Varna system 2: Caste coding : Mahabharat Era

Q:- How are the codes different for these four Varnas?
A:- Here is a list of attributes for each of the Varnas.

BRAHMIN
Role: Teach Vedas, officiate religious ceremonies, receive charity, and provide advice to kings
Beliefs: Truth, Ahimsa, Purity, contentment, austerity and simplicity
Eating Habits: Vegetarian
Mark: Sacred thread made of munja grass
Demigods worshipped: Agni, Prajapati & Brahaspati

KSHATRIYAS
Role: Wield weapons protect and administer the people and country.
Beliefs: Valor, passion, fights righteous wars, justice, and courage.
Eating Habits: Rajasika food including meat
Mark: Sacred thread made of bow strings
Demigods worshipped: Indra, Varuna, Soma, Rudra, Yama and Mrtyu
      
VAISHYA
Role: Agriculture, dairy farming, trade, money-lending.
Beliefs: Financial acumen, generosity, honesty in financial transactions.
Eating Habits: Vegetarian
Mark: Sacred thread made of hemp or wool
Demigods worshipped: Vasu Aditya Maruti

SHUDRA
Role: labour.
Beliefs: Attachment to material and physical pleasures.
Eating Habits: Non-vegetarian Rajasika foods including meat
Mark: No Sacred thread
Demigods worshipped: Ashivn Pushan

Q:-But how and who monitors this Varna or Jaati (Caste)?
A:-A Varna council settles disputes on inter-caste issues. Caste is determined by their birth but it is only a family identity. The Varna council endorses the true Varna after the completion of education at the age of fifteen based on certain proficiency tests that assess the suitability of every person to a specific profession.

Every male in the kingdom of Krishna belongs to a designated Varna from ages fifteen to sixty. At sixty, their occupation comes to an end and thereafter they can opt for vanprastha. No Varna applies to individuals after turning sixty. Moreover, in this kingdom, there is no Varna for women and children.

Their caste is determined by their parent’s caste. If any inter-caste marriage occurs then, we have a mixed caste category; in short we have a very flexible caste system.There used to be an armband which identifies the Varna and Jathi. The metal and colour of the armband is different for every Jathi.

Q:-What about‘Inter caste marriage’ in the ancient India?
A:-Today we find men of the so called lower castes ascending to positions of eminence and authority. Only three of the Vishnu’s incarnations come from the so called high caste; most of his incarnations are even animal incarnations. God does not discriminate between his own creations. Many ancient sages come from humble background as well.

Sage Viswamitra – a warrior by birth practiced austerities like a Brahmin and was recognized as a great rishi. Sage Vysyawas born to a fisher woman, Rishi, and Valmiki the original composer of Ramayana came from a family of hunters. Drona, the great guru of the Pandavas was a Brahmin by caste but excelled in marital arts.
  
I can go on citing examples from our rich ancient past. However, lately, the flexible caste system of the past is slowly giving way to a more rigid caste system.

Our Sanatandharma is about setting up an egalitarian society and these man made rules are against the intentions of our dharma.

In short ‘Varna’ is skill driven, ‘Jathi’ is birth driven, Mother’s womb did not fix the occupation in the Mahabharat era. ‘Jathi’, caste is a family identity, that is birth driven. But ‘Varna’ was proficiency driven. Anyone can provide any occupation subject to proficiency tests.

Why castes were created: Varna system 1

The Varna system is a controversial subject and it is the most misunderstood one. The number of years for each of the four Yugas is in the ratio of 4:3:2:1.

The avatars of Lord Vishnu also were in the ratio 4:3:2, the last one is yet to come. But the Varnas were supposed to be in the reverse order of 1:2:3:4. The first Yuga ‘Satya’ was an immaculate age. Every creature was contented. There was only one Varna – all Brahmins.

In the next Yuga ‘Treta’ the evil enters the world. There was three potion dharma and one portion adharma. Avarice and passion rose, violence erupted. Hence to rule the earth a new Varna ‘Kshatriya’ were created.

