Real Concept of “Varnsankar” as preached in Geeta, by Shri Mrityunjayanand
Since the beginning mankind has been suffering from foolish customs that have nothing to do with awareness of God. There were schisms and foolish customs in the past, and they are with us even today. There were also divisions and such customs in Sri Krishn’s time, and Arjun was a victim of some of them. This is seen from his four arguments, namely that war destroys the eternal Sanatan Dharm and that it produces varnsankar, an unholy intermingling of disparate classes and ways of life. Obsequial offerings of deceased ancestors will cease and that we shall by being engaged in destroying our race, invite great curses on us. Let us discuss here about what is the real concept of “Varnsankar” as preached in Bhagwad Geeta.
In chapter one, Arjun says, “So it is not for us to kill Dhritrashtr’s sons, for how indeed can we be happy, O Madhav (Krishn), if we slaughter our own kinsmen? Although, with their minds vitiated by greed, they (the Kaurav) have no awareness of the evil they do in destroying families and in being treacherous to friends, why should we, O Janardan, who know that it is evil to destroy families, not turn away from the sinful act? In case of the destruction of a family its eternal sacred traditions are lost, and impiety afflicts the whole family with the loss of its values.’’ In verse forty one of chapter one, he points out:
adharmābhibhavātkṛṣṇa praduṣyanti kulastriyaḥ
strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya jāyate varṇasaṅkaraḥ
“When sin prevails, O Krishn, women of the family stray from virtue, and when they are unchaste, O descendant of the ‘Vrishnis (Varshneya: Krishn), there is generated an unholy mixture of classes (varnsankar).’’
When unrighteous ways dominate a family, its women lose their chastity and there arises an intermingling of different classes, of incompatible cultures and ways of living. According to Arjun, this sinful intermingling occurs when women lose their virtue. Arjun goes on with his elaboration of the evils of varnsankar. He says:
Saṅkaro narakāyaiva kulaghnānāṁ kulasya ca
patanti pitaro hyeṣāṁ luptapiṇḍodakakriyāḥ
“The unholy intermingling of classes condemns the destroyer of the family as well as the family itself to hell, for their ancestors, deprived of the offerings of obsequial cakes of rice and water libations, fall (from their heavenly abode).’’
It is a quality of varnsankar to despatch families and their destroyers to hell. Divested of obsequial gifts of rice cakes, their forefathers also lose their heavenly home. The present is destroyed, the ancestors of the past fall, and the posterity to come will also descend to hell. Not only this, but-
doṣairetaiḥ kulaghnānāṁ varṇasaṅkarakārakaiḥ
utsādyante jātidharmāḥ kuladharmāśca śāśvatāḥ
“The sin committed by destroyers of families, which causes an intermingling of classes, puts to an end the timeless dharm of both caste and family.’’
According to Arjun, the evils of varnsankar destroy the traditions of both families and their destroyers. He holds the view that family traditions are changeless and eternal. But Sri Krishn refutes this later by asserting that self alone is the changeless and eternal Sanatan Dharm. Before a man has realized the essence of this Sanatan Dharm, he gives credence to some tradition or the other. Such is Arjun’s belief at the moment, but in Sri Krishn’s view it is a mere delusion.Arjun adds further:
“We have heard, O Janardan, that hell is indeed the miserable habitat, for an infinite time, of men, the traditions of whose families have been destroyed.”
Men whose family traditions are destroyed have to dwell in hell endlessly. What is significant though is that Arjun has only heard so. As he believes, with the destruction of a family, not only its traditions but also its changeless, everlasting dharm is destroyed. He thus equates traditions with Sanatan Dharm. It is well known, he says, how a man has to suffer in hell for the loss of his dharm. But he has only heard so: not seen, but only heard of it.
But Sri Krishn contradicts this: “I am fully contented in the Self and there is nothing more precious which is beyond my reach. Yet I continue to practice meditation and renunciation, and urge others to the same. But these are only means and not the goal, and when the goal is achieved who cares for the means? So if the achiever such as I neglects the means, his followers of an inferior merit will emulate him and they, too, will give up the required means. Confused and misled from the path of Self-realization, they then perish.” Lacking in true achievement, they only swagger emptily as if they were perfect. This imitation creates a chaos. There remains no distinction between the deserving and the undeserving. This confusion is varnsankar and the teacher himself is held responsible for this disorder. That is why an ideal teacher always teaches by his own conduct. In Chapter three, verse twenty four, Sri Krishn preaches:
utsīdeyurime lokā na kuryāṁ karma cedaham
saṅkarasya ca kartā syāmupahanyāmimāḥ prajāḥ
“If I do not perform my action well, the whole world will perish and I shall be the cause of varnsankar and so a destroyer of mankind.’’
If he does not acquit himself of his task with caution, not only will all the worlds stray, but he will also bring about varnsankar and so the destruction of all mankind. If the enlightened, accomplished sage is not cautiously engaged in meditation, society will be corrupted by imitating his example. There is no loss to the sage if he does not act because he has realized the ultimate goal by successful completion of his act of worship. But that is not true of others who have perhaps not yet even set foot on the path of this spiritual exercise. So great Souls labour for the edification and guidance of those who lag behind.Sri Krishn is doing the same. The implication is clear that Sri Krishn, too, was a sage-a true yogi. He works just as other sages do for the good of the world. The mind is very unstable. It desires everything except worshipful meditation. If sages who have realized God do not act, by their example people behind them will also give up action. Common people will have an excuse for licence if they find that the saint does not meditate, indulges in minor vices, and participates in cheap gossip. Disillusioned, they will withdraw from worship and fall into impiety. That explains why Sri Krishn says that if he does not do his appointed duty, all mankind will fall from grace and he will be the cause of varnsankar.
