Bhakti and Varnashram

Bhakti and Varnashram by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj on Dec 2, 2024 @ ISKCON Japan

So , we often use this word (Varṇāśrama), but I don’t think we know what it means. So the original Varṇāśrama  is a political system established by Manu and others. And hereditary kings are supposed to institute these rules. 

So there are strict divisions in society according to your profession. And these more or less are hereditary, your father is a carpenter, you become a carpenter, your father is a Kshatriya, you become a Kshatriya. So Vedic education, renunciation are allowed for the three upper varnas.

So of course there are also common codes of conduct for all of the varnas. So nonviolence is one of the principles. The role of women, they are put in a secondary position. One should avoid sinful acts and one should perform pious acts, punya. So what are the punyas? So assistance to other people, service to elders, giving charity, serving guests, cultivating cleanliness, celebrating festivals, performing vratas, protecting animals, increasing the population, this means you should have a lot of children [Laughing] In the marriage ceremony, there is a blessing that you have 10 sons [Laughing]. And one should have proper conduct like forgiveness, gratitude, truthfulness etc. And then we have avoiding these sinful activities. So we have violence, cruelty, hypocrisy, mental illusion, lying, disobedience to superiors, lust, selfishness, impurity, rude conduct and destructiveness.

So another thing is that you have daily activities which are obligatory-you must do them. But they may vary according to your varna and ashrama. So we have bathing, so everybody has to bathe every day and particularly the upper caste, they have to use Vedic mantras. Also another daily thing is called the Sandya Vandana, you have to do three times a day. You have Agnihotra, this is fire sacrifice, you have to do every day. You’re supposed to recite the Vedas every day. You have to welcome and feed guests. You have to worship the pitrs and you have to worship Devatas and the Supreme Lord.

Then we have what are called the Naimitikas, things which are not daily, you may do them every month or every several months or every year. So Shraddha rites, these are the ceremonies to observe for a dead relative. So after the first year of death, every year on that day, you have to celebrate or observe the Shraddha rite.

And then we have a series of samskaras or ceremonies. So somewhere before the birth, we have Garbhadana samskara – conception, Pumsavana – making a male and Simantonayana – hair parting. And then after the child is born, you have the birth ceremony called Jatakarma – naming of the child, first outing of the child out of the house (Nishkrama), feeding the child first grains (Annaprashana), cutting the hair (Chudakarma) and piercing the ears (Karnavedh). 

We have educational samskaras— (learning) the first letter of the alphabet (Vidyarambha) [Laughing]. And then receiving the sacred thread with the Gayatri mantra (Upanayana), so you can begin studying the Vedas (Vedarambha). Then there is the actual studying of the Vedas, shaving the beard (Keshant) and then graduating from the Gurukul (Samavartan) and then marriage ceremony (Vivaha), and then at the end of life, there is death ceremony (Antyeshti).

So one is obliged to do all of these Nityakarmas and Naimittika karmas. So we’ll find even in Bhāgavatam , there are elaborate descriptions of this Varṇāśrama  system. But our Acharyas always emphasize that bhakti is more important. And of course in our definition of pure bhakti, jnana and karma, which is Varṇāśrama  system should not obstruct the process of bhakti. So when we say karma, we mean the Nityakarmas and the Naimittika karmas , they should not obstruct your bhakti. So they become obstacles—these karmas, when we attach material goals to them.

So if we perform these Nityakarmas and Naimittika karmas , thinking I get punya, then this becomes an obstacle to pure bhakti. So if we feel that if I don’t perform these karmas, I’m sinful, that becomes an obstruction to bhakti or if we perform these karmas and think that they will produce bhakti, that’s also an obstruction to bhakti. So we can practice pure bhakti and do the sraddhas or the Nityakarmas, unless we don’t have the wrong attitude.

So Bhakti is independent of Karma yoga and Varṇāśrama . And we can never say that the two are the same thing. And in Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami points out that Karmas and Varṇāśrama duties is not part of bhakti. So if we have faith in Bhakti, if we fail to perform these Karmas, it’s not a fault. If we fail to perform Bhakti, that is a fault. If the person who’s doing Bhakti commits a sin, he doesn’t have to go back to Karma yoga for atonements, rather, the performance of Bhakti will destroy any bad effects.

