THE HOLY YOGA
CHAPTER 4
JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:
VERSE NUMBER 13
Text in Tranceliteration:
chaaturvarnyam mayaa srrshtam gunakarma vibhaagasah
tasya kartaaram api maam viddhy akartaaram avyayam
Text in English:
The fourfold caste was created by Me by the different distribution of Guna and karma. Though I be the author thereof, know Me to be the actionless and changeless.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
Creation is effected by variation in the distribution of Gunas. That Jiva in whom Sattva-guna (the tendency full of light of knowledge) predominates is classified as Brahmana. He is a kshatriya in whom Sattva guna seasoned with Rajas prevails. The man third in the rank is the Vaisya imbued minly with Rajas guna and sparingly with Sattva and Tamas gunas. In Sidra the last man Tamas regulated by Rajas is in the forefront. Varna literally means caste as well as colour. White, red and black are the respective colours of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. It may be mentioned here that the entire universe is an imprint of tri-gunas or tricolour. With the variations of the three Gunas in man his colour undergoes change. The four classes of men are respectively white, lotus-red, yellow and black in colour. But this does not refer to the colour of the skin. If it did, all white races would be Brahmanas, Red Indians of America, Kshatriyas, Mongolians Vaisyas, and persons like Rama and Krishna Sudras. Facts in Nature do not warrant this position.
The worth of man is in the mind and not in the body. Mind has its colour and not in the body. Mind has its colour according to Guna. As man evolves, Guna and mind which are interrelated get refined. The colour or the class of man goes up accordingly. From Sudrahood to Brahmanahood man evolves mentally, passing through Vaisyahood and Kshatriyahood. The enlightened alone see into the colour of the mind and know who is who among men.
The worldly man’s classification of himself into the four castes based on birth and parentage is merely a convention hardly ever tallying with his attainments. But the Vedanta philosophical position is that among four brothers all the four Varnas may be evident. The real classification is based on the degree of ethical and spiritual perfection. (The actions of the four castes are explained in chapter 18 stanzas 41, 43 and 44)
Things sentient and insentient are all constituted of the three Gimas. They lend themselves therefore to the natural division into the four Varnas mentioned by the Lord. The plan of Nature is that beings low in Varna evolve into those high.
If the social structure fabricated by man conforms with the divine plan of the fourfold caste, there is progress in that society; but it deteriorates too the extent it deviates from the divine plan. The Incarnations of God that come age after age set aright the fallen Varna dharma (ordained duty particular to a Varna or Class).
How the Lord remains actionless and changeless even while propelling the whole universe is explained in chapter 9 stanzas 5 to 10.
Is there any benefit to an aspirant from the Lord’s statement that He is in fact actionless and changeless? It is explained in the next stanza.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
chaaturvarnyam: the fourfold order. The emphasis is on guna (aptitude) and karma (function) and not Jaati (birth). The varna or the order to which we belong is independent of sex, birth or breeding. A class determined by temperament and vocation is not a caste determined by birth and heredity. According to the Maha Bharata, the whole world was originally of one class but later it became divided into four divisions on account of the specific duties. Even the distinction between caste and outcaste is artificial and unspiritual. An ancient verse points out that the Brahmin and the outcaste are blood brothers. In the Maha Bharata, Yudhisthira says that it is difficult to find out the caste of persons on account of the mixture of castes. Men beget offspring in all sorts of women. So conduct is the only determining feature of caste according to sages.
The fourfold order is designed for human evolution. There is nothing absolute about the caste system which has changed its character in the process of history. Today it cannot be regarded as anything more than an insistence on a variety of ways in which the social purpose can be carried out. Functional groupings will never be out of date and as for marriages they will happen among those who belong to more or less the same stage of cultural those who belong to more or less the same stage of cultural development. The present morbid condition of India broken into castes and subcates is opposed to the unity taught by the Gita, which stands for an organic as against an atomistic conception of society.
akartaaram: non-doer. As the Supreme is unattached, He is said to be a non-doer. Works do not affect His changless being, though He is the unseen background of all works.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The four castes ( Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra) are classified according to the differentiation of Guna and Karma. In a Brahmana, Sattva predominates straightforwardness, devotion, etc. In a kshatria, Rajas predominates. He possesses prowess, splendour, firmness, dexterity, generosity and the nature of a ruler. In a Vaishya, Rajas predominates and Tamas is subordinate to Rajas. He does the duty of ploughing, protection of cattle and trade. In a Sudra Tamas predominates and Rajas is subordinate to Tamas. He does service to the other three castes. Human temperaments and tendencies vary according to the Gunas.
Though the Lord is the author of the caste system, yet He is not the author as He is the Non-doer. He is not subject to Samsara. Really Maya does everything. Maya is the real author. Society can exist in a flourishing state if the four castes do their duties properly. Otherwise there will be chaos, rupture and fighting. (Cf. XVIII. 41)
Comments by the blogger:
The fourfold caste was created by Me by the different distribution of Guna and Karma. Though I be the author thereof, know Me to b the actionless and changeless.
Now let’s break the Verse down:-
1. The fourfold caste was created by Me.
2. It was done by the different distribution of Guna and karma.
3. Though I be the author thereof...
4. Know me to be the actionless and changeless.
It is a pertinent question to ask if God of Gita created the fourfold caste which has now deteriorated into fourthousandfold caste.
