Many words and phrases as used today, have lost their meaning due to misunderstanding, misrepresentation and misinterpretation. It would be worthwhile to think about Cahturvarnya which has undergone mutation.
Varna
First I thought, I would write about 'chatur varnyam', ='the system of classification of humans into 4', but even before venturing onto a deliberation on that word, need to articluate a bit on 'Varna', itself.
Varna means color of course. But varna means many other things too, the most famous of which is 'Akshara' = letter. This latter meaning, is not consequential to the former, meaning, Varna means letter, not because it means color. Letter and color does not have any relation.
Similarly, Varna means the four divisions into Brahmana etc. (Amarkosha 3.3.48 and 2.8.1) and that is not consequential to its meaning, color. So 'color' has nothing to do with 'the classification into 4'
So the concocted explanation some give, saying the classification into 4 given in Gita and other books from India, are based on the color of skin of people, are all fictitious.
ChaturVarnya (CV)
Varna itself means 'the classification into brahmana etc.' Hence 'chatur' in chaturvarnya is actually a repetition. In any case chaturvarnya means the classification into 4 as brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra. The most famous verse explaining CV is the one from Bhagavad Gita 4:13 which reads as follows:
"cAturvarNyaM mayA sR^iShTaM guNakarmavibhAgashaH
tasya kartAramapi mAM viddhyakartAramavyayaM"
(That is in ITRANS notation, since to my knowledge this editor does not allow devanagari fonts. Readers who are unfamiliar with ITRANS can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITRANS for an understanding of it)
This shloka means, "the classification into four was created by me according to the properties and actions. Although I am the creator of it (this classification) know me as the non-doer, unperishable."
Elsewhere Krishna asks Arjuna to know him as everything in this universe. The Sun, Moon, oceans, good, bad, everything. He is the universe. So the "created by me" in this verse means, it is a creation of the universe, or rather in the universe it is so. That is why he is again saying "know me as the non-doer" because, it just exists so.
The gunas mentioned here are Satva, Raja and Tamah, the serene, active and passive respectively. Individuals need not be of purely one quality. There could be mixture of qualities too.
Depending on these qualities individuals would perform actions too. One who is purely of the Sativik quality and performs actions like, worship of God, teaching, etc. is Brahmana. He has the ultimate knowledge. "Brahmajnaanee thu brahmanaH". Similarly Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shoodra.
It is clear, that the classification is not by birth, but because of one's own qualities and deedes.
I go into explosive laughter when I hear people making comments like "the days of chaturvarnya is over. This is modern times, all are equal" etc.
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2 comments:
Nanda, so does varna mean the same thing as, say, "quarter" or "category"? If so, amazingly, this is probably the first 2 x 2 classification in the history of mankind!
W.r.t. the verse from the Gita - I have often wondered if properties and actions determine the varna, then are properties and actions on the x and y axis respectively, making for a neat 2 x 2 classification?
If so, and given that 95% of people living in the US have to do house-work and gardening and other menial chores themselves, could it be said that the US is a nation of shudras? (without attaching the "caste" implications of this)?
Gravitas,
There is nothing like any 2x2 matrix here, qualities on x axis and actions on y axis. There anyway are 3 gunas and many combinations of them. Actions are driven by these qualities hence directly related.
Doing one's own house chores does not make one Shudra. The classification into four depends on the Dharma of each individual. You could read Darma elsewhere on this blog. If your argument is accepted then US soliers would also be shudras instead of Kshatriyas!
-Nanda
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