So in His talks with Ramananda Raya, Lord Caitanya, He rejected Varṇāśrama  and simply by performing Varṇāśrama  doesn’t give us liberation or prema. This of course is repeated in Srimad Bhāgavatam . So if we execute the rules, regulations of Varṇāśrama  as a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra, and we don’t remember our relationship with the Lord, it’s a waste of time.

In the introduction to Srimad Bhāgavatam , Prabhupada writes, “In the opinion of the Lord, the system of Varṇāśrama  dharma is superficial only. It has very little to do with the highest realization of spiritual values.” In Caitanya Caritamrta , Caitanya Mahaprabhu speaks to the followers of Madhvacharya and the followers of Madhvacharya said, activities of the four castes and four ashramas are dedicated to Krishna, then this is the best thing and this is how you can get the highest goal. And Lord Caitanya replied, according to the Shastras, the process of hearing and chanting is the best means to attain loving service to Krishna.

In teachings of Kapila, Prabhupada says Varṇāśrama  is not so important. So Prabhupada says, “Simply try to serve Krishna by the results of work. That is Bhakti. It’s not the philosophy of this Krishna consciousness movement to disengage people from their activity.” And in Caitanya Caritamrta, He(Prabhupad) says, “It does not matter whether one is Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra, Sannyasi, Grhastha, or whatever if one simply understands the science, he can become a spiritual master.”

Here are some other quotes by Prabhupada (about Varna ashram system):

  • “So the Varṇāśrama  dharma is a good help, undoubtedly, but not so important for Krishna consciousness.”
  • “Otherwise, how could I start the movement in the western country, there was no Varṇāśrama dharma, but that did not hamper my movement. Now people are surprised how these people have become such great devotees.”
  • “So it’s was not based on Varṇāśrama  dharma. The whole movement is spiritual.”  (Morning walk Feb 9, 1976 Mayapur.)
  • “It’s very difficult to be a Brahmana in this age, and it’s practically impossible to revive the old Varṇāśrama  dharma culture.”
  • “Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore said that this method is not very practical.”

Here is some comments on Farms:

So Prabhupada said,

  • “Farm opening is not very essential, but if you can do it conveniently, then do it. The Varṇāśrama  system is for convenience sake in the material world. It has nothing to do with spiritual life.” (Mayapur 1974, letter to Hamsaduttta)

So you can do a farm if you’re a skilful farmer if you’re not, don’t do it.

Of course, then Prabhupada also glorifies Varṇāśrama . So, of course, these are scattered throughout the Bhāgavatam , these statements. So in this purport in Canto 5, Prabhupada says,

  • “Varṇāśrama  system is scientific. Therefore, if we accept the divisions of varna and ashrama according to Vedic instructions, our lives will be successful.” (SB 5.1.14)

And then also in Canto 5, Prabhupada says,

  • “Krishna conscious movement, however, is being propagated all over the world to re-establish the Varṇāśrama  dharma system and thus save human society from gliding down to hellish life.” (SB 5.19.19) 

Then we have this famous quote, and Prabhupada says,

  • “Fifty percent of my work is not complete because I have not established the Varṇāśrama.” (Room conversation with Abhirama dasa 1977, Vrindavan)

And we have statements where Bhakti and Varṇāśrama  are combined. 

So in 11th Canto, Krishna Himself says,

  • “Take shelter of me in devotional service, and one should also live without personal desire and practice Varṇāśrama  system.” (SB 11.10.1)

We also have another concept of Varṇāśrama , it is Daiva-Varṇāśrama. This was first mentioned by Bhaktivinoda Thakur. He doesn’t explain it in detail, but in this system, yes, we follow the rules, but we don’t follow the rule of varna by birth. So usually when followers of Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, and when Srila Prabhupada speaks also, we are referring to Daiva-Varṇāśrama , not by birth.

So here’s another mention of Daiva-Varṇāśrama .

