Chaturvarnyam Mayaa Srushtam
In the Bhagawad Geeta, Lord Krishna, says that it was HE who created the Chaturvarnyam - the four classes of people based on the nature of their occupation / work / temperaments namely Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vysya and Shudra.
One could doubt whether this has anything to do with Societal Sustenance?.
The Brahmans by nature are those who are of satwic temperament, always in thought about how to improve the living conditions of the entire world. They were allowed to live based on their needs only. They ate only as much for living and not lived for eating!. They are those who do not have any self interest in anything - rather they always are considerate to all the others and selfless in their deeds. Their intake was therefore restricted to satisfy their needs only.
The Kshatriyas are those of rajasic temperament, always ready to fight things out and establish order and dharma in the society so that there is no greed in the world, rather only the needs are fulfilled by one and all.
The Vysyas are those whose temperament is a mix of rajasic & taamasic - in the sense that they tried to maintain dharma by establishing a fair trade-off deal through exchanging goods and services by means of attributing a value to those goods and services.
The Shudras are those who do not care for any riches but are selfless in service to all. Their needs were satisfied by the other groups and mostly by the Vysya who exchanged providing goods and services and by Kshatriyas through means of protection guarantees. They were peasants and farmers and cultivated food and provisioned it to all.
This system was therefore a complete system of Societal sustenance with no qualms by anyone until the entry of Greed. Greed was an unexpected guest and gave the negativity to the system; due to which the system collapsed - the Brahmins chose not to beg their daily bread - but hold; the Kshtriyas chose to exhort taxes, annex neighbourhood areas that were greener and the Vysyas ornamented themselves with wine & women. The lesser learned who were the Shudras, continued to be selfless and therefore perished at the hands of the three other classes. Greed also ensured that Selfishness also grew within, so that the classes decided that they would retain their classhood through their own progeny only and not share the same with anyone else.
Thus initially the Brahmins had their say in the society. Later that got transferred to Kshatriyas and later on to the Vysyas. The transition of exerting control over the society is rather more evident in Western world through the transitions from Priesthood to Lordship to Colonial Traders and finally concluding into Democracy that ended slavery. Thus while there was intellectual faculties in Priesthood, and Muscular faculties in Lordship and Business Trade-offs and Purchase faculties demonstrated by Trading institutions, (viz. East India Company etc.), Democracy entailed only Service to All - without any application of intellectual, flexing of muscles or purchasing or bartering.
Thus it can be said that when a nation has reached a stage of progress and accepted Democracy as the vehicle of Governance, Shudra Raj might have been implemented - as foreseen by Swami Vivekanada - (1863-1902) - prophesied much earlier than India had to wait 45 long years for attaining Democracy.
In the Bhagawad Geeta, Lord Krishna, says that it was HE who created the Chaturvarnyam - the four classes of people based on the nature of their occupation / work / temperaments namely Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vysya and Shudra.
One could doubt whether this has anything to do with Societal Sustenance?.
The Brahmans by nature are those who are of satwic temperament, always in thought about how to improve the living conditions of the entire world. They were allowed to live based on their needs only. They ate only as much for living and not lived for eating!. They are those who do not have any self interest in anything - rather they always are considerate to all the others and selfless in their deeds. Their intake was therefore restricted to satisfy their needs only.
The Kshatriyas are those of rajasic temperament, always ready to fight things out and establish order and dharma in the society so that there is no greed in the world, rather only the needs are fulfilled by one and all.
The Vysyas are those whose temperament is a mix of rajasic & taamasic - in the sense that they tried to maintain dharma by establishing a fair trade-off deal through exchanging goods and services by means of attributing a value to those goods and services.
The Shudras are those who do not care for any riches but are selfless in service to all. Their needs were satisfied by the other groups and mostly by the Vysya who exchanged providing goods and services and by Kshatriyas through means of protection guarantees. They were peasants and farmers and cultivated food and provisioned it to all.
This system was therefore a complete system of Societal sustenance with no qualms by anyone until the entry of Greed. Greed was an unexpected guest and gave the negativity to the system; due to which the system collapsed - the Brahmins chose not to beg their daily bread - but hold; the Kshtriyas chose to exhort taxes, annex neighbourhood areas that were greener and the Vysyas ornamented themselves with wine & women. The lesser learned who were the Shudras, continued to be selfless and therefore perished at the hands of the three other classes. Greed also ensured that Selfishness also grew within, so that the classes decided that they would retain their classhood through their own progeny only and not share the same with anyone else.
Thus initially the Brahmins had their say in the society. Later that got transferred to Kshatriyas and later on to the Vysyas. The transition of exerting control over the society is rather more evident in Western world through the transitions from Priesthood to Lordship to Colonial Traders and finally concluding into Democracy that ended slavery. Thus while there was intellectual faculties in Priesthood, and Muscular faculties in Lordship and Business Trade-offs and Purchase faculties demonstrated by Trading institutions, (viz. East India Company etc.), Democracy entailed only Service to All - without any application of intellectual, flexing of muscles or purchasing or bartering.
Thus it can be said that when a nation has reached a stage of progress and accepted Democracy as the vehicle of Governance, Shudra Raj might have been implemented - as foreseen by Swami Vivekanada - (1863-1902) - prophesied much earlier than India had to wait 45 long years for attaining Democracy.