The one Varna became two Varnas in the second Yuga. The third Yuga ‘Dwapara’ was an age of conflict. The dharma and adharma were in the ratio of 1:1. The third Varna ‘Vaishya’ came up.

Towards the end of last Yuga and the beginning of Kali Yuga four Varnas – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudhra started. The dharma and adharma will be in the ratio of 1:3 in this Yuga. 

Knowledge, weapon, wealth and land were divided. 

The person who handles one of these four subjects should not be in possession of other.This rule became the code. Thus knowledge has to be dealt with by Brahmins, weapons by khastriyas, wealth by Vaishyas and Land tilling by Sudhras. 

The Kshatriya king has to oversee the Varna system and maintain the Law and order. The Kali Yuga has therefore four Varnas. There is not supposed to be a degradation of any Varna. The Avatar of Vishnu had only two Brahmins, three Kshatriyas and the rest of them are in the form of animals. 

The Varna system does not derecognize any human being. The key questions here are –

-          What is the basis of the codification of the caste system?

-          Is Varna system – Not a discrimination?

-   Ekalyva was refused admission by Dhronocharya on the ground of caste – Is this not discrimination?

-          How are the codes different for the Varnas?

-          Who monitored the Varna or Jaati during Mahabharat period?

-          How about the inter caste marriage during Mahabharat period?

 
Each of these questions will be addressed on the series of articles to follow …….

Corporate Lessons from Mythology - 14

[Panchathantra Stories]

We all are clapping the movie “Life of Pi”. The same way there are Panchathantra stories which use animals, birds and human beings as the main characters to convey messages of worldly wisdom.

            These stories, 87 in all are dated back to the 2^nd century BC. These stories are said to be a part of an educational curriculum for the two dull princesses, taught by Vishnu sharman.

            The stories adopt a case study approach of the modern schools of management. Each of them carries several lessons for us. Let us understand these stories.

            These stories present a case study method, currently popular in management education.Since these were lessons for preparing the princes for becoming a king, they are relevant for to-day’s managers. Let us look at some of these stories….

The Snake and the Frog

A snake lives near a pond, pretends to be suffering from the curse of a Brahmin.  His son was killed by snake, hence he cursed the snake that it will become the vehicle for frogs and could eat only what the frogs allowed it to eat.

Telling this story the snake allowed the pleasure rides for frogs in the pond. The king of frogs liked it and permitted the snake to eat the frogs of lower birth,when he saw the snake was less energetic, while giving pleasure rides.Quoting this permission the snake ate all the frogs.

We learn a few lessons on this. The desire for pleasure on the part of king was exploited, by the snake.

            The king did not bother about the sacrifice of his subjects for his own pleasure. Also we learn that one should not believe in the behavior of a person, which is not consistent with the character.

            A tiger will not become a vegetarian by our throwing steaks at it repeatedly. We have to be careful especially when we are offered free benefits by others. More Panchathantra stories to follow …. 

            Ancient Sastras says it all ….

Corporate Lessons from Mythology – 13

Does the desire for materialism go down with the advancement of age?

It is claimed that, philosophical mind automatically comes to you as the biological clock ticks. I read somewhere that our life span can be divided into these phases:

Age	Designated as	Our role in this period
0 – 20	Butterfly	We have colorful dreams, we do not bother for anything
20 – 40	Migratory bird	We go in search of career to better environmental destinations
40 – 60	Donkey	We bear the burden of the family
60 – 80	Snail	We slowly withdraw into a shell, looking more inwards
80 – 100	Crane	We wait for our final journey towards the eternal world

Our underlying philosophies are driven by the biological clock. Even Mahatma Gandhi attained refinement in the later part of the life. This is a natural process, isn’t it? What is there to cultivate in us? With the age, the desire for materialism and the philosophical outlook will set in. Why do we teach the youngsters on all these areas? This question was posed to me in one of the seminars on ‘Philosophy and the age’.

