Varnashrama Dharma (वर्णाश्रमधर्मः)
परिचयः ॥ Introduction
The principles of varna and ashrama are founded upon the principles of Purushartha viz. dharma, artha, kama, moksha that are the foundation of India’s culture. These Purusharthas together with varna and ashrama sum up the entire principles of Indian culture. Through the fulfilment of these, life became complete socially, physically, psychologically, intellectually, and spiritually.[1]
Indian Outlook of Life
In order to understand the relevance of Varna and Ashrama concepts, it is esssential to understand the Indian Outlook of life. The perfect outlook of life considers four aspects which form inseparable ingredients of the very notion of perfection viz.
- society
- the individual
- the universe
- God
These four principles sum up the central objectives of what may be called the human perspective.
No man in this world is complete, and no man can be complete.The human personality is an admixture of various levels or, we can say, forces. The wisdom of the ancients was such that they contemplated a system of introducing some sort of perfection into the social order by bringing together the various partial endowments of personalities into an ordered system, which gave the shape of perfection. This vision of perfection took into consideration four objectives of human existence known as the Purusharthas and is worked out through the administration and organisation of society, and the discipline of the individual. The organisation of society took the form of the varna system, and the discipline of the individual took the form of the ashrama system. These are the famous varna and ashrama orders of the regulation of life as a whole.[2]
Varna System
The Varna System, as mentioned above, is the reflection of ancient wisdom on the organisation of the society. Elaborating on this, Swami Krishnananda says, "Everyone has needs, but no one has the capacity to fulfill all their needs. What I have, others may not have; and what others have, I may not have. Therefore, in order that social solidarity may be ensured so that there may be some sort of perfect image produced in the totality of the social structure, the varna system was thought to be the most advisable method to be adopted."[2]
What is Varna ?
‘Varna’ does not actually mean colour in a grammatical sense. It means the colour which is philosophically or metaphysically attributed to the so-called gunas of prakriti—sattva, rajas and tamas. These three properties of prakriti are the basis or the substratum of what are known as the colours. It refers to the colour of the property preponderating in a particular individual in some measure—how much sattva, how much rajas, how much tamas is there in an individual. No one is wholly sattvic, wholly rajasic or wholly tamasic; there is some percentage of each guna in different individuals in various proportions.
The group of individuals who have the capacity to reflect a maximum amount of sattva are those persons who can think better in terms of the higher reason behind things than those who are predominantly rajasic or tamasic. So is the case with the other properties—rajas and tamas. Rajas has a tendency to activate everything, and tends towards energetic movement. Tamas is very heavy, dense and static. It does not move like rajas, and cannot think like sattva.[2]
According to Shabdakalpadruma,
वर्णः जातिः | सा च ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियो वैश्यः शूद्रश्च |[3]
varṇaḥ jātiḥ | sā ca brāhmaṇaḥ kṣatriyo vaiśyaḥ śūdraśca |
Shabdakalpadruma describes Varna as Jati (जातिः) and enumerates 4 kinds viz. Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
The Rationale behind the Varna System
As no man is complete—no man is wholly spiritual, no man is wholly intellectual or rational, no man is wholly emotional or active, and no man is wholly capable of manual work, etc.—a necessity is felt to bring together the various partialities into a wholeness for the welfare of society.[2]
Every action is preceded by a thought. The thought is the constitution that we lay at the very outset before we implement a procedure. Hence, there must be people to think of the way to organize things.There would be the thinking or the rational type of people who contribute their might of knowledge for the purpose of the wholesome evolution and growth of society in its entirety; others would work vigorously by contributing their own abilities to maintain the organisational order or system; others would help in a third manner, by providing the economic means of sustenance; and there should also be people who would act like the pillars of the entire edifice of society, the footstool of the whole picture called human organisation. That we need people to work, and we need people to provide the economic means of sustenance by the procedure is well known. There is also a need for organisation and administration. And there is, above all, a need to think. Therefore, the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras are not superior and inferior types of people in society. This very poor interpretation is a travesty of the originally good-intentioned system.[2]