Sanatan System - Jiva to Shiva
Who am I?
Where do I come from?
Where was I before my birth?
Where will I be after my death?
What is this place/planet I am on?
How thankful I am to this life-giving planet I am on?
How thankful I am to the life-giving Sun?
How thankful I am to the life-giving Trees?
How thankful I am to the life-giving/sustaining Environment & all other creatures?
What happens to this world after I die?
Did the God create me or I created the God?
Did the world create me or I created the world around me?
These are some of the fundamental questions a person can/should ask self before jumping the bandwagon of belief system. A self created belief system based on confirmed experiences by self &/or based on genuine sources (parents, grandparents, ancestors) clubbed with understanding of the circumstances under which such a belief was created. Note: "right" understanding of circumstances is very important to create/follow a belief.
The biggest mystery in this world is not something out there, but inside me.
I am the biggest mystery. "Answer is not out there" , "Answer is in here". The questions asked above, have less to do with the things around, one can make up a system to explain how Earth, Sun, Planets, Start etc. were created, how body is created, but conciousness - how do you explain conciousness - the real self? What happens to conciousness before Birth, what happens to it after death?This conciousness is real me, the one that is aware, the one that is experiencing the world around.
The 5 sensory organs(eyes, nose, ears, toungue skin) recieve (signals) mainly from the external environment, pass it on to brain, where these signals are stored along with certain meta data (background, environment, actions etc..). Mind judges them, experiences them at varying degree of happiness (positve or negative), but it is only looking for happiness (Anand).
In this entire process of sensory organs interacting with environment - there is a witness - the self that is Observing. Every action is being observed, this witness-self is untouched by external world, but is all observant-alert-aware-concious of every action or inaction be it in awake or sleep state.
This witness-self is awake during sleep state as well as-while we are dreaming,
This witness-self never sleeps in any creature. (Read https://evolution-nature.blogspot.com - for knowing details of other creatures)
What is this whole witness thing all about? Why is every creature (Jiva) witnessing each of these experiences?
This process of witnessing is for raising Jiva to status of Shiva. Jiva is limited conciousness, limited by own experiences, limited by thought processes, limited to self; Shiva is unlimited conciouness, unbound by the experiences, expanding/spread throughout the Universe & beyond.
Every creature is evolving just to realise the higher-self, the all prevading conciousness, the conciousness that connects everything inside & outside of witness-self. Human life is bestowed with all the capabilities & powers to tap into that all prevading conciousness, ability to connect to all the creatures & the creators.
Moksha is that state of witness-self (and not mind alone) in which self is all prevading, one is able to experience life in much more broader sense that spans across the Universe, starts seeing creature, every action/inaction as extension of self, because without which the self won't exist.
How does one reach to that state of Moksha?
Conciousness - Starting as a sub-atomic force/particle (Shakti-Shiva), has evolved to single-celled organism to complex creatures & eventually to this multi-universe of a system called Human. How does it evolve into the higher state?
Start with the beginning.
As the Vedas clearly state, every human is born as a Shudra ( ) - the basic, the miniumum yet the most fundamental of human existance. Ensuring personal hygine, ensuring community hygine, ensuring mundane tasks are well taken care of, growing of Food to sustain life, creating basic infrastructure to sustain life - food, clothing, shelter - and all the associated activities ( different types of food, different types of clothing, different types of shelter & beautifying them, maintaining them).
These are the most fundamental duties every human on this planet has to take care of, without these human life/society won't sustain.
While at an individual level or at social level one has to maintain the tasks of Shudra, because they are the fundamental activities - some people take few of these tasks as their profession - these are the most profitable tasks - evergreen - these businesses will never go out-of-business.
The Mathematics, science or any other educational knowledge is primary & mostly on daily usage.
Basic medical knowledge, law system at individual/family level, between neighbours - is a norm.
While most of the people will mind-their own business , parallel to this there will be few in the society who are little bit more skillful, artistic, thoughtful; few will be aggressive; few will be diplomatic, profit-minded.