I replied to the young questioner this way – 

‘You are being over-simplistic in everything that you see. Your outlook is not driven only by biological clock. Even at a very young age, Gandhi struck to the set of values that he believed in. He never lied in his legal profession just to mint money. He did not pursue conviction towards values only in later stages of his life. He stuck to his values throughout his life.

The philosophical outlook is not directly proportional to the age profile today. Infact it is inversely proportional in many cases. For example, Politicians above 70 are very actively amassing wealth today. No one wants his school going child to know the extra money he generates through wrong means.

Corporate Lessons from Mythology – 12

 Is Desire a SIN? Is Desire for materialism

Automatically reduces with biological clock?

In continuation to the earlier blog on Karmic journey- A puzzle, let us try to find on answer to the above first question.

If everyone operates on a need only basis, what is the charm in life? Take the case of a student who aims to come first, a businessman who wants to succeed in his business.

All of them are setting a high ambition. You need to have greed acting as your motivational force. Then how do we live for need alone? That will make our life uninteresting!

Desire, like a fire is a natural source of energy and power. We can harness the energy of fire for productive purposes or we may be burned by it at our option.We may be either consumed by our desire or we may harness it for a noble cause. The choice is ours.

We would not have got the best of the inventions had we not been greedy. The myths like the ones that the world is flat would not have been debunked. On occasions like these, greed is good not just for own life, but for others as well.

When we desire, we have to focus on it and we have to develop the competence to attain it. We need not have to ignore desire and lead a life by compromising on what we got.Need means, “I can and will use the item”. Greed means, ‘I need it all’. Negative greed is “when I somehow need it all at any cost, even if it is denying others”.

We can and must be greedy without exploiting others. A creator’s greed is a boon to the society.We need simplicity but not poverty. Greed should not be excessive, should not deny the rights of others stakeholders. We should not go high on materialism that leads to unethical behavior.

The mythological powers granted to midas led to his own downfall due to his excess greed. There are so many such stories of excess greed. Bhagawat Gita says, ‘As a flame is covered by smoke, a mirror by dust and the foetus by the womb, so is the knowledge covered by the desire.

Desires are essential to life as air to breathe. We should not borrow desires from others. We need to examine our desires with a clear mind so that we filter the unwanted desires.

In short live like a ‘post it sticker’. The post it marks self sticking adhesive stick to the page when required. It comes out clean when we remove it without leaving the traces of the glue.

We need to knew the art of attachment and detachment like the ‘post it sticker’.

Greed is not a sin but pleasure without conscience and wealth without work are the deadly sins. We need to learn to live like a post it sticker.By the way, does the desire for materialism automatically go down with the biological clock?

                                                                                              

Corporate Lessons from Mythology - 11

Karmic Journey- A puzzle

In one of the deliberations on corporate lessons from the Mythology, I was asked these two important questions by an intelligent young guy.

Question 1: Who keeps track of the good and bad Karmas?

Question 2: the desire for materialism- Is it inversely correlated to the age?

These two interesting questions came up from a very young guy.

Let us start with the question 1: When we say there “is a chief accountant general “ChitraGupt”, who keeps track of the deeds,the modern generation does not absorb this. Then how do we explain- how are the karmic deeds captured?

We say our life- be it good or bad is driven by past karmas. Therefore someone has to track - Isn’t it?

I gave this explanation. These days you have ‘smart cards’ which have intelligent chip embedded to it. These smart cards can retrieve information without having to access a central console.

They are the higher version of ‘traditional cards’. Like the ‘embedded chip’ in a smart card, our soul has an embedded chip.

This chip in the soul records all the deeds committed by us silently. It moves into another body along with the embedded chip.

This is a continuation of the karmic deeds into the next birth. That is how our karmic journey happens with inputs from the deeds recorded by the ‘smart chip’ in the soul.

What do you say? I asked the young guy. When you believe the smart card, you have to believe the smart recording ‘chip’ in the soul, I added. He said “yes.” I do not know whether it was a firm “yes” or not. What do you think?

In the next blog we explore answer for question 2: Is the desire for materialism inversely correlated to the age?