The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 9-8: Swami Krishnananda.

========================================================================================

Monday 02, December 2024, 06:10.
The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity:9-8.
Chapter 9: The Classification of Society-8.
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita: 
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti

========================================================================================

The great Lord does not go so deep in the beginning, but it becomes necessary to go deep later on when the patient is not listening. So, in the beginning he suffices with, “Okay. As a social individual at least, you have to contribute your might.”

I shall revert for two or three minutes to the point of this classification of society which the ancient masters classified as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Sudra. We have to be very careful in understanding what these terms mean. They mean the obligations of a person, and not the person himself or herself. We sometimes mistake the obligation for the person, and try to put the cart before the horse. There are people who say these distinctions do not exist and they should not exist. It is no use talking like that. They do exist, and they cannot but exist, just as you cannot deny the difference between the leg and the head. However much you may be humanitarian and equilibrated in your opinion, they do what their functions are because they are expected to do only that function. You have to be honest and generous enough to understand the spirit behind this instruction. It is not possible for all people to do all things. This kind of equality is unknown. You cannot eat grass and give your sweet porridge to the swine because the human being and the swine are the same in the eye of the Lord, and everything is equal. There is a final unity of all things. It is said in a passage of the Bhagavadgita that one should look equally upon a Brahmin, a dog, an elephant, an elephant driver, a dog eater, etc. You can understand the spirit in which this is said. It does not mean you should walk with four legs because you are like a cow. That is not the idea. You do not develop a trunk because you are like an elephant. This kind of literal interpretation is not to be permitted.

The classification of society – the word 'caste' may be avoided, if you like – becomes necessary on account of the differentiating capacities and the needs of people. Everyone's need is not identical. The capacity and the need will decide the kind of function that you have to perform. As you know very well, your capacity is not the same as another's capacity, and your need is also not the same as the need of another. Society is to be protected in four ways, among many other things which may also be necessary. For the welfare of society, we require manpower. Who says manpower is not necessary? There are also the group of people who engage in commercial transactions and the movement of goods, and work for their production. There is a necessity for the power of social economy; therefore, the production of goods, commodities which are necessary for the maintenance of society, becomes the obligation of some people. Now, would you like everyone to produce only, and do nothing else? Production requires distribution. You cannot have commodities locked up somewhere, without distribution. And finally, there is a need to exercise understanding and a reason to operate this whole machinery of human society, which works variously for its welfare. The reason is the Brahmin, the understanding, something like the judiciary in an administration. It requires the operation of a final judgment of values, and also an administrative setup.

Now, these needs, among the many other needs of human society, should be considered as the foundation for the institution of these classifications. It has nothing to do with the superiority or the inferiority of a person. It is nothing but the classification of function and performance as an obligation for mutual cooperation and social welfare. It is necessary that I should do what I am expected to do from the point of view of my knowledge and capacity as dictated by my inner constitution, for my welfare as well as another's welfare, because my welfare is decided by the welfare of others, and vice versa.

Therefore, a total organic view is taken by the Bhagavadgita, and not merely a political view, a tradesman's view or a commercial view. It is a difficult thing to appreciate, because all life seems to move from gradations of organisms to organisms, from wholes to wholes. Every part of life, every stage of living is one kind of organism, right from the cell in the body. A little cell in this body is one organism. It is a complete society in itself. One cell can be taken out from your body, and they say that DNA, RNA, etc., are contained in these little cells, and the whole Mr. So-and-so is reflected in that little cell. By studying one cell of the body, one can know the whole person. From the iris of the eye, the whole person can be studied. From one line on the palm of the hand, you can know the whole person. One little line on the sole of the foot can tell what kind of person you are, and so on, and it will also tell you the organic structure of the universe.

Therefore, the classification of society is not the distribution of work to different individuals by the personal motives of anybody. It is a necessity arisen on account of the very organic structure of human society, inasmuch as it is one organism among the several levels of organism, until you reach the final organism of the universe itself. From the little cell of your body until the whole cosmos, you will find there are levels of organisms. There are no individuals in the world; therefore, selfish action is not possible. Selfish action is unthinkable because the whole of life is organically connected right from the lowest level of an atom up to the highest concept of the total universe. Such will be the apex to which we will be taken. Unselfishness is the philosophy of the Bhagavadgita because we cannot but act unselfishly under the nature of things. There is no other way of working.

*****

Next

Chapter 10: The Need for Sankhya

Continued

=============================================================================================