How to mess up your life with and without varnāśrama
One can mess up his life without varnāśrama, but he can mess up his life even more seriously with a wrong or limited conception of it. What is the solution, then?
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Apart from spiritual knowledge, the Vedas also offer a system of social organization called varnāśrama. Although frequently confused with a caste system, the varnāśrama system is a completely different system, based on training and on respecting the natural tendencies of the individual.
In modern times, we have a strong polarization between left and right political systems. On the left, we have a strong emphasis on individual rights, but less emphasis on collective rights, while on the left we have an emphasis on collective rights, including maintenance of social structures, but individual rights are frequently neglected. The varnāśrama system offers a balance between the two sides, balancing the needs of the individual and the needs of the society; it is, therefore, considered an ideal system. The problem is that varnāśrama can be properly implemented only by leaders acting under the mood of goodness, enlightened brāhmanas who can properly understand the system. When the initiative comes from rajarsic militants, things can go seriously wrong, as the system is misinterpreted. One can mess up his life without varnāśrama, but he can mess up his life even more seriously with a wrong or limited conception of it.
What is the solution then? We may fail to realize that our philosophy is “acintya-bhedabheda-tattva”. When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu came, great thinkers were discussing whether the jīva is equal to or different from Kṛṣṇa. He explained that it’s actually both: the jīva is inconceivably both equal and different from Kṛṣṇa at the same time. Equal in quality, but different in quantity. It may seem like a simple conclusion, but it revolutionized philosophical thinking at its time.
Similarly, most other philosophical points have two sides, and to reach a proper conclusion, we have to understand both sides and be able to balance them.
There are many potential problems in trying to implement varnāśrama in a fanatical and immature way. We surely had (and still have) a good dose of that in our spiritual society, mostly in the form of discrimination against women. Just like certain groups of Muslims sometimes create much havoc trying to blindly follow sharia law, we can also create terrible disturbances by trying to implement varnāśrama in an immature way.
It’s important to note that there are different versions of the varnāśrama system, according to the level of spiritual progress and the mixture of material modes that influence the members of different societies. Both suras and asuras follow varnāśrama, but their implementations are quite different. To start, there is daiva-varnāśrama (which is based on training and qualification and has the goal of spiritual upliftment) and asuric-varnāśrama (which is based on hereditary privileges and emphasizes the material aspects). Daiva-varnāśrama is a sattvic system, while asuric-varnāśrama is based on the modes of passion and ignorance. If one is not very much into sattva-guna, the tendency is that he may end up implementing the wrong type of varnāśrama. We can see this tendency in our society when we put women down instead of helping them to properly use their talents for Kṛṣṇa.
There is, however, also the risk of going to the other extreme, rejecting varnāśrama. As Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura explains in his Jaiva Dharma, all civilized societies are based on reflections of the varnāśrama-dharma system. This reflection appears in the form of moral principles, honesty, family values, protection of women and children, respect for elders, and so on. Societies are successful to the extent that such principles remain strong. In this sense, liberalism, which culminates in the LGBT movement, is the antithesis of varnāśrama, successfully abolishing all role models, to the point one doesn’t know even if he should be a man or a woman.
Even in political systems, these two extremes can be found. Right-wing ideologies, like fascism, want to suppress the individual in favor of the state, while left-wing ideologies, like anarchy, want to destroy the state in favor of the individual. We can see in practice that neither of the two sides works well.
Vedic culture is the ideal system that can balance society and the individual, but it can only work when properly understood and maturely implemented. Fortunately, we have the intelligence and the proper philosophy to find the golden middle necessary to successfully implement a mature version of the varnāśrama system, which will surely greatly benefit all of us.
What is varnāśrama?