Once the society or an individual has taken care of all the basics of life, the system is self-sustaining, the evolution doesn't stop, the system continues to grow - it starts looking for more, better- things, processes, feelings, experiences, ways-to-live, explore, grow, prosper. These are some of the attributes of Vaishya. Note - This level won't exist without the previous level & spins out only as evolution from the 1st level. To say this level is higher that the 1st level is as good as saying Pot is better than the Clay that it is made up of- without clay there is no pot; likewise without Shudra-level there won't be a Vaishya-level.
(Note: There is no "upper", "lower" in this - a narrative imposed on by colonialist/lesser minds who never understood the Varnashram)
Now the individual or the society has taken care of the basics, the most fundamental of the duties, it's time to move to next level of prospering, exploring - creating a new type of individual or Individuals, who go out of their social circles, geographical boundaries - learn from other systems/societies &/or become part of social exchanges- things one society is devoid of or has abandance of - transportation, dealing, profit/loss, be it barter system or concept of money - they evolve here.
These external dealings, explorations creates activies across the self-sustaining societies whose needs now go beyond the basic/fundamental necessities/activities.
These create self-sustaining system of societies - villages, cities.
Considering the complexities have increased more types of jobs get created, more types of needs get created - documentation, more complex Mathematics etc...
Medical knowledge is exchanged, law system at town level- is a norm.
While most of the people will mind-their own business , parallel to this there will be few in the society who are little bit more skillful, artistic, thoughtful; few will be aggressive; few will be diplomatic, profit-minded.
Once there are multiple such societies, cities with multiple governing bodies across varying geographical locations, there bound to have conflicts between governing bodies of 2 different systems, if these systems can be resolved amicably then good, but if not then force is required.
This leads to creation of Armed Forces - the Kshatriyas.
This level of society or part of society deals with those situations where the muscle power is needed.
This level is required to safeguard individual society. This level of society is part of the ongoing evolution - imagine the society that has not taken care of it's basic necessities (level-1), that has not prospered (level-2) won't have to safeguard itself - it is the prospering societies that have to safeguard themselves from predatory forces - be it other competitive societies or the jealous/envious societies brought up with low standards of living &/or values who tend to capture the more prospering society for personal benefits or have destructive tendencies due to their low standards/understanding.
These armed forces keep anti-forces at bay & fight when required. These fights, battles, wars are not the best of the human behaviours but can't be avoided as self-defense , self-protection, self-propagation is part of evolution & can conflict with other similar force, process.
Many times just having these Armed forces will avoid many conflicts, because other side won't dare to attack. Else every weak, feeble creature can be attacked upon, but nature has bestowed each creature with it's own defence/offense mechanism - thus, an individual or society has to have these mechanism to evolve further.
(Note: Nature never says Ahimsa Parmo Dharmah in a sense of self-annihilation, instead nature gives powers to use them for self-preservation)
Analogy: Once the Clay pot is created it has to be protected from damage.
Now geo-political boundaries are created, rules & regulations are extended, strategies are created , documented, art of war, art of weaponary etc.. are created ,wars are fought, boundaries extended, merged.
Medical systems have to evolve considering the war injuries, Shudra level has to improvise to reconstruction, damage, more technology to create faster & more efficient weapons, armour etc...
Vaishya level has to improve how to minimise their losses.
While most of the people will mind-their own business , parallel to this there will be few in the society who are little bit more skillful, artistic, thoughtful; few will be aggressive; few will be diplomatic, profit-minded.
Considering everything & everyone goes hand in hand, no one is disconnected, this is in line with the initial point - that we are all prevading conciousness, one thing gets affected, everything gets affected - directly or indirectly - more or less - high-priority or low-priority - can ignore or can't ignore.
Alright, now the society has all the basic needs taken care of by Shudra level, Vaishya is ensuring prosperity & Kshatriya is safegaurding the borders. System is self-sustaining everyone is happy, properous. Day-1 all good , day-2 all good, day-100 all good, day-10000 all good - life-time. Eventually one starts questioning, how did this all start- once all the necessities of life are taken care of , mind starts to get into profound thought - Evolution continues, body, society, has been taken care of merely for the sake of mind - witness-self; now the witness-self starts to think about the creation the existance, stumble upon the questions about the creator.
Analogy- Pot is created - Pot is gaurded. Question : Who created the clay? Who placed it on Earth? Who created Earth? and the questions go on.
