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Varnashrama Dharma (वर्णाश्रमधर्मः) (view source)
Revision as of 13:18, 9 May 2018
, 13:18, 9 May 2018→Ashrama System: Added new sub topic What is Ashrama with citation
=== The Rationale behind the Varna System ===
=== 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.<ref name=":0" />
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.
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.<ref name=":0" />
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.<ref name=":0" />
== Ashrama System ==
== Ashrama System ==
It has already been enumerated above that the organisation of the society took the form of the Varna System. However, it is not enough if we have an organisation of skeleton individuals. They must be powerful individuals. And so the ancient adepts did not forget the need to discipline the individual.The more the capacity of an individual, the greater also is the strength of society. Healthy, robust, well-educated, and highly idealized individuals are necessary for creating a perfect human society. So, while it is necessary to organise individuals into a society because of the partiality of endowments of different individuals, it is also necessary, at the same time, to see that the individuals themselves are disciplined and perfected to the extent possible under the circumstances available. This perfection of the individual is attempted through what is known as the ashrama system.
It has already been enumerated above that the organisation of the society took the form of the Varna System. However, it is not enough if we have an organisation of skeleton individuals. They must be powerful individuals. And so the ancient adepts did not forget the need to discipline the individual.The more the capacity of an individual, the greater also is the strength of society. Healthy, robust, well-educated, and highly idealized individuals are necessary for creating a perfect human society. So, while it is necessary to organise individuals into a society because of the partiality of endowments of different individuals, it is also necessary, at the same time, to see that the individuals themselves are disciplined and perfected to the extent possible under the circumstances available. This perfection of the individual is attempted through what is known as the ashrama system.<ref name=":0" />
=== What is Ashrama ? ===
Ashrama is an order. It is a stage of life through which one has to pass by means of an educational career and a process of training, whereby the forces or powers of the individual are harnessed for the purpose for which they are intended.The ashramas are four, even as the varnas are four. While the four varnas—Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra—constitute the spiritual, political, economic, and manual aspects of the complete structure of human society, the ashramas—Brahmacharya, Grhastha, Vanaprastha, Sannyasa—constitute another order altogether, which is towards the achievement of individual perfection.
So, the educational process takes the form of ashrama dharma. The ashrama dharma is nothing but a process of education in a school; and our seers of the past visualised the whole of life as a period of studentship. We are students from birth to death. This is mentioned with great emphasis in the Chhandogya Upanishad. The various activities of our lives are parts of our apprenticeship in this school of education called life. And we are educated gradually through the adaptation of our individuality to the reality outside in terms of the levels of our personality, which are especially taken into consideration by the ashrama system. We have levels of individuality; We are the physical body, but we are also, at the same time, the vital force; we are the mind, and we are the intellect and the spirit. We have to enable each of these layers of our personality to blossom into completeness by giving each stage its own due, and considering each stage as a necessary step in the process of education.These four orders only mean that there is a necessity for everyone to keep in mind the principle of perfection present in each person, each individual—and, again, a need for cooperation and collaboration. These stages of life, called the ashramas, are the processes of enabling the flowering of our personality into perfection, which is reached in the highest form of enlightenment.<ref name=":0" />
== References ==
== References ==