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In the Vedas there is one story which clearly describes the attempts to solve problems by satisfying needs. In a small hut there lived one yogi (a person who tries to reach perfection in self-realization through physical and breathing exercises). A mouse intruded into his hut and started to distract him from meditation process (mind concentration). Once he met a friend and complained to him. The friend advised to get a cat which could catch the mouse. The yogi did as said. After a while he met the friend again. The friend inquired about his things. The yogi complained that then the cat mewed all day long in his ears asking for milk. The friend advised to get a cow. The yogi did as said. But the care for the cow took much time, then the friend advised to bring a wife who would take care of the cow. The yogi, thus, got married. Soon the wife gave birth to children and the yogi left his practice and immersed in activities to support them. One day sitting on the porch he thought, “I’d rather have tolerated the mouse’. This is a good example showing which circle of activity one will get trying to solve problems by satisfying needs.
Passion, therefore, is based on envy and lust and “grants” temporary pleasures and constant worries and miseries. In this guna one cannot distinguish religiosity from irreligiosity because he/she does not see any difference between them. For such person all living beings are simply different material bodies with the need for food, rest, sex and self-defense and that is why any talks about perfection are not serious.
The guna of ignorance is based on illusion. This guna leads to violence, madness, laziness. This is the guna of people who reject any behavior restrictions (ethics). Violence, stubbornness, rudeness, habits to hurt others, vengefulness arising from self-righteousness is the short list of the qualities of people influenced by this guna. If the intellect in the guna of goodness distinguishes well religiosity from irreligiosity, the truth from a lie, and in the guna of passion the intellect does not distinguish these, then the intellect in the guna of ignorance is confident that it is right though it takes irreligiosity for religiosity, a lie for the truth and so on. This is the type of existence when the truth is hidden from a living being to the uttermost. The most typical specimens of this type are animals.
The Bhagavad-Gita sees lust (desires) as the most important defect and the state of a living being is defined by its availability. A virtuous person satisfies “innocent” desires and keeps those desires which can cause inconveniences to others. A passionate person looks for ways to satisfy all desires. An ignorant person without a second thought satisfies desires using violence. A virtuous person follows godly laws, a lustful person considers in his/her actions opinions of necessary people, an ignorant person just do what he/she wants not keeping with any law. Thus, a virtuous person builds a God-centered society, a lustful person builds a secular or pseudo-religious society and an ignorant person builds an atheistic or demonic society. A virtuous person likes to follow the laws of the Lord, a lustful person likes to use the Lord for satisfaction of desires and an ignorant person simply does not believe in His existence and acts as he/she wants to.
According to the Aryan philosophy, respectively, virtuous persons on death go to heavenly planets awarded by the highest material pleasures. With the “help” of these pleasures, they burn the piety reserve and return again to the middle planets (like the Earth) to proceed with their material existence.
Those in the guna of passion are born on the middle planets like ours in order to be able to “build their future” by means of a vigorous activity. And ignorant persons are born on hellish planets. Having passed through the purgatory, they are born on middle planets in the animal world and going from life to life through the evolution process are born again in the human form of life.
Speaking mathematically, the truth is similar to the sequence of natural numbers, where minus infinity is a form of life under the influence of the guna of ignorance and violence reigns there. Rudeness, unwillingness to consider others, rejection of other ways of thinking, enforcement of own way of thinking, enjoyment of violence, causing others’ sufferings for the sake of power is the incomplete list of qualities inherent to such people. From the influence of this guna, animals get away by evolution from life to life passing away different forms of animal life up to the human form and people get away by a more elevated communication. This way they get to the guna of passion. The guna of passion appears in the vigorous activity, various desires, satisfaction of needs of the tongue (want delicious food), the stomach (want much food) and genitals (want physical intimacy with the opposite sex). Hunger for love, pursuit of passion, need for wealth, envy, arrogance, contempt, intrigues are the qualities inherent for people living in the guna of passion. The initial dream eventually becomes a misery. As the result of miseries via envy and anger a person descends to violence, that is the guna of ignorance. With the same miseries, a person via compassion (do not want the other to suffer like me) goes up to the virtuous state. Virtue (piety) is based on the sense of duty and knowledge (wisdom). Patience, care, compassion, reasonableness, purity, good morals (decency), justice are the qualities inherent in this guna. Development of these qualities first requires efforts (internal work, especially to learn to consider others) and then they bring happiness. In the material world this is the elevated condition ensuring a quiet life. Degradation from this condition to the state of passion happens via the sense of superiority (to the point of contempt).