The Shudras having taken care of all the basics of life, the Vaishyas having taken care of all the developments in society, explored the geographies, the Kshatriyas having safegaurded the society - the geographies.
The "Thoughtful" section of the society, having taken care of their basic necessities, starts to explore further. Thus, creation of a new section of society - The Brahmans.
The Brahmins, question the unseen, try to see the unseen, find means to experience what is beyond the obvious. This section of society Questions, finds the answers, if satisfied by the answer & shares it with the society, thus spinning up more questions & more thoughtful debates, documents, philosophies. It is worth noting, the human society wouldn't evolve this section if level-1,2,3 hadn't evolved.
Note: All the sections of society were always having these 4 types of people, it was just a matter of time that one section evolved, considering the nature of existance, it propagates in certain way.
As Bhagawat Geeta, clearly states, one is Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya or Brahmin based on their innate qualites, each one has his/her role to play as mentioned above, to ensure the society sustains itself. (Contrary to the misinterpreted version by the those who never followed Varnashram or saw it from their perspective -where society were more of a power-play, act of survival, aggression, show-off - such systems even though aggressive weren't self-sustaining because lack of system, lack of understanding- itself opens the doors of it's own destruction).
[A society based on principles of peace n progression with a very constructive mindset , all pervasive, all inclusive, mindful of it's progression, safegaurded by it's belief system & by it's own people is any day much more demanding/needed in Nature that the aggressive, offensive ones. Note: the latter is also required for the former to be on it's toes , to be alert, to be thoughful, to value peace, prosperity. It is nature's way of self-valuing, without the latter the former will become complacent.]
The Rishis, The Munis, The Sadhus, The Sanyasis, The Gurus are the ones looking out for the Ultimate Truth- The purpose behind all the existance, the force behind the existance, the unseen that is driving the seen, experience the unexperienced, things beyond the 5 senses - that are windows of experience with their own limitations, to experience the unlimited - beyond the limitations of sensory organs.
Each individual level of society mentioned above also is a phase in each individual's life - Every one is born a Shudra (Janmana jayate sudrah ), person propers, person defends/offends, and ones all sustained, thinks about the Divine powers. Note - just like in society, the individual always had all the 4 qualities since birth, but different phases of life brings out different personas in him/her - this is balance of life- all inclusiveness of life.
Each Seeker, takes a path based on own experiences & based on experiences shared by his/her Guru (the darkness-remover, the path-shower, the light-giver), thereby if all done correctly - experiencing the All-pervading conciousness - thus eventually merging with Shiva.
This is the journey of Jiva to Shiva.
All creatures are in different stages of evolution, so are human beings, each individual is in some stage & want to go to next, some are happy with wherever they are but Nature decides the course of evolution while the witness-self enjoys the process of evolution - the Journey from Jiva to Shiva.
In 4-13 Krishna says that the chaturvarnya is his creation.
चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः ।
तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम् ॥ ४- १३ ॥
“The fourfold order was created by Me according to the divisions of quality and work. Though I am its creator, know Me to be incapable of action or change.”
Modern -Colonist or the Varnashram interpretation by those who don't understand it.
This is complete rubbish to decide the varna of a person based on hereditary - though various of family traits, occupation may develop certain the qualities, but one father can have 4 children - 1 good with say carpentry, farming; 1 with money ; one good with fighting; one is spiritual seeker - 4 children belonging to 4 different occupation and also as said earlier one person may be in one phase at a certain period of life.
E.g. person's name say Trivedi - means one who knows 3 vedas - but his son need not have the same surname if he has no understanding of Vedas - if son is an Iron Smith - his surname will be Lohar & vice versa. Name is a means to address a person, certain parts of India & other parts of the world people have similar names - Gardner, Smith, Upadhyay, Tendulkar(Works with Tendu plants) etc...
Because a father would most probably teach the same things that he has learnt, the probability of the child learning the same is highest. Thus, over a period of time the occupations have become family businesses - unless someone has high inclination towards other fields of learning or occupations - but these fields are not forbidden.
