DHARMA AND CASTE

The word “dharma” literally means “that which holds your true nature.”  The word may denote merit, morality, righteousness, truth, religious duty, or, more usually, the way of life which a person’s nature imposes upon him.

Vedanta, historically, stressed the importance of a person following his own dharma and not trying to follow the dharma of another.  The advantage of the caste system was that there was never any doubt concerning one’s dharma.

In the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita, the caste system is presented as a kind of natural order, the four castes described in relation to their duties and responsibilities.  Caste was determined by karma and later by heredity.  The typical member of each caste was a particular kind of human being with particular capacities which indicated his duties.

The four main castes were:  1. The brahmin caste consisting of priests, pandits, philosophers, and religious leaders; 2. The kshatriya caste which included politicians, military persons, and individuals of royal descent;  3. The vaishya caste was made up of providers, such as merchants, farmers, and artisans;  4. And the shudra caste was laborers and servants.  So called untouchables were considered outside the caste system.  Since the reforms of the 19^th century, India’s government has largely abolished the caste system.

Still, there is the matter of dharma, the way of life that a person’s nature imposes upon him.  In today’s world we may go our entire lives doing all sorts of things but never really our dharma.

Yet, “Be yourself,” the old saying goes, and “To thine own self be true.” To his students who often asked him what they should do with their lives, Joseph Campbell used to say, “Follow your bliss,” i.e. do what comes naturally to you.

When we do what comes naturally to us, we have a passion for it, and it makes us happy.  But we don’t follow our bliss.  We do what is expected of us, instead, whether it suits us or not.  Lucky is the person whose bliss is also what is expected of him.