Varṇa and Āśrama Jeopardized
Hearing this statement from Rāmānanda Rāya, Lord Caitanya replied that the system of varṇāśrama-dharma was external and thus it was not acceptable. Lord Caitanya also rejected the statement of Rāmānanda because the system of varṇāśrama-dharma is now jeopardized by the influence of the present age of Kali, the age of quarrel and fighting.
In the Bhāgavad-gītā, the Personality of Godhead declares that the varṇāśrama system is created by Him, although He is aloof from such a system. Because the varṇāśrama system is a creation of the Personality of Godhead, it is not possible to do away with it. However, the nefarious activities of the people of the age of Kali can jeopardize the varṇāśrama system. We have purposely used the word jeopardized because the whole system still exists but in a reflected form.
In the varṇāśrama system of social management, the aim of life is to attain the favor of Lord Viṣṇu, the all-pervading Personality of Godhead. Unfortunately, at the present moment the aim of life is to displease the all-pervading Godhead and thereby suffer perpetually under the laws of material nature. The goal of the varṇāśrama system is to peacefully perform the prescribed duties of humanity and thereby achieve the highest success, namely the favor of Lord Viṣṇu. But when the aim of life is the planned exploitation of material nature, all life is jeopardized on account of the human race fighting with the laws of nature.
The arrangement of nature is so strict that even a slight violation of the laws of nature can do great harm to a conditioned human being. Human beings must always consider themselves to be living under the stringent laws of nature. They must always remember that their plans for breaking nature’s laws will bring about tremendous hardship. Regrettably, human beings under the deluding influence of material nature want to lord it over the laws of nature, and, as such, they are more and more entangled in conditioned life. Foolish human beings do not see the defect of their so-called advancement of knowledge. The most difficult problems of life are birth, death, old age, and disease. These four problems are a permanent settlement for the conditioned soul. Human beings want to lord it over the laws of nature but their so-called advancement of scientific knowledge cannot solve these problems.
A continuous increase of world population to the proportion of three births in every second has puzzled the brains of the leaders of society. To solve the problem of birth, they put forward rascal plans of birth control under the name of family planning, yet the problem is unsolved. By the laws of nature, the population is ever-increasing in spite of all their scientific plans and schemes. On the whole, the problem of birth has remained unsolved.
Mother Nature’s Atom Bomb
The death problem is also not solved. None of the scientific knowledge of the human being has solved the death problem. The advancement of material knowledge can simply accelerate the problem of dying; nobody can save a person from the cruel hands of death. The discovery of the atom bomb and similar other great inventions of the fertile brain of the scientist has simply increased the death problem. The foolish scientists do not know that the atom bomb is actually the scheme of Mother Nature, who is sure to kill the demoniac population when it increases disproportionately.
Modern economists also believe in the laws of nature and confirm that unrestricted birth increases in the human population will certainly result in famine, pestilence, epidemics, and war. So, the so-called civilized states’ plan of killing human beings by atomic and hydrogen bombs is actually the plan of Mother Nature to punish the foolish miscreants.
Everything is automatically executed by Mother Nature as soon as the human being is in violation of her laws. However, foolish people, out of their undue vanity, think that the plan is made by them. To execute her stringent punishment, Mother Nature dictates to the human brain the ability to invent the atomic bomb. Foolishly, the human being wants to take the credit for such inventions, which are meant only for punishment. We learn this fact from the Bhāgavad-gītā (3.27), wherein it is said that everything is done by prakṛti or Mother Nature. But the foolish living entity, puffed up by the vanity of learning, falsely considers himself the Creator.
The Problem Remains the Same
Without going further into the details of birth and death in terms of modernized scientific plans, it can safely be said that the problem of birth and death remains in its original proportion. Nothing has been done to increase or decrease the problem.
The problem of old age and disease is also not solved. The more the inventions of modernized science are made, the more relative diseases increase proportionately.
We can again conclude that birth, death, old age, and disease are the sum total of all the problems of material existence and can never be solved by any plan made by human beings. If a human being wants to solve all the problems of material existence, he must abide by the advice of Godhead that only by full surrender unto Him can one be saved from the stringent conditions of the material laws of nature.
Perverted Castes
The system of varṇāśrama-dharma as it is mentioned in the scriptures aims at achieving the favor of Lord Viṣṇu. This is the only solution to the problem of birth and death. The jeopardized system of varṇāśrama-dharma has produced a perverted form, commonly known as the caste system. The caste system is now represented by the political diplomats, the soldiers, the capitalists, and the laborers. The politicians or the best planning brains of the human race have taken the position of brāhmaṇas. Surely the brāhmaṇa possesses the best brain for solving the problems of human life, but the politicians are simply using the best part of their brains for executing their own selfish plans. Avoiding the orders of the Supreme Godhead, they only bring disorder to the society.