In current times , if one has to address Ramesh - 1, Ramesh -2 (2 with same name) , you call them based on their address, location &/or occupation, or what they sell. Indian Surnames & in other parts of the world, that's the case - surnames like Menasinkai (Chilli), Baloli ( Garlic) , Ullagaddi (Onion) are common in Northern part of Karnataka. People in these business have become synonymous with these entities that they deal with & thus it has become part of their identity.
Now if for 2 generations the people in family are not dealing with these, the surname is for namesake, children may be software engineers, but currently we don't have a means to have surnames based on occupation else one will be called say Ramesh Software Engineer etc...
No-Upper-Lower
As discussed earlier, each occupation has it's own value & serves it's purpose in various stages of life. Is one section of society more important than others? Technically not. At least at the level at which the 4 varnas were made, each one is important to sustain the society. Hence there is no point of Upper-Lower. Upper - Lower is an European interpretation of their class society. European society was divided as Upper -Lower, Rich-poor, State-Church likewise. I am not saying they were wrong, but that was their model of society. When they invaded India, they applied the same logic, dividing/interpreting the Varnas, the temples & other system based on their understand; looking through their own glasses. Did lot of research , wrote lot of books, but note these were all written through the view of their tainted glasses - they never saw the truth, or rather it was their truth, their view of truth.(In above case , Ramesh-1 is no lesser than Ramesh-2 - they are just numbered to distinguish them ; but the tained mind can see Ramesh-1 is better so he got number 1 , and other one is not so got 2 - but that's not true)
Because this was new, fresh perpective from new set of eyes, people who are in the age old Indian system, who wanted to see new things, wanted a new perspective, read their books, bought in the idea, and accepted them & propagated them as well - they were also rewarded, given big titles by europeans. These people didn't realise that while there was economical drain from India, accepting to these false, tainted ideas was intellectual drain - instead of arguing with the European mindset & giving them a clearer understanding, the lesser minds bought in these ideas & also propagated them.
Again, this is in Nature, birds of same feather flock together. Even though geographies divided them but their mindset united them - whatever be the underlying reason.
It is like a parent scolding their child, so that the child behaves well - another person comes and tells parent not to scold as this is bad, child buys in the external interpretation, because it is beneficial for quick gain, & continues to misbehave. Short term gain, long term loss or Long term gain for short term loss?
People saw this change as refreshing, without even realising it's impact- most common of human feelings. Ideas of discrimation instead of Diversity crept in & was propagated - of course it would serve the purpose of political gains by the invaders- making it much easier to take control of the Diversity protrayed as Differences - all these done very tactfully , in a very calculated fashion - because they came from such a society where might-is-right decides everything; Good clothing decides status of a person; Uniformity is the norm; Material gain is the only aim.
All these ideas crept in , propagated - shown as the new idea, new world. With the propagators - promoted & highlighted, the younger generations saw dropping their ancient teachings as bondages instead of seeing them as tried and tested means to lead a happy life & to ensure better society, city, country over thousands of years, those that had worked well for that environment & for those kind of people.
But these ideas in the name of change, brought in downside of the entire society, the misunderstandings, the misinterpretations, the falsehood, the tained glasses were sold like hot-cakes - wearing these glasses became the norm, anyone without these glasses was being seen as an outlaw.
Anyone who is not sticking to this confirmity is seen as ignorant.
But to understand, one has to remove these tained glass that have been part of education system, media & other influencial means to influence peoples minds.
Untouchability
Being brought-up in a modern society & what I know of the past, this is again something specific to a section of society. May be a few ignorant ones practicing it, or may be a few cleanliness-freaks practicing it.Corona phase in modern times has highlighted the importance of social distancing. If one person doesn't like to touch other one because say one is a handyman - would it be seen as discrimination?
I am talking of the practice in moderation. There were few section of society & continues to be some - who are cleanliness-freaks - they not only treat their family members as untouchables - considering they follow strick and stringent cleanliness practices, they don't eat out, they don't interact with others etc... for excessive cleanlines practices - whether they were right or wrong - the current COVID-19 situation is a good proof. Me like many of you wouldn't have dreamt that we will see such a day; but now that we have, does it prove that a person not ready to touch another is justified?
