Human Society Part 2

Dedicated to the sacred memory
of my beloved father,
the late Laksmi Narayan Sarkar

	Human Society Part 2

In his two-part Human Society series, Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar has chosen to depart from chronological order: analysing modern society in the first part of the series, and then delving into human history, and human macrohistory, in the second part.

In Human Society Part 2 the author sets out his famous theory of the social cycle. In each age of human history, people of a certain mental outlook dominate. Despite the positive contributions they may initially bring, this ruling class will increasingly exploit the other members of society and even the weaker members of their own class. The stresses they create within those whom they exploit cause some of the exploited to develop their minds in characteristic ways, enabling them to bring about revolution and dominate the next age of history.

Historians, sociologists and economists have become increasingly aware of the vast explanatory powers of this theory. It succeeds in bringing clarity and order out of the seeming chaos of humanity’s long sojourn on this planet. Further elaboration of this theory can be found in various other works by the author: Idea and Ideology, Ánanda Sútram, and the Prout in a Nutshell series.

The language of the present edition has been based as closely as possible on the first English translation, rendered by Shrii Manohar Gupta. The only exception to this is the first section of “The Kśatriya Age” chapter: here the translators have followed a later (1987) translation, only correcting any typographical errors and highlighting a few Sanskrit terms.

Footnotes by the translators have all been signed “–Trans.”

Square brackets [   ] in the text are used to indicate translations by the translators or other editorial insertions. Round brackets (   ) indicate a word or words originally given by the author.

Chapter 1	Human Society Part 2

The existence of the relative factors of time, space and person is substantiated in the field of cognition, and the cognizant bearing in its inertness is the highest stance of these factors. The inherent dynamicity of an entity, depending on the existential collaboration of another entity (or in certain cases of other entities, in which case immobility becomes of indefinite character), is called its gati [movement], while that of an entity independent of other entities is called its agati [immobility]. When this relative movement loses its adjustment with the temporal factor it may be called a state of pause – in a limited sense, staticity. The movement of an entity in relation to the witnessing faculty may be called its accelerated or retarded movement, depending upon the degree of its actional expression.

The question of whether or not movement and inertness are absolute is a knotty problem for both science and philosophy. In fact, just as dynamicity is characterized by the stigma of relativity, by the same logic inertness is also characterized by the stigma of relativity. So from an absolute point of view, if the existence of movement is denied, the existence of inertness or existential faculty will also have to be denied. When the observable objects do not seem to change place judged by relative standards, we call that state a state of inertness. But in such circumstances the movement of the observer and the observed entity within the Macrocosmic arena remains beyond the comprehension of our crude and subtle minds. That is why this so-called state of inertness cannot be called absolute inertness.

In individual life the supreme stance is that state in which the causal mind, or astral mind, remains inactive. We cannot call the disembodied state of mind the supreme stance because in that case the seed of dynamicity is still active in the Cosmic Mind and the Cosmic corpor with the help of the Cosmic Operative Principle. From this we can deduce that the supreme stance can be attained only when the seed of psychic functioning has been demolished.

The Cosmic Operative Principle, whereby the Citishakti [Supreme Cognitive Faculty] goes on transforming itself into Cosmic ectoplasms and those Cosmic ectoplasms into the bha cakra [spatio-eternal system] without undermining its own status, must necessarily imbibe the witness-ship of the Sambharaka [Supreme Substantial Progenitor] of the ectoplasms. In this very witness-ship the ectoplasm-begotten primeval elements get their existential recognition or cognizance but their own motivity does not. The Supreme Substantial Progenitor witnesses the motivities of the ectoplasms in some of its stances like ota (uniscient), anujiṋáta (post-uniscient) and anujiṋá (post-uniscience).

When movement has the scope of being witnessed, there cannot be an acceleration or retardation in movement due to the self-involvement of unit ectoplasms. Though unit ectoplasms feel their internal movement, their external movement, which is dependent upon other entities, is not felt due to the absence of any second entity other than the unit ectoplasms themselves, and thus, instead of calling their sense of movement movement, it is more appropriate to call it non-movement, or motionlessness.

Unit consciousness, when it is self-dependent (it is dependent on others also), views the transposition of objects, and only that part of movement actually comes under the category of motion. When the self-dependent movement (as also the dependent one), giving up its effort or failing in its effort to exert, surrenders to the state of motionlessness, such a condition indeed is called cessation. Apparently all kinds of movement in this expressed universe are linked with the state of pause. Thus, every action is systaltic. The saḿkocátmaka bháva⁽¹⁾ is an attempt to find stability in a state of pause.

Pause is only a temporary state of inertness. Full expression of action occurs only after attaining momentum for movement from the state of inertness. No action is possible without momentum attained from the state of inertness, and thus every action (roughly, it is also called movement) must be systaltic, or pulsative, by nature.

In the same way, unhindered expansion, or enhancement, and unhindered contraction are impossible in the realm of mundanity. The manifestative bearing of action or movement is directly related to the relative factors of time, space and person, and the contractive bearing is an attempt at detachment from the temporal factor. As the state of contraction is entrenched in inertness, the unit entity loses its awareness of the temporal factor.

Is that state which we call the state of expression a continuous process? In fact, the cause of expression is the momentum derived from the state of pause. With the momentum thus attained, the state of manifestation continues with ever-increasing speed until it reaches a final stage which is also a state of pause. This pause is also entrenched in a state of inertness, but in this state, due to the expressive impact of the temporal factor, no momentum can be acquired from the state of inertness. In the next state of pause, that is, in the second half of movement, the manifestative movement is transformed into non-manifestative inertness. This state of non-manifestative inertness is ever-decreasing by nature. This process of gradual contraction is nothing but an ultimate surrender to the state of inertness.

A structure or an entity, after getting momentum from systolic pause, progresses towards manifestative pause. This is the rule. This momentum is attained in the absence of the assertive presence of the temporal factor. Such momentum cannot be attained when the personal factor is defective or not manifest. This sort of absence of the personal factor or structural defect is termed death.

We can roughly compare this systaltic movement with a trek across a series of hills which are arranged in successive order. Having gathered vital force from the plain, one advances towards the first summit, that is, towards the state of manifestative pause. The trek down the other side of the hill can be compared with the movement towards systolic pause. And then again, acquiring one’s strength, the uphill advance towards the next summit is a renewed attempt to reach manifestative pause. But while climbing up the hill one’s physical speed decreases in relation to the proximity to the summit, although due to one’s increased mental speed, one’s aggregate speed actually increases. If one falls down the other side of the hill and corporeal derangement takes place, one will not be able to climb up the next slope after reaching the plain. This situation is called structural derangement, or death.

The human respiratory system also provides us with a good comparison with the systaltic flow of movement. Puraka [inhalation] can be compared with the movement towards manifestative pause. The retention of breath at the end of puraka (púrńa kumbhaka) is manifestative pause. Recaka [exhalation] is the movement towards systolic pause. And holding the breath after complete exhalation (shúnya kumbhaka) is systolic pause. In the retention of breath after inhalation there is manifestation of time and continuity of movement, but no sense of dynamism. In the total exhalation, however, there is no manifestation of time but there is continuity of movement minus the sense of dynamism. [From the end of] one puraka to the beginning of another puraka constitutes half of the cycle of respiration. After every such half-cycle or trip, that is, in every post-exhalation pause, there occurs the death of the unit being. But after gathering vitality for the second time from this death or state of pause, the unit being comes alive again during the next inhalation. If, after the full cycle of inhalation and exhalation, the physical mechanism is unable to gather vital force from the state of pause, further inhalation becomes impossible and what we commonly call death occurs.

Actually, the unit structure dies thousands of times every day, after every exhalation. In the scriptures this sort of microcosmic death is called the khańd́a pralaya [partial annihilation] of the unit entity. When the temporal factor is evident and the seed of or potential for further inhalation and exhalation is intact, this cannot be considered death. Yogic texts prescribe various methods of recakánta práńáyáma and purakánta práńáyáma [respiratory control] whereby a huge quantity of vital force may be acquired from the five fundamental factors.

When the waves of the unit mind lose parallelism with those of the Macrocosmic Mind or move in the opposite direction, it can be called the degeneration of the unit entity. When the waves of the unit mind move in parallelism, it is called the natural movement of the unit mind. When the waves travel faster, we call it the advancement or progress of the unit mind.

Nothing in this relative world of multiplicities is stationary. Had this not been so, all entities would have become one – all the multiplicities, losing their distinctive individual faculties, would have been reduced to one singularity. Thus, the existence of the manifest world finds its substantiation not in the absolute flow, but in the relative flow, of movement.

It is with the assembling of many individuals that a society comes into being. In a society it is impossible for individuals to move exclusively according to their individual saḿskáras [inherent momenta]. Although it may be possible in the subtle and causal spheres, it is not possible in the physical sphere. The totality of various individual flows of movement constitutes collective social movement. Each individual flow is influenced by the collective flow and strives to move ahead in adjustment with it, at least in the mundane sphere.

The fact is that an inorganic entity is transformed into an organic being due to physical clash. Further development of that being is a result of both physical and psychic clashes. These clashes come directly from the systolic pause of social forces and indirectly from natural sources.

If the resultant cumulative flow of innumerable individuals is termed the social or collective flow, then the latter’s trough and crest is shorter than the trough and crest of the individual flows. And this shortness of the collective wavelength hastens either a kránti [evolution] or a viplava [revolution].

Manifestative movement acquires momentum from its previous state of pause in saḿkocer bháva [systolic bearing]. The mildness or severity of the movement depends on both the length of the period of pause and the inherent strength of the structure. A long period of inertness may be termed death only when an old structure is unable to assimilate the vital force of pause. In this case a newer structure becomes necessary for the manifestative movement [from] the state of pause. This new structure may be either a newer form of the old one or an altogether different form. Whenever there is a state of manifestation following a state of inertness, changes are bound to occur within the structure. But that structure can only be called new when the unit mind or the collective mind cannot perceive the distinct change between the old and new forms.

During the previous state of pause, one structure meets with death due to suppression or destruction by another structure. Such deaths occur both in individuals and in society. When a unit or society devours or suppresses another the necessary assimilation of conflicting waves and the resultant clashes cause its wavelength to become shorter in length, leading to the possibility of structural death. In this process of assimilation, if there is the possibility of vibrational adjustment, the individual and collective structures have a greater chance of acquiring more inherent vitality.

Egyptian Civilization

Take the case of ancient Egyptian civilization. Whether we like all the features of ancient Egyptian civilization or not, it could definitely claim some special characteristics. But the conflict of waves that occurred in its inner body weakened the collective waves of the society as a whole. The various social groups from Asia and the southeast European countries were inherently stronger in their collective waves than the Egyptians themselves, and this led to the destruction of the Egyptian civilization. However, a proper assessment of this historical occurrence will reveal that the ancient Egyptian civilization was not completely destroyed. Although many of the above-mentioned social groups were less saḿvedanashiila⁽²⁾ (but had greater physical vitality) than the ancient Egyptian civilization and were therefore able to destroy both the vital force of its civilization and its social structure, they themselves were influenced by the greater sensibility of the ancient Egyptian civilization.

The greatest blow to Egyptian civilization came from the section of Arab society that was imbued with Islamic ideology. Due to the influence of these new Arab bhávadhárá [thought-waves], the new Egypt became dissociated, in its thought-waves, from ancient Egypt. Thus modern Egypt has ideologically⁽³⁾ nothing in common with its ancient past.

The Arab culture was not only full of vitality, it also had a distinct sensibility of its own. Although the vitality of the Egyptian traditions was destroyed at the time of the Arab invasion, Egypt’s inherent sensibility was not. What remained of Egyptian sensibility was diametrically opposite to the new Arab thought-wave. The Arabs assimilated the antithetical Egyptian sensibility, and as a result the Arab thought-wave was considerably weakened. As a result it became impossible for the Arabs to conquer Europe. This was also one of the main reasons for the retreat of the Iberian Moors.

One question remains. Since ancient Arab thought-waves and Islamized Arab thought-waves were different from each other, why did the former not destroy the vital force of the latter? Actually, many ancient Arab thought-waves were assimilated into the Islamized Arab thought-waves. Where there were differences, there was tremendous conflict. However, a common ádarsha [ideology] and a common spiritual awareness, both accepted by a large number of people, greatly helped the Islamized Arab ideas to establish themselves over the ancient Arab ideas.

Islamized Arab ideas suffered the same set-back in Persia on the east as they did in Egypt on the west. Persian society had its own distinct characteristics and only accepted Islamic thought-waves externally, while its own Persian ideology remained for a long time as a subterranean flow. It remains even today, though only as a thin current.

Islamized Arab ideology became weakened as it passed through Persia, and after crossing the Indus Valley and entering India it was unable to exert a deep influence on Indian society. But this was secondary as a reason that the Islamized Arabs were unable to defeat India. The most important reason was the strength of India’s social and spiritual ideology and the rationalistic mentality of the Indians themselves. Although the varńáshrama [caste] system was based on idol worship and created deep divisions in the Indian social structure, the greatness of India’s moral, social and spiritual ideology had generated a powerful wave in her collective life. The Islamic social ideology, modified as it was after passing through Persia, was unable to obliterate that wave.

That modified Islamic social ideology has lived side by side with the Indian social ideology for centuries, but due to the opposite natures of their waves, the exchange between them has been negligible. Of course Islamic society has had some influence on the external forms of Indian society, but Islam has not had any influence on the mental and spiritual outlook of the Indian people. The Sufi influence on Indian society (an influence particularly on Indian Vaishnavism) is actually of Persian and not of Islamic origin. The vibrational expression of the Sufi influence is in harmony with Indian thinking and it has therefore supplied vital energy to Indian social life for centuries.

Shúdra Society

When the waves of the unit mind try to adjust to the rhythm of materialistic waves without attempting to assimilate them, the unit mind gradually becomes materialistic. [[If a person’s mind dwells on matter, that mind will naturally be filled with tamoguńii [static] darkness, and the person will be called a shúdra.]] Those who have a shúdra mentality can collectively be called the shúdra society. Needless to say, such people cannot control anything, because the crudest waves, the waves of matter, control them.

When the human race was in an embryonic stage and humans evolved from animal mentality to human mentality, human beings then, as today, found two paths open to them. The first was to become crude by ideating on matter – the path of shúdra-hood; and the second was to overcome material and psychic obstacles by ideating on subtle things – the path of kśatriya-hood. In those days people’s minds were so full of material thoughts, due to living in a hostile natural environment, that at that early stage everyone necessarily possessed a shúdra mentality.

Due to mutual self-interest people developed social bonds, but they were unable to build a social structure, and society in those days basically meant only a particular individual’s own body, and the wife, to some extent sons and daughters, and close relatives that contributed to the pleasure of that body. As conjugal relations were based on gratification – on the enjoyer and the object of enjoyment – there was no sense of responsibility or humanity. Today there are shúdras with this propensity scattered throughout the world in all societies.

People with a shúdra mentality fall in the same category as all animals that have a strong desire for physical enjoyment. At that time the powerful men, who had a strong desire for physical enjoyment, were polygamous. When such men were defeated, they were either exiled, or killed by stronger men. The little art and literature that existed did not reflect developed sensibilities. It was merely the expression of the greediness of people given to materialistic enjoyment.

The people of that shúdra society felt some parental affection for their children due to their physical contact with them, but once their children grew up and clashes of interest typical of the shúdra mentality would come about, they would not maintain the relationship. So although parents had a temporary affection for their children, the children could have no sense of responsibility towards their parents or close relatives.

People had no sense of duty towards each other and no social order had evolved. People generally felt uneasy if they came too close to each other. In fact, the shúdra society of that time could not claim to be much better than the present-day society of monkeys or dogs.

Frankly stated, shúdras live only for physical enjoyment. They neither bother about ideology nor give any value to rationality. Of the three aspects of time – past, present and future – they think only about the present. They have neither the time nor the inclination to think about the past or the future. Religion, spirituality and a genuine social system have no significance for them. Whatever religion, spirituality or social order we observe in shúdra society results from an unholy alliance between their fearfulness and their self-interest.

Intellectually shúdras are as dull as beasts. Whether it is a natural calamity, or the gloomy night, or the joyful dawn, or a burning desert, they have always viewed and continue to view it either with the eyes of fear or with the eyes of escapism. This type of fear psychology elevates different natural phenomena in their eyes to the status of gods. They learn to worship trees, mountains, forests, seas, etc., as gods out of fear and a greater or lesser degree of self-interest, but not due to the inspiration of the indivisible Supreme Entity. We can thus conclude that the shúdra social order is based on fear alone.

The main sentiment in the shúdra social system is “Let the living live better, and let the dying die quickly. Don’t waste energy trying to save them.” An attitude such as this produces a particular type of selfish social system which, in reality, is neither a society nor a system. Only this much have the shúdras created and can they create.

The rudimental idea of shúdra society, like that of merciless nature, is survival of the fittest. Where there is no love and compassion for the weak, there will be no collective effort to preserve their lives. Children will take no responsibility for their elderly parents. So people will remain divided into innumerable groups and somehow pass their time; for them the joy of collective living – the expansiveness of many minds moving together – is nothing but a disquieting dream.

Shúdras are always sleeping. They can perform work only if someone wakes them up. Once the work is done, they go back to sleep. In order to maintain the cáturvarńika⁽⁴⁾ social system, some work will have to be taken from the shúdras. Consciousness should be developed among shúdras in order to protect them from the inhuman greed of the vaeshyas. (All non-vaeshyas slip into shúdra-hood on the eve of a shúdra revolution.)⁽⁵⁾ But is it possible to create genuine awareness in shúdras? It is the kśatriyas who make shúdras work, who temporarily inspire them to revolt. Shúdras are mechanical and do only what they are told – they do only the work they are told to do and no more.

There are both honest and dishonest kśatriyas, but the majority of kśatriyas are dishonest. It is often observed that when shúdras are led by kśatriyas they readily support revolution or counter-revolution, like insects attracted to a fire and burnt by the flames. The kśatriyas usually acquire name, fame, wealth and influence by totally cheating the shúdras. To win the minds of the ignorant shúdras they have cheated, the kśatriyas praise them lavishly for their victories. This praise of their hollow victories makes the shúdras forget their defeat. During the post-revolutionary period, the shúdras, instead of thinking about their own interests, believe that the greatest achievement of their lives has been to be the standard-bearers of the deceitful kśatriyas.

Kśatriya Society

If the human mind ideates intensely on pleasure yet does not become subservient to matter but instead controls the waves of matter with its own waves, matter will serve the human mind. Those who through incessant fight have acquired the mental capacity to control matter as they choose, are called kśatriyas. Struggle is the dharma of kśatriyas. They are imbued with indomitable vital force and are not symbolized by the black colour of darkness. They represent spiritedness. Their colour is blood-red.

Shúdras are afraid of high mountains. They regard a towering mountain as a god and bow their heads before it. They try to dissuade the kśatriyas from climbing the mountain, saying, “God will become angry. Please do not climb it.” But the kśatriyas go ahead anyway. After reaching the summit they declare that they have conquered the mountain. Through their mental waves and their intellect they have turned crude matter into dynamite and have advanced by blowing up the mountain. The nature of kśatriyas is to enslave matter.

The collective name of those who have kśatriya propensities is kśatriya society. Kśatriyas spend all their energy controlling matter. They cannot think of or understand anything beyond matter. They protect society by laying down their lives and by taking the lives of others.

How the Kśatriyas Evolved

In the embryonic stage of the human race, those who became the slaves of nature due to circumstantial pressure were the shúdras. But those among them who came in contact with the relatively harsh aspects of nature and made even a small amount of effort to survive by fighting against them, were, in the world of those days, the fathers of the kśatriyas.