Realizing worldliness, a person in piety starts to strive for liberation. The basis of liberation is the realization of one’s spiritual self. Oppressed by the material world, soul gets a great pleasure realizing that in fact it is eternal. When one perceives that he/she is an inherent parcel of the Lord, he/she enjoys the own eternal nature but it is not yet in the position to accept the Lord’s will. Actually, this is a condition when one is free from the material world but without the access to the spiritual world yet, the “zero” state which is called “liberation”. At this level, the material sense organs and mind are passivated but spiritual senses have not been activated yet.
The next stage is when the all-pervading and all-controlling aspect of the Lord is realized. At this stage, soul restores its knowledge and the resultant feeling of respect and fear of the Lord. One sees everything depending on the Supreme Personality of Godhead and realizes His power and capabilities. The next stage is to overcome the feelings of worshiping and respect and restore close relationships with Him which can be only by means of the devotional service to the Lord. At this stage, a living being perfectly restores the entire nature (eternity, knowledge and most importantly fullness with bliss). This is the way to the infinite bliss the nature of which cannot be understood by our poor material intellect. A living being through the Lord’s mercy restores the relationships with Him; and His beauty, perfection, pleasure of communication with Him again and again grant us with happiness with no limits.
We have outlined the philosophic concept of the Aryans. It should be noted that each feature of this concept can become a topic of a comprehensive book. Not aiming to reveal the Aryans’ philosophy in depth and to give arguments which could support this concept, we have limited ourselves just to the sufficient description of their world view. Though, it should be mentioned that for a thoughtful reader the given information contains rather deep secrets of psychology. One who possesses this secret can become an Aryan him/herself and make the same anyone with who he/she gets in contact.
In order to return from the material world to the spiritual world, the Aryan literature provides four ways which are called karma-yoga, gyana-yoga, dhyana-yoga and bhakti. The word “yoga” means the union with the Lord. The processes uniting with the Lord are, respectively, actions, mind, intelligence and emotionality (soul). Karma means actions. This is the process when one tries not to control senses but to satisfy them with religious methods, in other words, this way is to unite with the through actions. Alternatively, karma-yoga is called varnashrama-dharma which is the social system regulating behavior of an Aryan. Living in the system of varnashrama-dharma, one finally comes to renouncement. At this level one is based on the knowledge and tries to control desires refusing to communicate with objects of sensual pleasures. This process is called gyana-yoga. When a yogi has attained perfection in renouncement and sitting in one pose he focuses the mind on the Lord it is called the process of dhyana-yoga. But all these processes ultimately do not solve the main problem. Soul gas got an active nature. In the material world this activity is misdirected. By subordinating activities arising from the active nature of the soul to the laws of varnashrama-dharma, one regulates activities but misdirected desires still remain. With the help of gyana-yoga one restrains material desires but then the active nature of soul remains unsatisfied. The active nature of soul is satisfied only with bhakti-yoga. This is the perfect system where both activities and desires attain the right direction through the devotional service to the Lord.
CHAPTER 2. VARNASHRAMA-DHARMA
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE ARYAN SOCIETY
The peculiarity of the Aryan society was that it was God-centered on the basis not only of faith in God but the real communication with Him. This statement sounds for modern people as if mocking their life experience. But until this difference is understood we won’t be able to comprehend why the Aryan system of values and their social structure are more preferable. The unique trait of this society is in this very fact that it is in the position to assert the real connection with God and His servants (demigods) and solve arising problems with their help; this indeed makes the Aryans unique (not the type of the head, skin tone or heroism).
The Author2.1 Social Classes and their Interaction
The toughest problem of a human life is the desire to avoid reactions in response to free activities. One wants to behave freely and to be happy. But the material world has got the cause-and-effect structure and there works the law of respective reaction to certain activities. We do not always see how it works because it functions from life to life and appears in the form of destiny. Due to ignorance, one has got the impression that the law in force is: the one who is stronger wins, the one who wins enjoys. The Aryans prove the unfairness of this view by pointing at initially unequal conditions of existence which indicate the cause of their appearance in the past life. We make sinful and saintly deeds which make up the basis of our destiny in the future life. In general, this is the idea of destiny which can be explained only if the reincarnation concept is accepted. Otherwise, we have to accept that either conditions of our life are given to us incidentally (by the blind nature) or God, if He exists, is cruel and inexplicably gives such different starting conditions which doom one to a certain life. Some concepts suggest the idea of reactions for sins of the forefathers which cannot be accepted because it violates the principle of justice: the one who committed sins should suffer.
