It is one of the strangest ironies that, despite being an intricate part of our daily lives, we do not have any theory explaining Varna, Jati, and Kula. It is also not clear whether caste, understood as a class system, can be the foundation for understanding the complex arrangement of Varnas and Jatis in Indian society. One of the biggest sources of contradictory strands is the issue of whether Varna is by birth or not.
Chittaranjan Naik concludes that birth is not the cause of Varna, as popularly understood; it is the identifier.
INTRODUCTION
Equality and egalitarianism are concepts that define our liberal world today. Many intellectuals, either out of ignorance or trying to be apologetic, take the stance that Varna is less (or even not) by birth, and other factors like nature (guna) and occupation play a major role in deciding the Varna. There is often quoting of scriptures to show how people could navigate across different Varnas due to their effort. There is indeed pressure to prove that Varna has little to do with birth. There are, however, contradictions in this understanding when, socially, Jatis (or castes) claim affirmative policies based on the single criteria of birth into a particular caste. So, how do we resolve the issue?
There are huge complexities in the origins of the ‘caste system’. Scholars of the Ghent school show (Western Foundations of the Caste System) that three ideas came together when colonial scholarship superimposed ‘caste’ on the indigenous social systems (consisting of four Varnas and thousands of Jatis and kulas):
- Based on notions of purity of blood, the Portuguese idea of ‘casta’ which differentiated the ‘New’ Christians (the converted Jews and Muslims) and the ‘Old’ Christians (the original Christians).
- The Aryan theory, which puts the first three categories (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vysyas) as the invading Aryans and the Sudras as the indigenous Dravidians).
- The Protestant criticism of Catholic priests becoming the basis of the criticism of Brahmins in the Indian social system.
Essentially, Varna and jati grew in Indian contexts; caste grew in the Western context. The framework for understanding Varnas and Jatis may have been entirely alien, and therefore the many distortions. Keeping aside the complexities of the alien understanding of our social systems, the present narratives and counter-narratives tend to fit into the framework of the liberal philosophies of equality. The indigenous understanding does not come to the fore.
Simultaneously, independent India, without questioning much the colonial understandings, progressed further in more severely conflating the many jatis with Varna and in crystallising a still more complex ‘caste system’. We currently have a complex categorization of various castes, sub-castes, sub-sub-castes, forward castes, backward castes, scheduled castes, and so on based solely on birth.
Ananda Coomaraswamy, when writing on the Varnas, wrote that the ‘caste system’ requires an explanation but not an apology. Both Coomaraswamy and Sri Aurobindo made it explicitly clear in their writings that the three quartets were the most important factors in making our civilization strong and withstand the constant attacks over centuries: the four Varnas, the four ashramas (brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa), and the four purusharthas (dharma, artha, kama, and moksha). The three quartets are intricately linked, and studying each in isolation leads to confusion, distortion, and strife; as is happening in society today.
Responding to a question on the nature of this confusion, Chittaranjan Naik, engineer, philosopher, and noted author of two important books on Indian philosophy (Natural Realism and Contact Theory of Perception; and On the Existence of the Self), explains the association of Varna to birth. He also demonstrates how some of the modern narratives that downplay or even deny the linkage between birth and Varna can be a little fallacious, despite the best of intentions. What follows next are the ideas of Chittaranjan Naik on this important aspect concerning Varna.
THE UPANISHADS
It is wrong to say that the Varna System is not based on birth. The four Vedas, the six Vedangas, and the four Upangas (the fourteen vidyas, or ‘chaturdasa vidyas’) define Vedic Dharma, and it says birth determines Varna. The Dharma Shastras are the Smriti, and there are eighteen primary texts of the Dharma Shastra given to us by eighteen Vedic Rishis, namely, Manu, Parasara, Yajnavalkya, Gautama, Harita, Yama, Vishnu, Sanka, Likhita, Brihaspati, Daksha, Angiras, Prachetas, Samvarta, Asanas, Atri, Apastamba, and Satatapa. And all these Smriti texts say that Varna is by birth. Let there be no mistake about it.
The Smriti follows the Shruti, and it speaks no lie.
The Smriti follows the Shruti even as a chaste and faithful wife follows her husband, says Kalidasa in Raghuvamsa. The example of the son of Jabala is an exception and not the rule. The effort required for a person belonging to the kshatriya Varna or vaishya Varna to change into a Brahmana is so great that it is almost impossible to achieve it in a single lifetime. The Smriti texts (Puranas) describe the means to change one’s Varna, but it requires stupendous efforts. Varna is a feature of Vedic Dharma. It is applicable only to people born into Vaidika Dharma and not to others.
