Chapter 18 Shloka 41

ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां शूद्राणां च परंतप।

कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभावप्रभवैर्गुणैः।।४१।।

O Parantap, the greatest of tapasvis!

The deeds of the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas,

the Vaishyas and the Shudras are also divided

in accordance with their inherent attributes

born of their essential nature.

Chapter 18 Shloka 41

ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां शूद्राणां च परंतप।

कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभावप्रभवैर्गुणैः।।४१।।

The Lord says:

O Parantap, the greatest of tapasvis! The deeds of the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Shudras are also divided in accordance with their inherent attributes born of their essential nature.

The classification of the castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras has been detailed in Chp.4, shloka 13. The Lord now says that:

1. Castes are created according to the gross manifestation of a certain quality or attribute.

2. Castes are created from the individual’s tendency towards a particular kind of action.

3. Actions are defined by the natural disposition of the person.

4. Castes are created in conformity with the gross deeds of an individual.

5. Castes are determined by the preponderance of some particular attributes in that individual.

6. One’s natural disposition is based on one’s sanskars or latencies of past births, and one’s caste is determined accordingly.

Thus several classifications or varnashrams have sprung up. Little one:

1. These varied castes are not classified on the basis of birth.

2. Neither are they classified in accordance with the person’s family.

3. Nor merely on the basis of attributes.

Castes are not defined by one’s birth but by one’s natural interest or inborn disposition. The Lord says that castes are based on a combination of attributes, actions and innate nature. Therefore, one’s caste is defined by one’s basic attributes, actions and disposition.

The Lord then specifies the four principal castes and their natural dispositions. Little one, the spiritual status you are likely to achieve in life is not dependent on your caste.

No matter which caste you are born in, if you are inherently detached:

a) you are a veritable sadhu;

b) you are a renunciate;

c) you are an Atmavaan.

It does not matter where you work. Nor does it matter if you engage in important actions or the most insignificant deeds. A foolish individual endeavours to renounce his inherent dharma and adopt the dharma of another, thinking that in this manner he will attain his spiritual goal; this is sheer ignorance. Let me explain this to you once again.

Little aspirant of the Self, Abha! If you truly are desirous of attaining the state of an Atmavaan, realise first and foremost what your attitude towards your body-self should be and what attributes are imperative for you to attain.

The attitude of an Atmavaan towards his body-self

1. Either you are the body or you are not the body.

2. Either this body is yours or it is not.

One who seeks to be an Atmavaan believes that he is not the body. If this is so, then:

1. Your body is a meaningless object.

2. Your body is of no use to you.

3. Your body will cease to hold any meaning for you.

4. Then how does the constitution of this body matter to you?

5. How will it matter to you how another uses this body?

6. How will it matter if your body is engaged in a high level job or an insignificant one?

7. How will it matter to you if someone ridicules this body?

8. How will it matter to you if someone heaps insults on this body?

9. How will it matter where your body dwells?

10. How will it matter as to what the social status of this body is?

11. How will it matter even if someone worships your body?

Little one, you are the Atma, not this body – so of what consequence is the caste to which this body belongs?

You are the Atma, not this body – even if someone gives you the lifelong task of sweeping or cleaning, what difference will it make to you? Then your attitude towards this body will be:

a) humorous and jesting;

b) jovial and full of mirth;

c) casual, not giving it too much thought;

d) much like that of a clown who is always making fun of everything!

Then you will be able to criticise yourself with joviality.

1. Then you will not make any attempts to save yourself.

2. Then you will be able to admit your own faults with a smile.

Little one! Once you can perceive yourself light-heartedly and with humour, what anybody says will not matter to you. Their remarks merely pertain to the body! How will it matter then as to what task another person elicits from you? The other will extract from you whatever task he or she thinks you to be capable of doing, it will not make any difference to you. You will start becoming silent towards your body-self.

The Atmavaan’s attitude towards his own mind

If you are truly not the body, then your mind:

a) will not be attached to the body;

b) will not be worried about the body;

c) will not be anxious for the body;

d) will not lament the insults accorded to the body;

e) will not take pride in the body’s renown;

f) will not try to escape any perceived danger to the body.