  • “The Gṛhasthas, Vānaprasthas, Brahmacārīs and Sannyāsīs should endeavor together with their total energy to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. This type of civilization is called Daiva-Varṇāśrama.” (SB 7.14.10)

So it seems by these quotes that people are following varnas and ashramas, but not varna by birth, and at the same time worshipping Krishna. So the main problem comes, of course, what are the details of this Daiva-Varṇāśrama and how to train people up in it. So Prabhupada says,

  • “Divide society according to quality and train people on the principle that everything belongs to God and should be used in the service of God, then there really can be one nation under God.” (Science of Self Realization). 

Here’s another quote from Bhāgavatam.

  • “A self-realised person who has cultivated scriptural knowledge up to the point of enlightenment and who is free from impersonal speculation, understanding the material universe to be simply illusion, should surrender unto Me both that knowledge and the means by which he achieved it.” (SB 11.19.1)

Now we have these contrary statements. Varṇāśrama  is useless, also do Varnashrama, so what do we do? So our previous acharyas didn’t emphasize the Varṇāśrama  system, they always emphasized Bhakti. And parts of the Varṇāśrama were criticized because they were materialistic. In Lord Caitanya’s time, people were still to some extent were following Varṇāśrama rules. Most of Lord Caitanya’s followers followed Varṇāśramic rules. There were a few like Rupa and Sanatana Goswami who renounced the whole system.

So, Baladeva Vidyabhusana – he is quite interested in Varṇāśrama, but he classifies devotees according to their attachment to Varṇāśram. So the lowest is a Sanistha who is attached to the Varṇāśrama rules but performs bhakti also. Superior to that is the Parinishita devotee who performs Varṇāśramic actions, has no attachment to it at all. The only reason he follows is to teach other people and we have many examples like the great king Ambarisha. He was a king, doing Varṇāśramic duties, but he was essentially not much interested in that, he was a devotee. And the highest devotee is called Nirapeksa, this is a renounced person. This person doesn’t do any Varṇāśramic actions at all, just Bhakti.

So Bhaktivinoda Thakura describes the talks about Varṇāśrama quite a lot and he rejects this idea of varna by birth. So the varna should be chosen when the person is 18 years old or so, mature. So though he supports the Varṇāśrama  system, he also criticizes following these Nityakarmas and Naimittika karmas. So he accepts some of the rules as long as they are favourable to bhakti.

So these rules will help the householder in his occupation, so he can support his family. By following these rules, there is peace in the household, peace between husband and wife and children. By following the Varṇāśramic rules, he can maintain physical and mental health.

So physical health is regulated drinking, regulated eating, regulated sleeping, regulated exercise, and you can cure your sickness by proper medicines. And we talk about mental training, cultivation of knowledge by concentrating the mind, using your imagination, contemplation, making proper judgments. Then we have the social harmony, so we have the samskaras, etc., like marriage. And of course we have all these rules like don’t lie, don’t cheat, so this helps to establish harmony in society.

Any advanced civilization will have a whole series of rules to keep the society peaceful. So to that extent, we can follow these Varṇāśramic rules. So the devotees 500 years ago following Lord Caitanya were in a society that was following those rules, so it wasn’t a problem for them.

So Bhaktivinoda, on the other hand, emphasizes varna not by birth but by quality and he says follow some of the rules for maintaining body, social interaction, etc., but he doesn’t like the Nitya and Naimittika karmas.

So Bhaktisidantha Saraswathi Thakur didn’t disagree with this, but he never made a plan for instituting any Varṇāśrama system. And maybe his contribution is that he introduced Sannyasa which is one of the asramas into Gaudiya sampradaya when it wasn’t there for 500 years. And of course this idea of varna by quality not by birth, then his (Bhaktisidantha Saraswathi Thakur) argument was Vaishnava is superior to the Brahmana. He can do anything that the Brahmana can do, so he gave everybody Brahmin threads, Diksa.  

So Prabhupada himself says in one place it’s not so important, and in the other place he says half my work is incomplete without Varṇāśrama system, so he has two contrary attitudes. So we can’t say why these two opposing views are there, but at least we can conclude that, according to scripture Bhakti cannot be superseded by Varṇāśrama. Bhakti is always more important. Varṇāśrama is always an assistant to bhakti.