Later on, those shúdras who made a habit of fighting against nature due to the inspiration of the fathers of the kśatriyas guided – and are still guiding and will continue to guide – the development of kśatriya society. In fact, the seed of human greatness was dormant in the shúdras and germinated in the kśatriyas. Today the superiority that human beings enjoy over all other creatures in the society of living things results from their endeavours to conquer the animate and inanimate worlds; this was first expressed in the minds of the kśatriyas.

The greatness and paoruśa⁽⁶⁾ of the kśatriyas struck the shúdras with wonder. The cowardly and intellectually-undeveloped shúdras accepted the superiority of the kśatriyas and paid obeisance to their bravery and spiritedness. The kśatriyas used the shúdras as servants in their fight against the inanimate world and ensured their obedience by courageously taking responsibility for their safety and protection. So the shúdras also played a role in the kśatriyas’ conquest of the inanimate world, and their role was not unimportant. But most of the credit goes to the kśatriyas, because whatever the shúdras did, they did under the wings of the kśatriyas.

The Start of the Kśatriya Age

We may call the day the kśatriyas started to protect the shúdras the beginning of the Kśatriya Age in human society, but that age did not come overnight. Numerous fragmented shúdra societies gradually accepted the authority of the kśatriyas and began to unite under their hegemony. In other words, many shúdra societies would unite into a new social system, and in each case one kśatriya would be the symbol of that new system. This acceptance of a kśatriya as the symbol of shúdra unity, which came about through a process of transformation, represents the first kránti [evolutionary step] in human history.

Different groups formed, each with a kśatriya as the symbolic head. To maintain the purity of the group’s blood and in order to identify people correctly, brave and spirited women had at an earlier stage been recognized as the group-mothers. All the men and women in a group had been named after that matriarch. As both the mother and the father of a child belonged to the same group, the value of their having separate identities from each other was not felt. When a matriarch died and a new matriarch was elected, or when a group broke into sub-groups, it was only necessary to determine the identity of one’s group-mother. In other words, kśatriya society had initially been matriarchal. The group system of the Kśatriya Age was the first stage in the evolution of a social system.

During the Kśatriya Age the different groups continually fought among themselves to establish their supremacy; hence in the kśatriya social order, love for one’s group was more evident than in the Shúdra Age. The spiritedness and self-confidence of the kśatriyas inspired people to unite and build a society out of a crude, self-centred consciousness; the consciousness and sentiment of prestige also played an important part. In other words, although the struggle for existence was the main concern, the struggle for prestige was not unimportant. This sentiment, this sense, of prestige greatly inspired people in the Kśatriya Age in the work of conquering the inanimate world, and continues to inspire people even today.

The shúdras had fought solely to survive, whereas the kśatriyas fought for their own survival, for the survival of others and for their prestige. The shúdras’ main aim had been to arrange food and security by any means, whereas the kśatriyas’ aim was to conquer with glory. This sentiment enabled the kśatriyas to develop a subtler intellect and awakened their conscience and discriminative judgement. It went against the kśatriyas’ conscience to kill the unarmed, to kill women, children or old people, to kill those who had surrendered, or to kill a retreating enemy. In a word, the kśatriyas’ sense of valour transcended the animal level, and they learned to understand the value of human beings.

The Rise of Patriarchy

It was to a large extent this sense of value that elevated conjugal and domestic life to the human level. Conjugal relations came not to be limited to the enjoyer-and-enjoyed level but to include a sense of duty. As conjugal relations developed, a father’s sense of duty towards his children also awakened. This led to a reduction in the mothers’ responsibilities to some extent, and as a consequence women became partially dependent on men for their food and clothes, particularly during pregnancy and immediately after childbirth. As a result, although couples belonged to the same group, they began to form into families headed by men. Because families were headed by men, the groups also became male-dominated and the matriarchs lost the power they had previously enjoyed.

In olden times kśatriya societies began to recognize a man and a woman as husband and wife, although the bonds of such relationships were not strong. As the society became patriarchal, even in the latter half of the Kśatriya Age men kept many wives as they had in the Shúdra Age. The only difference between the polygamies of the two eras was that wives in the Shúdra Age had no social ties to their husbands, whereas the ties between the husbands and wives in the latter half of the Kśatriya Age were socially recognized. Although the social system which was formed in the first half of the Kśatriya Age was to some extent strengthened in the latter half, the stability of both conjugal and group relations in the latter half depended more on the physical abilities and bravery of the group-father, or patriarch, and other males than on genuine humanism or a sense of discipline. The maxim of the Kśatriya Age was “Might makes right.”

Human beings are creatures of sensibility. A sense of responsibility, as well as love and affection, having already awakened in parents for their children, in the latter half of the Kśatriya Age a sense of responsibility also started to awaken in children towards their parents. Duty-conscious children were careful to maintain the traditions and proclaim the heroism of their fathers, and fathers also wanted their children to inherit their heroic qualities, powerful personalities, and traditions. Thus, as the relationship between fathers and their children was strengthened, society was also strengthened.

In order to properly maintain the heroism and traditions of the family, great importance was given to the careful selection of brides and grooms at the time of marriage. As a result, in the Kśatriya Age socially-recognized conjugal relations gradually evolved, replacing unrecognized relationships.

Phallus Worship

There is no doubt that the culture of the kśatriyas – their music, dance and art – reflected their sensibilities. The art of the kśatriyas depicted their tremendous efforts to conquer the world and not their enjoyment of material pleasure. These warlike people gave great importance to increasing their numbers so that they could fight against their enemies. That is why the courageous but uncultured kśatriyas of ancient times invented linga, or phallus, worship as a symbol for the increase of their numerical strength. This mentality of the kśatriyas can be found in the Mayan civilization of America and the Dravidian civilization of India as well as in particular types of Tantric ritual. No matter how phallus-and-vulva worship be philosophically explained today, it essentially expresses the ancient kśatriya desire to increase their population.

The patriarch, or gańapati (gańesha), of a kśatriya society was worshipped in those days as a god, and in this worship the head of an elephant, recognized as the greatest animal, would be used as the head of the idol. And in fact this gańapati or gańesha [group leader] figure, after undergoing certain philosophical explanations in those ancient times, evolved into the god Gańesha. Even though society is now vaeshya-dominated, both linga and Gańapati are still commonly worshipped. Many people do not understand or deliberately try to forget that what underlies this form of worship is the primitive social outlook of the kśatriyas.

Today some philosophers may say, Yasmin sarváńi liiyante talliuṋgam, or Liuṋgate gamyate yasmád talliuṋgam – that is, “The entity in which everything merges is called liuṋga,” [or “The entity from which everything originates [[and towards which everything is moving]] is called liuṋga”]. In other words, “worship of the linga means worship of Supreme Consciousness.” This interpretation is unacceptable, and the best proof that this is so is that Supreme Consciousness cannot be contained in any receptacle, whereas the physical linga does serve well as a symbol of numerical growth.

Gańapati was also gradually transformed into a scriptural deity. The authors of the Puranas traced the ancestry of Gańapati and claimed that he was the son of the god Shiva, in whose name the philosophically-interpreted phallus worship was practised. An attempt was also made in scripture to synthesize these two ideas with each other. Thus the sensibilities of the ancient kśatriyas were dyed the colour of the intellect of the vipras and accepted in a new way.

The Heroism of the Kśatriyas

We could not say of kśatriyas that they live only for physical enjoyment. Physical enjoyment and following an ideology are equally important to them; sometimes the one may be a little more important, sometimes the other.

Throughout both the ancient and modern history of the human race we observe that people with a kśatriya nature went to their deaths gladly, or thrust their necks into a noose, or bared their chests to bullets, or, rather than face the humiliation of total defeat, shot themselves in an attempt to escape probable indignities. People with a shúdra mentality do not come in the reckoning, but those with a kśatriya mentality, particularly those with an extremely kśatriya mentality, cannot stay out of the public eye. Willingly or unwillingly, they inevitably come into the limelight.

The heroic victories of the kśatriyas were celebrated in the Vedic and Mahábhárata ages and in ancient Greek and Egyptian times, and continue to be celebrated in both developed and undeveloped societies today. The admirers of different kśatriyas have told their tales, while those who have strongly opposed them on principle have nevertheless had to applaud their gallantry and heroism. Even the people of England praise the bravery of Napoleon Bonaparte. Even the people of France recognize the powerful personality of Hitler. Even the conservatives in Indian politics cannot deny the heroism of Prafulla Chaki, Khudiram, Rashbehari and Subhash.⁽⁷⁾

It is only in the case of those who live for physical enjoyment alone that there will be a clash of self-interests. Only they are unable to establish any superiority over the common crowd.

There are tens of millions of people in the world who live only for physical enjoyment. They are born; they eat; they preserve their lineage; they bring up their children to further their own interests; they look upon everything as objects of gratification; and they turn to others out of greed. Their past is dark and so is their future, and they block out the light of the present with the blackness of their petty selfishness. These are the shúdras. They live and die unnoticed, and unnoticed they carry about the burdens of their lives. Their birth, life and death mean nothing to the collective being of humanity. They cannot create any vibration in the human race through their actions, nor can they arouse sleeping humanity with a thunderous voice. No doubt they live in the world, but they are incapable of leaving any trace in its heart.

But kśatriyas are indeed capable of such actions. Their lives, whether they occupy a long span or a short span of human history, do create a stir in the world. By fathoming that stir, one will know which kśatriya it was that came on earth, and when. That is why kśatriyas are regarded as gods by the shúdras, who live only for physical enjoyment. And that is why the Kśatriya Age, accompanying a social kránti [evolution], was easily established in the ancient world.

Time has three divisions: past, present and future. Kśatriyas only think about the past and the present. They do not worry about the future. Ignoring future consequences and inspired by their ideology, they jump into the licking flames of a fire, leap from the top of a lofty mountain and take off in their rockets to explore planets and satellites. They want to conquer, to be conquerors, and not merely to live.

Kśatriyas also think about the past. They do not like to forget their traditions. The inspiration of the past helps them to determine the speed of their movement into the future. They get inspired by the annals of bravery of their ancestors or group. They seek revenge against the enemies of their forefathers. It is not possible for them to decide on their course of action without first analysing the significant and insignificant events of the past.

Religion and Spirituality

Whatever the real meaning of dharma may be, kśatriyas have a certain magnanimity of mind and a certain dharmácarańa [spiritual way of life] based on that magnanimity. They pray to their imaginary gods for a son, a wife, riches, name and fame, to Rudra for fierceness and to Cańd́a Shakti for ruthlessness, and they also beseech universal Prakrti [the Supreme Operative Principle], saying, “Give me beauty, give me victory, give me fame, and give me the strength to vanquish my enemies.” They want such things from their imaginary gods not only for themselves but also for those under their protection. However, they want to keep to themselves the right to distribute these things.

In fact, what spirituality the kśatriyas have is not free from the influence of matter. Their spirituality is actually limited to the effort to acquire material things or the effort to conquer matter. It is not easy for their intellect to understand the meaning of spirituality, that is, spiritual progress. The high standard which is necessary for the struggle involved in spiritual sádhaná [spiritual practices] is absent to some extent in most kśatriyas because their minds are extremely restless.

The Social Structure

Society means a group of people moving together. For the kśatriyas, who thrive on struggle, there is an undeniable need for unity and a need to form a group. Not only must they form a group, they must also maintain a high standard of discipline within that group. It is through the formation of groups and the maintenance of discipline that society is established. So without the assistance of kśatriyas, a society cannot be created.

To maintain society an administration is necessary, and to maintain the administration a system of government is necessary. No one would submit to the administration of a shúdra. The kśatriyas introduced the first administrative system through brute force. The shúdras and the weak kśatriyas submitted to the brute force of the stronger kśatriyas and accepted the latters’ patriarch as king. Under the administration of this king, a social and governmental structure began to form.

The kśatriya social system emphasized a sense of discipline. The kśatriya administration had little concern for what the common people thought about that discipline or whether they were practically benefited by it.

The selection of the kśatriya leader was based on physical might, strength of arms and mental strength. Naturally after the death of a leader, either one of his sons, or that man from one of the groups under his protection who had the greatest number of similar qualities, was accepted as the next kśatriya leader.

In the course of time the age of the kśátra-pitá or sarddár [kśatriya leader] was replaced by the age of the monarchy. This transformation took place mainly for the sake of maintaining discipline. After the death of a kśatriya leader, there would be a violent struggle for power among his sons and among the youths of the groups under his protection. By the time this struggle was finally over and a new kśatriya leader was selected, everything in the group was topsy-turvy, or the group had become fragmented into many smaller groups. A greater sense of discipline was obviously needed to save the group from such disorder or fragmentation. So to avoid internal conflicts, the custom of appointing the son, particularly the eldest son, of the kśatriya leader as the leader’s successor, was introduced in most of the kśatriya groups. Once this became the system, it may be said that monarchy had become established in kśatriya society.

The kings of those days were generally not kings in the sense that we use the word today. Because a kingdom was acquired through heredity, that is, because the system of selecting the kśatriya king or leader was not based on physical might, strength of arms and mental strength, a king had to some extent to cater to public opinion. How much he had to cater depended upon the degree of unity, the level of discrimination and the standard of intelligence of the local people. For example, in most parts of India, when the king made out a deed on támralipi [copper sheets used like writing paper], he would write the following command to his subjects: “You shall accept this deed of gift.” But in Bengal, in such deeds, the king would write the following request: “Please approve of this deed of gift.” This example shows that the kings of Bengal tried to take into account the will of their subjects; they did not act as dictators. Once the system of monarchy was established among the kśatriyas, the work of building society advanced under its sheltering wing.

A strong social structure could not be formed where a monarchy had evolved relatively late or where a democracy or republic had been established after a short period of monarchy. Due to a lack of strong state control in those countries where repeated coup d́ tats took place or where the reigns of the kings were very short, a firm social system could not be built, nor could a proper sense of discipline be awakened in the people. Of course by “the reigns of the kings” here I mean the administrations of the kśatriya leaders. Their long-term dictatorial administrations amounted for this purpose to the same things as long-lasting monarchies.

(The sense of discipline in kśatriyas is the same as that in soldiers. It means that whether one likes it or not, one has to abide by certain rules and regulations lest the defences be breached.)

After the French revolution no French government had the opportunity to govern for a long time. So although the common people in post-revolutionary France came to suffer less exploitation by the king, and less abuse of government power, the big harm done was the lack of a firm, well-knit social structure.

In the United States of America, the world-famous democracy, a social system and social discipline are largely lacking, although there is no dearth of social education, nor the least lack of a spirit of social service or a sense of unity among the general public. If those who are devoid of spirituality are not controlled by the authority of the government or some other group, it will not be possible for them to properly follow discipline.

In some countries in ancient times, a social system meant the caste system. But even the caste, or varńáshrama, system could not be built in a firm way in those parts of those countries where the state or governmental system was weak. As of the onset of Islamic rule, a strong varńáshrama system had never been created in East Bengal [now Bangladesh] or in some other parts of eastern India, due to the weakness of the state administration.

Kśatriya Mentality

In kśatriya society people do not follow religion or develop a sense of discipline out of what we would call a fear complex, exactly, but a strong desire for self-preservation certainly plays a part. Although unholy alliances based on self-interest exist among groups of kśatriyas, such alliances do not exhibit the base mentality of the shúdras.

Were the kśatriyas intellectually superior or inferior to animals? An animal knows how to meet its physical needs; it enjoys crude pleasures and has a sense of responsibility towards its children and to some extent towards its mate. But if we analyse the way in which kśatriyas are prepared to protect others, sacrifice for an ideology, or give up their most precious possession, their lives, for the sake of honour or for some other reason, it becomes clear that they are far more developed mentally than animals. In fact, it is the life of shúdra society that is only a little more developed than that of animals. Kśatriyas’ lives are more developed, their minds more fully expressed.

Factors in the Evolution of the Kśatriyas

A close scrutiny will lead us to the conclusion that the physical clash of animal life resulted in the creation of shúdra life, and the physical clash of the shúdras, together with the struggles of their underdeveloped minds (mental clash), created the minds of the kśatriyas.

The warlike kśatriyas regarded nature as the collective embodiment of different forces. To their limited understanding this idea of a synthesis of forces did not appear to be impossible, but to think more deeply than this was beyond their capacity. An outlook of enjoyment caused their minds, through physical clash, to move sometimes towards crudity in a process of analysis, and sometimes towards subtlety in a process of synthesis. The Brahmaváda [spiritual philosophy based on Brahma] of the Upanishads was the remarkable historical culmination of this synthetic process. The idea that the polytheism of shúdra society might rest upon monotheism first originated as a vague idea in the minds of the kśatriyas, and that is why it is said that the propounders of Brahmaváda were kśatriyas.

(King Janaka of India was said to be the preceptor of Brahmaváda, thus establishing the kśatriya origin of Brahmaváda. But as every student of history knows, no king by the name Janaka ever lived in India. “Janaka” was simply a common title used by many kings. Those admired by the common people for their erudition – such looked-up-to individuals – were also known by this name. Nevertheless, the kśatriya authorship of the Vedas was not an ordinary or insignificant achievement. I have already said that this authorship was the culmination of a remarkable historical process, the like of which is extremely rare. And it took place among the kśatriyas.)

A subtle analysis therefore reveals that the kśatriya spirituality stemmed from their desire to attain more and more and to express themselves to the maximum extent.

Where ideas are of secondary importance, the factor of gain or greed comes to be primary. The kśatriyas’ hope of probable eventual gain, born out of their greed, later helped the vipras to achieve absolute power. The kśatriyas ultimately had to sell their physical brawn to the absolute authority of the vipras.

In the kśatriya social system the saying “Live and let live” is not as important as the saying “Live with dignity”. It is as if within the social structure the kśatriya mind tries to express the sentiment: “A person of honour, like the petals of a flower, will try to shine above all others or will fall in a storm. It is not the nature of petals to live beneath others.”

One who is afraid of various types of force cannot comprehend the truth that underlies this diversity, but one who struggles gradually learns to recognize the nature of diversity and has the opportunity to reach a state of dynamic equilibrium.⁽⁸⁾

We do not have to waste words to convince people that in the life of a fighting group discipline is extremely important. There cannot be any doubt that in kśatriya society, whether it is a genuine society or not, there must be a well-knit system. Under this system the chariot of exploitation may run over the weak without slowing down, the hunger of millions of people may provide opportunities for one person to live in great luxury, and a relationship of exploiter and exploited may be established among people instead of fraternal relationships, but it is still a system. Regardless of its merits and demerits, it is the nature of kśatriyas to try to perpetuate the system they are living under.

But kśatriya society has a sensibility which is not like that of merciless nature. What stands out most is hero worship. The weak submit to the leadership of the strong, and the strong protect the weak in exchange for their submission. That is why, in the kśatriya social system, it is considered a virtue to save those who are distressed and seek protection; and this type of dutifulness is recognized as an important mental outlook in the life of society. For this reason alone and not for any other reason, parents will be looked after and protected when they become incapable of looking after themselves due to senility or physical infirmity.

In kśatriya society people are divided as a matter of course into innumerable groups which fight incessantly among themselves, but an unquenchable thirst for victory makes life somewhat like a game of chess, and the call to do battle and to display a powerful personality also gives meaning to life. Thus it is not the tendency of kśatriyas to carry the burden of all life’s disappointments. Kśatriyas enjoy the delights of collective living more than shúdras, because the collective sentiment that inspires fighting people to stick together in weal and woe makes even pain, since it is collective, sweet.

The Rise of the Vipras

Kśatriyas are always awake, but it can hardly be said that their eyes are always wide open to the light. Those who are already awake may not need to be awakened, but if they do not know which way to look, then they need to be shown which way to look.

