and unerring instinct of the 'Commercial men'. TheseSudrasconstitute the 'muscles of a country', the masses that actually accomplish all natural programmes of progress. These plans are certainly drawn up by theBrahminthinkers, executed with ever-mounting enthusiasm by theKshatriya-Politicians, organised and tended by theVaisya-traders, but actually they are handled and carried out by the sweating muscles of theSudra-workers. When viewed thus in its universal application, the 4 castes are found to exist at all times in every country: it is not a national social division but a scientific psychological classification of humanity, based upon the different temperaments each expresses in the corporate social existence. Each must serve and work in a society according to his ownvasanas. Sincevasanasare of different textures, psychologically, humanity falls into distinct types--the 4 castes. Naturally theSastraindicates the most conductive way of life to be lived by each type, in order to get their minds unburdened of their disturbingvasanas. When in a hospital the doctor in charge admits patients, he must be allocating some to the surgical ward, some to the medical ward, some to the ophthalmic department and others, perhaps, to the segregated infectious-disease hutments. Now these classifications are forced upon the doctor by the nature of the illness in the patient; but the motive of the doctor in all cases is to cure the patients of their individual ailments. TheRishis' anxiety was to purify all personality-types of their physical blocks and to help them exhaust their particularvasanas. When the health is rediscovered, the revived, healthy mind in its unclustered clear vision, would come to apprehend the Reality and modulate its relationship with the world around. The Lord therefore asserts, "The fourfold caste was created by me, on the basis of the differentGunasandKarma. Though I am the author thereof, know Me to be the Non-doer and the Changeless." चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः । तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम् ॥(4-13) The 4 castes are not the result of the accident of birth, but are based upon the quality of thevasanas(Gunas), and the texture of the work undertaken (Karma). Later on the priest class compromised , even made the necessary interpretation with the text-books in order to bring in a kind of Indian segregation, among the Hindus themselves. This is one more sad example of how man vitates even the best of things in his perverted lust for wealth and power. Books of History are replete with such instances. Men will intelligently try to cut and trim the laws, rules, legislatures, scriptures and constitutions, according to their immediate need for consolidating and extending their power or wealth. It is the result of such a tragic compromise with the spirit of our scriptural philosophy that we have suffered now in our country for centuries, from the disintegraing influences of castesm. Remember the castes are scientific, universal, and a natural classification of the mental types among mankind. But the twisted, shrivelled, curled up castesm and the torturous contortions of its unholy, unethical, cruel and inhuman laws is the terrible ugliness of minds when they act under their epileptic convulsions for more power and greater riches. The youth must understand this historic fact very carefully. The fourfold castes are announced according to the 4 types ofvasanas, expressed by men in their life's activities. Thevasanasexpressed as thoughts, and the thoughts are actions only in the presence of the Life, the Self. Lord Krishna, identifying Himself with this Universal Consciousness, says, "all these 4 castes have come from Me" (चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं). This is all that is generally heard quoted by the misguided orthodox fanatics, they try to carry by this partial statement a divine sanction for the inhuman treatment of their brother countrymen. The Lord in the same breath says, "based upon the differentGunasandKarmas(गुणकर्मविभागशः)". This half of the line is not quoted by the pundit class! This fourfold division is based upon the texture of the inner thoughts-Gunaand the nature of the outer actions(Karma). It is evident therefore that none belongs to a given caste just because of the accident of his borth. The entirePuranas, vyasa has filled with such examples of the low-born rising to saintly heights-- Vyasa himself is an example--and also the highest-born behaving like Ravanas--and ravana himself was the son of aBrahmin. Just as, in the light of the sun, men do all actions, so too, thrilled by Life in the Light of Consciousness, allvasanasexpress themselves. But the sun in the sky is not the Doer. The Lord is changeless: all changes of good and bad, of success and failure, are all the expressions of the vasanas in us. The same Divine Presence is enshrined in all bosoms--in a saintlyBrahmin, and in a criminalChandala... Taken from Chapter 44 of "The Art of Man Making" bySwami Chinmayananda.