Also, none of our acharyas, even Bhakti Siddanta Saraswati Thakur or Bhakti Vinod, dealt with the idea of king’s ruling, etc. the political implications, they didn’t deal with that at all.

And another agreement is varna not by birth. And at the same time there is minimization of Nitya and Naimittika kriyas which are actually emphasized a lot in the original Varṇāśrama  system.

And we have simplified samskaras and simplified ashram rules. So we do have still a lot of questions that people want to try to introduce Varṇāśrama. The original text is Manu samhita. How much do we follow? If we read the whole thing and go through the rules, we’ll have to cross out most of the rules as not applicable to the modern world.

So how to institute? So if we have Krishna conscious community, how do we institute Varṇāśrama? This is a problem. If it’s not by varna, somebody has to choose which varna you go into. But in second initiation, everybody becomes brahmana anyway, so then what happens to all the varnas? So Bhāgavatam  gives very detailed rules for the ashramas, but if we look at those rules, most people can’t follow any of the ashram rules.

Which education? Original education – learn the Vedas. But then if you study the Vedas, you can’t get a job. One of the big problems here is, what is the status of women? And we see in the Varṇāśrama system, women have a very secondary role and in the last 50 years, the whole world has gone in the opposite direction, make everybody equal.

In Hungary, they did a three-day brainstorming session with 50 leaders on what is Varṇāśrama. Out of that, these two principles came, make a stable household, a couple and establish rules of conduct between the men and the women.

There’s no real conclusion to this, it’s just presenting these two opposing views and difficulties. [Laughing]

Q & A

1. He’s saying like in India, from the beginning, there was the caste system, by birth it was very strict and it was followed also. But from the time of Bhaktivinoda Thakur, this change has happened that it’s not based on the birth, but on the qualities. Is that understanding correct that ? There will be Varṇāśrama introduced by Bhaktivinoda Thakur?

    Yeah, so this was his idea that not by birth but by qualities. So there is some truth to that. However, historically speaking, generally, they just did it by birth.

    So we see in Bhāgavatam, for instance, like Bharata’s sons, some became sages and some became Kshatriyas. But in general, it was all by birth. So scripture says one thing, practically speaking, they did the birth thing. So scripture gives the exception that it’s not only birth, quality is important, nevertheless people generated by birth only.

    2. So in India now how is it like, general feeling is now this caste system is diminishing now. It’s almost not there. But as per the law from old times, what it is? There should be caste system or not?

    HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : By birth?

    Devotee : Now how it is like?

    HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Politically, apologists don’t like it. They don’t like birth religions. So they discourage that. The outcasts, they try to raise up the outcasts, etc.

    3. If Bhakti is above everything, these activities, the sinful activities, and punya activities, but for a devotee that should be followed? Saying lie, if I’m doing Bhakti so I can be hypocritical, I can say lie, is that okay? How to understand?

    So we do whatever is favourable for Bhakti. So if the rules of Varṇāśrama are favourable for Bhakti, we can follow.

    So we see among the devotees, the rules, the qualities of the devotee, the devotee is truthful, the devotee is honest, the devotee doesn’t tell lies, these are also characteristics of a devotee.

    4. What is the difference between punya and sukirti ?

    Same thing. The activities that give you good karma in your next life.

    5. When Lord Buddha was there, he tried to destroy this Varṇāśrama system.

    HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : He was not in favour of Varṇāśrama  , not in favour of extreme tapasya, so many things, the rituals of karma, he didn’t like any of that because they did animal sacrifices. So he rejected the whole Vedic system. I suppose that’s why Buddhism became popular also. Many people, they don’t like this system anymore. [Laughing]

    6. There was one samskara for making the male child Pumsavana.

    Oh, yeah, this is, is it five months? Pregnancy? Something like that. There’s a ceremony to make the child into a male rather than a female. Of course, it probably doesn’t always work because we end up with equal population, men and women.

    But there was an emphasis upon the sons because hereditary things go through the son. And we see that if the king doesn’t have a son, it’s like a big misfortune because there’s no one to take the throne. Okay, Hare Krishna.

    Devotees : Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.