Kśatriyas want to dash forward with an all-conquering attitude, but without distinguishing between darkness and light. In darkness, failing to ascertain the strength of their opponents, they challenge them to fight, and as a result they often leave the world prematurely, mauled and mangled. The history of the kśatriyas is painted with blood, but not illumined with intelligence. They display powerful personalities, spiritedness and courage, but no far-sightedness or wisdom, nor the support of subtle intellect. Therefore, after the Kśatriya Age had lasted for some time, intellectuals began to control the kśatriyas with their keen intellect.

Those with intellect encouraged the kśatriyas to look in directions where they had not looked before, and repeatedly explained to them things they had never understood. After this state of affairs had continued for some time, the kśatriyas began to submit to the intellectuals and, recognizing their superiority, began to use their forceful personalities to carry out the intellectuals’ instructions. The intellectuals gradually wrested the right to lead society from the kśatriyas and maintained their supremacy in society with the help of kśatriya power.

Although the kśatriyas remained alert, once they submitted to the intellectuals, to the vipras, the Kśatriya Age ended.

The vipras compiled the Puranas and wrote the glorious history of the kśatriyas. Right in that history they made it clear that it was the dharma of the powerful kśatriyas to worship the vipras. Those powerful kśatriyas could not see through this strategy. In simple faith they submitted to the intelligent, shrewd and deceitful vipras.

An examination of history reveals that the cáturvarńika⁽⁹⁾ social system existed throughout the world and that it has continued and is still continuing according to a special type of parikránti [peripheric evolution] of the samája cakra [social cycle]. The most amusing part about it is that when the Kśatriya Age evolved out of the unsystematic Shúdra Age, the shúdras considered the Kśatriya Age a great blessing. The shúdras could not envisage the kśatriyas as exploiters or possible exploiters. Similarly, when the kśatriyas sold all their strength to the intellectual vipras, the kśatriyas did not realize that it had been sold and that they were gradually being bound in chains like slaves. Still later, when the vipras sold themselves to the money of the vaeshyas – when Sarasvatii [the goddess of knowledge] became the slave of Lakśmii [the goddess of wealth] – the vipras at first did not realize that their value was going to be measured in financial terms.

The intellectual exploitation of the vipras reduced the kśatriyas to the level of powerful animals, and the cunning minds of the vipras started to control the strength of the kśatriyas.

When we read in history the accounts of the great kings, it appears as though all these events belonged to the Kśatriya Age. But was that really the situation? A somewhat deeper analysis shows that nearly all the kings were at the beck and call of their vipra ministers. In almost every country we observe the hard fact that even the most powerful and mighty kings were mere puppets in the hands of their vipra ministers. In fact, it is not totally incorrect to say that the history of the monarchy was the history of the “minister-archy”. Vipra ministers protected the common people from the whims of the undisciplined kśatriya monarchy and from the militaristic discipline of the kśatriyas, and introduced into society a discipline that was supported to some extent by the common people. A disciplined kingdom therefore really meant the subordination of the power of the monarch to the vipras.

The contribution of Aniruddha Bhatta to the social system evolved by Ballal [Sen] cannot be denied; the wisdom of Purandar Khan was the guiding influence behind the peace and order in the kingdom ruled by Hussain Shah; and Chandragupta was merely a puppet in the hands of Chanakya.

Once the kśatriyas submitted to the vipras, the vipras, with their sharp intellect, tried to construct a well-knit social system. Though they recognized the king as the supreme head of government, so far as the social system was concerned, they declared the king to be the servant of the vipras. They did not grant him the right to interfere in religious matters, because it was through the religious structure that they found an opportunity to establish themselves. So the kśatriya kings became the “defenders of religion” and the “servants of the vipras” in the social system created by the vipras.

Once the common people had become part of the social system created by the vipras, if it became apparent that a king wanted to free himself from the vipras’ domination, the vipras would use their intellectual power to summon up the support of the masses and, after humbling the proud king, would install a new king on the throne. Thereby the vipras secured their own rule.

The efforts of aware kśatriyas to free themselves from the influence of the vipras can be called kśatriya vikránti [counter-evolution] or kśatriya prativiplava [counter-revolution].

There are more dishonest vipras than dishonest kśatriyas. So most of the intellectual capabilities of the vipras are employed in appropriating a share of the hard-earned wealth of others. Kśatriyas use the shúdras as tools, and vipras use their subtlety to neutralize or to activate the vital energy of the kśatriyas, according to their own wishes. Hence when the Vipra Age began at the end of the Kśatriya Age, and the kśatriyas lay their weapons with complete trust at the feet of the vipras, they did not realize that they had sold themselves to cheats. The illusion of escaping the misfortunes of this life, and going to heaven in the next, clouded their simple minds. All the special qualities, the merits and demerits, congruities and incongruities of the kśatriyas’ mentality were at the fingertips of the vipras, so the vipras achieved their objectives by exploiting the weaknesses of the kśatriyas, giving condescending encouragement to their simplicity.

Employing the kśatriyas’ own resources of vital energy to suck dry their vitality, the vipras found the opportunity to gratify their own desires. The vipras’ power of mind and power of speech are much subtler than the physical brawn of the kśatriyas, so the vipras did not have any particular difficulty in turning the kśatriya occupation into a form of slavery through pressure of circumstances. Those who establish themselves in society through a display of physical strength will certainly be proud of their strength. The vipras used their intelligence to exploit this weakness-born-of-strength of the kśatriyas. By praising the strength of the kśatriyas, the vipras destroyed what little intellect they had and gained control of their strength. Just as a small mahout can control an unruly elephant, the vipras controlled the kśatriyas through an understanding of their inner weakness: the pride they had in their strength. The crown on the head of the kśatriyas considered itself fortunate to be used as a footstool under the feet of the vipras.

Footnotes

(1) I.e., the saḿkocátmaka bháva, or systolic bearing, of every action. The word saḿkocátmaka can be translated “systolic”, “contractive” or “retardative”; throughout this section “systolic” and “contractive” have been used. The word vikáshátmaka can be translated “diastolic”, “expansive”, “expressive” or “manifestative”; throughout this section the latter three terms (or their noun forms) have been used. The word saḿkocavikáshátmaka (“having the nature of both systole and diastole”) has always been rendered as “systaltic” or “pulsative”. –Trans.

(2) I.e., had less depth of feeling. The word saḿvedana that will recur throughout these pages (adj. saḿvedanashiila) may mean “sensation”, “sensibility”, “sensitivity”, “feeling”, “sympathetic response”. Normally “sensibility” will be used here. –Trans.

(3) Bhávadhárá may sometimes be translated “thought-waves”. sometimes “ideology”. –Trans.

(4) Catuh means “four” and varńa literally means “colour”. (When the adjectival forms of these two are combined they become cáturvarńika.) In the root sense which the author intends, a varńa is a social class – the word varńa referring to the predominant psychic colour, corresponding to certain psychic characteristics (which are neither hereditary nor fixed within any individual), of each of the four social classes in the social cycle. (The psychic colour of shúdras is black; of kśatriyas, red; of vipras, white; and of vaeshyas, yellow.) In orthodox tradition, varńa has been used to mean one of the four main hereditary castes: Shúdras, kśatriyas, Vipras (Brahmans) and Vaeshyas. See also p. 36. –Trans.

(5) See the last chapter, “Shúdra Revolution and Sadvipra Society”. –Trans.

(6) The Bengali word paoruśa is derived from puruśa (“male”) and has traditionally been translated “manliness”. It implies a powerful personality, vigour, will power and courage. Throughout this book it has been translated “powerful personality” or “personal force”. –Trans.

(7) That is, Khudiram Bose, Rashbehari Bandopadhyay and Subhash Chandra Bose. They were all great revolutionary leaders. –Trans.

(8) As mentioned above (p. 26), “The warlike kśatriyas regarded nature as the collective embodiment of different forces.” See also “The Vipra Age”, sections on Religious Characteristics and Vipra Mentality. –Trans.

(9) See footnote p. 12. –Trans.

Chapter 2	Human Society Part 2

The intellect of intelligent people can penetrate where the rays of the sun cannot. Such people want to enjoy matter without being subservient to it. In other words, they want to control matter with their mental waves. It is not only kśatriyas who do this, but vipras as well. The fundamental difference between kśatriya-hood and vipra-hood is that the ego of the kśatriyas draws objects of enjoyment to itself through a physical struggle with all opposing forces, while the ego of the vipras or their desire for enjoyment draws matter to itself either by the physical force of others through physical clash, or directly through psychic clash but avoiding physical clash, or through physical or psychic clash or both according to the demands of the situation.

The salient feature of vipra life is that they enjoy the glory of victory and avoid the ignominy of defeat, and that in their personal lives they satisfy their desires for enjoyment without taking great risks. Like kśatriyas, vipras are constantly engaged in fighting, but their fight takes place on the battleground of the intellect. Thus, vipras are intellectuals.

They do not use their intellectual development only to accumulate material wealth; they also surpass all others in their capacity to accumulate subtle psychic wealth. Their intellectual endowment and intuitional longing are especially helpful in awakening agryábuddhi [pinnacled intellect]. And although there is no ideological difference between pleasure-seeking vipras and kśatriyas in terms of psychic dynamism, those vipras who develop a pinnacled intellect are very different from kśatriyas.

The awakening of the pinnacled intellect, together with the momentum of that intellect, enables it to reach almost the highest stance of subtlety, so its movement is in a straight line. Its momentum has speed and moves in all directions. It contains within itself all the varńas [mental colours], which is why vipras are the embodiment of whiteness – their colour is white. As they express themselves less through their motor organs than do kśatriyas, blood-red, the symbol of spiritedness, cannot be their colour.

But how many white vipras are there, who try to develop a pinnacled intellect? Most vipras are busy accumulating objects of enjoyment with the help of the physical strength of others, like parasites. In this chapter, when I use the term vipra, I mean this inferior type of vipra. I will talk later about the superior white vipras, or sadvipras, who try to develop a pinnacled intellect.⁽¹⁾

Vipra Society

Vipras make use of the back-breaking labour of the shúdras and the powerful personalities of the kśatriyas to achieve their objectives. Shúdras help build society with their physical labour and kśatriyas help with their powerful personalities. Enticing them both, the vipras exact the physical labour of the shúdras, and purchase the personal force of the kśatriyas. If they see a towering mountain blocking the path of social progress, vipras do not sit back in despair or worship the obstacle as a god (or worship a particular disease as a goddess⁽²⁾ ) – in a way worshipping their own helplessness – like the shúdras; neither do they leap fearlessly into the ocean of action like the kśatriyas. They use their intellects to plan victory over their enemies; the kśatriyas and shúdras translate these plans into action at the cost of their lives. The vipras march to the fore over the kśatriyas’ and shúdras’ dead bodies and proclaim to the world, "Look at what I did. Just see how I won victory." The pages of history are full of examples of the indirect struggles of the vipras.

The characteristic similarities and differences between kśatriyas and vipras are clearly evident in every aspect of life. Kśatriyas and vipras are identified not by their similarities but by their differences. The most important difference is that kśatriyas try to enslave matter directly by fighting with it, whereas vipras, using their intellects, try to enslave the kśatriyas (who can then triumph over matter). The path of the kśatriyas is straightforward – there is no scope for duplicity; the path of the vipras is crooked from beginning to end – there is no scope for simplicity. Whatever simplicity vipras exhibit is merely a veneer to hide their crookedness. A body of people with a vipra mentality is called vipra society.

It should be kept in mind that words such as shúdra, kśatriya and vipra [as used in this book] have no connection with the varńáshrama system of ancient Hindu society. However, it is a fact that those who became vipras by virtue of their intellect declared that the vipras were a hereditary caste in order to perpetuate their own authority in society. They showed the kśatriyas, whom they had defeated and who had submitted to them, a little mercy by giving them a social position just under themselves. (Actually this was not done out of mercy but so they could put them to work in the future.)

Intellectual Exploitation

Vipras use all their abilities for intellectual exploitation. They try to gain prestige in society and maintain that prestige by composing mythological stories which play on the weaknesses of the human mind; by preaching the divine power of certain gods and goddesses under certain circumstances; by convincing people of the vipras’ social superiority; and by injecting the confusion of religion even into spirituality. They spend most of the mental resources of their precious lives scheming to gain prestige and plotting to maintain it.

If one reads the scriptures of any religious community, one will find ample examples of this. Even if one undergoes austerities, practises ritualistic fasting, undertakes pilgrimages, bathes in holy rivers and springs, worships a sacred fire or studies the scriptures, one will not be blessed unless one also offers sacerdotal fees to the vipras. Only the vipras are authorized to recite even ordinary páncálii [long folk poems] about laokik gods and goddesses⁽³⁾ – and needless to say, a vipra would never visit anybody to recite such poems without remuneration.

Occasionally even sinful, antisocial elements are led to believe that if they frankly confess their sins to a vipra, the vipra through his special efforts will obtain a dispensation saving them from the consequences of their sins; every intelligent person knows that a vipra will never act as an agent of God without some remuneration. Just see the way sins are condoned!

Even so, vipras have more capacities than kśatriyas. A kśatriya seeks happiness only through physical enjoyment, but a vipra is capable of some mental enjoyment as well, however little it may be.

Disasters occur when there is a lack of balance between people’s physical and intellectual efforts. If the reins of society are in the hands of people who suffer from such imbalances, society as a whole will suffer the consequences of those disasters.

The amount of intellectual labour performed by shúdras is negligible compared to their physical labour. Although the intellectual labour of kśatriyas is not completely meaningless, it does not have much practical value.

Even if a vipra administration does not itself create disasters, it will not be able to prevent them from occurring for long. What happens with the vipras is that [intellect] is given a higher valuation than the application of physical force. Thus under a vipra administration others work to enhance the vipras’ prestige and to maintain the vipras’ standard of living, while the vipras use their intellect to live an unbalanced life and to suck the vitality of others like parasites.

Where there is more physical clash in life, physical force will increase faster than intellect or the expression of intellect, and likewise, where there is much psychic clash, there will be only the expression of intellect, coupled with a gradual but eventually severe increase in physical indolence. From a psychological point of view, people dominated by intellect in this way gradually become more and more atrophied, so that whatever magnanimity exists at the beginning of the Vipra Age is lost by the end of the age. The end result of this lack of magnanimity is that the vaeshyas become dominant in society. At the beginning of the Vipra Age the vipras provide advice about how to protect society as well as how to exploit it; they also take advice from others about how to protect and exploit it. But by the end of the Vipra Age the vipras only give advice but no longer accept it, and the advice they give concerns only how to exploit.

How the Vipras Evolve

In the Kśatriya Age, those who were defeated by physical force and military strength resorted to intellectual strategems in an effort to win victory. The psychic clash they experienced in their long, drawn-out struggle for victory developed their intellects. The original fathers of the vipras were those who first used their intellects to exploit the strength of the strong.⁽⁴⁾ Kśatriyas, shúdras and relatively-undeveloped vipras came to be exploited by the fathers of the vipras, whom they recognized as their gotra [clan] leaders (or patriarchs), or recognized as founders of a pravar [lineage]. In some countries this gotra-pravar system still exists.

Kśatriyas who developed vipra intellectual abilities due to psychic clash while under vipra intellectual guidance were responsible for the continuation of vipra dominance. Actually, just as those shúdras who had been influenced by kśatriyas had perpetuated kśatriya society, it was those kśatriyas who had been influenced by vipras who perpetuated vipra society.

We see from the past that when, in a natural process, social dominance passed out of the hands of the kśatriyas and into those of the vipras, though still within the kśatriya succession, the main reason was that at that time most kśatriyas were kśatriyas in name only, but were actually shúdras. Similarly, at the time the vipras fell from authority, though the vipra succession went on, it could be observed that those who were vipras in name only outnumbered the vipras themselves, that is, the genuine intellectuals.

Why did this occur?

The Social Cycle and the Right of Inheritance

The rule of the social cycle is that the Shúdra Age is followed by the Kśatriya Age, the Kśatriya Age is followed by the Vipra Age, and the Vipra Age is followed by the Vaeshya Age, which is followed by social revolution. This kind of social rotation is the inexorable law of nature.

Even during the period of their dominance, kśatriyas and vipras both understood (at least) that as nothing in the world stays the same forever, their dominance as well would one day come to an end, and that too due to their unworthiness. For this reason they extolled the right of inheritance and attached greater importance to it than to individual capacity – so that regardless of his ability, the son of a king would become a king and wear the laurels of kśatriya victory, and however foolish or stupid, the heir of a vipra would be respected by society and enjoy the privileges of a vipra. Subsequently the same thing occurred in vaeshya society.

It can be observed that in the Kśatriya Age power gradually passes into the hands of non-kśatriyas who are kśatriyas in name only, and in the Vipra Age power passes into the hands of non-vipras who are vipras in name only, all in the name of hereditary rights. But it is impossible for such unworthy people to maintain their hold on power. Under such circumstances power passes out of the hands of the kśatriyas and into the hands of the vipras, and later passes again from the hands of the vipras to the hands of the vaeshyas; and when the dominance of the oppressive vaeshyas becomes intolerable the common people revolt, thus starting a new chapter in the social cycle.

Satanic Vipras

The development of human society that comes in the wake of the lustrous vitality of the kśatriyas becomes somewhat subdued among the vipras. That vitality gradually surrenders to intellectuality. The strength and sincerity demonstrated in the practical sphere by the kśatriyas in their efforts to conquer matter and consciousness is not matched by the vipras. Vipras certainly do use their intellect to try to acquaint themselves with consciousness, but they do not try to conquer matter through the application of their own physical strength – that also they try to do using intellect as their capital. Through their intellect they use the strength of the kśatriyas to conquer matter.

At the slightest sign from the vipras, major wars break out in different countries and states. The vipras themselves do not fight. By whispering of war in the ears of the king, they send kśatriya generals into battle. Kśatriya soldiers, running the risks for the vipras, wage war on land, on sea and in the air, and the vipras, understanding their physical and mental weaknesses, entice them with food or money, or inspire them with hollow, idealistic-sounding slogans, and land them in a holocaust.

Thus in the Vipra Age kśatriyas fight and die while shrewd vipra ministers receive triumphant ovations. This happens in every country where vipras play a dominant role. The names of vipra ministers are blazoned across the pages of history, but history does not record the numbers of soldiers who died on the battlefield or how many of them saw their golden dreams fade into darkness under cannon fire.

When a vipra minister dies, the newspapers write it up elaborately. Condolence meetings are held; condolence messages come in by the thousands; flags are flown at half mast; and marble statues are erected at intersections in public parks. But the press will never acknowledge the kśatriyas whose blood enriched the ground for the harvest of victory. And actually, why should they? How can so many names be published in a newspaper anyway!

All the great warmongers, the great politicians of the world, belong to this vipra gang of satanic intellect. At their command, or due to their fiery lectures or diplomatic intrigues, millions of foolish shúdras have lost their lives and thousands of hot-blooded kśatriyas have served as instruments in the slaughter.

The pages of world history reveal that all the crusades and jihads of the Middle Ages were plotted by these satanic vipras. Caught in their intrigues, the shúdras took the beatings; and the kśatriyas fought as religious warriors, but never thought deeply about whom they were fighting for.

Was it only in the Middle Ages that this happened? In today’s world also, satanic vipras, the protected agents of the capitalist vaeshyas, have led and are continuing to lead millions of people along the path of death and destruction. Evil vipras are fanning the flames of the vaeshyas’ insatiable, demonic hunger. Neither the shúdra masses nor the warlike kśatriyas are responsible for the problem of the millions of refugees in different countries, for the heart-rending cries of the mothers, wives, sons and daughters of the soldiers who died on the battlefields, for the blazing flames of communal⁽⁵⁾ riots, for communalism itself, provincialism, nationalism and casteism. The responsibility lies with a small group of shrewd vipras who, out of petty self-interest, have instigated the shúdras and kśatriyas to commit heinous acts.

