Integrating Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, & Service

The Caste System of Hindu Society Huffington Post Pankaj Jain, Ph.D. Posted: 06/20/11 10:13 AM ET

In the medieval period, saint Thiruvalluvar, author of 'Thirukural' was a weaver. Other saints such as Kabir, Sura Dasa, Ram Dasa and Tukaram came from the sudra class also. Many of the great visionaries in modern India were not brahmins by birth but can be regarded as brahmins by their life-styles and teachings: Mahätmä Gändhi, Swämi Vivekänada, Sri Aurobindo, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Swämi Chinmayänanda etc. […]

Whatever coercion may exist in the society could be argued as a social discipline. In the practical world, there would be complete chaos and disaster if the individuals stopped performing their duties. A well-balanced society definitely needs warriors, merchants, teachers and laborers. Hence, instead of one's unrestrained rights, one's duties are given more importance.

Conclusion

Varna system is one of the most debatable phenomena of India and is tarred with many controversies. However, on a deeper analysis one finds that the basic need for this system was simply to ensure a healthy and flexible society unlike the one which has been rigidified due to the colonial misinterpretation and mistreatment of varnas, resulting in the castes as we find them in the present day India . The original varna system was quite flexible in which one's varna could be changed based on one's skill and was not fixed as is often understood. Indeed, it was the colonization of India by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries that changed the varna system into the present rigid system of castes. References

1. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, The Hindu View of Life,(HarperCollins, 1998)
2. Padmanabh S Jaini, "Values in comparative perspective: Svadharma versus Ahimsä", Collected Papers on Buddhist Studies, (Motilal Banarasidas, 2001)
3. J Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, (Delhi, Oriental Publishers, 1972)
4. Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, (Viking, 2002)
5. Nicholas B Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, (Princeton University Press, 2001)
6. Arvind Sharma, Classical Hindu Thought, (Oxford University Press, 2000)

The Caste System of India --- An Aurobindonian Perspective

DR. SOUMITRA BASU INSTITUTE FOR INTEGRAL YOGA PSYCHOLOGY :: Publications > DOWNLOADS

    It is indeed interesting that while civilizations, empires, nations and other social edifices continue to arise and fall, the Indian caste system seems to be resilient to ravages of history.  Outlived, decrepit and out of tune with the current era of globalisation,  it still haunts the socio-religious and political scenario of the Indian sub-continent.  While the nation gears up to enter the twenty-first century, caste factors are still strong enough to effect political upheavals and continue to be one of the major causes of violence.

      It is hardly surprising that neither social reforms nor a modern rational and scientific education have been able to usurp the caste system from the Indian psyche.  Inspite of its growing pragmatism, the Indian intelligentsia is peculiarly ambivalent in its attitude to caste factors. Such a deep-rooted and ingrained outlook can not be simplistically explained as a mere social phenomenon.  There must be, along with the social perspective, a psychological dimension that has contributed  to the acceptance and perpetuation of the caste system in the Indian psyche.  That does not however imply that social reform have to be supplemented by psychological maneuvers to help the Indian mind to transcend caste barriers. The predominant determinant of Indian culture arises from her spiritual repertoire.  All other knowledge---- psychological or sociological must be read in the background of a vast spiritual gestalt.  Any solution that aims to break the fetters of the rigid and obsolete caste system must be derived  from a spiritual perspective to be acceptable to the Indian mind.  It is difficult for the Indian temperament to throw away at a stroke an age-old practice.  Perhaps a better way would be preserve the basic principles of the Sanatana Dharma and revalidate them in the context of the changing times.

The caste systems as we find today is of course of a deviated and deformed version of the original Caturvarna system.  Sri Aurobindo examines the problem from three angles  : […]

The four‑fold personality perfected around an integrating soul‑force is the synthesis perceived by Sri Aurobindo. This task requires not only a human effort but a response from the Divine. This new synthesis is built from the same seed‑ ideas that gave birth to the Caturvarna. The Caturvarna was an expression of the Universal spirit as a four‑fold social hierarchy. With the passage of time the form lost its significance and became a burden‑ something that occurred when the Caturvarna became a diseased caste system. But the spirit of the original seed‑ideas born from an intuitive seer‑vision outlives the forms and can always be used for a new synthesis. The four‑fold personality featuring Wisdom, Strength, Harmony and Service integrated around the Soul‑force is such a new synthesis made from the same seed ideas that produced the Caturvarna. This would be more acceptable to the Indian psyche to whom the Vedas, Upanishads and Gita continue to be living spirit.

Such a new synthetic vision of personality has another dimension. The reaction to conventionalism in the West took the form of materialism, secularism and mechanical organisation in the age of Individualism. Sri Aurobindo had opined that the Indian reaction might differ from that of the West and take the form of subjectivism and practical spirituality.³⁰ An acceptance of Sri Aurobindo's synthesis of a perfected personality type constructed from the seed-ideas that evolved the Caturvarna while rejecting the worn‑out caste system would itself be a classical Indian reaction to the age of conventionalism. As such an attempt will have to integrate Wisdom, Strength, Harmony and Service around a Beyond‑Ego principle, it will be mandatory for the Time‑Spirit to press the Human Cycle to move towards a spiritual age en route an era of subjectivism.

FIRST PUBLISHED : SRI AUROBINDO MANDIR ANNUAL No. 54,1995, Sri Aurobindo Pathmandir, Calcutta-73. REFERENCES

(13) Kapali Sastry, T.V. Sri Aurobindo :Lights On The Teachings, Sri Aurobindo Library, Madras, 1948, Pg.93‑94.

(14) Subbannachar, N.V. Social Psychology. The Integral Approach, Scientific Book Agency, Calcutta, 1966, (Table 9, Pg 259 & 323).

(19) Basu, S : The Synthesis Of Eastern And Western Psychological paradigms in the light of Sri Aurobindo, Indian Journal Of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 11(1), 1995, Pgs. 35‑39. Sri Aurobindo's Writings - The Mother's Collected Works