1. If you are truly not the body, how can victory or defeat of the body affect you?

2. If you are not the body, how can any loss or gain to the body-self matter to you?

3. If you are not the body, how can fame or calumny matter to you?

4. If you are not the body, it will not matter to you if somebody rejected the body or embraced it.

5. If you are not the body, then what difference will it make as to what the body-self has lost or what it has managed to gain?

Little one, if the above is true, then:

1. Whom will your poor mind worry about?

2. What or whom will it think about?

3. Your poor mind will become quite useless!

At present, your mind, in identification with the body-self:

a) is ever busy in thought processes both negative and positive for the supposed benefit of the body;

b) is ever involved in joy and pain;

c) experiences both greed and rage;

d) seeks several methods of protecting the body;

e) speaks many an untruth in order to gain security and recognition for the body-self, yet, seeking at the same time to cloak the falsehood it utters;

f) remains ever so concerned because of the body;

g) makes numerous plans for the body;

h) resorts to lies about others, in order to benefit the body-self.

Just imagine little one, if you were to sever your relationship with the body, where would this poor mind go? It would then truly become useless. Then of what avail its countless endeavours and travails? Only one route would remain open to it – to abide in complete silence.

This mind is activated only for the body. The moment the Atmavaan severs his relationship with the body, the mind becomes devoid of life. Once the mind becomes silenced, what could the perspective of such a one be except mere silence?

The Atmavaan’s attitude towards his intellect

Little one, when the body is no longer yours:

1. You have no further use for your intellect.

2. How will you remain affected by the circumstances that surround the body-self? It is the mind that is influenced – and the poor mind has lapsed into silence!

3. The intellect, perceiving all, inevitably remains silent.

4. The intellect will maintain its silence in the face of fame and calumny.

5. The intellect will remain silent even in the face of gain or loss.

6. It will remain silent in victory and in defeat.

It would not be wrong to say that after the mind attains silence, the intellect is freed from its varied superimpositions. You can then perceive, but:

a) you do not attribute any meanings or motives to whatever you witness;

b) you do not seek clarifications or justifications;

c) you will not even endeavour to understand all that is happening;

d) you will not impute any meanings to what you see;

e) you will not try to impute meanings to another’s words.

In fact, if any objects held any importance in relation to the body-self, the mind may have made an effort to use those sense objects for personal benefit. Now there is no longer any such need or requirement. Therefore the mind becomes a mere witness.

The intellect of the sthit pragya is only a witness. It knows all in silence, yet it has no knowledge as such. It is aware, but it does not accumulate conscious knowledge. It perceives all but does not cogitate.

Therefore such an intellect does not even remember what it has seen. It does not remember what another has said or done vis à vis the body-self. Yet, if reminded, it can recall everything. If asked a question, its answer will mirror its perfect recall.

Understand this again little one; since such a one does not care for his body-self, he remains ever silent and indifferent towards it. The result of indifference towards oneself is verily silence. Indifference towards oneself leads to the annihilation of the mind.

What you do not bring to your thoughts will inevitably be forgotten. If somebody has insulted you and you have paid no attention to it nor thought about it, the entire episode will be forgotten. Thoughts bring on worry. When you have agreed “I am not the body”, then you are never insulted. You are not afflicted by thoughts or worries.

Even though your eyes and ears bear witness to the fact that something has been said or done to the body-self, you do not ask, “Why? What? What is the meaning of this?” You do not dwell on these things, you pay no attention to it! Therefore you remain a mere witness. The vision perceived no longer has any meaning for such a non-participating witness.

Thus it could be said that perception and the object perceived, both merge in the witness and the triad is thus broken. Only the witness remains and even what he witnesses remains meaningless. The mind that gave meaning to every perception is now silenced and thus every perception is meaningless.

Another way of looking at it: once the mind, that was ever veiling the intellect through imputing varied motives to all it perceived, was revealed in its true colours, then the intellect merely remained a so-called witness. It is important to notice the selection of the words – ‘so-called witness’. The intellect no longer even thinks ‘I am the witness’, nor does it feel ‘I am’; it merely remains a witness. At this juncture, the world exists – yet it is non-existent.