The meanness and brutality of such vipras put on a ghoulish graveyard dance, seeming to make a mockery of the vipras’ intellect. In the Vipra Age the vipras drew power from this type of brutality, and through a staged display of black magic, vipras bestrode society. In the Vaeshya Age the vipras commit similar sins in order to shine like fancy shoes on the feet of the vaeshyas.

Have vipras only exploited others? Although they have done more to exploit others than to serve them, and although their service was motivated by the desire to exploit, the list of those services has been considerable. The kśatriyas conquered the physical world through fight, whereas the vipras wormed their intellect into the wealth won by the kśatriyas. Whereas the kśatriyas’ intellect was only capable of obtaining objects, the vipras’ intellect in the Vipra Age was able to devour them.

But even in the vipras’ action of devouring, there is one speciality, and that is, although they demarcated everyone’s field of activity, they allowed people the scope to express themselves within that demarcated area. Even though the vipras exploited and enslaved the kśatriyas, they did not curb their martial nature or deny them the opportunity to display their heroism. And although they were reluctant to recognize the shúdras as human beings, they nevertheless allowed them an opportunity to survive. In the history of human progress and of the effort to establish human superiority over matter, we would be overlooking an important fact if we failed to mention this speciality of the Vipra Age.

The Idea of Supernatural Phenomena

The vipras were successful due to their intelligence. They not only defeated the kśatriyas in intellectual battles but also filled them with awe. Whatever primitive human weaknesses the kśatriyas were unable to overcome, the vipras would take advantage of to exploit them and the rest of society – that is, the shúdras – and this goes on even today.

Whenever they would intellectually defeat the ordinary people, the vipras would cleverly introduce the idea of supernatural phenomena in order to achieve their objectives. In reply to the question, "Where do people go after they die?" undeveloped people had themselves developed the concept of ghosts as the answer. Any frightful or distressing events of the everyday world that could not be understood were attributed to ghosts. The vipras capitalized on this fear of ghosts by becoming exorcists and tricking the vaeshyas and kśatriyas out of their money. Did not the intelligent vipras know that if a ghost is a mental creation, "possession by a ghost" must be just a mental disease? Whether we know the causes of paranormal events or not, they certainly have nothing to do with ghosts.

Knowing full well that a person who is possessed by a ghost is suffering from a mental disease and a disease of the nervous system, exorcists generally beat a "possessed" person to reactivate his or her nerves, make him or her inhale the smoke of burnt chillies in order to return him or her to consciousness, or use numerous psychological techniques to cure his or her mental disease, but they never disclose to anybody what they are actually doing. Instead they inarticulately mutter meaningless mantras and even today make people believe that, due to the force of their psychic power or so-called Tantra sádhaná [spiritual practices], pretasiddhi [power to control ghosts] or pishácasiddhi [power to control evil spirits], the ghosts and demons will be compelled to flee.

Exorcists tell stories about the various supernatural activities of ghosts or about offering food to manes at Gaya to make a patient concentrate his or her mind. The patient’s concentrated mind may then break the branch of a tree or crack a parapet of the roof, but the vipra exorcists claim that such occurrences are caused by the fleeing ghost and are proof of the power of their mantras. Actually ghosts never kill people, only vipras do.

Indeed, vipras earn considerable amounts of money from the public by preaching about the tremendous importance of religiosity and not straying from the path of religiosity.

Visions of gods and goddesses or so-called saints is the same type of thing as possession by ghosts. Don’t vipra priests really know that those who receive medical guidance or divine revelations by prostrating themselves before a temple or a saint’s mausoleum for days together without taking food and water, actually experience nothing more than the workings of their own intuition? Had the vipras not known this, they would not have persistently stressed the importance of faith to their followers. Vipras understand that when through faith the crude mind reaches the realm of the subtle mind and the subtle mind reaches the realm of the intuition, it is the intuition, the innate repository of infinite knowledge, that enlightens the intellect. But the person who receives the medical guidance or divine revelation believes that it comes from the deity he or she was worshipping. If one’s faith is not strong enough there will be a lack of concentration and the intellect will not be able to cross the threshold of the aham [ego] and enter the realm of the intuition. Consequently it will not be possible for the person to receive medical guidance or a divine revelation from his or her so-called deity. Vipra priests understand this and tell those with little faith, "You had better go. Your prayers will not be answered." Had the deity actually been watchful the question of the presence or absence of faith would not have arisen; everybody would have received medical guidance or a divine revelation.

Deception and Trickery

Intellect controls crude physical force. Therefore kśatriyas, who have both intellect and physical strength, make the shúdras work according to their will either at the snap of their fingers at bayonet point. And vipras, who are physically weaker but intellectually stronger than the kśatriyas, control the kśatriyas’ finger snap and raised bayonet through their sharp intellect.

The vipras’ victory is intellectual victory; it would be meaningless without the support of the kśatriyas’ swords and the shúdras’ back-breaking labour. In fact, vipras use their nerve cells almost exclusively in their fights; they make very little use of their nerve fibres. The work of the nerve fibres is done by the obedient kśatriyas and shúdras.

Many major wars have been fought in the history of the world. Millions of unintelligent shúdras and thousands of unintelligent but brave kśatriyas have lost their lives, but the laurels of victory have always gone to the vipra ministers who have never so much as glanced at a battlefield from a distance. Ask any historical analyst, "Who won victory for Great Britain in the Second World War?" and he or she will immediately reply, "The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Churchill." He or she will never mention the millions of British soldiers who fought for Britain with the last drop of their blood, or the hundreds of thousands of scientists, artisans, technicians, clerks, doctors and military officers who saved the prestige of Britain through their tireless efforts. It was as if the combined endeavours of millions of such people, the movements of their nerves and muscles, became eclipsed by the intellect of Churchill.

On that day in medieval history that the kśatriyas, the rulers of the shúdras, laid their bows and arrows at the feet of the vipras and agreed to be their slaves, all the power of their personalities became caught in the net of the cunning vipras. That historic moment was the starting point of the Vipra Age, the era dominated by the vipras.

But did the kśatriyas surrender their vigour and martial skills in a sudden way? No, it took a long time. The vipras gradually used their intellectual power to bring the activities of the comparatively dull-witted kśatriyas under a kind of psychic control. The kśatriyas surrendered exactly at the point where the intellectual pressure of the vipras had brought their powerful personalities under control.

The vipras had scientific minds, and when they knew that some type of natural calamity or beneficial natural event was about to occur, they would present those events to the kśatriyas as expressions of their supernatural powers. The kśatriyas would be filled with awe and think that if the possessors of such miraculous powers cursed them, a disaster might befall them, but if the vipras blessed them, they might be able to conquer the world. Spellbound by such thoughts, the kśatriyas surrendered all their abilities to the intellectual power of the vipras.

We find in the history of that period that in the event of some conflict between the vipras and the less intelligent members of society, the vipras, who had studied astronomy, might discover that a solar eclipse was about to occur. They would utilize this knowledge to defeat their opponents, saying, "The world will soon be covered in darkness due to the power of our curse." After some time the eclipse would occur and the world would become dark. Their opponents would believe that it was really the result of the vipras’ curse, and would surrender to them in a state of fear and panic.

The vipras deceived the kśatriyas in many such ways; sometimes they made use of ordinary stage magic to achieve their ends, and sometimes they confounded the kśatriyas by psychological means. However, it took the vipras quite some time to learn their tricks; hence they did not gain domination overnight.

The Gotra-Pravar System

In the early stages of kśatriya dominance, a group of shúdras would form around an individual kśatriya. Later, when the vipras began to become dominant, [at least] one kśatriya group would form in the same way around an individual vipra, or so-called wise man. Needless to say, there would in turn be many shúdra groups around each kśatriya group. Each kśatriya group would adopt a gotra [clan] name according to the name of the vipra leader around whom the various groups clustered, and also a pravar [ancestral lineage] name according to the name of a deputy vipra leader. Thus evolved the gotra-pravar system which still prevails in Hindu society.⁽⁶⁾ When kśatriya groups adopted vipra names according to the gotra-pravar system, that was the beginning of the end of the Kśatriya Age.

With the acceptance of vipra dominance, a new social system evolved centring around the vipras. This social system allowed the exploitation machinery of the vipras to run unrestrained. The administrative machinery remained in the hands of the vipra-boot-licking kśatriyas.

Kśatriya society in its early stages had been based on the matrilineal order. Later, as mentioned, male dominance developed, bringing with it the patrilineal order. In the course of time, as the vipras became dominant, the gotra-pravar system came into being.

Spiritual Advancement

Vipra dominance meant purely and simply intellectual dominance. The vipras made use of every means at their disposal to maintain their dominance while at the same time putting on a show of honesty and spirituality, a fine performance. Through their grandiloquence they could very well exploit the innate weaknesses of the common people.

Although vipras were proud of their learning and wanted to lead society, their aristocratic status did not result from that desire. Though their aversion to manual labour turned them into a kind of social parasite, they tried to establish themselves socially by performing social service and disseminating knowledge. This redeeming quality of a handful of vipras awakened in the minds of the kśatriyas and shúdras a special type of love for vipras. Because of this love, even though they were exploited, they did not bother about it. They thought, "What is the harm if the vipras take a part of what I’ve earned through my bravery, strength, intellect or physical labour."

The belief that serving vipras was the stepping-stone to heaven became firmly rooted in their minds. Regardless of whether this belief was good or not, it helped to build and maintain the solidarity of society.

The vipras tried to maintain their dominant position and continue their exploitation by extolling their own greatness. Although most common people could not understand why, their devotion to the vipras or to the spirituality propagated by the vipras helped them to progress spiritually and to assimilate sublime ideas. It would certainly be inappropriate for people to hold a grudge against the vipras and refuse to recognize this important fact.

The kśatriyas fought to defend themselves, to protect others and to create a social legacy. The vipras utilized all their intellectual power in the intellectual field to protect the mentally-undeveloped kśatriyas and shúdras, so that with their help they themselves could survive, and their own professional needs, subsistence and security would be taken care of; and so that they could become the supreme rulers of society.

The vipras’ total application of intellect made them debaters, logicians and metaphysicians. Such mental expressions addressed neither the spiritual world nor the physical world particularly. On the one hand the vipras used their logic and verbosity to exploit society and present themselves as righteous, and on the other hand their ideology refuted the humble dogma of the shúdra masses and encouraged people to move towards the subtler psychic realm.

Those treading the path leading towards the subtlest realm, whether they were shúdras, kśatriyas or vipras, provided spiritual inspiration to the human race and developed spiritual philosophies. It was possible in the past, it is possible today, and it will be possible in the future for sadvipras to emerge from this section of society.

In the process of criticizing the vipras, we must not overlook the fact that human fraternity, universalistic intellect, the use of the influence of material wealth, and the peak of mental attainment were contributions of the Vipra Age. It should also be remembered that the Kśatriya Age began the process of seeing humans as humans, and the Vipra Age, in assessing the value of humans, gave more importance to intellect than to physical existence.

Social Codes and Religious Scriptures

The onward march of intellect, in order to put the social system built by the kśatriyas on a basis of collective welfare, many times destroyed, then rebuilt, the structure of that system. The vipras would continually write new social codes, basing those new codes on different factors such as environment, social needs, human nature, post-war social reactions, and the blood-mixing of different groups. In order to maintain their control, they had based their machinery of exploitation on so-called spiritual scriptures which they declared to be superhuman revelations (supposedly given by God alone and not by human beings) and therefore immutable. Nevertheless they did recognize that it was necessary to change the social system in order to meet the needs of the age.

In this regard it is an incontrovertible fact that the vipras were more broad-minded than the kśatriyas. Time and again in their social system the kśatriyas had demonstrated a kind of obstinacy characteristic of foolish dictators; whereas the vipras at least did not make this mistake. The reason for this is quite clear. The prestige of the kśatriyas derived from their dictatorship, and so by any means they wanted to maintain this system. But the prestige of the vipras was based purely on intellectual supremacy, and so, after ensuring that they had sufficient scope for intellectual exploitation, they considered it expedient to keep pace with the requirements of the age.

If the vipras had admitted that scriptures were written by human beings (such as those written by Manu), they would have lost their scope for exploitation. So they chose not to do this. But if they had claimed that their social scriptures (or social codes, or smrti shástra) were divine revelations, they would have missed out on the means of exploitation that were available in that era. This is why the vipras accepted that social codes could be changed.

The vipras were inclined towards intellectual exploitation. Regardless of what they constructed or destroyed, they always made sure that they had sufficient scope to exploit people. The intelligent vipras understood that the path of exploitation was not the path of rationality and therefore they never walked that path, leading the ignorant instead down the path of blind faith. So when they set themselves to formulate social scriptures, they did so with an eye to their own convenience. Instead of supporting their views with rational arguments, they propagated high-sounding religious injunctions. That is why the degree of genuine humanity found in the kśatriya social and matrimonial systems did not increase in the social and matrimonial systems of the vipras. The vipras merely covered what genuine humanity was already there with a veneer of religious fanaticism.

The Exploitation of Women

The kśatriyas tried to structure their social system and matrimonial relations to meet the needs of both men and women, but the vipras cleverly tried to maintain a permanent system for exploiting both women and ignorant, neglected men. They did not hesitate to employ any kind of cunning to keep power in the hands of a small group, out of fear that neglected people and women would claim that as human beings they should have the same rights as everyone else.

The way in which the kśatriyas rose to power varied from country to country, but the way in which the vipras rose to power was almost the same everywhere. In order to achieve their aims the vipras composed fanciful stories to suit their purpose in the name of religion, but without regard for dharma or spirituality.

In the Vipra Age, as the dependence of women on men increased, the vipras turned women with vipra intellects into wageless slaves. Conspiring to cripple women in every sphere of life, they wrote "divine" commandments, many kinds of scriptural injunctions, many kinds of specious logic, and imaginary tales of pápa [vice] and puńya [virtue]. To hear or read such things one would think that men, especially vipra men, were alone blessed by God and that others were born only to provide them the wherewithals of enjoyment.

The matrimonial system of the Kśatriya Age regarded women as both the assistants and co-workers of men, but in the Vipra Age, though on paper women were considered sahadharmińii,⁽⁷⁾ in practice they became servants or slaves. A woman’s social status lasted only as long as the man maintained her in style.

Today in countries where the women work and the men only sit around and eat, the status of women is similar; the women of such countries are restless because they are strictly controlled by the men. In the developed countries, although women are called the "fair sex" and are shown respect through language and people’s conduct, men are not prepared to accept that women should have equal rights. The strict control that men exercised over women in the Vipra Age continued unchanged in the Vaeshya Age.

In the Kśatriya Age women were the partners of men; that is, they shared both good times and bad times, and shared the same social status. But in the Vipra Age, after the intellectual defeat of women, their social status declined. Men toyed with the prestige of women: sometimes men glorified them and sometimes they neglected them.

In the Vipra Age, particularly in the middle of the Vedic Age, when the intellectuals became all-powerful in society, some women enjoyed the same social rights and dignity as men due to the legacy of the past and were called jáyás,⁽⁸⁾ but most women were treated only as objects of enjoyment. Society did not recognize that they had any abilities beyond those of conceiving and bringing up children. Such women were called bháryás. In their social scriptures opportunists clearly stated, Puttrárthe kriyate bháryá ("Women are child-producing machines").⁽⁹⁾ To the extent that this type of outdated idea survives, it is a legacy of the Vipra Age.

Of course in that Vipra Age ignorant women were sometimes led to believe that they were not only jáyás or bháryás, but also grhińiis – that is, that they had equal social rights and social status, and equal spiritual rights as well; but in practice their spiritual rights were rarely respected. One or two women who appeared to have been given the opportunity to enjoy those rights did not actually win the rights, but through their great personalities established a kind of right with a type of force. The pandits of those days could not formally oppose this effort to establish their rights, but naturally such endeavours were not viewed favourably. Of course such women later commanded great respect in society, and still do today.

Although it is universally true that no one gives anyone rights – rights have to be established by one’s own efforts – I have nevertheless specifically mentioned this here because vipra society was not prepared to voluntarily respect women’s rights.

The dominance of group-mothers in the Kśatriya Age completely disappeared in the Vipra Age. When knowledge first began to bloom in the Kśatriya Age, women also would impart knowledge to others. They composed mantras and offered libations to sacrificial fires alongside the men. But in the Vipra Age women lost their prestige. Every attempt was made to totally enslave them. The right to participate in sacrifices was taken away and matriarchs were replaced by patriarchs. Opportunities to read scriptures were either withdrawn or drastically curtailed. Ignorant women had no alternative but to silently accept the supremacy of men.

The Vipra Age was the age of male opportunists. While men had the opportunity to divorce their wives or to be loose in character, women had to follow a very strict code of conduct. If any such lapse or defect was found in a woman, she would lose all respect not only as a woman, but also as a human being. Yet when men committed the same crimes, they strutted about arrogantly as leaders of society.

The Vaeshya Age followed the Vipra Age. But in the Vaeshya Age as well, we see that, as a legacy of the Vipra Age, women who have been abandoned by their husbands have not been respected by society. Even today, in places where society has not yet begun to feel the influence of shúdra revolution, society follows the system of the Vipra Age in not open-mindedly accepting divorce. In such places women have been given some opportunities on paper, but in reality they still have to depend on the mercy of oppressive men.

In the Vipra Age prostitution became a profession for the first time, because women were faced with loss of respect in society, economic difficulties and other worldly problems. It should be kept in mind that the profession of prostitution was not a phenomenon of the Shúdra or Kśatriya Age. It is possible to find some degree of bad character among both men and women due to the influence of base propensities, but this is not enough to create a large community of prostitutes in society. This sinful occupation is the creation of selfish vipras. Later, if I get the opportunity, I will discuss this subject in detail.

In the Kśatriya Age, a woman was considered to be the valuable property of a man. Although women did not have the same rights as men, they still commanded considerable respect. But in the Vipra Age the position of women became like that of cows, sheep and goats, no better than the other essential items of a household. In the Kśatriya Age a woman was considered to be a "hero’s reward", and abduction by the strong was considered a virtuous act, but in the Vipra Age this changed a little; in the Vipra Age a woman came to be considered a "pandit’s reward". A woman had no existence in society without a husband.

In some countries more than one woman might be compelled to be married to one man; devious means were employed to bring this about. By creating a fear of hell in the minds of women, by maintaining social strictures through severe punishment, and by crippling women economically, women were made so dependent on men that the very idea that polygyny might be unjust was effaced from their minds.

In some countries unmarried girls were forced to marry old men on the verge of death on the curious pretext that it was sinful for a woman to lead an unmarried life. In some places unmarried girls were married to imaginary gods and were called devadásiis [maidservants of a god]. Needless to say, this type of marriage indirectly encouraged immoral social practices.

Because such injustices continued for a long time, women developed an inferiority complex and a sense of despair. Who can count the millions of women who have spent sleepless nights weeping their grief out in the dark, and died with no hope for redressal of such tyranny. They were pulverized like soft lumps of earth under the steamroller of vipra rule.

Thus we can see, in the social customs and ceremonies of many countries, in little girls’ rhymes and songs to the deities, that mothers have taught their daughters to pray to the gods and goddesses, there being no other remedy, that they should not end up as a co-wife or that their co-wives should live short lives.

In the Vipra Age matrimonial ties became irreversible. The social system became extremely rigid, not only in matters of matrimony but in all spheres.

