Hari
Om
'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days;
Q&As; a general review of the week so far…
The idea
of working towards something which has no perceivable substance, indeed is
beyond even science (currently) to detect, for many folk seems somewhat
pointless. All sorts of reasons and justifications are put forward as to why we
don't bother. Yet the yearning for a greater meaning and purpose to life is -
after simple survival - a key facet of being 'human'. Those who cannot, or
choose not to, take up personal philosophical researches will almost always
find something to take its place; a
deeply involving hobby, a 'communing with nature', involvement in charitable
works and volunteering.
Then
again, there is a significant proportion of society which fails even to do this
much. Self-improvement, for them, is entirely selfish and applies only to
acquisition of material things, being 'the boss' of others, having name and
fame. Or notoriety.
One of the
questions which is often asked by newcomers to Vedanta, particularly from
non-Indian background, is 'how come there is such a variety of personality'?
The system called Tri-gunaaH goes a long way to explaining this. Sattva, Rajas
and Tamas have been explored minimally thus far in our study here and despite
the exotic-sounding names to the English-speaker's ear, the concepts make some
sense. We all recognise the temperaments of the alert but quiet, the restless
and always busy, the slow and the lazy. Of course, rarely does anyone fit
neatly and squarely into a single category. There are bits of all three within
us and all can show up at one time or another. Nor everything about our
personal makeup can be explained this way, though. Needless to say, there are
further expansions on the makeup of the human being in this philosophy.
Varna.
Study of varna comes in more advanced texts. However, it is one of the most
misunderstood and misused terms of the entire Sanskrit tradition and is worth
some clarification at this point.
Varna is
erroneously translated into English as 'caste'. The system of classification
has also been misused within India due to unscrupulous groups feeling
privileged and using this system to create artificial social divides. Let us be clear… every society upon earth has
a social system. This does not make social inequality correct, but it is
important to acknowledge its existence. It is unavoidable due to the very
differences of personality under discussion. What needs to be made clear is
that the original intention of the differing 'classes', as given out in the
Purusha Suktam, was not to create such division as has been witnessed, but to
explain why, even within a single family, we get such a wide range of
temperament.
Varna
actually is better translated as 'colour' or 'hue'. Again, the system applies
no matter where we live. To be 'Brahmin' is to be intellectual and studious
with a meditative disposition and being well suited to scholarship, teaching
and such. To be 'Kshatriya' is to be extrovert and active, keen on physical
activity and being strong on strategical analysis, therefore suited to the
likes of administrative and military work. To be 'Vaishya' is to be more
inclined to the substance of life and having a preference for commerce, farming
and the arts/crafts. To be 'Shudra' is to have an interest and skill for the
more labour-intensive pursuits such as building, care working and the like.
Again it must be stressed, like the trigunas, every
human being has all of these qualities inside, but there will be one or
other which dominates in our personality. Our dominant varna, coupled with our
dominant guna, seasoned with our vaasanas, tempered by our environment and
current life experiences all add up to our 'personality'.
All 'new
age' self-improvement techniques are essentially based upon this, even if they
don't know it! As we explore more about the makeup of the human incarnation of
the jiiva through Vedanta, the more we come to realise that nothing is 'new' at
all. The complete explanation and exploration of what it is to be human is to
be found within Vedantic philosophy… if we are ready to take on its challenges,
if our inner combo of varna+guna+vaasanas is balanced 'just so', we can change
the course of our existence for the better. The 'better, may simply be to have
less hassle as a result of our altered outlook, or it may be a complete
transformation of how we approach life each and every day. How much better is
in our hands and according to our will to make the improvements.
Is that
not an idea worth the working for?
