THE HARMONIST

Who is a Brahmana?
(continued from P. 247, January, 1931)

By
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaj

 
We are now in a position to understand the true Scriptural status and function of the Brahmana. He is head of the secular society by virtue of his disposition towards spiritual service which in its unalloyed form is inaccessible to him. He can qualify for the pure spiritual service by acting as the loyal agent of his Guru viz., the paramahansa in carrying out the latter’s wishes regarding his own master. He must own no property and obey no one else of the secular society. His only function toward secular society is to teach it about spiritual life in an impartial and passionless way. His teaching function will be only the natural expansion of his conduct under the direction of the spiritual guide. His is essentially the life of the pupil teaching others by his own conduct and precept to be pupils of his Guru.

The Brahmana has no concern with the secular affairs of society. One who has a taste for secular affairs should be free allowed to follow the bent of such natural inclination. But he must not be recognized as a Brahmana at the same time. He will be classed as Kshatriya or Vaishya or Shudra or as outside the pale of civilized society, according to his disposition. But if he wants to be a member of the daiva varnasrama society he must accept the Brahmana as the spiritual teacher of himself. If he is found wanting in the aptitude of spiritual pupilage he must not be allowed to meddle with any affairs of the daiva varnasrama society. All secular association with atheists must be strictly avoided if the daiva varnasrama arrangement is to be preserved intact,

It is not denied that a person who is not theistically inclined may be possessed of more than average skill in certain forms of secular activity. He may be a great general, a great scholar, a great sportsman, etc., etc. But he must not be allowed to have any intimate connection with other member of society having the spiritual objective. He is to be socially boycotted. Social intercourse is defined as consisting of the functions of giving and taking anything, hearing and telling secrets, dining with another and inviting him to dinner. All these relationship must be strictly avoided with such a person.

There must also be a code of social precedence among the classes of the daiva varnasramam society. The ruling class must be obeyed by the other sections. The Industrials and agriculturists come next in order of precedence. These constitute the moneyed class. Next come the order of the manual workers who are under the secular influence of the other sections. In secular affairs those who cannot stand on their own legs must serve a member of the other and higher groups. This is an arrangement according to natural disposition and merit of the individual. It is based on the principle of all careers being fully open to everybody on the test of election by the community by any method that the society may deem proper for determining the true disposition and capacity of an individual.

There is no question of hereditary function or status, although the fact of parentage is supposed to be favorable for the transmission of secular characteristics.

It is not our purpose to enter further into the consideration of the secular aspect of the arrangements at this place. It will suffice for our present purpose to indicate that the direction of secular affairs is left to a society which follows the lead of the Brahmanas in regard to its spiritual objective, which is paramount. Such a society is for good reasons supposed to be incapable of grossly abusing its secular freedom. But nevertheless in order to prevent anarchy, obedience to a political authority on the part of all other sections is also strictly enjoined. The higher status accorded to the moneyed classes is also a further provision against anarchical forces.

This secular arrangement is not recommended by the Scriptures as constituting the ideal of social organization. On the contrary it is declared to be a necessary evil to have a system of this kind in the degenerate state into which society had fallen. This is a very important point and one which, if its significance is at all grasped, should be able to save us from much of the parochial enthusiasm that has been quite wrongly wasted upon the varnasrama arrangement by its mechanical admirers. It is explicitly declared by the Scriptures that if the theistic disposition is general, there can be but one class in such society. The system of one class had actually prevailed formerly when the people had been generally theistic by disposition. With the appearance of open atheism arose the necessity of establishing the secular gradations of society. It is a defective provision against the outbreak of barbarism, a tendency which is due to the weakening of the theistic instinct.

This defective secular arrangement is not binding upon the Brahmanas, still less upon the paramahansas. The society of the Brahmanas does not require the artificial regulation of its individual members by the community. Why then, it may be asked, is there a whole literature for regulating the minutest details of conduct of the four varnas and ashramas? The Smritis contain the rules and regulations of the secular society which is under the spiritual guidance of the Brahmanas. They were meant to be administered by the Brahmanas. The letter of these regulations continuing to be administered by those latter-day Brahmanas who had no access to their real meaning, has been responsible for their mechanical imposition on the hereditary society of today.

The submission of the secular society to the guidance of Brahmanas in matters spiritual is a matter of option as regards the acceptance of such guidance on the part of the society. This is the recognized principle in Hinduism even to the present day. The Hindu society never interferes as between the disciple and his spiritual guide, holding the view that the disciple is in duty bound to render unconditional obedience to the Guru. The dictum of the Guru must be accepted as final in all cases of doubt on the part of the disciple. The Guru is the real authority as representing the Scriptures the true meaning of which, so far as his disciple is concerned, he alone is privileged to settle for him.

There is also no provision against the abuse of one’s choice of an undeserving person as Guru. But it is laid down that the consequences of deliberately choosing a wrong guide is bound to be fatal. One can and should renounce a bad Guru as soon as he has cause to suspect his badness. It is the hereditary organization that necessitated the subsequent curtailment of the free spiritual life of the un-degenerate days and the multiplication of rules and regulations to perpetuate the usurpation of spiritual authority by the pseudo-Brahmanas who claimed their status by right of heredity.

Shree Haribhaktivilas has not been generally accepted as binding upon society in this country, because it embodies the tradition of the properly regulated spiritual freedom. For this very reason it did not suit the purpose of the hereditary Brahmanas to recognize its authority. The absurd code of Raghunandan Bhattacharyya, compiled in opposition to the spiritual code, was readily accepted in its stead to the utter ruin of all real spiritual life in Bengal. It was of course done by the hereditary Brahmanas who had wrongly usurped the function of spiritual guides of society. This will bring out the importance of the enquiry that forms the subject matter of this short paper. Unless the position of the Brahmana is settled on the principles that are actually laid down for the purpose in the Scriptures as interpreted by the theistic school there will not be any proper authority to whom society can safely entrust its spiritual guidance.