Great Personalities

In the Kśatriya Age society had been like a well-arranged stack of bricks, as at the brick kiln, but in the Vipra Age the bricks in the stack became cemented together into a firm structure. Just as new stacks of bricks can be built either according to necessity or according to one’s liking, in the Kśatriya Age the social system was rearranged from time to time according to people’s needs and desires. In the Vipra Age, however, the strongly-cemented edifice could not be rearranged at will. In order to change the edifice strong arms and a strong hammer would have been needed.

We can say that in the Vipra Age the leaders of society were more concerned with preserving the existence of their strongly-cemented edifice than with building society according to people’s needs. It seemed as though their social edifice was not created for people, but rather people for the edifice. The sole aim of the vipra leaders became to preserve their edifice, without considering the interests of the people – without thinking about their happiness and sorrow, their pains and agonies – without listening to the supplications of humanity.

In the Vipra Age those who tried to bring about even a little social change in the interest of the common people either died smashing their heads on the hard bricks or broke the bricks with their hammers and strong arms. Those who hammered in this way were welcomed with open arms by the downtrodden masses, but vested interests defamed them. This indirectly helped those great social leaders to popularize their causes. Such great leaders included Shrii Krśńa, Buddha, Vardhamana Mahavira, Hazrat Mohammed, Mahaprabhu Chaitanya, Raja Ramamohana and Ishvarchandra Vidyasagara.

In the middle period [of Indian history] Shrii Krśńa united all the kings of India in order to apply force and to destroy those powerful leaders who were doing evil and who, in the name of morality and justice, were encouraging unrighteousness within the accepted structure of society.⁽¹⁰⁾ He gave a clarion call to the human race and declared that the human body is the medium through which dharma is realized. However, it should not be utilized only for performing spiritual activities and breathing through alternate nostrils in a darkened room. People also have to become karma yogiis so they can destroy the root causes of sin in society. They should even mercilessly take up arms against their relatives if necessary. On behalf of the common people Krśńa declared war on a social system built on a base of selfishness in order to smash it. He stood defiantly against the systems of exploitation of the gurus and priests and propounded his own psychologically-based karmaváda [doctrine of action].

Vardhamana Mahavira tried to evolve a new ideology based on a scientific outlook.

Hazrat Mohammed offered a new way of life to the ignorant and oppressed who were swirling endlessly round and round in the muddy whirlpool of superstition. He clearly declared that all the people of the world belonged to one caste.

Kabir and Mahaprabhu launched open revolts against the casteism which had kept Indian society crippled by creating a tremendous complex of self-aggrandizement in one section of society and a terrible inferiority complex in another section. Although Mahaprabhu had been born into a well-known Brahman family, he suffered many insults because of his opposition to casteism. Despite this he remained steadfast in his ideology.

Burning innocent women to death was once considered by Hindus to be a part of their religious life. Raja Ramamohana opposed this practice and did not rest till he had stopped it. As a result many attempts were made on his life.

Vidyasagara did not rest till he had compelled the Hindus in his region to recognize widow remarriage.

All historians know that the paths of Shrii Krśńa, Buddha, Mahaprabhu and Mahavira were not strewn with roses. Even today the standard bearers of vested interests do not sympathize with such personalities.

Among people who today appear to us as moral leaders, those who protested against prevailing customs and superstitions, such as Lenin, George Bernard Shaw and Manavendra Roy, were criticized and made the victims of false propaganda. They were opposed and abused at every step for no reason at all. Their only crime was to deal a blow at the vipras’ machinery of exploitation.

The most distinctive feature of the vipras’ [social system] was that it had supposedly been built for the welfare and greater good of the people, but where their convenience or the thought of their welfare conflicted with the vipras’ intellectual exploitation, the vipras ruled in favour of their own exploitative system. For this reason the principle of the Kśatriya Age, Viira bhogyá vasundhará ["Might makes right"], was replaced by a new principle in the Vipra Age, Buddhiryasya balaḿ tasya nirbuddhestu kuto balam ["Where there is intellect there is might; where there is no intellect there is no might"].

Parents and Gurus

Though on the one hand the vipras became lazy and physically weak due to the constant exercise of their intellects, on the other hand, in them the sweetness of humanity became fully expressed. The idea that children should do something in return for their parents’ love and affection had first awakened in the Kśatriya Age, but the fact that the mental satisfaction gained from rendering service to one’s parents in this way helps the child to progress towards higher feelings was first deeply felt by the vipras. That is why in the Vipra Age service to parents ceased to be limited to the repayment of a debt, but came to be considered part of one’s dharma sádhaná [spiritual practice].

And why stop at service to one’s parents alone? The vipras deemed all those who bestowed physical, mental or spiritual wealth as a gift of love – as an expression of affection – to be one’s gurus. Duty towards such gurus was not a purely worldly duty, but became an important sádhaná of jaeva dharma [duties enjoined on unit beings].

The sweet relationship between parents and their children made family life in the Vipra Age a lot happier than it had been in the Kśatriya Age. The children of the Kśatriya Age only took care to preserve the heroism, traditions and prestige of their parents, but the children of the Vipra Age learned to think about more than this. Just as parents and other elders in the Vipra Age prayed, Puttrádicchet parájayam ["One should long to be outshone by one’s children"] or Shiśyádicchet parájayam ["One should long to be outshone by one’s students"], their children not only tried to uphold the prestige of their families and of the lineages of their gurus, keeping in view their families’ and gurus’ traditions, but also, in carefully preserving that prestige, kept an ideal uppermost in their minds and moved towards that ideal. That is why the society of that era kept progressing step by step in the intellectual sphere: the thought of the ideal gave it no respite. Thus Vedic rśis [sages] always exhorted people to move forward, saying that the mantra of a living society was Caraeveti, caraeveti ["Move on, move on"].

Vipra society was far more firmly-knit than kśatriya society had been. In kśatriya society it had become necessary to select suitable brides and grooms for marriages in order to maintain the continuity of social traditions, but the personal wishes of the brides and grooms themselves were not disregarded. Grooms and families were selected after giving due consideration to the opinions of the brides and grooms themselves. But this was not the practice in the Vipra Age, when maintaining the continuity of social traditions became the primary consideration. Hence in the Vipra Age the scope for independent decisions regarding marriage disappeared, as undue importance began to be paid to the selection either of families or of grooms.

Cultural and Religious Exploitation

The vipras’ culture included music, dance, arts and crafts. It emphasized the sharpness of the vipra intellect rather than the sentiments of the human mind, so the down-to-earth sentiments of kśatriya culture were substantially lost.

The vipras’ culture was not for the common mass. No doubt it stimulated the nerves of a small handful of people, but it could not move in step with the general mass. Vipra artists wished, through their intellectual brilliance, to conquer the world. Through their poems, dramas, writings and drawings they induced common people to pay homage to the superiority of the intellectuals. But the ignorant people could not understand these big things. The common people thought, "What we cannot understand must be something great," and with this mentality fell obediently at the vipras’ feet.

At times when the intellectual art and literature of the vipras failed to convince the common people of their greatness, the vipras composed countless fanciful puráńas [mythological tales], stories about gods and goddesses that satisfied their own standards, and colourful mythological tales, all designed to dazzle people’s eyes and confound their intellects. They also warned the masses that if they failed to follow the teachings of these stories, or doubted their veracity, they would most certainly go to the deepest level of hell.

Everything in the practical world has some value as well as some defects. The kśatriyas, as an expression of their svabháva dharma [natural characteristics], had thought deeply about how to increase their numerical strength, and as a result – quickening the pace of human beings’ struggle against nature – had not only laid the foundation of the vast edifice of human civilization, but had also flung themselves into the task of constructing the walls. Similarly, the vipras’ expression of their natural characteristics induced them as well to increase their numbers, and for that reason increasing the number of their followers became one criterion of their vipra-hood. Of course in order to succeed in swelling the ranks of their followers, the vipras had to develop a due amount of proficiency; and their efforts to develop it served to build the roof on the edifice of human civilization.

Phallus worship had been invented by the primitive, uncultured kśatriyas as a symbol of increasing their population. The cultured vipras now interpreted it in a new way. They contended that the linga was a symbol for Parama Puruśa [Supreme Consciousness] and the piit́ha [vulva] a symbol for Prakrti [Supreme Operative Principle]. The interpretation the vipras gave was, Liuṋgate gamyate yasmád talliuṋgam ["The entity from which everything originates [[and towards which everything is moving]] is called liuṋga"] or Yasmin sarváńi liiyante talliuṋgam ["The entity in which everything merges is called liuṋga"]. When examining the history of phallus worship one should not only consider the mentality of the kśatriyas, but also give due consideration to the mentality of the vipras. However, the vipra interpretation has no relation to reality. Phallus worship belonged to primitive kśatriya society.

And not only phallus worship; most of the gods and goddesses described in the mythologies of different countries were representations of actual kśatriya leaders. People in the Kśatriya Age worshipped these gods and goddesses out of fear and devotion. Indra, Agni, Varuna, etc., of the Vedas had been mighty kśatriya leaders. In the Vipra Age they came to function as gods after winning the support of various scriptures.

The undeveloped kśatriyas would worship all those leaders, or "gods", by offering them their (the kśatriyas’) favourite foods in order to propitiate them. After those leaders’ deaths, all such food would be burnt in a fire, thereby going to waste, for the supposed satisfaction of their souls in heaven. Even in the Vipra Age good-quality food and drink was destroyed by offering it to an imaginary god in a sacrificial fire. Moreover, the vipras received a commission for doing this.

Later, after the vipras had fully established their dominance in society, they began to receive more than a mere commission. A sizeable part of the offerings intended for the sacrificial fires was not burnt, but found its way into their storerooms. That is, the shúdras and kśatriyas had become totally subservient to the vipras. Taking advantage of their tyrannical power and superior intellect, the vipras used every means to consolidate their system of exploitation. Regardless of whether a ceremony was concerned with religious practices, charitable activities, the first step in a child’s pursuit of knowledge, harvesting crops, marriage, a baby’s first solid food, commemoration of the dead, or anything else, a share in the [anticipated] benefits had to be offered to the vipras, otherwise the ceremony would not conclude in karmasiddhi [attainment]. And the vipras had to be feasted and paid, otherwise the ceremony would not produce any result.

The vipra priests also adopted the different gods and goddesses that had been born out of the fear complex of the masses in the Shúdra and Kśatriyas Ages. (For example, they adopted Dakśińaráya, the crocodile-god or tiger-god of South Bengal; Viśahari or Manasá, the snake goddess of snake-infested areas; Shiitalá, the goddess of smallpox; and Olái Cańd́ii, the goddess of cholera.) They also composed various types of dhyána mantra⁽¹¹⁾ for such gods and goddesses; prescribed according to their own needs the specific materials that should be used for different kinds of worship of those deities; and, conveying strange commands from the deities at odd times, took to fleecing people out of donations, dakśińá [sacerdotal fees], sidhá [uncooked food given in exchange for a priest’s services] and various types of materials to be used for worship.

Another interesting thing about this is that in referring to the gods and goddesses created out of their fear complex, the shúdras and kśatriyas used colloquial language, while the vipras, in order to establish their supremacy and prove their intelligence, erudition and close relationship with God, used ancient languages. They always tried to make the masses believe that they, the masses, did not have the right of access to God, but had to go through the vipras. In other words, the vipras had a monopoly as agents in such matters.

The vipras have invented and are still inventing new ways of exploiting different communities of people in different parts of the world. In some places they have lured people with the prospect of eternal heaven, injecting into them at the same time the fear of eternal hell. By claiming the doctrine of some particular vipra leader to be the word of God, they have blocked the natural expression of the human intellect and made people intellectually bankrupt. With the intention of permanently securing for themselves an exalted position in the eyes of the ordinary people, some vipra leaders have declared themselves to be the incarnation or the appointed prophet of God. Through their own so-called scriptures, they have indirectly let the common people know that no one can achieve the same proximity to God as they – so that an inferiority complex will remain forever in the minds of the masses, and due to this inferiority complex the masses will always follow their teachings, either out of fear or out of devotion. That is why even intellectual people have fallen into their trap and have been compelled to say, Vishváse miláy vastu, tarke vahu dúr ["The goal is achieved not by reason but by faith"] or Majhab men ákl ká dakhl nahii haen ["There is no room for reason in religion"].

Even today there is a group of vipras who keep shouting about "religious education", or rend the air with their calls for a "religious state",⁽¹²⁾ but what they really want is to entangle the minds of children, which are naturally inclined towards rationality, in a net of religious superstition, so that later they will become puppets in the exploitative hands of the vipras.

If God is considered to be the perfect ideal, it will have to be accepted that God is always just. Even though God loves everyone, He punishes sinners. But it can be said that when He punishes sinners, His aim is not to give them pain but to rectify their behaviour. In my opinion this concept of God is the highest concept. If God is considered to be the Universal Father, He should not have any racial, national or communal feeling, or any other type of limited feeling. If this is true, how can the vipras contract that the soul of a certain dead person will reach heaven?

I have heard that in some communities vipras claim to have the key to heaven. People even say that for the donation of a sum of money, vipras will sing akhańd́a kiirtana [constant chanting of the name of God] on behalf of the donor to ensure his or her passage to heaven. It is said that if others sing spiritual songs and kiirtana in the donor’s name, the donor will receive the benefit and go to heaven. What a wonderful philosophy for condoning sin!

Anyway, we can see that vipras never have missed an opportunity to exploit human weaknesses, nor do they miss such opportunities today.

Ideology

Neither the kśatriyas nor the vipras lived solely for physical enjoyment; both were devoted to an ideology. Just as the dark frown of meanness and physical over-indulgence was offset in the kśatriyas by a crimson glow of idealism and spiritedness, so in the vipras those defects were offset by the white brilliance of their intellects, which cannot be separated from devotion to an ideology. Even if it does momentarily get separated, it again becomes united, because intellectuality which does not adhere to an ideology cannot maintain its brilliance for long; it gets lost in the darkness of selfishness. So just as in the pages of ancient history we find countless examples of how the kśatriyas, devoted to their ideology, died fighting to establish their prestige, we find similar examples of how the vipras, devoted to their ideology, fought to establish their doctrines, and either won, or died from the mental shock upon losing.

All those who, undaunted by either political pressure or threats of violence from their opponents, have tried or try now, or who have died or are prepared to die, to save their religion, should be regarded as vipras from a psychological standpoint, regardless of whether they are intellectually developed or not. Those people are also to be regarded as vipras who have the desire to resist, protest or retaliate against the forcible imposition of certain doctrines on any person or group. These doctrines include not only religious doctrines, but also social, economic or political doctrines which may not strike at the powerful personality of any particular individual (i.e., may not affect kśatriyas).

Intellectual Recognition

Those to whom the shúdras look for leadership are kśatriyas. The kśatriyas control the shúdras under their command like machines. If together they achieve something great, the shúdras will gain little or no recognition for their efforts. The names of generals and courageous soldiers have been recorded in the annals of history, and minstrels have composed epic songs in their honour, but the shúdras who have shed their blood in the rank and file have remained unknown. The impact that kśatriyas create through their heroism and powerful personalities have never gone unknown or unsung as regards the people of their era, because their impact was on that era itself; but shúdras remain unknown, because although their contributions are recorded on the pages of time, they do not make an impact on people’s minds. That is why no space is allocated by the newspapers to publish the news of their deaths and why a permanent grave with a tombstone for each of them is considered unnecessary. How can so much land be sacrificed for one man? They are buried in mass graves or thrown into the river half-cremated.

Shúdras live and die unknown. But what about vipras? Their circumstances are somewhat similar, are they not? Can we think of the Nine Jewels [nine brilliant vipra ministers] in the court of the kśatriya Vikramáditya, without thinking about Vikramáditya himself? No, we cannot. Still, the intellectual capacity of the vipras does not go unrecognized or unheard of, nor can it.

In an era when the vipras live under the protection of kśatriyas, the prestige of the vipras may pale by comparision with that of the kśatriyas, but this kind of thing does not occur in the Vipra Age. It did not take long for the vipras who rose to power in the Vipra Age to be recognized and accepted. But the genius of the vipras who rose to power in the Kśatriya Age was recognized only in the Vipra Age that followed.

Of course the prestige that these vipras had in terms of economic theory, intellectuality and learning in the Vipra Age was greater than the prestige of the kśatriyas in the social and political arenas in the Kśatriya Age. But it must also be admitted that vipras rarely receive immediate recognition for their strokes of genius. Instead they face many obstacles and become objects of censure, humiliation and slander.

The reason for this is very simple. Human beings have an innate attraction towards the old. Therefore, when the intellect of some vipra reveals or explains something new, the remainder of the population, whether vipras, kśatriyas or shúdras, cannot easily accept it. They cannot keep time with the new rhythm and prefer to stick to the old one. Thus vipras who develop something new face conflicts, acrimonious attacks and unwarranted criticism. But when the theories propounded by such vipras or their new inventions have been around for some time (it may be two or three months or two or three centuries), other open-minded, rational vipras wholeheartedly accept them and praise them, and are careful to see them become established.

This is precisely why the famous philosopher Karl Marx was not honoured in his time, but only long after. Similarly, Shakespeare, Galileo, etc., were almost totally unknown during their own lifetimes, yet today they are celebrated by scholarly society.

When the genius of Rabindranath first started to express itself, the poets and [[authors]] of Bengal did not miss a single opportunity to suppress or ridicule him; yet he is now universally loved and revered as the world’s greatest poet.

It is said that the popular Bengali poet Chandidas (a poet of the pre-Pathan period) was subjected to unspeakable persecution by the people of his time. They set fire to his house and forced him to leave the country; yet 200 to 250 years later, during the time of Mahaprabhu Chaitanya, he came to be revered as the greatest Vaishnava poet of Bengal. Today the people of his village feel proud of him and have built or wish to build a memorial in his honour.

That is why I contend that vipras do not go unrecognized. Generally the reputation of a vipra transcends time, space and person.

When shúdras clash with each other, it is a clash of self-interest only. They live for physical enjoyment, and like other animals are concerned only about their personal and family interests. Because they are unable to generate a powerful vibration in relation to the social progress of humanity, they are naturally considered by society to be of little value. But when kśatriyas clash it is a clash of their powerful personalities – sword against sword – and when vipras clash it is a clash of their intellects – ruse against ruse, duplicity against duplicity.

Whether or not honesty plays a part in these clashes, they have a tremendous impact which shakes the very foundations of society. As a result, long after genuine vipras or vipra leaders have departed from this world, the footprints of their journeys through life remain imprinted on the earth. The vipras’ intellect awakens the powerful personalities of the kśatriyas, while their duplicity withers and destroys the bravery of the kśatriyas. That is why the kśatriyas regard the vipras as gods, surrender at their feet and obey all their commands. The kśatriyas go to battle at the slightest sign from the vipras. It is not easy to establish the Vipra Age after the Kśatriya Age, but once it is established, the Vipra Age quickly gains a strong, octopus-like hold over kśatriya society.

Past, Present and Future

Shúdras are only interested in the present, and kśatriyas in the past and present, but vipras are interested in the past, present and future. Vipras sometimes concentrate on the past and ignore the present and future, and sometimes they concentrate on the future and ignore the past and present, for although they are concerned with all three, they do not maintain a balance among the three. By ruminating over old memories and giving undue importance to the past at the expense of the present and future, vipras have harmed not only themselves but society as well, and continue to do so.

Shúdras at first oppose new ideas, doctrines or ideals in life, then later accept them en masse, but this is not the case with vipras. Some vipras, blinded by their infatuation with the past, oppose new ideas for a long time. Sections of society may break away, but these vipras never come to their senses. For example, today mullahs and members of the clergy, and a group of gurus and priests of Hindu society, are incapable of seeing reason. When sections of Hindu society have broken away, I have heard some say that Sanátana Dharma [Hinduism] was created by God alone, that it has been in existence since time immemorial and that it will continue to exist forever, and that it cannot be destroyed.