The military arrangement is a false representation of the kṣatriyas, who are meant to give protection to the public at large. However, the military leaders of every country are sucking the blood of the masses by imposing heavy, unbearable taxes, instead of giving any actual protection.
The capitalists, who represent vaiśyas, instead of accumulating wealth for carrying out the will of Lord Viṣṇu, are amassing huge wealth for their own sense gratification. As a result of this, many problems, such as political policies that exploit the masses, have sprung up in all parts of the world. The laborers are a perverted representation of the śūdras, who are serving the capitalists under the pressure of many obligations. They are always groaning to make an adjustment to the labor problem by raising political issues.
The system of varṇāśrama-dharma has not been ostracized as some may wish, but the whole system has now been pervertedly represented by politicians in the position of brāhmaṇas; military men in the position of the kṣatriyas; individual capitalists in the position of the vaiśyas; and the ordinary laborers in the position of the śūdras. The whole system is perverted by the lawbreaking attitude of mankind. This is spoiling the atmosphere of peaceful progress in human life. At present, the system of perverted varṇāśrama-dharma cannot in any way please the Supreme Godhead Viṣṇu. Thus no one can escape the police action of Mother Nature, regardless of how expert one may be in material science.
Real Varṇa and Āśrama
The varṇāśrama system, originated by the Personality of Godhead, is spiritually significant because when all the varṇas and āśramas cooperate, society facilitates deliverance from the clutches of māyā or illusion. This is done by all varṇas and āśramas carrying out the plan of Godhead. The brāhmaṇa is considered the mouth of the virāṭ-puruṣa (the cosmophysical feature of the Personality of Godhead). The kṣatriyas are the arms, the vaiśyas are the stomach, and the śūdras are the legs. The functioning of the mouth is recognized by sound. Therefore, the function of the brāhmaṇas or sannyāsīs is to transmit the transcendental sound of the Vedas so that every human being can know what is what in relation to the Supreme. By transmission of transcendental sound, human beings will know their actual identities as superior in nature to matter. Thus they will know their eternal relationship with Godhead. Knowing this, they will be engaged in carrying out the plan of Godhead, instead of serving the deluding energy with a false notion of lording it over her. Carrying out the plan of Godhead will help the conditioned soul get out of the clutches of the deluding energy and enter into the kingdom of God for an eternal life of bliss and knowledge.
Every living being is struggling in this material world for eternal life, knowledge, and bliss, but is bewildered by the deluding energy. The plan of Godhead is so designed that in the human form of life one can get out of the entanglement of material existence. Because the kṣatriyas are the arms of the virāṭ-puruṣa, it is their duty to protect the whole body and cooperate with the mouth, stomach, and legs. The system of varṇāśrama is a spiritual plan of cooperation for mutual benefit, and therefore it is essential that it be maintained in its original dignity. As it stands now, it is perverted and diseased.
The so-called brāhmaṇas have become detached from the body of the virāṭ-puruṣa because they do not transmit the transcendental sounds of the Vedas. A head that is cut off from the body certainly cannot produce any sound. Such a dead head, although called a brāhmaṇa, has no real value as a head. Similarly, those brāhmaṇas who simply claim to be so by a custom of hereditary right also have no value as brāhmaṇas, because they have no power to function as the mouth of Godhead. In the same manner, whoever fails to carry out the plan of Godhead as part and parcel of the virāṭ-puruṣa must be considered fallen and detached from his position. Such separated parts are of no value as mouths, arms, stomachs, or legs.
Varṇa and Āśrama Rejected
Thus Lord Caitanya rejected Rāmānanda’s proposal, because in the age of Kali the varṇāśrama-dharma is so degraded that any attempt to restore it to its original position will be hopeless. He also rejected varṇāśrama-dharma because it has no value in relation to pure devotional service.
The second, more important consideration is that even if the varṇāśrama system is observed strictly, it still cannot help one to rise to the highest plane of transcendental service to Godhead. The virāṭ-puruṣa is a material conception of the Personality of Godhead and is just the beginning of spiritual realization. The topmost spiritual realization is attraction for de- votional service to the Personality of Godhead. Such attraction for devotional service is the only necessity for the living being and it automatically brings a sense of detachment from all other activities.
The Personality of Godhead is worshiped by pure devotional service and He becomes available to His devotees through such devotion. Pure devotional service is produced by cultivation of pure knowledge and activities under the regulative principles of the scriptures. Thus the varṇāśrama system is explained in relation to pure devotion by Bhagavān Puruṣa, the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who descended to this material world for the deliverance of all fallen souls. The Bhāgavad-gītā (18.45-46) states:
sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ labhate naraḥ
sva-karma-nirataḥ siddhiṁ
yathā vindati tac chṛṇu
yataḥ pravṛttir bhūtānāṁ
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
sva-karmaṇā tam abhyarcya
siddhiṁ vindati mānavaḥ
“Every human being will attain the highest goal of life simply by worshiping the Personality of Godhead, from whom all the living entities have come into being and by whom the whole cosmos is generated and again withdrawn.”
