Now we have a verse summing up this section of the three-fold division of varieties of things.
na tadasti pṛthivyāṁ vā divi deveṣu vā punaḥ |
sattvaṁ prakṛtijairmuktaṁ yadebhiḥ syāt tribhirguṇaiḥ ||18.40||
There is no existent being either on the earth or, furthermore, in heaven among the gods, who is free from these three guṇas born of prakṛti.
sattvaṁ here means an existent living being. There is no existent being on the earth - pṛthivyāṁ or heaven - vā divi, with reference to the gods - deveṣu vā, which is free from these guṇas born of prakṛti which is māyā.
Nothing in the creation is free from guna, but for me to understand ātmā - me is free from guna, I must cultivate my tendency to become sattva predominant. Later this will be explained.
Next Lord Krsna introduces four-fold division of duty in the society based on their guna. This is a system conceived by Veda for one’s growth for moksa pursuit. These four divisions are brāhmana, ksatriya, vaiśya and śudra. Even though it looks like only Vedic culture adopts this system, but try to look carefully, any society is based on this system alone without us being aware of it. This division is called cāturvarnyam - four fold division of people based on duties and qualities.
Cātur means four, and varna means colour. Division based on the colour of one’s tendency. Sankhya who is the expert in talking about guna, gives the colour code to each guna, namely sattva - white, rajas - red, and tamas - black. When one’s tendency is sattva, he is having a clear mind for knowledge (seeing it as it is), wise, calm, etc. This person is called brāhmana here, who is suitable for religious discipline, pursuing a spiritual path, being a teacher who teach dharma.
For one who has the predominant tendency of rajas which is characterised by activities and followed by secondary tendency of sattva, he is a ksatriya who is brave and hot blooded, so he can fight for righteousness and protect the weak. However for a commerce person - vaiśya who has the same predominant tendency of rajas, but followed by tamas which is characterised by egoism, he is very active in the society but for the sake of making money for his own enjoyment. And the last śudra - who has predominant tamas tendency followed by rajas, who doesn’t do much thinking, has no initiative, and tends to be lazy, and uses physical strength for labour. Every society is built by these divisions only. Let us see how Lord Krsna presents them in detail.
brāhmaṇakṣatriyaviśāṁ śūdrāṇāṁ ca parantapa |
karmāṇi pravibhaktāni svabhāvaprabhavairguṇaiḥ ||18-41||
The duties of the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, viśāṁ, śūdrāṁ, Arjuna, The scorcher of foes! Are divided according to qualities born of svabhāva (Īśvara’s māyā, one’s nature and one’s karma).
Duty of each one of these groups is different from those of the others. How are they divided? It was on the basis of guna, which is how it is described here. And these gunas are svabhāva-prabhava - born of svabhāva, which is Īśvara’s māyā endowed with three guna. This guna based duty is a method adopted by Veda for one to grow into a more sāttvika, mature person for moksa pursuit. Śankarācārya gives another meaning for svabhāva is prārabdha - one’s own previous gathered karma. Why should one be born into a brāhmana family, or others? There must be some karma standing in his account that determines exactly where he should be born, why he is born into a situation where he is going to be called upon to perform certain duties.
In the duty based system, duties exist and prārabdha-karma (by birth) determines where you are born in that system. Unless you believe in karma you cannot follow these things properly which is adopted by Vedic culture. If the system is not there, universally we consider only guna.
Next Lord Krsna explains the expression of a person who has a predominance of sattva-guna.
śamo damastapaḥ śaucaṁ kṣāntirārjavameva ca | jñānaṁ vijñānamāstikyaṁ brahmakarma svabhāvajam ||18.42||
Composure, restraint, religious disciplines, (inner and external) cleanliness, accommodation, rectitude, knowledge, assimilated knowledge, and accepting the veracity of the Vedas, are (collectively) the duties, born of nature, of a brāhmaṇa.
Notice that there is no particular karma involved in this description, only a disposition - guna. But why is it called as duty of brāhmana - brahmakarma? Because whatever the activity of a guna brāhmana (sattva guna tendency) does, it should have these qualities to help us observe inwardly, seeing that happiness we are looking for is not gained from outside, but it is centred on me.
In the vision of śāstra, everyone should become a brāmana by quality. Śāstra’s intent is not to define karma, but to help a person grow. In this vision, as you will see, everybody should become a brāhmana in disposition by doing his own karma with the attitude of karmayoga. Whatever karma is given to one by birth is good enough to make him mature, if moksa is what he wants. If one wants to make money or gain some power, he may have to change his situation to accomplish that, but if he wants maturity to gain moksa, it is all available right where he is.
What are the things that constitute the disposition of a brāhmana which we need to cultivate into? Śama - mastery over the ways of one’s thinking. We have to gain enough space between our thinking patterns and our own understanding so that we would not easily get carried away by any particular thought, emotion or fancy. If one enjoys that space, he has śama. It is important to understand that this is not elimination of a process of thinking, which is neither necessary nor possible.
dama - exercising restraint with regard to impulses of sense organs.
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