I have also heard such beliefs expressed by some of those who have left their homes for political reasons and come to India as refugees in an effort to preserve Sanátana Dharma. In other words, they have still not opened their eyes or developed any common sense.⁽¹³⁾

When the Western system of education was introduced in India, some pandits continued to extol the virtues of their own catuspát́hiis which taught mainly grammar. In their blind infatuation with the past, they refused to send their children to English-medium schools. Did this decision benefit them? Two generations later circumstances compelled them to accept English education, but in the interim their social progress had lagged somewhat behind.

In that same period a group of obstinate mullahs issued a fatwa against the English language, declaring that it was an unholy language because it was written from left to right, and that if Muslims learned it they would lose their religious identity and become Christians. This attitude of the Muslim vipras had a very harmful effect on Indian Muslims. Later they had to found the Muslim University in Aligarh to repair the damage.

Excessive concern about the future is also a bad trait of some vipras. Vipras have exploited the common people by infusing imaginary ideas about heaven and hell into their minds. And at the same time they themselves, persuaded by that outlook to ignore the past and the present, have also been harmed. A doctrine that emphasizes an imaginary heaven and hell and considers the traditions of the past and the solid earth of the present as false and illusory, is extremely dangerous for society. One expression of this type of vipra thinking was Máyáváda [the doctrine of illusion], based on advaetaváda [non-dualism], which tried to reject the existence of jiiva [livings beings] and jagat [the world], and accept the unmanifest Nirguńa Brahma [Non-Qualified Supreme Entity] as the only truth.

Religion Based on Intellectuality

Since vipras are fundamentally intellectuals, it is natural for them to follow religious observances based on intellectuality. (I am not referring here to an ostentatious religiosity designed to exploit others. Although an ostentatious religiosity is indeed part of the vipra’s system of exploitation, I am referring here to the religious ideas which they follow in their personal lives.)

When intellectuals cannot find ways to solve complex problems through their intellect, they ask God for spiritual liberation. This is a type of defeatism or escapism. The vipras’ religious thinking is somewhat like this.

The fear-ridden religious thinking that is clearly evident in shúdras and to some extent evident in kśatriyas and vaeshyas, is not completely lacking in the vipras. This type of thinking has created in the vipras the tendency to live a mechanical kind of religious life regardless of whether they have any reverence for God or not. This is called Yajet yaśt́avyamiti ["One should worship an entity simply because it ought to be worshipped"]. That is, regular worship, telling the beads, or prayer ought to be done so many times a day, at such-and-such time – and therefore we do it – this mentality is very much in evidence in a vipra. And whether they admit it or not, the propensity at work behind this mentality is a fear complex.

Although the genuinely spiritual side of the vipras’ religious practices is indistinct, it is not totally absent. However, their desires for intellectual dominance, exploitation and prestige completely overshadow whatever spirituality they possess. Whereas in logical analysis the religious thinking of the kśatriyas is a direct expression of their worldly desires and therefore rájasikii [mutative], the religious thinking of the vipras is not of the sáttvikii [sentient] category; it is actually a mixture of the támasikii [static] elements of the shúdras and the mutative elements of the kśatriyas. The vipras understand the need for self-restraint in religious life and make some effort to become established in it. But the mixture of elements in their religious thinking causes them to use the religiously-inclined intellect that they have developed through self-restraint to establish themselves in the intellectual field.

Discipline in Society

The cornerstone of society is discipline and a sense of unity, and that is laid by the kśatriyas. Although unity and discipline are regarded as the basis of society, they are not everything, because they depend upon an unexceptional mentality.

A mentality based on the powerful personalities of the kśatriyas cannot construct a well-knit society; for that a mentality based on the intellect of the vipras is what is needed. In other words, social consciousness based on morality is needed. This consciousness is provided by the vipras in the Vipra Age. So what we really understand as a society is properly realized only in the Vipra Age.

Conflict takes place among the kśatriyas because of their powerful personalities, and conflict takes place among the vipras because of their differing opinions and differing scriptures. The end result of the clash of opinions and scriptures is the creation of a variety of philosophies. Within those philosophies and scriptures we can find sufficient expression of the intellects of different ages, but at the same time those philosophies in most cases scarcely conceal the self-interest motivation of the vipras. No matter how much scope for exploitation these philosophies may support, however, they never attack intellect itself. Although these vipra philosophies sometimes afford some indirect advantage to the vaeshyas, to a larger extent they restrict the vaeshyas’ exploitation.

The śad́adarshana [six major schools of theistic Indian philosophy] of the Hindus and the ancient philosophies of Europe are essentially vipra philosophies. Although those philosophies that revolted against both the philosophies and the exploitation of the vipras may not, from a subtle point of view, have been materialistic, they were without doubt atheistic. Some vipras tried to stay philosophically alive in the Vipra Age by writing newer and newer commentaries about their old philosophies, as a means of fighting against the atheistic philosophies. The Máyáváda evolved by Shankaracharya with the aim of demolishing the Buddhist atheism is an outstanding example.

An administration is needed to maintain a society, and a system of government is needed to maintain the administration. The government system established by the kśatriyas by brute force remains intact in the Vipra Age, except that intellectuality takes precedence over brute force; intellectual force controls physical force. Even though the control of the government appears to remain or remains on paper in the hands of the kśatriyas, in reality those kśatriyas are completely controlled by their intellectual vipra ministers. In the Vipra Age the kśatriya kings do not want to bring trouble upon themselves by going against the counsels of their vipra ministers or of the priests of the royal family. In fact even if they want to, in most instances they are unable to; or even if they are able to, their actions, being an instance of counter-evolution or counter-revolution, are very short-lived. The kings of many countries in the Middle Ages acted in this way, or tried to do so, but none of them were successful, because they were living in the Vipra Age.

The Nanda Dynasty of Magadha suffered miserably when it went against the vipra Chanakya. And Chandragupta had to rule his kingdom in subservience to the vipras – as their servant – although he did not lack power, bravery or popularity.

In fact, the administration of a state according to a legal framework, instead of in accordance with the whims and caprices of the king – that is, the control of governmental procedures by a written or unwritten constitution – is a contribution of the vipras’ intellect.

Discipline for the sake of discipline or discipline to achieve success in battle is the real meaning of the sense of discipline that is found in kśatriya society. There is also discipline in vipra society, but that discipline is based on a sense of morality. The purpose of vipra discipline is to maintain and develop the social structure, thus it can never go against social consciousness. Rather, it adapts itself to changes of time, place and person. Vipras do not encourage discipline if it is harmful to society.

Shrii Krśńa once said to the Pandavas in the Mahábhárata, "Once a promise is made it must be kept, for that is dharma. But if to keep the promise will cause harm [to society], then to break the promise will be dharma." This is a maxim of the Vipra Age, not the Kśatriya Age.

The vipras contend that society should give importance not to shásana [administration] and administrative discipline [for their own sakes], but to anushásana, which is defined Hitárthe shásanam iti anushásanam ["Anushásana is shásana for the sake of welfare"].

Patriarchy and the Caste System

In the ancient Kśatriya Age the selection of the kśátra-pitá or sarddár [kśatriya leader] was based on his abilities as a kśatriya. This was not always achieved by peaceful means. Later the system of primogeniture was introduced to avoid divisions and conflict.

The Vipra Age underwent a similar change. In the initial stage, knowledge, intelligence and scholarship were the criteria for measuring ability, on the basis of which criteria the vipra leaders were determined. Those who accepted the dominance of a particular vipra were considered to be under his protection, and members of his gotra [clan]. People could change their clan if they chose. This means that people could abandon the protection of one clan leader, going outside his leadership and guardianship, and accept the supremacy of another vipra; this was called gotratyága [leaving their gotra].

Those who gave up Vedic rituals for non-Aryan Tantric practices, for the sake of dharma, were told, Átmagotraḿ parityájya Shivagotraḿ pravishatu ["Leave your own gotra and enter Shivagotra"].

In Asia in those days there was a great Aryan vipra called Kashyapa. (Was Káshyapa Ságar, the Caspian Sea, named after him?) Many non-Aryans and non-Vedics accepted him as their leader and accepted his guardianship. They all became members of the Káshyapa gotra. Subsequently Aryans and non-Aryans who did not know or had doubts about which clan they belonged to used to be treated as members of the Káshyapa gotra.

In the Kśatriya and Vipra Ages the matrilineal order continued to prevail in societies where close unity was necessary to protect people from external enemies and from the oppression of hostile nature. Even after the introduction of the gotra-pravar system as a result of contact with the Aryans, matriarchy did not die out. It did not suffer any serious set-back until much later, at the end of the [Vipra] Age.

In the Vipra Age contact with the patrilineal Aryans and other groups led to great disorder among those groups who followed the matrilineal system. Once the foundations of the Vipra Age had been firmly laid, they either abandoned the matrilineal system altogether or evolved a blending of the matrilineal and patrilineal systems. Today a matriarchal order still prevails among the Khasias and certain other primitive tribes due to the relatively late-coming and insignificant influence of the patriarchal Aryans.

Traces of matriarchy may still be found among the Malayalese, who live in remote areas south of India. On the other hand, the Bengalees,⁽¹⁴⁾ despite being fundamentally [Austrico-Dravidian], have, for the most part, accepted patriarchy because they came in close contact with the Aryans, although their social system is a blending of the patrilineal and matrilineal systems. In the innermost part of their social life Bengalees still give predominance to mother, not to father, but on the surface their society is patriarchal.

Since the usages, customs, physical features and nature of Bengalees and Malayalese are very similar, many believe that the people of Bengal settled in Kerala and founded Malayalese society. This is a subject for scholars to research.

But in vipra society [[also]] the system of selecting the vipra leader became a hereditary one in course of time. There were two fundamental reasons for this. First, the vipras had gained the opportunity to earn money without doing physical labour, and wanted to pass this privilege on to their descendants, who in their turn would not let go the chance to fill their stomachs without working. Secondly, the kśatriyas and the shúdras not only revered the intelligent, erudite vipras whom they followed, they also viewed the vipras’ descendants with respect and gave them places of honour. Irrespective of their abilities, the children of the vipras began to receive almost the same respect as their fathers. The practice of honouring incompetent vipras for reasons of heredity eventually led to the establishment of the caste system in Hindu society.

Simple Philosophies and Contrived Philosophies

In the Vipra Age the king sat on the throne, but in reality it was the vipra ministers who ruled. If a king went against his vipra ministers, they would take the help of the common people or some other group of kśatriyas and replace him with a king of their choice. The kings were puppets in the hands of their ministers, standing up and sitting down when they pulled the strings. The vipras did not want a democracy or republic exactly as we understand the terms. Whenever the possibility arose for a moment to establish a democracy or republic, the vipras would install the puppet kśatriya of their choice on the throne.

The vipras would try to take military assistance from the less-intelligent kśatriyas in order to continue their march of exploitation unhindered. In the early part of the Vipra Age they created conflicts between one state and another and between one king and another centring around the conflicts between one religion and another. In order to continue their exploitation without hindrance, they tried to confuse people’s judgement by shouting religious slogans and issuing various types of decree, thus inciting one group against another or one state against another in their effort to expand their area of exploitation; and in this they succeeded. The terrible wars and tremendous bloodshed that occurred in the world due to the kśatriyas’ lust for power pale into insignificance before those that occurred in the Middle Ages at the direct or indirect instigation of the vipras, the standard-bearers of religion.

In any society or governmental system where vipra rule lasted for a long time, different kinds of religion or moral philosophy came into being under their aegis. Initially the vipras had introduced religion for the purpose of exploitation and had tried to mislead people through their grandiloquence. However, the new philosophies that emerged in the course of time as a result of clash among vipras propagating different doctrines, came to be somewhat spiritual in appearance, though the tendency to exploit remained beneath the surface. This form of religion, like the form socialism adopted, was in fact a great hoax. With this approach, intellectual satans, instead of exploiting the faithful directly, expanded their sphere of exploitation behind a psychologically-designed mask of detachment from or indifference to worldly things.

Vipras with a simple type of philosophy used to say, "Your father deserves to go to heaven, so make sure that we perform his funeral service," or "The soul of your father needs subtle food. Give us ordinary food and we will send it to him in a subtle form."

But later on the cunning vipras, whom I call intellectual satans, tried to turn the minds of the people from practical reality towards an imaginary void by preaching contrived philosophies. The essence of their voluminous treatises and verbose annotations to lengthy aphorisms was: the world is an illusion; therefore renounce the world and do not be attracted to its illusions. Become desireless, detached and self-abnegating by offering all your wealth at the feet of the vipras. Of course such philosophies did not preach that the world was also illusory for the vipras who received the offerings – clearly because it was through such ploys that they were able to achieve their objectives.

In places where, for whatever reason, intellectual clashes among the vipras were not very intense, their philosophy was very simple. They would say to the people directly, "I am the angel or incarnation of God. The things I have said are not the words of a human being but the words of God," or "I have received the divine revelation that you will eat this and not that, worship in this way and not that, and offer this to God. If you obey my commandments God will bless you and you will go to heaven; otherwise you will be burnt to death in the fire of hell." The people were fooled this easily.

The vipras used to tempt people with an imaginary heaven and inject in them the fear of an imaginary hell. In this way they would accomplish their objectives; their exploitation would proceed smoothly; and moreover the fear they aroused in people’s minds would turn those people into fanatics.

It is noticeable that in the fanatical religious communities that we see in the world today, there is very little intellectual clash among the vipras. However, whenever fanatical religious communities made systems of social rules and regulations – in other words, whenever they made some effort to build a social structure – their social systems would be stronger than those of societies which followed a subtle philosophical theory or those of kśatriya societies. Where there were intellectual clashes among the vipras, each vipra would have his own supporters, and their different supporters would never think of themselves as belonging to the same group. As a result those vipras were unable to build a strong social structure. Though their philosophies may or may not have had some good in them, the Buddhists and Hindus were unable to build strong societies because of their subtle mentality.

Unity in Society

Although due to fiercely-opposing views little social unity existed among the vipras, the exploitative vipras used to form unholy alliances to further their mutual self-interest. Such alliances were much more dangerous than the alliances formed by the kśatriyas.

Whenever any ideology opposing exploitation tries to raise its head, the vested-interest group concerned will resist. But in cases where the exploitation which the ideology opposes is that of the vipras, it faces the strongest resistance of all, because that resistance is supported by the intellectuals.

Groups of vipras may fight against each other, but they will quickly unite against an ideology that opposes vipra exploitation. For example, orthodox Muslims united with orthodox Brahmans against Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; orthodox Sanátaniis united with orthodox Christians against Raja Ramamohana. Thus it is clear that even when vipras belong to different groups, they readily unite to protect their mutual interests. At least in this respect they no doubt demonstrate more unity than kśatriyas.

I have already said that the vipras lack a sense of discipline; at least they are far less disciplined than the kśatriyas. However, they do have a subtle feeling of unity based on ideology. A certain sense of unity and discipline is of course necessary to intellectually exploit the kśatriyas and the shúdras – and that the vipras certainly have.

The kśatriyas think that the intellectual vipras kill their enemies using their cunning brains instead of weapons. From their perspective I would describe the vipra mentality as definitely mean, because it is not difficult to recognize inimical kśatriyas by their manners and features, but it is extremely difficult to understand the schemes that go on in the minds of inimical vipras.

The vipras’ sense of family discipline may be greater than that of the kśatriyas; the vipra social structure is also stronger than that of the kśatriyas; but that structure is not based on equality and love for humanity. It is based instead on the influence intellectuals gain over the ignorant using clever diplomacy.

Vipras earn far greater reputations through their intelligence than the kśatriyas do through their military power. The amusing thing is that the shúdras and kśatriyas who are militarily defeated by kśatriyas understand that they have lost – but the vipras, kśatriyas and shúdras who are intellectually defeated by vipras generally do not even realize that they have lost.

Kśatriya Prestige and the Evolution of the Vipras

In their ideological struggles the kśatriyas are concerned primarily with their prestige. The psychic clash that arises out of this concern for prestige presages the eventual rise of the vipras.⁽¹⁵⁾ It is the main reason for the occurrence of the Vipra Age in the social cycle; but we cannot definitely say that the physical clash of the kśatriyas or shúdras, or the psychic clash of the shúdras, play no role at all in this.

Religious Characteristics

The kśatriyas worshipped nature and regarded it as the collective form of different belligerent forces, and this concept of a collectivity came to be called Brahma.⁽¹⁶⁾ In their minds there was no difference between the collective form of nature and Brahma. They therefore came to regard all the phenomena of nature as expressions of Brahma. The vipras had a vague understanding of another type of expression which was beyond the realm of nature, which they called Átmá, Paramátmá, or Nirupádhika Iishvara [the Non-Attributional Controller]. According to the depth of their intellects, vipras had different ideas regarding the extent to which such expressions were beyond the realm of nature. Philosophically this is the reason why theoretical differences exist among Iishvara, Allah, God and Jehovah.

Ruh, spirit, soul and átmá are not exactly the same thing. A ruh can rise up from the grave; a spirit can move around and frighten people; a soul can cone close to God and sit beside Him; while a non-attributional átmá is not bound by the bondages of time, space or person. This entity beyond the realm of nature was the contribution of the vipras. Their intellectual struggle against the hostile aspects of nature, assisted by the kśatriyas, gave them the opportunity to imagine this kind of puruśa [consciousness] entity beyond the realm of nature.

The religiosity of the kśatriyas developed out of their infatuation with conquest and with acquisition. They thought that if they had faith in God they would be able to acquire a great deal of worldly wealth. They would acquire it through military force and enjoy it through military force. That is why kśatriyas worshipped their imaginary gods and goddesses before going into battle or plundering wealth from others – in many cases sacrificing animals and even human beings to propitiate them.

As the vipras lacked courage and valour of that kind, their spirituality was basically a fascination with acquiring occult powers. They thought that spirituality would bring them such power that their blessings would benefit people, who would then out of gratitude give the vipras a fat dividend out of whatever they had gained. They thought that spirituality could also give them the power to curse or do harm to people, who would then out of fear or devotion heap commodities at their feet. The pervasive efforts to create vipra dominance that can be observed in the stories of the Puranas are also born out of this mentality. According to some Puranas, not only human beings but Náráyańa [God] Himself bore the footprints of the vipras on His chest.

In the course of time the deceitful mentality of the vipras contributed greatly to the emergence of the vaeshyas as social exploiters. The vipras’ desire not to do any work resulted in their becoming parasites of the vaeshyas. So eventually the religious doctrines and social ideals propagated by the vipras became completely mortgaged to the wealth of the vaeshyas.

Vipra Mentality

In the vipras’ social system the idea "Live and let live" was not considered very important, nor was "Live with dignity" the main aim either. The most important thing for the vipras was to "Live by making others small" – to make slaves of others by infusing inferiority complexes into their minds in order to suck dry their vital force and to terrorize them into submission – in order to establish their power. It is as if through the framework of society the vipras are saying: use deception, force, cunning or any other means at one’s disposal in order to perpetuate one’s exploitation, even if it results in temporary dishonour.

The work of kśatriyas is to come to understand various kinds of force⁽¹⁷⁾ as they experience them through the medium of struggle, while the work of vipras is to view all aspects of those kinds of force from a personalized angle and then to express them in a personalized, individual way. However, the importance the vipras give to individuality is detrimental to discipline. Although the idea of discipline is inherent in the fundamental principles or ideals of the vipras, their discipline is weakened by the emphasis they place on individual views. So although from a sociological perspective vipra society is superior to kśatriya society (vipra society is, however, still not a "society" in the true sense of the term), its structure is looser because it gives greater importance to personal freedom.

In vipra society people have considerable scope (though not complete scope) to express their inner feelings, and this led to an increase during the vipra period in the number of intellectual logicians’ philosophies.