Worshiping Godhead by prescribed duties is the beginning of devotional service, and all the great sages like Taṅka, Dramiḍa, Bhāruci, Bodhāyana, Guhadeva, and Kapardi have approved of this system of gradual progress. All the ancient authorities have commented upon the Vedas in accordance with this principle. The authorities of the Rāmānuja sect of Vaiṣṇavas also affirm the above:
The easiest way of attaining the Absolute Truth is to culture knowledge about the Absolute Truth as it is described in the scriptures while simultaneously performing one’s prescribed duty. This process is almost direct realization of the path of devotional service. Realization of the Absolute Truth by proper observance of the varṇāśrama system does not mean to accept only the renounced order of life sannyāsa, but it means that everyone can attain the highest goal by the performance of his own duties. Proper performance does not necessarily mean to take sannyāsa.
Rāmānanda Rāya, after being asked by Lord Caitanya to define the highest standard of perfection in human life, had taken up the cause of ordinary people and supported the utility of varṇāśrama-dharma by quoting the Viṣṇu Purāṇa. He said that the performance of duties according to varṇāśrama-dharma should be taken as the highest perfection of life.
Yet because the varṇāśrama-dharma system is a problem within the material world in the age of Kali, Lord Caitanya wanted to distinguish it from the devotional activities, which are transcendental by nature. Taking into consideration the transcendental nature of devotional service, which is the highest perfection of life, Lord Caitanya declared the system of varṇāśrama-dharma to be external. Lord Caitanya wanted human beings to make further advancement in the process of spiritual realization than what is possible by the performance of varṇāśrama-dharma.
Although the aim of varṇāśrama-dharma is to satisfy the all-pervading Godhead Viṣṇu, it does not explicitly mention devotional service rendered directly to the Personality of Godhead. Without being specifically engaged in devotional service, even the proper performance of varṇāśrama-dharma may lead one to accept either the impersonal or personal feature of Godhead. Impersonal realization of the Absolute Truth will mar the progress of devotional service. Therefore, Lord Caitanya did not wish to risk the human life in that way, and thus He rejected varṇāśrama-dharma as external.
Lord Caitanya’s rejection of the value of varṇāśrama-dharma indicated that Rāmānanda should suggest a more comprehensive process of self-realization.
Hodge-podge Impersonalism
Taking the hint from Lord Caitanya, Rāmānanda Rāya quoted a verse from the Bhāgavad-gītā (9.27) about the process of dedicating all one’s karma (fruitive actions) to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead.
yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi
yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
yat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam
“O son of Kuntī, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer or give away, as well as all austerities that you perform, do as an offering unto Me.”
To give and take means one person giving and another person receiving. This distinct feature of dealings between the living entity and the Personality of Godhead is a more clear conception of ones proper relationship with the Absolute Truth than that which is found in varṇāśrama-dharma.
The present age of Kali is almost fully surcharged with the imperfect idea of the Absolute Truth being impersonal. The māyāvāda school has chiefly fathered this impersonal idea of the Absolute Truth by systematic propaganda since the time of Śrīpād Śaṅkarācārya. People of demoniac nature, who are now flourishing in all parts of the world, have relished this hodge-podge impersonal idea of the Absolute Truth for their own less than spiritual purposes.
The materialistic people of the world are practically all atheistic and immoral due to the infectious conditions of Kali-yuga. The Kali-yuga is predominated by illegitimate connection with the opposite sex, killing of animals, intoxication, and gambling. The materialists are almost all notorious for all these kinds of nefarious works in spite of their so-called education and knowledge. They are, in the language of the Bhāgavad-gītā, duṣkṛtina, qualified in the wrong way. When a human being’s activity is targeted towards self-realization, it is right activity. Wrong activity means entangling oneself more and more in the conditions of material nature. Kṛti means one who is qualified and duṣ means the wrong way. So the combined word duṣkṛtina means one who is qualified in the wrong way.
Educated Means Atheist
The advancement of material education has produced many graduates, postgraduates, professors, and many other so-called enlightened people in this age of Kali, but most of them are being wrongly educated. The result is that the more people are educated, the more they become immoral and atheistic. Moreover, wrongly educated people have practically no faith in the scriptural injunctions. They have no respect for the self-realized sages who have left behind many valuable literary works, which are considered the treasure chest of spiritual cultivation.