A person born into Vaidika Dharma is also born into a Varna. Birth is not an accident. It depends on the karmas of the past. The past life is the yajna, and the present life is part of the fruit of the yajna of the past. Every action of man connects to every other part of the universe through the Wheel of Dharma (or Dharma Chakra). Action is the offering in the yajna of life, and pleasure and pain are the fruits that come back to us from this yajna through the Dharma Chakra.
The Garbha Upanishad says:
“All who are living are the sacrificers. There is no one living who does not perform sacrifice. This body is created for yajna, arises out of yajna, and changes according to yajna. If this yajna is changed (from the right course or abused), then it leads to an ocean of misery. In this, the body is the sacrificial place, the skull of the head is the firepit, the hairs are the kusa grass, the mouth is the altar, kama is the clarified butter, and the period of life is the period of sacrifice.“
Thus, the body is the vehicle both for the sacrifice and for the fruits of the sacrifice.
When a man departs from the world and is about to be born again, how does the yajna (actions) that he performed in his previous life bring forth the new body? Adi Shankara says in Brahadaranyaka Upanishad Bhashya that the entire universe waits for him with the fruits of his actions.
“How, under the circumstances, can he assume another body? The answer is as follows: He has adopted the whole universe as the means to the realisation of the results of his work, and he is going from one body to another to fulfil this object. Therefore, the whole universe, impelled by his work, waits for him with the requisite means for the realisation of the results of his work made ready. “
Witness the Sruti:
‘A man is born into the body that has been made for him.’ (Sv.VI.II.11.27) (Br.Up.IV.iii.36).
When a person performs an action, they offer the action to the Wheel of Dharma, and then the whole universe waits for him with the fruit of his action. The gods, the people, the heavens, the clouds, the rains, the earth, the rivers, and the rocks — everything in the universe waits for him. They wait for him with the offering of the fruit of his action.
A human is not born out of the union of man and woman. The union of man and woman is an instrumental act; it is a yajna for the gift of pleasure and for the gift of a child. It is both a fruit and an awaiting. When a man dies, the gods in heaven wait for him, and after they have showered on him the pleasures of heaven and the pains of hell, the time comes for him to be born again, and the gods send him down to earth. Then the cloud welcomes him, the rain welcomes him, and when he comes down with the rain, the earth welcomes him, and then the corn and the rice welcome him, and then the man who is to be his father welcomes him when he eats the rice or corn. When a man and a woman unite in sexual union, the pleasure they derive from the act is the fruit of their past actions, and the act itself is a yajna that awaits a new jiva in the world. Their sexual desire is the fire ignited in them by Prajapati; it is the fire of maithuna in which the man pours his libation into the woman, and out of that act is born a new child. The man who had received the jiva from the rice and corn he had eaten now pours it as a libation into the woman. The woman receives the gift, and she nurtures the new life that the world awaits.
“When that (the period in the region of the moon) passes away, they (the jivas) enter into space, from space into air, from air into the rain, and from the rain into the earth. When they reach the earth, they become food. They are an offering again into the fire of man and then into the fire of woman. Out of the fire of women, they are born with a view to going to other worlds.” (Br.Up.VI.ii.16)
And what are they born as when they assume a new body? The entire universe has waited for them with the fruits of their action and the new mansion (body) that they are to occupy. In what manner is this mansion built?
Says Svetasvatara:
“A man is born into the body that has been made for him.” (Sv.VI.II.11.27).
VARNA IS BASED ON BOTH GUNA AND DEBT
Lord Krishna says in the Bhagawad Gita:
“The four Varnas have been created by Me according to the distribution of the gunas and the karmas; though I am the author thereof, know Me as non-agent and immutable.” (Bh. Gita.IV.13).
The Varnas are not based on the distribution of gunas alone but also on the karmas. What does it mean?
Life is not in isolation. Every single being connects to every other being in the universe. And during one’s life, there is exchange between people, and due to this, there are dues and debts accumulated by each being. There should be a repayment of every accumulated debt. It is dharma to pay back what we have taken from others. And these debts are not all paid back during one’s life. A person is born into the world with certain debts from the past. These debts become the person’s vishesha dharma, as distinguished from his samanya dharma.