In the same way that the weak were exploited by the strong in kśatriya society, the less intelligent were exploited by the more intelligent in vipra society – though on paper the vipras do not approve of exploitation. The vipras who formulate social codes contend that even if society takes no action against sinners, they will still suffer the consequences of their sins in hell. Although in vipra society there is no system for eliminating the hunger of the oppressed, vipras say that it is virtuous to feed the hungry. And although in practice they support a system which discriminates against people on the basis of high and low, on paper they accept the idea that human beings are essentially brothers and sisters. So although the vipra social system is not as strong as that of the kśatriyas, and although in practice it is generally lacking in magnanimity, on paper it is more magnanimous than that of kśatriya society. Kśatriyas cannot be said to be social parasites, but it is not incorrect to say that vipras are. Although the vipras understand the defects in their social system, they nevertheless use their grandiloquence to try to maintain it; such is the nature of vipras.

Religious Conflicts

In vipra society there is more scope for benevolence than in kśatriya society; that is to say, vipra leaders are not oblivious to the pleasure and pain of others. Vipras support those who pay respect to them and try to enhance the social status of such people with quotations from the scriptures. Of course vipras will not harm themselves for the sake of supporting others, no matter how great the logic in those people’s favour or how great the religious obligation of the vipras to do so. Needless to say, vipras will never support anybody if, in the event of that person being made great or being fully accepted by society, their own chariot of exploitation would be brought to a halt; rather they will ignore all humanitarian considerations and harm such people much more than would the kśatriyas.

In the Middle Ages fanatic Catholics, who regarded non-Catholics as unbelievers, burnt them alive; and many orthodox mullahs decreed that killing an infidel was not a sin. Orthodox Sanátaniis tried to murder Lord Buddha. During the reign of Bimbisar, power-mad Buddhist monks oppressed the Hindus. Hindu Brahmans and Muslim mullahs were equally vindictive towards Mahatma Kabir. Similarly, orthodox vipras oppressed Chandidasa, Ramamohana and Ishvarchandra Vidyasagara.

Although kśatriyas acted meanly at times for the sake of their prestige, their meanness had some limit; but when vipras became mean-minded, they became totally blind. Of course out of personal interest they would support those kśatriyas who had sold their own personal force to the vipras’ glib oratory, surrendered at the vipras’ feet, and become their slaves.

As regards the intellectual exploitation of others, nearly all vipras think alike, so when they operate their machinery of exploitation, quite a remarkable unity can be discerned among them. When Mahatma Buddha, Kabir, Chaitanya, Guru Nanaka and Hazrat Mohammed tried to make people aware of religious exploitation, the vipras of those times, irrespective of their religious affiliations or beliefs, united against them. Hindu priests and Muslim mullahs united to fight against Mahatma Kabir. The same thing occurred at the time of Mahaprabhu Chaitanyadeva.

The theory propounded by Karl Marx which was intended to save people from exploitation was opposed by the vaeshyas. Many poor vipras opposed it as well, because although Marxist doctrine makes some provision for vipras who perform social service, it gives no scope to social parasites. (The intellectuality of the vipras recoiled on them.)

Vipras generally behave like bossy, elderly uncles; they are not prepared to behave like young, obedient nephews. Consequently vipra society was divided into many groups and sub-groups, each with differing opinions. No one was able to tolerate anyone else, and each group was busy refuting the ideas of the others. These internal clashes have been responsible for a certain amount of intellectual progress in society, but they contributed little to the development of magnanimity of mind.

Generally the vipras’ logicians’ philosophies encouraged people to find fault with others. As a result people became degraded. Even today the leaders of some so-called religious organizations spend far more time in their meetings and institutes slandering and vilifying others, using diplomatic language to conceal their exploitative intentions, than they do talking about spiritual philosophy, the nature of God or spiritual sádhaná (that is, talking about real spiritual matters). But no matter how much they criticize each other, they are all believers in one doctrine, which is that it is not wrong to exploit people. Of course they put the seal of religion on their exploitation in order to further their own interests.

Cunning and Treachery

To kśatriyas life is like a game of chess, because they do what they have to do, even if it costs them their lives. The insatiable longing for victory compels them to behave in such a manner. A great, imperialistic leader and a most ordinary labourer equally welcome the call to a life of heroism and personal forcefulness. Kśatriyas try to wash away their defeats and their sense of despair in the blood of the battlefield. But vipras behave differently. Vipras regard the winning of intellectual battles and invention of new types of intellectual expression as the highest values in life, and when their minds are completely engrossed in those highest values, they do not even think of exploiting others. At such times they are even prepared to undergo great pain and suffering for the sake of their ideology or beliefs.

Other vipras cash in on the names of those magnanimous and ideological vipras, finding in them an opportunity to exploit others. Whatever respect people today may have for vipras is due to those ideological vipras. This is because more than ninety per cent of the intellectual and spiritual progress which humanity has so far achieved has been the legacy of those magnanimous and selfless vipras. Their contributions can never be forgotten in any age.

Although the vipras’ collective life is not as happy as that of the kśatriyas, they enjoy more peace. This is because they do not spend wakeful nights worrying about the possibility of mutual bloodshed. There is greater security in the society of the Vipra Age than in that of the Kśatriya Age, because despite the extensive factional strife caused by ideological differences, the social structure is comparatively strong.

Vipras are always awake and alert to what is going on around them, but their ability to respond appropriately to a situation is limited, as there is a lack of coordination between their intellects and their actions. When they have someone to work for them they are able to put their feelings and ideas into action, but if they do not have workers or obedient servants or someone to provide funds, most of their ideas come to nothing.

People with intellect should not need more intellect, but the vipras do need more. This is because the vipras’ intellect is in most cases unproductive intellect. Something needs to be done to create a balance between their brains and their hands and feet; yet giving them advice serves no purpose, [because] they refuse to listen. They sell their intellects for money, but they are unable to find a balance between their intellect and their actions.

The vipras ascertain the strength of an enemy and then incite the obedient kśatriyas and shúdras under their control to do battle, but they themselves stay at a safe distance. During the battle the heads of the brave kśatriyas and the cowardly shúdras roll in the dust and a river of blood flows on the earth, but the bodies of the vipras do not get even scratched. At the slightest possibility of defeat, they treacherously betray the shúdras and kśatriyas under them and enter into a secret pact with the enemy. Then they pose as peace-lovers and put the stigma of having fomented the war on the kśatriyas.

Thus vipra history is a history of adroit traitors. Within that history a high degree of intelligence is to be found, but no greatness. In it there are weakness, cowardice and ingratitude; and although there is cleverness, that cleverness is tarnished by selfishness.

The Rise of the Vaeshyas

Because the vipras have so much confidence in their presence of mind they fail to think about the future; consequently they rarely bother to accumulate wealth. They think that they will always be able to make some arrangement in any situation. But this overconfidence leads to their downfall. When real danger arrives and their presence of mind fails them, they have to sell themselves to anyone with any kind of wealth.

The vaeshyas, though endowed with less intelligence, begin to control the vipras with their capital. The subservient vipras then occupy themselves in increasing the wealth of the vaeshyas. Although they lack the capacity to accumulate wealth themselves, the vipras explain to the vaeshyas how to increase their wealth. The vipras show the vaeshyas all the straightforward and dirty ways of killing and cheating others that had escaped the vaeshyas’ attention. The vaeshyas evade taxes and indulge in black marketeering, smuggling and adulterating food and medicine, and increase their profits by paying bribes, but it is the vipras, grovelling at the feet of the vaeshyas, who supply the brains and the techniques behind these activities.

But in the course of time the vipras lose even their intellectual originality. They become servants of the vaeshyas, agents of capitalism. In the vaeshya-dominated society the vipras become like the shúdras and kśatriyas: mere beasts of burden who carry bags of sugar without ever tasting its sweetness. The capitalist vaeshyas gradually wrest the right to lead society out of the hands of the vipras, and establish their dominance using the vipras’ intellectual force.

Almost everywhere in the world the vaeshyas support democracy rather than monarchy, because in a monarchy the administration cannot be as easily influenced. People regard the bravery, tradition, noble birth and kśatriya nature of a monarch with respect, or with a mixture of devotion and fear. For this reason they do not like to oppose a monarch unless he or she does something which severely undermines the interests of the people. If the monarch demonstrates even a little concern for the public interest, the lives and properties of the vaeshyas in that kingdom may at any time be endangered.

In a party dictatorship or any other type of dictatorship, the dictator has to take into account the interests of the people. Even oppressive dictators cannot afford to ignore the welfare of the state, otherwise they will lose power. But in a democracy there is no danger of this.

The unintelligent kśatriyas and ignorant shúdras are easily duped by the mind-stupefying, life-enchaining propaganda of the vaeshyas, assisted by their vipra servants. Even the vipras, despite their intelligence and despite whatever they may say or think, support the vaeshyas out of fear or due to lack of a proper alternative. Thus in a democratic structure, particularly in a structure where downfallen vipras and kśatriyas⁽¹⁸⁾ are few in number and ignorant shúdras form the majority, the vaeshyas can easily win votes.

During vaeshya rule the vipras’ intellect remains intact; it neither sleeps nor becomes rusty. However, though the vipras have intellect, they do not have the courage to apply it, because crude worldly bondages hold them tightly, like the grip of an octopus. It can therefore be said that the day that the vipras submit to the vaeshyas, the Vipra Age dies, even if the vipras themselves do not.

The blood-sucking vaeshyas order the vipras whom they hire to write voluminous books which artfully distort the truth. They try to portray as mean and sub-human those who oppose the vaeshyas and demand the right to live. In order to keep their machinery of exploitation running, the vaeshyas produce deadly weapons with the help of mercenary vipras. On the orders of their vaeshya overlords, vipra scientists willingly or unwillingly take up the task of making weapons in their laboratories that have the potential to destroy human civilization.

Although the vipras understand what is going on, they cannot do anything about it. They look up towards heaven, hoping to see the arrival of better days. They think, "When will the downfallen vipras, kśatriyas and shúdras unitedly save human civilization from the all-devouring greed of the vaeshyas. When will people realize that it is not the desire of providence for some to exploit others." Due to the utter despair they feel, the subservient vipras gradually become consumed with remorse recalling how they themselves once exploited others.

The economic exploitation of the vaeshyas relegates the vipras to the level of intellectual satans, and the money of the vaeshyas controls the brains of those satans. In the Vaeshya Age intellectual progress occurs on many levels: new inventions are brought forth, new types of deadly weapon are invented, and people learn how to produce many types of commodity to increase comfort. Many people believe that these things are creations of the Vipra Age, but actually they are expressions of the Vaeshya Age. The vipras who sell themselves to the vaeshyas for money produce such items at their behest.

A deep analysis reveals that many of those whose creative and inventive ability once commanded the respect of innumerable people, become dependent upon the mercy of the vaeshyas for their food and clothing. Poets and [[authors]] write according to the dictates of their vaeshya publishers or in the hope of winning prizes from the vaeshya-controlled governments. Artists wield their brushes according to the demands of the market, or are compelled to produce commercial art, neglecting more subtle art forms in the process. Instead of writing the truth, journalists turn day into night and night into day according to the wishes of profiteering newspaper publishers because they are afraid of losing their jobs. They go against their own consciences and pervert the truth in order to help unworthy people become leaders. They create spectacular lies with their pens.

Of course there is another side to all this. If vipras engage themselves in intellectual development and research, it is difficult for them to meet their material needs. Because the vaeshyas finance them, this problem is solved, and they are able to work free of worry. But naturally the vaeshyas do not extend their economic support in a disinterested way. Their ulterior motive is to establish themselves in society, and because of this the Vipra Age comes to an end.

Economic Liberation

The subservient vipras employ all their intellectual power to increase the wealth of the vaeshyas in exchange for the basic necessities they need to fill their bellies. Millionaire vaeshyas employ vipras at low wages in order to increase their wealth; with the help of these vipras they build up networks of adulteration, black marketeering and smuggling.

After the vaeshyas secure the allegiance of the vipras, they enlist them to help them consolidate the capitalistic social structure and philosophy. The contemporary Bhúdán movement⁽¹⁹⁾ is an example of this type of philosophy; it is supported by the vaeshyas and propagated by the vipras under their control. As a result of this kind of movement, efforts to fight the exploitation of the vaeshyas decline because people think, "Why fight against rich people when they voluntarily distribute their land and wealth to the poor?" This aversion to fighting will somewhat lengthen the Vaeshya Age; because as the vaeshyas know full well, most of their donations are not genuine, but exist on paper only – and whenever they make genuine donations, they realize double the amount as profits in some other way.

In the Vaeshya Age this type of rotten philosophy gets widely trumpeted in the newspapers. Attempts are also made to mislead students by including such harmful philosophies in textbooks. The agents of the vaeshyas attempt to awaken respect and devotion for vaeshyas in children’s minds by depicting them in textbooks as symbols of peace, love and humanity.

To accomplish this objective a new type of nationalism based on economics is created which is totally different from both the nationalism of the Kśatriya Age, based on personal force and family glory, and that of the Vipra Age, based on learning. The nationalism of the Vaeshya Age leads to a form of imperialism which is extremely dangerous for the unity of the human race.

Although the vipras grovelling at the feet of the vaeshyas wield great authority at various levels of society as the servants of capitalistic imperialism, the vaeshyas never entrust them with the responsibility of leading society or structuring the economy. Only in this way can one easily understand whether a country or state is in the Vaeshya Age. It is not always the case that a state controlled by the vaeshyas is democratic. One indication that is clear is that the vaeshyas always keep the collection and distribution of finance and the corresponding ministerial posts in the hands of orthodox vaeshyas. They never delegate these responsibilities to a learned and experienced vipra economist, because it is their own systems of collection and distribution of finance that provide them the opportunity to establish themselves. Thus in the vaeshya social system, vipra scholars are nothing but paid planners and intellectual servants appointed to materialize those plans.

Whenever, after popular acceptance of the vaeshya-created social system, it became apparent that vipras were trying to free themselves from the rule and exploitation of the vaeshyas, the vaeshyas would buy the support of the masses, rub the noses of the rebellious vipras in the dirt, and then replace them with a group of sycophantic vipras.

The vaeshyas have repressed unrest and discontent among agricultural and industrial labourers, as well as political revolution, with the help not only of their vipra hirelings, but of kśatriyas and shúdras as well. In fact, of all the classes, the vaeshyas have made the most extensive use of the policy of divide and rule. For example, when a group of vipras vociferously demanded an investigation into the mysterious death of Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, another group of vipras immediately diverted their steam by increasing the tram fares in Calcutta and at the same time starting a movement to oppose the increase. Because of this, those typical vaeshyas who were directly or indirectly responsible for Shyamaprasad’s death escaped punishment.⁽²⁰⁾

The discriminatory measures adopted by employers or states ruled by vaeshyas to suppress labour agitations are generally known to every educated person. To disrupt the plans and intellectual movements of one group of vipras, a second group of vipras are appointed as spies or informers. Such spies or informers do not work out of ideological inspiration but in order to fill their stomachs. They are merely paid servants of the vaeshyas.

The efforts of intelligent vipras or brave kśatriyas to escape from the influence of the vaeshyas can be called the vikránti [counter-evolution] or the prativiplava [counter-revolution] of the vipras or kśatriyas.

Some people consider what happened recently in Hungary as counter-revolution, but actually it was not.⁽²¹⁾ It was a vipra revolution against kśatriya rule. It failed because factors relating to time, place and person could not be prepared properly. Those in power called it counter-revolution in order to belittle it.

In India at present the Vaeshya Age is in full swing. But because there is not sufficient consciousness among the exploited vipras, kśatriyas and shúdras – and because the clever vaeshyas of India, having learned from the experiences of other countries and having become cautious, often employ some psychology and exploit people indirectly rather than directly – the revolution to end the Vaeshya Age has not yet taken place.

What to speak of revolution, even the need for revolution has not yet been felt properly among intellectuals. At present they are in a hesitant frame of mind. They are waiting for the auspicious day when the Vaeshya Age will end naturally through kránti [evolution], without any struggle.

This mentality is reflected in the support which a group of intellectuals extend to the Sarvodaya movement⁽²²⁾ and Gandhism. They deliberately ignore the fact that the Sarvodaya movement and Gandhism will only increase the period of their suffering.

There is also a group of leaders who have genuine sympathy for the masses and who do not in their hearts support the Sarvodaya movement or Gandhism; they nevertheless believe that the vaeshyas will be removed from power without a struggle through their plans for a welfare state. I am not suggesting that their ideas are totally irrational, because they do have an example before them. Great Britain is moving towards socialism by accepting the ideals of a welfare state. If it is possible there, why shouldn’t it be possible here? It is natural to ask this question, because in the rotation of the social cycle it is not imperative for revolution to occur. A change from one age to another can also occur through evolution. However, although it is theoretically possible to establish a welfare state or genuine economic freedom through evolution, in practice it will not work. It is true that in Great Britain some of the minimum requirements of life are being provided to the people, but how great the difference is between rich and poor! Clearly their social system is capitalistic. The exploited and disgruntled people are given a small amount of sympathy to appease them. They are given a small taste of the dainties and delicacies, but their stomachs are never full.

The masses in India face greater privations than the masses in Britain. Due to a lack of political and economic consciousness and the confusion created by the misleading propaganda of the Sarvodaya movement and Gandhism, the people of India may continue to be complacent for some time more, misguided by the false promises of the agents of capitalism. However, this situation will not continue for long.

Because rich people have the opportunity to purchase votes, it is not easy for leaders who are genuinely concerned about the people to become members of parliament. It is therefore not possible to eradicate the sufferings of the people of India by enacting laws befitting a genuine welfare state. It is not possible to bring about the economic liberation of India through the present democratic structure.

Divisive Isms

The predominance of dishonest people over honest is far greater in the Vaeshya Age even than it was in the Vipra Age. The vaeshyas use most of their capital and privileged status to deprive others of the wealth they earn through their hard labour. (Here "labour" certainly includes intellectual labour.) Just as the vipras use their intellects to stupefy and manipulate the kśatriyas’ vitality, the vaeshyas still more ruthlessly turn the vipras, as well as everybody else, into beasts of burden. When the Vaeshya Age begins after the Vipra Age, and the vipras and kśatriyas helplessly sell themselves to the vaeshyas, the vipras and kśatriyas clearly understand that they are sold. They are like chickens that have just been sold to the hungry chicken-fancier.

Only the shúdras fail to realize that they are sold. Although the vipras and kśatriyas know what is happening, they nevertheless accept the dominance of the vaeshyas due to selfishness, infighting and a lack of economic knowledge. The vaeshyas are fully aware of the disunity and other weaknesses of the vipras and kśatriyas, and they use this knowledge to perpetuate their hold on power; they use their financial power to incite one group against another. The kśatriyas, out of obligation to the vaeshyas, lose their lives in needless battles and fracases of different kinds; while the vipras, similarly fed and sheltered by the vaeshyas, keep such factional conflicts permanently alive by creating various types of sentiment such as casteism, communalism, provincialism and nationalism, and by composing the necessary scriptures to accomplish this.

It should be clearly understood that the vaeshyas encourage all isms that divide people. Casteism, communalism, provincialism and nationalism are supported mainly by the money of the vaeshyas. They finance such isms to keep people divided so that they cannot unite and protest against their exploitation.

The funny thing is that the vaeshyas purchase the vital energy of the kśatriyas and the intellectual skills of the vipras with money and use that energy and those skills to perpetuate their hold on power and turn the kśatriyas and vipras into long-term slaves. The vaeshyas’ financial power carries more weight than the power of speech and intellectual power of the vipras, not to mention the physical power of the kśatriyas; therefore the vaeshyas have no trouble buying the vipras’ brains and the kśatriyas’ brawn with their money.