Technically a Doctor should be fine to dine with a drain-cleaner - from social, human level. But, if the doctor refuses to because it will threaten his/her health along with thousands of patients that he cures - is it justified?
People in India used to wash their hands & legs outside the house before entering the house - these were the cleanliness standards. Were these practices made after they went through a pendemic?
People belonging to certain occupation - not a sect were given different water-well to use - for hygine purpose - to limit the future outbreak?
These could be few of the practices by certain section of the society - but not very predominant through-out the society. Such people were all over the world but to hightlight these practices as the norm is wrong - we don't know what those societies had gone through to have such practices - but one thing is evident it would be for hygine reasons & not discriminatory on any other grounds.
Over a period of time, which practice was highlighted, misinterpreted, propagated is all left to the foreign eyes, their agenda, their motive, their goals, their objectives.
Did anyone try to question their reasoning, did anyone try to reason their questioning, or try to correct them?
Or did we take their interpretation of Untouchability as a norm? These practices were very subjective & were practices by miniscule population & I would like to think for some genuine reason & not for discriminatory purpose.
Hereditary Becoming the Norm
From my study of Indian History, Hereditary was never a norm for anything, especially the occupation - of course how can it be? Not every child is an obidient child & a civilisation as advanced as Indian - has always acknowledged these. In fact kingship was also not hereditary, one had to claim it & prove himself worthy of the throne.Apart from certain sects of society & situations - especially commoners transfer of knowledge over generations would be the norm, but these things can't be imposed - no parent can be as efficient &/or no child would be as obedient :-)
Nature guides each individual, not the society, society itself is a product of nature, nature balances itself out - people move across the geographies, across occupations for various reasons - individual skills are developed, new skills are created these are not politically backed, but instead natural phenomenon.
Who were these dumb people with miniscule intelligence with uninformed societies looking for information & interpreting it as misinformation and eventually for propagation - who made hereditary as a trait - these european societies continue to value Hereditary for throne(England). What do you expect of these lesser minds apart from misunderstanding, misinterpreting the vastness of Indian Knowledge system?
Once the Indian people realise this, they will have to find the right interpretation of their practices, knowledge, sciences and come up with the right and apt interpretation rather than banking on those from others.
Vikas (Development) is the underlying process for everything in & around us. Vikas is ingrained in every step of the process that I am or anyone talks.
If Krishna has to say in Geeta (in Birds I am Garuda, In stars I am Sun etc..), he would say In Processes I am Vikas.
-----------From Geeta :
But be that as it may, what is clear so far is: 1. The society is divided into four varnas. 2. These varnas are not equal in their gunas, karmas and spiritual merit. And 3. Women are more towards sudras than towards Brahmans.
Now let’s see how Krishna himself explains the working of the three gunas of prakriti and their relation to birth.
इति क्षेत्रं तथा ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं चोक्तं समासतः ।
मद्भक्त एतद्विज्ञाय मद्भावायोपपद्यते ॥ १३- १९ ॥
“Know thou that prakrti (nature) and purusha (soul) are both beginningless; and know also that the forms and modes are born of prakrti (nature).” (SR)
प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादी उभावपि ।
विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसम्भवान् ॥ १३- २० ॥
“Nature is said to be the cause of effect, instrument and agent (ness) and the soul is said to be the cause, in regard to the experience of pleasure and pain.” (SR)
कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते ।
पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ॥ १३- २१ ॥
“The soul in nature enjoys the modes born of nature. Attachment to the modes is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs.” (SR)
Let’s try to connect all this: HE, the Lord Krishna, caused the four varna system; yes, on the basis of karma and gunas. Women, viashyas and shudras are born in ‘papayoni’ (or are like them in spirituality) because of their karmas. The soul is born into “good or evil womb” according to its karmas of the past lives and gunas (what SR calls “aptitudes”) and karmas are determined by this birth in “good or evil womb”. I do not know how one can doubt the conclusion without a liberal doze of dogma!