There is the contradiction between the blissful nature of an eternal soul and endeavors to satisfy it by violence (major or subtle). Ones who behave freely suffer next life from bad living conditions. Those willing to get rid of chains of miseries shall learn to consider other living beings. As mentioned above, for the Aryans the material world is the place of residence for those envious souls who cultivated the desire to enjoy and to rule without God. For these persons, the desire to act independently is practically insuperable. In the spiritual world, living beings naturally subordinate their desires to God’s wishes. Being the perfect Personality, He is capable of giving anyone everything that brings happiness. When actuated by endeavors to act independently, a living being starts the material existence, initially it seems that one will be able to compel to his/her will the Lord’s energy called maya-shakti (as was already mentioned, this energy hides the existence of God). This energy, with any activity which is not connected with God’s will, acts in such a way that we would understand how much we are not able to control God’s energy so that it would give us pleasure. Simultaneously, we get entangled in reactions of our activities which so far do not let us exit the material world.
The soul is blissful and finds no suffering acceptable. In the spiritual world, all desires of the soul are fulfilled but they are not fulfilled in the material world. In the material world, everything deviates from the truth and lacks harmony, is full of anxiety because of the contradiction between the nature of the soul and materia (a temporary body and the subsequent fear, power-hungry living beings and suffering resulting from competitiveness, ignorance and subsequent violence).
The soul is active and therefore it wants to communicate. Various desires are soul’s inherent nature. The spiritual body is eternal and that is why when interacting no living being can harm it. Spiritual communication is harmless for existence and therefore it is blissful. In the material world, the soul gets in a very difficult situation: to reach happiness, it seeks communication but a vulnerable body itself contains the danger of death (or suffering). This contradiction causes the need to divide all living beings into friends and enemies. Everyone who contributes to pleasures of a material body is a friend and those who may be dangerous for its existence are enemies.
Communication takes place on the basis of knowledge. Any communication includes knowledge, communication on the basis of this knowledge and the level of doer. Depending on which laws of nature these three components are, various types of communication appear:
1) communication full of goodness, bringing peace;
2) mixed communication, causing either joy or disappointment;
3) destroying communication, causing suffering.
Respectively, if one cultivates knowledge in goodness, then applying it during communication, such person certainly gets results of goodness. This is the endeavor of any individual, any society. However, the reality is much more difficult. It is the greatest problem to instate one on the platform of goodness (acquiescence). Material consciousness is egocentric and a temporary body is the guarantor of development of greed. Therefore, mostly doers are influenced by the laws of passion or ignorance. Such doer even if given the perfect knowledge or a correct activity will treat all these in accordance with the own performance level, i.e. in accordance with his/her desires. The material communication lacks harmony and this causes the need for patience which is absolutely alien to the soul. Spiritual communication is spontaneous, free and blissful as all spiritual beings are perfect and free from the desire of mutual exploitation. In the material world, these very jivas strive for superiority, hence exploitation. On the other hand, conditioned souls are of the imperfect nature and therefore any communication at first gives them some hope and then brings disappointment. One is given the possibility to rise to goodness just when such person appears to be able to endure this disappointment. Less reasonable persons try to search for another communication hoping to reach happiness. But reasonable persons realize that this problem is initially unsolvable in the material world. They understand that it does not matter (or to be exact it matters very little) with whom to communicate, all objects are imperfect anyway. Less reasonable persons at first think they have met some pleasant communication and then lose their temper because of faults. A wise person knows that everyone has got some faults and tries to rely on advantages (the principle of a bee collecting only nectar from all flowers) looking for good qualities in everyone and being forbearing toward deficiencies. This is the psychological condition which ensures the peaceful existence of all imperfects beings in the material world. But living beings want to enjoy. When consciousness is secular, namely self-centered, and one thinks that he/she lives only once, such person does not understand the reason for enduring. Such people are able to sacrifice everything for the sake of their own pleasure and then society is composed of lonely people where everyone looks for acceptable objects of sense pleasure. Such society is based on the race or competition in the struggle for the greatest sense pleasure. It seems to such person that he/she gets more pleasure when fighting for them. But the experience has shown that both success and defeat do not depend on the amount of effort. They depend on luck. And what is luck if it is not God’s will which is displayed in accordance with our merits?
Patience is the basis for communication of pious people, and society formed on such basis is called varnashrama-dharma. What does this term mean? Varnas are different social classes:
1) monks (priests) – brahmanas,
2) rulers and warrior – kshatriyas,
3) farmers and merchants – vayshyas,
4) laborers and servants – shudras.
Ashramas are also divided into four categories but they refer to different stages of life of the same individual. These stages are the following:
1) learning process – brahmacharya- ashram,
2) householder life – grihastha-ashram,
3) partial renunciation – vanaprastha-ashram,
4) full renunciation – sannyasa.