The truth of the matter is God did not have a direct hand in the creation of the fourfold caste. But God created the prakrity which acts as a mother as well as a stern teacher as well as a task master. The truth is the prakriti is not only made of five elements, but three gunas or tendencies or aptitude. So we human beings also have evolved in to beings with three gunas or tendencies or aptitude. Each person and animal is made of the five elements called wind, sky, water, fire and earth. We also have the three gunas. Because the Universe is an assemblage of the said five elements and three gunas. We each are a mini universe. Though we are having all the three gunas, they are in varying proportion in each of us. This is how our aptitude and attitude to life and character are derived. Those in whom Sattva guna predominates they would be full of light and goodness and majesty of character. They would not attach too much importance to the worldly things and wealth and possessions. They would be very devout and would not tell a lie. Everything good and majestic will find a place in them. In the Gita time itself there was a mixture of castes owing to the higher caste men having the relationship with women belonging to the lower castes and beget children through them. This is exemplified by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan’s commentary. Due to this guna bedha or conjunction of higher cast men intent upon sowing wild oats and the lower caste women who yielded to their carnal desires and beget children. Hundreds of castes were given rise to mainly because of this tendency of the high caste Hindus.
God was not responsible for all this.
He only created the prakriti of Nature. In the beginning, everything here was one tremendous mass for millions of years. Then happened the Big Bang. Even before that the prakriti or Nature had five elements and three gunas. But the three gunas were in perfect coordination. With the Big Bang the perfect coordination of the three gunas got ruptured and the seeds for the one cell animal were sown. Even after the Big Bang some small Bangs between the heavenly bodies must have happened. While some planets were filled with hot gas and matter, the earth was cooled enough for it vapours become coagulate into icy mass. Some planets or heavenly bodies came into collision with the earth, that is this frozen mass of ice. Due to the velocity and impact of the collision the ice became water and at the same time one cell animal came to life. It was solely due to the heat and right type of impact of the collision that the life on earth came into being, to speak chemically.
Since the Big Bang itself was for the Creator’s design to make way for life coming into being, the Big Bang must be said to be part of the evolution. But evolution and its timing must said to be preceding the Big Bang. So everything was happening to facilitate life to start.
After the single cell came into being, it wanted to have a bigger life and see itself and around. Since God’s prakriti or nature will fulfil the desire of the animals, the evolution started gloriously for millions of trillion years. If the Giraffe with short neck aspired for long neck so it could graze on the tree tops it happened gradually when the same giraffe and same species in the next birth after its death. If the beaks of some birds were not long enough to insert into the centre of the rotting trees in the water, then the same birds when came here as the same species had come to have longer beaks. This process was a slow one. But various species of animals came to have body parts as they deeply wanted with their limited sense which is not nonsense. We came to have, nay, God’s prakriti or nature came to have thousands of millions of species which continued to ask or demand or deeply wanted to have various faculties and sizes like running, walking, swimming, and seeing and sensing, and growing fast in case of animals and growing slowly in case of plants and trees. At some time came our forerunner, Mr. Ape! And the rest was evolutionary history. Charles Darwin began his research with the single cell animal. That was why he did not and could not see God’s sure hand through His prakriti in the matter of evolution. At last,when Man came around it took another process. The bodily evolution stopped as he had the perfect anatomy to live and propagate and flourish. But his inner evolution still continued. He started to grunt at the beginning, then made gestures. He laughed and smiled. Then some intelligible sounds were made and created by him which later became words, which in turn came to be words after a long time of the evolutionary process.Then a crude form of language came into being.The Man started to dress himself, and indulged in agriculture and domesticated some wild animals and crops. Then, at some time, the Vedic sages in India, and much later, men and women with great culture in Egypt, Greek and Rome came around and they spoke in mellifluous languages and came to have nature to worship as gods. Intense cultural eruption happened.
Instead of speaking like this, God in Gita simply says He created the fourfold caste.
The caste of the four kinds are not as rigid as they came to be later. According to his actions and attribute, a Brahmin might go down to be a Sudra and the vice versa. This happened in one’s own life time. Father and mother might be Sudras and the son might be included among the Brahmins. Every degradation came much later.
2. the creation of the fourfold caste done by the different distribution of Guna and karma. Here we have the Lord tell us that caste depended on guna and karma. What kind of a person one was? What is his seeking in life? And in what kind of karma or action he indulged? These things determined his caste.
3.God is the author of the fourfold caste only in an indirect way. It is prakriti which does and oversees everything. The Universal Soul is just a witness. This is why God says though he is the author thereof...for prakriti does not see whether a man has faith in God or not. There are and have been great writers and poets who had no iota of belief in the existence of God. But they could produce good literature. And in every walk of life, even today, there are non-believers. And they get from nature what they want. God is a witness to all actions of man and beast and the prakriti. Faith in God does not come into individuals’ and a race of human beings’ achievements or degradation.
4.God does not know any action. He is birthless, deathless and everlasting, omnipresent and omniscient. He is full of love for man and woman because and wants us to come back to Him sooner than later. Prakriti or Nature firsts pulls us down, and tests us by illusory fire. Once we overwhelm her through God’s help and prayer and tremendously unceasing Yogic seeking, Nature facilitates our graduation. God is absolutely changeless and actionless. All the actions take place only in His prakriti or nature.
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