To be truthful, charitable, etc. is samanya dharma common to all people, but to have to pay back the debts accrued in the past is specific to the person. The latter is his vishesha dharma. The Varna vyavastha is based on the classification of the debts that need repayment. Every man born into Vaidika Dharma has debts to the gods. The gods are also jivas like us, now elevated to a higher realm of existence, and once upon a time in the inscrutable past, we borrowed from them, and we need to pay it back to them now.
This is the rationale of the Vedic Varna system. Every person born into Vaidika Dharma has three types of debts, and one of them is his debt to the gods. Yoga Yajnavalkya says:
“Human beings born in all three worlds, are naturally indebted to the devas, sages, and ancestors. By learning the Vedas [one can free oneself] from the debts of the sages; by progeny, from the debts of one’s ancestors; by performing appropriate rites and rituals while following the duties of one’s stage in life, (ashrama) from the devas.”
The repayment is by providing food to the gods. Every Varna in the Varna System has its own nitya karma, or debts to pay back. A brahmana cannot pay back his debt to the gods by merely doing some other good work, just as he cannot pay back a loan taken from a bank by doing good work elsewhere. And nobody else can pay back debt for another because only an action by the individual can repay it. Whoever refuses to pay this debt accrues sin.
“He who follows not here the Chakra thus set in motion, who is of sinful life, indulging in the senses, he lives in vain, O son of Pritha.” (Bh.Gita.III.16)
Thus, the basis of the Varna System is not guna alone but also the accrued debts from the past.
VARNA IS THE BASIS OF UNIVERSAL ORDER
The way of this world is Bhuvanadhva. It is the way of the earth. We mortals cannot see beyond the earth. Normal mundane science also does not see beyond earth (Prithvi). That is why we always try to give reasons for all phenomena in terms of matter and the forces of matter. But beyond Bhuvanadhva is Tattva-Adhva. It is the way of the Tattvas. A person enters the tattva-adhvan when he has pierced through the outer covering dominated by prithvi and sees all causes in terms of the twenty-four tattvas.
And there is another way to see it, and that is kala-adhvan. The world is one enclosure cast above the other, and in the heart of the innermost enclosure is Ishvara, who alone is the cause of all action, and He causes it through progressive layers until it surfaces into the world of this gross matter. And the layer nearest to the Heart is the world of the gods, and causality passes through from Ishvara as the desires and actions of the gods before they appear in this world.
The gods live in heaven, in a realm of Consciousness that is full of prana. That is why the Brahadaranyaka Upanishad says that after a man dies, his soul goes for the unfolding of its prana, for that is its experience in heaven and hell. The gods are elevated souls. Theirs is the world of prana, imbued always with life, an erotic playground of desires, for this realm is also the seat of desire.
The gods have two residences. They reside in the body of all beings, having their seat in the indriyas, in the organs of sense and action. In this residence, the gods obtain their food through the enjoyment of the senses. Whenever human beings enjoy themselves through their senses, the gods obtain their food. Thus do all beings pay back to the gods. But the gods have another residence in the Province of Heaven. Here, they receive their food through the Vedic yajnas. And this food they receive from the Vedic Order through yajna performed by the brahmana.
It is the Order of the Universe, and it is the Order that holds the Universe in place. Sri Shankaracharya says in the introduction to Gita Bhashya:
“The Lord created the universe, and wishing to secure order therein, He first created the Prajapatis (Lords of the creatures) such as Marichi and caused them to adopt the Pravritti-Dharma, the Religion of Works. He then created others such as Sanaka and Sanandana and caused them to adopt Nivritti-Dharma, the Religion of Renunciation, characterised by knowledge and indifference to works. It is the two-fold Vedic Dharma of Works and Renunciation that maintains order in the universe.“
The brahmana, the kshatriya, the vaishya, and the shudra are not just people; they are people that have specific roles in the Government of the Universe. The yajnas for performance by the brahmana are not for him alone but for the governance of the Universe. This governance is the way of Sanatana Dharma, and it maintains Order in this Universe. We live in this universe in a relationship of mutual welfare with the gods.
When a brahmana is about to be born, the gods in heaven rejoice, for they await his arrival in joy. The brahmana is he who shall give to them their desire, the subtle elements from the yajna that he is to perform, for these subtle elements from the yajna are their food. The gods need people as much as people need the gods. Nurturing one another, they bring happiness to the world. When they stop nurturing one another, there is darkness and sorrow in the world. That is why the gods need the brahmana, for the brahmana is their connection to the world of men and to the food that they are to receive from Bhuloka.