Both Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura and Śrila Prabhupāda urged us to implement varnāśrama Dharma, presenting it as a necessary step for Krsna Consciousness to spread through the world. Varnāśrama is important because it regulates material activities, allowing one to live in a pious way. Someone who is on a platform of pure devotional service is already situated in the supreme dharma, but all the others, who are still acting (fully or partially) on the material platform, need to live a pious life to be able to advance in their spiritual lives. A pious life is a foundation that allows one to build his spiritual life. As Śrila Prabhupāda used to quote, “a sinful man can’t approach God”. Without varnāśrama, devotees who are not very serious in spiritual life tend to slowly just fall back into their past sinful habits, and thus gradually forget about Krsna Consciousness.
Just as people in Satya-yuga, a small community of sages living in the forest, will not need varnāśrama because they are solely dedicated to spiritual activities, but as soon as the community grows and starts to include families, children, etc., the need arises, as a solution for the material side. A community has many needs: different products need to be bought and sold, different services as well as different types of skills and knowledge are needed, there must be schools for the children, etc. The varnāśrama system offers a culture, a set of rules, and the knowledge necessary to run a society progressively.
Just like a machine, a society demands specialization: different people, with different talents, can develop and practice different sets of knowledge and perform different activities that are useful for society. Someone needs to teach and train, someone needs to manage, someone needs to produce and sell, and someone has to work. There should also be values, morals, etc., necessary for people to perform their work in honest ways. Modern societies are based on values that are opposed to spiritual cultivation. The varnāśrama system offers a much better solution from the spiritual standpoint, being thus a more solid basis for a spiritually progressive society. More than that, the main component of the varnāśrama system is training: the idea is to teach people how to be proper human beings, instead of just giving them technical knowledge like in modern universities. Our ācāryas knew about that; therefore, they were promoting the idea.
What varnāśrama is not
One great difficulty is that there is more than one type of varnāśrama, and therefore, we need to be able to differentiate and choose the right one. Varnāśrama also needs to be reconciled with the higher Vaiṣnava principles to be useful in our communities, otherwise we may end up losing the spiritual essence, defeating the whole purpose.
The first point to understand is that varnāśrama is not a spiritual system. It’s useful as a foundation for spiritual activities, and it can be spiritualized when practiced as a service to Krsna, but in itself is a material system. In fact, varnāśrama by itself is a system tainted with the idea of dharma, artha, kama, and mokṣa: religiosity, material development, sense gratification, and impersonal liberation. This is the type of varnāśrama that was rejected by Caitanya Mahāprabhu in his talks with Ramananda Raya.
As Vaiṣnavas, we follow daiva varnāśrama, which is the varnāśrama system in its pure form, where all duties are executed for the satisfaction of the Lord, as a foundation to our devotional practices. In the daiva varnāśrama system, the stages of artha and kama are accepted only to the degree they are useful for our service and spiritual practice, and the ultimate goal of mokṣa is replaced by the idea of pure devotional service. A Vaiṣnava may acquire riches, but he or she engages such resources in the service of Kṛṣṇa, therefore doesn’t become entangled. One may build a family, but he doesn’t see himself as the proprietor or enjoyer; it’s not “his” family, but Kṛṣṇa’s family, which he is maintaining. In essence, in the daiva varnāśrama, all of our activities are executed for the satisfaction of the Lord and to advance spiritually.
In the materialistic varnāśrama, the wife serves the husband with the mentality of obtaining material facilities and a better situation in the next life, while in the daiva varnāśrama system, she serves the husband as a service to the Lord. As we can see, in the first case, the center is ourselves, while in the second, the center is Kṛṣṇa. As the service and spiritual practice have primary importance, sometimes part of the rules and regulations of the varnāśrama system may be adjusted if they are not favorable for the performance of one’s service, as explained in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam:
“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world. The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead. All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification. Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.” (SB 1.2.6-10)
This is further elucidated in Caitanya Caritāmṛta:
“‘Krsna is the origin of Lord Viṣnu. He should always be remembered and never forgotten at any time. All the rules and prohibitions mentioned in the sastras should be the servants of these two principles.’ (CC Madhya 22.113)
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