According to Arjun, there is a destructive intermingling of disparate classes when women grow unchaste. In Chapter l, he was troubled by the fear that there would be varnsankar if women lost their virtue. But Sri Krishn refuted him and affirmed that there would be varnsankar only if he was not assiduously engaged in his appointed task. In fact, God himself is the true varn (quality) of Self. Straying from the path that takes one to the eternal God is, therefore, the aberration called varnsankar. If the saint who has perceived God desists from performance of the worthy task, by following his example others also will lose sight of their duties and become varnsankar, for conflicting properties of nature are then combined in them. Women’s chastity and purity of stock are features of social order-a question of rights. It is not that they have no utility for society, but it is also true that moral transgressions of parents do not affect their children’s righteousness and contemplation of God. An individual obtains salvation by his own deeds. Hanuman, Vyas, Vashisht, Narad, Shukdev, Kabir, and Jesus Christ have all been saints in the true sense, but the social respectability of all of them is open to question. A Soul comes to a new body with all the merits he had earned in a previous existence. According to Sri Krishn, the Soul discards an old body and enters into a new one with the sanskar of all the merits and demerits he had earned in a previous life through acts of his mind and senses. This sanskar of a soul has nothing to do with the physical parents of the new body. They make no difference to the development of Souls and there is, thus, no relationship between women’s unchastity and the birth of varnsankar. To disintergrate and get scattered among objects of nature instead of progressing steadily towards the Supreme Spirit is varnsankar.It is in this sense that a sage is the cause of destruction of mankind if he does not induce others to act while he is himself earnestly engaged in his prescribed task. Realization of the indestructible God, the root from which everything is born, is life, whereas to be engrossed in the innumerable objects of nature and stray from the divine path is death. So that sage who does not induce other men to walk along the path of action is a destroyer-verily a murderer, of humanity. He is a destroyer of mankind if he does not check the frittering away of minds and senses, and compel other men to keep to the right path. He is then an embodiment of violence. True nonviolence is cultivating one’s own Self and, simultaneously, also urging others to spiritual discipline and growth. According to the Geeta, physical death is only a change of perishable bodies and there is no violence in this. In Chapter three, verse twenty nine, Sri Krishn again preaches:
prakṛterguṇasaṁmūḍhāḥ sajjante guṇakarmasu
tānakṛtsnavido mandānkṛtsnavinna vicālayet
“They ought not to undermine the faith of the deluded who are unaware of the truth, because they are enamoured of the constituents of matter and so attached to senses and their functions.”
Men who have an infatuation for nature get addicted to their actions when they see them gradually evolving towards the level of superior properties. Wise men who know the truth should not unsettle these deceived men who lack in both knowledge and energetic effort. Instead of disheartening them, the wise should encourage them because they can reach the ultimate state where action ceases to be only through the performance of action. After making a careful appraisal of his inborn capacity and situation, the seeker who has resolved to act by the Way of Knowledge must deem action as gifted to him by the properties of nature. If, on the contrary, he presumes that he himself is the doer, it will make him vain and conceited. Even after progressing on to superior properties he should not get addicted to them. The seeker, on the other hand, who has chosen the Way of Selfless Action, has no need to analyze the nature of action and properties of nature. He has to act only with a total self-surrender to God. In this case, it is for the God within (guru) to see which properties are making their entry and which are departing. The seeker on the Way of Selfless Action believes everything - change in properties as well as his gradual elevation from the lower to the higher ones - to be a blessing from God. So, although he is constantly engaged in action, he neither feels the vanity of being the doer nor becomes attached to what he is doing.
The number of our castes and subcastes is beyond counting. Does this mean that Sri Krishn had divided men into classes? The definitive answer to this is found in the thirteenth verse of Chapter 4, where, he declares: ‘‘I have created the four classes (varn) according to innate properties and action.” So he has classified action, not men, on the basis of inherent properties. The meaning of varn will be understood without difficulty if we have grasped the significance of action, and the import of varnsankar will be clear if we have comprehended what varn is?
One who deviates from the way of ordained action is VARNSANKAR. The true varn of the Self is God himself. So to stray from the path that takes the Self to God and to be lost in the wilderness of nature is to be varnsankar.Sri Krishn has revealed that no one can attain to that Supreme Spirit without setting upon the way of action. Sages of accomplishment who are emancipated neither gain from undertaking action nor lose by forsaking it. And yet they engage in action for the good of mankind. Like these sages, there is nothing that Sri Krishn has not also achieved, but he yet continues to labour diligently for the sake of men who lag behind. If he does not perform his given task well and earnestly, the world will perish and all men will be varnsankar ( 3:22-24). Illegitimate children are said to be born when women turn adulterous, but Sri Krishn affirms that all mankind is under the threat of falling into the varnsankar state if the sages who dwell in God refrain from fulfilling their obligation. If these sages desist from the performance of their assigned task, the unaccomplished will imitate them, discontinue worship, and for ever wander in the maze of nature. They will thus become varnsankar, for the immaculate God and the state of actionlessness can be achieved only by an undertaking of the ordained action.
(For more details, kindly refer “Yatharth Geeta” the world famous exposition on Bhagwad-Geeta by Paramhans Swami Shri Adgadanand ji who is an accomplished and totally enlightened sage from India. The exposition is available at www.yatharthgeeta.com for ready reference in almost all the major languages of the world).
Shri Mrityunjayanand is a disciple of most revered Swami Adgadanand ji and is fully committed to the universal promotion of the message of Bhagwad-Geeta. You can contact him at mrityunjayanand@hotmail.com.
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September 4th, 2009 23:25
Excellent article