When a kshatriya is about to be born, the gods in heaven rejoice, for they await his arrival in joy. The kshatriya is he who shall protect the brahmana and the Eternal Dharma so that the gods and humans may live nurturing one another. The kshatriya is the protector of the Order. It is he who ensures that the brahmana may continue to provide the gods with food.
When the vaishya is about to be born, the gods in heaven rejoice, for they await his arrival in joy. The vaishya is he who shall cater to the needs of the Order so that the brahmanas and kshatriyas may devote themselves to the Order of exchange between the gods and the people. For without the actions of the Vedic vaishya, there will be starvation of Vedic dharma and its accessories.
When the shudra is about to be born, the gods in heaven rejoice, for they await his arrival in joy. The shudra is he who shall till the soil, who shall toil to bring forth the produce of the earth, and who shall serve so that the Kingdom of the Universe may prosper. He is the true servant of the Lord.
People born into Vaidika Dharma are part of the executive body of the Government of the Universe. Their actions in adhering to their dharma are not meant for their own welfare but for the welfare of the whole Universe. That is the duty given to a man born in Vaidika Dharma, and it is not in his capacity to redefine it.
“Better one’s own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another well discharged. Better is death in one’s own duty; the duty of another is productive of danger.” (Bh. Gita. III.35)
A brahmana who does not perform his duty is failing in his duty to the Government of the Universe. It is a special function given to him. The Veda is for this purpose. His life is to learn the Veda, to learn the Vedangas and Upangas, and to live each stage of his life in accordance with the ashrama system. Did not Lord Krishna come to Bharatavarsha to establish this dharma?
“These worlds would be ruined if I should not perform action; I should be the cause of confusion among the Varnas and would thereby destroy these creatures.” (Bh. Gita. III.24)
Just as every citizen of a nation cannot be a member of the Government, it is not for every person in the world to be a member of the Government of the Universe. It is for the people of Vaidika Dharma alone. The Vedas belong to the whole universe, but the people of Bharatavarsha are its custodians. They shall be failing the gods by failing in their duty; they shall be failing their brothers and sisters of the world by failing in their duty; they shall be failing all the creatures of the world by failing in their duty. This is the dark age of Kali Yuga, when desire and darkness, instead of Dharma, decide our actions. But the Eternal Dharma does not change.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Indian metaphysics is an intricate framework where the ideas of karma and reincarnation play a crucial role. Varna is undoubtedly an interplay of many interlinked factors like guna (nature), dharma (duty), and karma. The last (karma) has past, present, and future components. Scholars tend to focus on present karma and present gunas, losing track of the importance of past karma too. Effort can certainly override past karma. Sometimes we are successful, and sometimes it requires more effort spilling into our future lives. Changing the Varna requires effort, but it is not easy. However, one thing that has been amply made clear in our scriptures is that the ultimate ideal of moksha is accessible to all Varnas. Each individual within the boundaries of Varna and Ashrama can attain liberation, or moksha.
Birth is not the cause of Varna, as popularly understood; it is the identifier. Varna is determined by the relative proportion of the gunas (sattva, rajas, and tamas) in a jiva. The proportion of the gunas in a jiva is caused by past karma; hence, the cause of Varna is past karma. Therefore, past karma is the determinant of both Varna and birth. Thus, there is more of a correlation than a causation between Varna and birth. To reiterate, the expression “varna is by birth” does not mean that birth is the cause of varna; it means that birth is the identification mark of varna.
The issue of Varna, jati, and kula and their association with birth is complex, and further research is definitely required to understand them. Jatis are our actual lived experience, and caste scholarship does not seem to give it the importance it deserves. However, the study must be through indigenous lenses and not based on Western frameworks essentially encumbered with ideas of exploitation, hierarchy, oppression, and notions of equality. Such frameworks can lead to many distortions in understanding our Varna-jati vyavastha. But some modern exponents of Vedanta and apologists seem to deny that birth can be used even as an identification mark for Varna. A categorical statement like “Varna is not by birth at all” can be distortive and cause more damage to our cause. This article is meant to counter the views of such modern exponents of Vedanta and Indian shastras.
(The article was published on Pragyata.com on December 11, 2023 and has been reproduced here)