1) Learning. The Aryan system started education at the age of five. In the process of learning, one received the Vedic system of values, studied the essence of the material nature and its structure, developed the deep knowledge of laws of gunas of the material nature and, mostly important, formed the correct impression of the meaning and value of life which later became the basis for patience. The knowledge was transferred verbally and carriers of any knowledge held a very high position in society.
2) Householder life. Ahead of this stage of life, one carefully analyzed own desires. If the Vedic knowledge contributed to understanding the worldliness of this world, then right away a brahmachari accepted renunciation and the life style suitable for this stage. Such persons were called naishtiki brahmachari, i.e. ones who never ejaculated semen. These persons are special, strict, renounced and their meaning of life is only to comprehend the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and own relationships with Him. Naishtiki brahmacharis take sannyasa (renouncement). The presence of this ashram is very important for society. There are just very few renounced persons but they ensure the purity of the spiritual knowledge by means of their own realization. The spiritual knowledge at its highest level always assumes renunciation from this world and restoration of the spiritual consciousness. Very rare persons are able to follow this way till the end. A sannyasi is not the one who just reads spiritual literature, learns it by heart and declaims it before the unsuspecting public earning cheap glory. A sannyasi practices the spiritual knowledge in full renunciation from worldly fuss and really restores the lost connection with the Lord. Having proved the truth of the Vedic statements by own experience, sannyasis keep the spiritual knowledge without deviations. The purity of knowledge creates a real connection to the spiritual world, the connection which is the source of the strength of society. When society (nation) has no ascetics, it lacks the divine power and it is doomed to follow the path of sin, ignorance and suffering. Being sannyasi-conscious, the Aryans showed a special respectful attitude for them. The respectful attitude for all social classes was the characteristic feature of the Aryan society, but recanted persons were specially honored. When varnashrama-dharma is destroyed, there appear pseudo-recanted persons who are engaged only in “work” for their prosperity and glory hiding behind the recanted status. The great Aryan Bhaktivinoda told that there was nothing worse in this world than a religious hypocrite (a recanted person) who used that position only to get the material gain (money, fame, authority).
Ones who felt that during their learning period they could not overcome their material desires (both mind and body what is called claim rights) addressed the other stage of life, domestic (grihastha ashram). Regularities of this stage will be discussed separately. But meanwhile we can say that at this very stage there was effective the social structure arranged in accordance with individual’s qualities. The majority of society was composed of family people. All other ashramas were under the care of this ashrama.
3) Partial renunciation. At the age of fifty, religious figures and leaders left their families and went to the forest to get to self-realization. That allowed to keep society constantly in hands of young people protecting it from rigidity (conservatism). Though it has to be said that certain conservatism is always needed for society not to lose its achievements, but from time to time even scriptures are commented according to time and circumstances. The key truth does not change, but methods of its presentation can be modified. The ways to do it without any distortion are known only by very lofty recanted persons. At this stage a man started his renouncement. He left his social duties (retired) and started his self-knowledge far from his family but he would receive food from it while undergoing adaptation. At this stage, a man could take his wife with him.
4) Renunciation.Via partial renouncement, a man got used to ascetic life and became a pilgrim. Walking around holy places, he met saints and got spiritual knowledge from them. Recanted persons communicated with people of the worldly mindset only for preaching purposes. The luckiest among them met the Lord.
The Bhagavad-Gita presents characteristics of different components of activity which our happiness and suffering depend on (Chapter 18, verses 18-28):
Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors which motivate action; the senses, the work and the doer comprise the threefold basis of action.
In accordance with the three modes of material nature, there are three kinds of knowledge, action, and performers of action. Listen as I describe them.
That knowledge by which one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all existences, undivided in the divided, is knowledge in the mode of goodness.
That knowledge by which a different type of living entity is seen to be dwelling in different bodies is knowledge in the mode of passion.
And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusion-such unintelligent determination is in the mode of ignorance.
The regulated activity when done without any attachment, love or hatred or desire to get back anything is considered action in the guna of goodness.
Activity which requires many efforts aiming to fulfill own desires and dictated by the false ego, is called action in the guna of passion.
Activity caused by misbeliefs and in contradiction with instructions of holy scriptures without consideration of its enslaving consequences or activity with violence which cause suffering to other living beings is considered action in the guna of ignorance.
One who does one’s duty being free from influence of gunas of material nature and the false ego with great determination and enthusiasm, equally firm in success or misfortune acts in goodness.
If one is attached to activity and its results, spurred on the desire for enjoyment of one’s labor, being greedy, envious, impure, exposed to happiness and grief, he is said to be influenced by the guna of passion.