चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागश: | तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम् || 13 || |
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“The four categories of occupations were created by Me according to gunas and actions. Although I am the Creator, know Me as the Non-doer beyond all change”
Commentary
The world as we perceive cannot exist without these four aspects: Intelligence, Energy, Orderly Laws and Movement. There is intelligence inherent in the birth and growth of all living and non-living beings – animals, plants, trees, flowers, metals, stones and solar systems. A stone behaves like a stone and a piece of glass behaves like a glass. Intelligence cannot be seen but can only be felt. All the outward manifestations can be perceived because they are formed out of Energy. There is Order in all the laws of karma, health, wealth, gravity, magnetism, electricity, light, heat etc. Finally there is the principle of Movement in every aspect of Nature represented as Shakthi, expressed by Adi Sankaracharya in the first verse of Soundarya Lahiri as follows:
“Na chedevam devo na khalu kushalah spanditumapi” – Lord Shiva cannot even move or stir without Shakti or Energy.
Intelligence, Energy, Laws and Movement are the states, not the castes, of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra respectively. Brahmin is neither a caste nor a person but a quality, a Guna that is in a person. Brahmin or Brahman is the quality where one knows the Truth, Kshatriya is the quality of one who protects as a warrior, Vaishya is the quality of establishing the economic order and laws, and Sudra is the quality that runs the social machinery. All these qualities need to function properly in every person to achieve the highest possibility. A person is a Sudra when he thinks and moves, a Vaishya when he is putting his home and society in economic order with specific laws, a Kshatriya when he defends his nation and family with physical and mental strength, a Brahmin when he is intelligently coordinating different aspects of life and realizes the Truth of his ever-changing existence as life on the planet. In one person, all these qualities or gunas exist. Occupations were created in the ancient times during the Satya yuga by encouraging and allocating people according to their predominant guna.
People should be encouraged to follow an occupation based on their gunas not heredity. If a country is in danger, every person is responsible to fight and protect, not just the soldiers on the battlefield. If Brahmins and Vaishyas had also fought, India would not have been conquered so many times. Saints of all ages have told countless times not to treat people who run the social machinery as untouchables. In the dark ages of Kali Yuga, this knowledge was distorted. Unfortunately, the crude caste system exists even today.
Even from the caste perspective, the son of sudra or labor class can be trained as a priest if he displays a dominant quality of performing pujas and worship of Gods from a young age. Similarly, the son of a Brahmin can be a Vaishya or business leader, son of a business leader can be a Kshatriya/soldier, son of a Kshatriya/soldier can reform the economic and labor laws. It doesn’t matter where or to whom a person is born, but people and Governments have a responsibility to nurture the gunas or predominant qualities in a person to form a strong nation. Even two children in the same family may not have the same gunas and it is important to understand each child’s quality separately to nurture in the direction in which the child will realize his or her full potential. When the four human qualities are blended well with Nature’s first two qualities of Sattva and Rajas, every Nation can prosper.
Lord Krishna followed the same precepts that He created and taught. He took birth in a caste that was considered socially low at the time. He protected his people with Kshatriya guna, formed a Kingdom and led his people as per the orderly economic and social laws with the Vaishya guna and followed the principles of Dharma with the Brahmin guna. God created these four aspects in the world but His nature is beyond His creation.