To further misguide these wrongly qualified persons, the pāṣaṇḍīs or atheists in the garb of spiritual instructors encourage them in the wrong method of livelihood. This has been predicted in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (12.4.43-44). Śukadeva Goswāmī addressed King Parīkṣit, “O my King, in the age of Kali, almost all the people who are destined to die do not worship the Absolute Personality of Godhead who is the Lord of the universe and is respectfully obeyed by all the demigods such as Brahmā, Mahādeva, Indra, and others. Unfortunately, the people in the age of Kali worship pāṣaṇḍīs, who misrepresent the teachings of the Vedas by atheistic culture. These people, infected by the sinful activities of Kali, do not worship the Personality of Godhead, the remembrance of whose name only—even by a dying person, a person in trouble, or a person who has fallen down—can deliver all from distress and sin, and lift them to the highest goal of life.”
The pāṣaṇḍīs have most successfully misdirected the so-called enlightened people of Kali-yuga. They have successfully produced or manufactured many avatāras or incarnations of Godhead of their own choice without any reference to the śāstras (scriptures) and propagated the false idea of impersonal liberation as the highest achievement in life.
Śaṅkara Astonished
These impersonalists of the present age declare themselves to be the followers of Śrīpād Śaṅkarācārya, but even if Śaṅkarācārya himself happened to appear, he would be astonished to see his so-called followers. In fact, these impersonalists are all atheists and materialists. They have nothing to do either with the actual brahmavāda school of Śaṅkarācārya or with the bhāgavata sampradāya represented by the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas.
The impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth, as propounded by the so-called brahmavāda school, falls short of spiritual progress from its first step. Śaṅkarācārya’s impersonal conception of brahmavāda had some meaning because he emphasized renouncing material activities. His ideal example of renunciation, as personally practiced and taught by him, has great significance for the demoniac people of the age of Kali, but the present impersonalists do not follow Śaṅkarācārya or the śāstra. They do, however, preach something that is not only absurd from all spiritual points of view, but is the start of material enjoyment, which they try to cover with the red garments of renunciation. These so-called followers of Śrīpād Śaṅkarācārya are condemned by Śaṅkarācārya himself, because they have taken the red dress simply for the matter of filling their bellies.
The atheistic impersonalists have done tremendous harm to the potential for spiritual advancement of the people in general. Therefore, the impersonalists have become the principal target of reformation for the peaceful saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya.
Absolute Truth is Personal
The Absolute Truth is ultimately a person who is supreme and all-powerful. He is called Puruṣottama. Impersonal Brahman is the effulgence of His personal body and localized Paramātmā or the Supersoul is His plenary part. That is the verdict of all the śāstras, especially the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and all other allied transcendental literatures. The whole saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya is aimed at giving importance to the Personality of Godhead and His transcendental service. As such, Lord Caitanya always regarded the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth as detrimental to the path of devotional activities. He considered the system of varṇāśrama-dharma to be external because even if varṇāśrama-dharma is properly carried out, one still cannot get a clear conception of the Personality of Godhead.
Rāmānanda’s suggestion of the śloka from the Bhagavad-gītā about offering everything to Kṛṣṇa definitely advances the conception of the Personality of Godhead, but still the practice of this conception is not fully transcendental. Thus the varṇāśrama-dharma conception can hardly help to raise the practitioner to the transcendental spiritual plane. Lord Caitanya thus rejected this material conception of the Personality of Godhead and called it external.
No Clear Idea
The grossly materialistic people cannot understand how it is possible to give away the result of one’s own work. It is impossible for grossly materialistic people to part with their earnings that are made by their personal effort. Such gross materialists can simply get information from the suggestion that they have to give away the result of their personal labor to the Personality of Godhead. But because they do not have a clear idea of the Personality of Godhead or the process of giving the result of their earnings to the Personality of Godhead, it is very difficult for them to practice this conception.
When Lord Caitanya rejected Rāmānanda Rāya’s second suggestion of directly offering the fruits of one’s actions to God rather than indirectly through the varṇāśrama system, Rāmānanda then made a third suggestion. He proposed that ordinary people, who are fully engaged in the act of earning and enjoying, improve their life by giving up the process of continuing to live in the material world while offering the fruits of their labor to God. On the basis of this improved idea, Rāmānanda quoted a śloka from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.11.32):
ājñāyaivaṁ guṇān doṣān
mayādiṣṭān api svakān
dharmān saṁtyajya yaḥ sarvān
māṁ bhajet sa ca sattamaḥ
In this śloka, the Personality of Godhead says, “Occupational duties are described in the religious scriptures. If one analyzes them, one can fully understand their qualities and faults and then give them up completely to render service unto Me. Such a person is accepted as a saint of the highest order.”
This conception is based on the fact that ultimately the acceptance of the devotional service of Godhead is the highest aim of religious perfection. By performing religious duties, if we can reach pure devotion, we may be considered first-class sādhus or saints.