Next we need to move to their swabhava (nature) and swadharma (duties) in this life. It is established that: vaishya, shudra and women are born of ‘low’ birth or are in the same category. It is because of their karmas in past lives, their nature (swabhava) is determined by their birth, through the kind of womb they get; and this play happens through the three gunas of prakriti. In simpler words: their past lives determine their birth, and their gunas. And they fit into the chaturvarna. Shlokas 18:40 to 18:47 tell the ‘swabhava’ and ‘swadharma’ of the four varnas. Those who obey their swadharma with devotion to the lord get united with HIM. Moral of the story: do the duties assigned by your varnas; if you want to unite with the Brahmn do not disturb the varna hierarchy.
How it comes from the horse’s mouth is given below.
न तदस्ति पृथिव्यां वा दिवि देवेषु वा पुनः ।
सत्त्वं प्रकृतिजैर्मुक्तं यदेभिः स्यात्त्रिभिर्गुणैः ॥ १८- ४० ॥
“There is no creature either on earth or again among the gods in heaven, which is free from the three modes born of nature.” (SR)
ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां शूद्राणां च परन्तप ।
कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभावप्रभवैर्गुणैः ॥ १८- ४१ ॥
“Of Brahmins, of Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas as also of Sudras. o Conqueror of the foe (Arjuna), the activities are distinguished, in accordance with the qualities born of their nature.” (SR)
Remember that “their nature” is determined by the attachment they felt for the pleasures of prakriti in their past life. That attachment determined the womb they are born in. That birth is determined by their nature.
शमो दमस्तपः शौचं क्षान्तिरार्जवमेव च ।
ज्ञानं विज्ञानमास्तिक्यं ब्रह्मकर्म स्वभावजम् ॥ १८- ४२ ॥
“Serenity, self-control, austerity, purity, forbearance and uprightness, wisdom, knowledge and faith in religion, these are the duties of the Brahmin, born of his nature.” (SR)
शौर्यं तेजो धृतिर्दाक्ष्यं युद्धे चाप्यपलायनम् ।
दानमीश्वरभावश्च क्षात्रं कर्म स्वभावजम् ॥ १८- ४३ ॥
“Heroism, vigour, steadiness, resourcefulness, not fleeing even in a battle, generosity and leadership, these are the duties of a Kshatriya born of his nature.” (SR)
कृषिगौरक्ष्यवाणिज्यं वैश्यकर्म स्वभावजम् ।
परिचर्यात्मकं कर्म शूद्रस्यापि स्वभावजम् ॥ १८- ४४ ॥
“Agriculture, tending cattle and trade are the duties of a Vaisya born of his nature; work of the character of service is the duty of a Sudra born of his nature.” (SR)
And then comes the moral of the story:
स्वे स्वे कर्मण्यभिरतः संसिद्धिं लभते नरः ।
स्वकर्मनिरतः सिद्धिं यथा विन्दति तच्छृणु ॥ १८- ४५ ॥
“Devoted each to his own duty man attains perfection. How one, devoted to one’s own duty, attains perfection, that do thou hear.” (SR)
यतः प्रवृत्तिर्भूतानां येन सर्वमिदं ततम् ।
स्वकर्मणा तमभ्यर्च्य सिद्धिं विन्दति मानवः ॥ १८- ४६ ॥
“He from whom all beings arise and by whom all this is pervaded-by worshipping Him through the performance of his own duty does man attain perfection.” (SR)
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् ।
स्वभावनियतं कर्म कुर्वन्नाप्नोति किल्बिषम् ॥ १८- ४७ ॥
“Better is one’s own law though imperfectly carried out than the law of another carried out perfectly. One does not incur sin when one does the duty ordained by one’s own nature.” (SR)
It seems to be clear to me that the Gita: 1. Recognises varana-vyavastha. 2. Varna’s are determined by birth, through a complex mechanism of karma-theory and workings of the prakriti and purushs (the soul). 3. Varna’s are not equal in spiritual merit, social standing, swabhava and swadharma. 4. However, all can redeem themselves by devotion to HIM and through following their duty; the path to salvation is closed to none. 5. But to achieve this they have to accept their station in the society and their duties to Him and other people in the society. I do not know how one can escape these conclusions.
https://rohitdhankar.com/2015/04/22/bhagavad-gita-2-varna-based-on-birth-or-individual-qualities/
posted by Vikas at 1:30 PM
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