Among those who possess knowledge, intellect, great courage or physical strength, there is hardly anyone who has the courage, or sometimes even the intelligence, needed to take the financial risks necessary to earn money. The vaeshyas understand this weakness of the vipras and the kśatriyas. They lull their discrimination to sleep by praising the kśatriyas’ valour and the vipras’ intellect. Then afterwards they can easily buy them off. In a vaeshya state, poets, scientists, [[authors]] and great heroes are awarded prizes, medals and titles for this very reason. By participating in all this, the vipras and the kśatriyas surrender all their endowments at the feet of the vaeshyas for a little money or some name and fame; and at the same time feel they are fortunate. They fail to realize that they are digging their own graves.

Footnotes

(1) See the last chapter, "Shúdra Revolution and Sadvipra Society". –Trans.

(2) In some parts of the world, certain diseases are thought to result from the curse of a particular goddess who is then worshipped to effect a cure. –Trans.

(3) That is, they were accorded some religious status, but their names do not figure in either the Vedas or the Tantras. Laokik implies something created relatively recently out of popular sentiment. –Trans.

(4) See also the section Kśatriya Prestige and the Evolution of the Vipras. –Trans.

(5) "Community" and "communal" as used throughout this book generally refer to religious communities. –Trans.

(6) Though it still prevailed at the time of writing, it had begun to wane, and has further waned since then. –Trans.

(7) Wives; literally "co-performers of religious rites". –Trans.

(8) The vipras of that period divided wives into four categories: patniis, who were entitled to the same social and religious rights as their husbands; jáyás, who were entitled to the same social rights as their husbands but were deprived of his religious rights; bháryás, who were deprived of both the social and religious rights of their husbands, but whose children were entitled to the same social and religious rights as their fathers; and kalatras, who along with their children were deprived of both the social and religious rights of their husbands. –Trans.

(9) The literal translation of this injunction is, "A bháryá is taken only to produce male children." –Trans.

(10) "The accepted structure of society" refers to the three upper castes. In earlier times those castes had at least sincerely observed certain moral strictures and performed certain benevolent duties prescribed to them by scripture. –Trans.

(11) A Sanskrit verse listing the attributes of a deity, to be used for visualizing that deity in meditation. –Trans.

(12) [[Or "theocratic state". –Trans.]]

(13) Here the author is referring to some among the millions of refugees who have come to India since the partition in 1947. It was the very vulnerability of their religion in their homelands that had forced them to come. –Trans.

(14) Although the languages of Bengal and Kerala [Bengali and Malayalam respectively] have been deeply influenced by Sanskrit, the social lives of the people of these two regions have remained largely uninfluenced by the Aryans. The reason for this is the fundamental difference in mental make-up between the Bengalees and Keralites on the one hand, and the Aryans on the other.

(15) See also the section How the Vipras Evolve –Trans.

(16) See also the section Factors in the Evolution of the Kśatriyas in "The Kśatriya Age" and the section Vipra Mentality in this chapter. –Trans.

(17) See also the section Factors in the Evolution of the Kśatriyas in "The Kśatriya Age" and the section Kśatriya Prestige and the Evolution of the Vipras in this chapter. –Trans.

(18) See the discussion of vikśubdha shúdras in "Shúdra Revolution and Sadvipra Society". –Trans.

(19) In the Bhúdán movement launched by Vinoba Bhave, an attempt was made to convince landlords to donate land to poor, landless people. (Bhú means "land" and dán means "donate".) –Trans.

(20) Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, who was originally from Bengal and had a large following there, was the opposition leader in the Indian parliament and the founder of the Hindu Mahasabha movement. A group of Bengali politicians who supported an opposing political party were instructed by their national leadership to instigate the agitation in Calcutta. –Trans.

(21) The abortive Hungarian revolution occurred in 1954-55. Soviet troops were sent to Hungary to crush the revolt. –Trans.

(22) In the Sarvodaya movement started by Jayprakash Narayan (as in the Bhúdán movement), an attempt was made to convince landlords to donate land to poor, landless people. (Sarva means "all" and udaya means "rise".) –Trans.

Chapter 3	Human Society Part 2

Both the kśatriyas and the vipras like to enjoy material wealth, though their methods of accumulating material objects are different. The vaeshyas, however, are more interested in possessing material objects than enjoying them. Looking at their possessions, or thinking about them, gives them a certain peace of mind. So in the Vaeshya Age the practical value of material goods is less than at any other time. They gradually become inert both literally and in financial terms. This is the greatest curse of the Vaeshya Age, because the less the mobility of material goods, that is, the greater their stagnation in different spheres, the more harmful it is for the common people. In the Kśatriya and Vipra Ages it is very rare for people to die of starvation while grains rot in the warehouses. Although there is disparity of wealth in the Kśatriya and Vipra Ages, kśatriyas and vipras do not kick others into a pit of privation, poverty and starvation while they themselves enjoy their wealth. This is because they see other people as tools to be used for the purpose of exploitation, but do not see them as the wellspring of exploitation as the vaeshyas do. To a vaeshya, the shúdras, kśatriyas and vipras are not only tools to be used for exploitative purposes, they are the wellspring of exploitation as well.

The vaeshyas gain material objects of enjoyment through the physical efforts of others; or directly through mental efforts; or sometimes through such physical efforts, sometimes through mental efforts, and sometimes through both simultaneously, according to the situation. So in this respect the vaeshyas are similar to the vipras. However, the difference is that when the vipras acquire objects of enjoyment, they do not let others know that that is their intention; they resort to various types of logic, quote from the scriptures, fake indifference, and employ many other techniques. The vaeshyas do not do such things. In this regard at least, they are more straightforward than the vipras. They do not hide their intentions, which are to accumulate an increasing number of objects of enjoyment.

As vipras are to some extent guided by conscience, they do not utilize their intellects solely to accumulate objects of enjoyment. If they develop a greater degree of conscience or if their intellects increase, they will often neglect to do this altogether. But this never happens with vaeshyas, first of all because they are somewhat lacking in conscience. And secondly, if any of them do have a bit more conscience, they will satisfy it by making donations according to their convenience, priorities or inclination, but they will never stop accumulating objects of enjoyment. A vaeshya with a conscience may donate a hundred thousand rupees at a moment’s notice, but while buying and selling he will not easily let go of even a paisa.

The consequences of accumulating material objects of enjoyment are not the same for vaeshyas as they are for vipras, either. Because they generally spend some time thinking about higher pursuits, vipras do not ideate on objects of enjoyment. But vaeshyas do. As a result they one day take the form of matter.

Vaeshya Mentality

Whatever glory the vaeshyas gain, they gain at the risk of their lives. In this regard they are definitely greater than the vipras and may also be greater than the kśatriyas. The vaeshyas always keep in mind the possible ups and downs in life and their personal profit and loss; thus they develop the capacity to adapt to a wide variety of situations. They are neither especially attracted to luxuries nor repelled by hardships. This is the key to their success.

Vaeshyas are fighters, but their methods of fighting are different from those of the kśatriyas or even the vipras. Actually they lack the powerful personalities of the kśatriyas and are in fact the opposite – weak personalities. They do not hesitate to sell their personal force, their society, their nation, the prestige of women, or national welfare, which the kśatriyas would never do. Vipras limit their fighting to the intellectual sphere, but this is not exactly the case with vaeshyas. Although they also fight intellectually, they do so only to make money. If a vipra and a vaeshya ever engage in a purely intellectual fight, the vipra will win. But if the fight is between their urges for financial gain, the vaeshya will win; the vaeshyas will lock the vipras’ minds up in their iron safes.

Vaeshyas perceive the world through greedy eyes. They do not have the capacity to correctly or fully understand worldly issues. They do not understand anything except the economic value of things. Their commercial outlook is not confined to the material world only; it also includes the psychic and spiritual worlds.

Even though vaeshyas, as a kind of intellectual, have the capacity to acquire psychic wealth, they do not utilize this capacity properly. However, some vaeshyas do find quite subtle ways to make money – it all depends on the degree of their intellect.⁽¹⁾ Though they may have a developed intellect or a desire to do good, they never forget that their primary aim is to make money. They worship whichever god makes them rich. After earning tens of millions of rupees by cheating people with their business acumen, they use a small part of their profit to construct temples or dharmashálas [pilgrims’ inns], because they believe that this will absolve them of their sins.

Vaeshyas do not like to tread the path of desireless action in order to make their minds one-pointed and realize God. They avoid or usually try to avoid the real purpose of dharma, for they do not have any sense of or feeling for religion other than some degree of fear of God. If this fear decreases, they begin to behave like mean-minded demons. In such a state of mind they can commit any type of sin to satisfy their hunger for money.

A mind which runs after money moves in very crooked ways. Although this movement involves intense effort, due to the crudeness of its objective the movement cannot be straightforward: it is crooked, extremely crooked.

Due to their intense effort vaeshyas are mutative by nature, and due to the crudeness of their objectives they are static by nature; thus they are a combination of the mutative [red] and static [black] forces and are symbolized by the colour yellow.

Though vaeshyas make greater efforts than do kśatriyas, their efforts are more psychic than physical.

Deadly Social Parasites

Vaeshyas believe that only a few people can accumulate material wealth, depriving the rest. Thus there will always be only a few vaeshyas, while those who are the objects and tools of their exploitation form the majority. Like exploited beasts of burden which carry bags of sugar, in their crippled state of mind the majority feel that they do not have the right to taste the sweetness. This feeling is the greatest ally of the vaeshyas, so directly or indirectly they always try to nurture this type of feeling in the minds of the majority. Consequently they propagate various types of isms and ethereal theories with the help of the vipras in their pay whom they have reduced to the level of shúdras. When the majority, unable to tolerate this exploitation any longer or find any other way out, desperately leap into action, the Vaeshya Age comes to an end. But it takes a long time for downtrodden people to understand that the vaeshyas are the parasites of society. Hence thorough preparation is required to end the Vaeshya Age.

By vaeshyas I mean here the low type of vaeshyas. However, I am not prepared to call those who are not low vaeshyas, “high” vaeshyas; because while it is true that they give donations as well as exploit, and that society may be benefited by their donations, that will not bring the people who have died from their exploitation back to life!

The vaeshyas increase their wealth by buying the back-breaking labour of the shúdras, the powerful personalities of the kśatriyas, and the intellect of the vipras, according to their needs. The shúdras, just like beasts, sell their physical labour in exchange for mere subsistence. Because they sell their labour, society survives and moves ahead. The powerful personalities of the kśatriyas build and maintain the social structure with the labour extracted from the shúdras. Through their intellect the vipras utilize the personal force of the kśatriyas, and through their money and capitalistic mentality the vaeshyas utilize the vipras’ intellect to increase their wealth.

The vaeshyas do not confront any social problem directly. Just as they buy the labour of the shúdras, the personal force of the kśatriyas and the intellect of the vipras with money, so they endeavour to solve all social problems with money. They do not win victory on the battlefield; they buy it with money. In poverty-stricken democratic countries they buy votes. As they accomplish everything with money, their vital force comes from money. They therefore take all sorts of risks in life to accumulate money. For money they can sacrifice their conscience, their sense of good and bad, right and wrong, at any moment. So in order to save the exploited shúdras, kśatriyas and vipras from the vaeshyas, money, which is the source of all their power, has to be taken out of their hands.

Of course it is not wise to think that all social problems will be solved just by taking money away from the vaeshyas. Although they will have lost their money, they will still have their greedy, money-making mentality.

Thus the structure of society will have to be built in such a way, and society will have to progress in such a way (maintaining balance among time, place and person), that the greedy, money-making mentality of the vaeshyas is rendered ineffectual. This cannot be accomplished by persuasion or by delivering philosophical talks. Their money-making intellect will have to be rendered ineffectual through physical force, and they will have to be shown the divine truth and made to sit and perform spiritual practices to awaken their pinnacled intellect.

To the vaeshyas the social body is merely a machine for making money. The vipras are the head, the kśatriyas are the arms, and the shúdras are the legs of the machine. The authors of scripture may say that the vaeshyas are the thighs of the machine, but I would say that this is incorrect. Of course the vaeshyas are part of the social body, but they are not part of the money-making machine within that social body. They are separate. They supply the oil, water and fuel to the machine, but they take far more from the machine than they spend on it. They think, “As I supply oil, water and fuel to the machine to keep it running, all of the output is mine. My money built the machine, and with my money I can destroy it. If necessary I will get more work out of it by supplying it with more oil, water and fuel, and if I no longer need it I will send it to the junkyard.”

If, in the history of human struggle, the role of the vipras is one of parasitic dependence on others, I cannot find words to describe the role of the vaeshyas. Both the vipras and the vaeshyas exploit society, but the vipra exploiters are not as terrible as the vaeshya exploiters. The vaeshyas are like a deadly parasite on the tree of society which tries to kill the tree by sucking dry all its vital sap. But if the tree dies, the parasite will also die. The vaeshya parasites understand this and therefore try to ensure the survival of society by making some donations; they build temples, mosques, churches and pilgrims’ inns, give little bonuses, feed the poor; etc. Calamity only comes when they lose their common sense out of excessive greed and try to suck society completely dry.

Once the social body falls unconscious, the vaeshyas will die along with the rest of the body. Otherwise, before allowing themselves to die, the exploited shúdras, kśatriyas and vipras can unite to destroy the vaeshyas. This is the rule.

Crooked Intellect

The path of the vipras is crooked and so is the path of the vaeshyas. The difference between them is that since the vaeshyas’ crooked intellect has no trace of spiritual consciousness, it often proves to be suicidal.

A dreadful calamity will befall society if those who have intellectual capacity squander it by running after mundane pleasures instead of utilizing it to realize spiritual bliss – if they utilize all their intellect to fatten themselves by sucking the vital juice of others. So there can be no social welfare until this type of mentality is eradicated or rendered ineffectual through circumstantial pressure. No political leader or governmental or social system can build a welfare state, a socialistic state or an ideal society if they neglect this fundamental disease. If those who go around looking for opportunities to enlarge their stomachs by sucking the vital force of others continue to control society or the nation through their own group of sinners, what can one expect to see in such a society except a horrid picture of hell!

Most of the evils that occur in society are created due to the exploitation carried out by the vaeshyas. In order to increase the size of their bank balances, the vaeshyas create an artificial scarcity of such items as food, clothing and other essential commodities, and then earn a profit by black marketeering. Those who do not have the capacity to purchase commodities at exorbitant prices steal, commit armed robberies and engage in other criminal activities in order to obtain the minimum requirements of their lives. Poor people deprived of food and clothing work as the agents of the greedy vaeshyas engaged in black marketeering and smuggling. When these poor people are caught, they are the ones who get punished, while the vaeshyas escape thanks to the power of their money. Such ill-fated poor people lose their consciences and descend deeper into sin. Society condemns these sinners, while the rich vaeshyas, the instigators of the sinners, play the role of public leaders. They wear garlands, set off verbal fireworks, and shrilly exhort the masses to make greater sacrifices.

Prostitution

The repugnant social disease of prostitution is also a creation of the vaeshyas. As a result of excessive wealth the vaeshyas lose their self-control and their character on the one hand; and many unfortunate women are forced by poverty to descend to this sinful occupation on the other hand.

In India prostitution has been outlawed, but every rational person knows that it cannot be stopped by legal means. Poor women who once lived in red-light districts have only fled out of fear of the law to respectable localities. As a result the sin which was previously confined to certain areas is now spreading to other parts of town. In order to eradicate this sinful occupation in India, it will be necessary to eliminate the vaeshya social system, because in eighty per cent of cases the cause of prostitution is economic injustice. Of course if due to wrong education or base propensities people (both men and women) give indulgence to this sinful occupation, it will continue even after the eradication of economic injustices. So instead of enacting laws, the exploitation of the vaeshyas will have to be eliminated, as will other social injustices. And instead of legally banning something, a healthy outlook should be encouraged.

Of course it is in the nature of a vaeshya-dominated social system that many good laws are framed just to win cheap applause from the public. However, none of these laws are strictly implemented; because if they were, it would become difficult to exploit people.

The Acquisition of Wealth

Neither the vipras nor the vaeshyas directly produce the wealth of society; instead they accumulate the wealth produced by others. To say that there is a heaven-and-hell difference between their methods of acquiring wealth is to say little. The vipras use their intellect and acquire the hard-earned wealth of others in order to meet their material needs, maintain their reputation in society and protect their prestige. But the vaeshya outlook is different. They are content to simply accumulate wealth, and derive pleasure from thinking about their accumulated riches. Hence even millionaire vaeshyas sometimes neglect the bare necessities of life. They forget their hunger when they are counting their money; they forget their personal needs – their minds get absorbed – when they see the wealth they have accumulated. And as for prestige, they sell it for money without any hesitation.

If a certain commodity is easily obtainable in the open market, a vaeshya will welcome a customer with folded hands, saying, “Please come in, sir, have some betel.” But when the same commodity is only available in the black market, the same vaeshya will not even recognize that customer.⁽²⁾ In other words, to vaeshyas money is the only thing that matters. Where money is concerned, their own prestige or the prestige of others is of no consequence.

When people use their intellects over a long period of time solely to accumulate material wealth, their intellects, because they have inculcated this sort of thought in their mental bodies, gradually develop in that direction. In other words, “How can I accumulate more?” ultimately becomes their only thought. Their social spirit and sense of humanity gradually disappear until eventually they become total blood-sucking leeches. They do not retain even the tiniest scrap of humanity.

At the beginning of the Vaeshya Age some social spirit still exists in them alongside the desire to make money. Whatever their motive may be, the vaeshyas do sometimes spend generously on social service and charitable activities, but by the end of the Vaeshya Age they lose even the last vestiges of social consciousness, and as a result of their foolhardiness shúdra revolution occurs.

At the beginning of the Vaeshya Age the vaeshyas use their money-making intellect both for social service and for accumulating money, and in these matters they take advice from other members of society. But by the end of the Vaeshya Age they become so irresponsible due to the intoxication of accumulation that they are not prepared to take advice from anyone. They use their money-making intellect solely to exploit society.

How the Vaeshyas Evolve

In the Vipra Age those who were defeated due to their lack of physical strength, courage or intellectual ability tried to discover an alternative way to live and gain social recognition. The particular type of psychic clash which arose in their minds due to their constant efforts to establish themselves developed in them their money-making intellect. This skill helped them to utilize the strength of the strong, the courage of the brave and the intellect of the intellectuals, and the more they were able to do this the more they became known as shreśt́hiis.

Here the funny thing is that the vaeshyas, who had money but no social status, were able to obtain from the vipras whom they exploited titles of respect such as shreśt́hii⁽³⁾ and sádhu [honest]. (Sádhu became sáhu and today it is Sáu [a common surname].) The vipras took on the worry-free job of priests to these shreśt́hiis and sádhus. They underwent austerities, performed worship and recited scripture on behalf of the shreśt́hiis in return for money. The courageous kśatriyas took upon themselves the responsibility of being armed gatekeepers, and began to salute the shreśt́hiis twice a day. Other vipras became clerks, accountants, etc.; and the shúdras became porters and labourers. Through their work they all gradually began to elevate the status of the shreśt́hiis. This is an objective picture of the Vaeshya Age in every country of the world.

Pseudo-Vaeshyas

Some vipras’ economic intellect is awakened while under the patronage of the economic intellect of the vaeshyas. Such people become pseudo-vaeshyas, and towards the end of the Vaeshya Age their dominance of society becomes evident. The vipras’ crooked thinking blends with the vaeshya-like economic intellect of these pseudo-vaeshyas, but the pseudo-vaeshyas do not possess any of the good qualities of either the vaeshyas or the vipras. So although they carry on the vaeshya legacy up to the very end of the Vaeshya Age, they finally fall into utter disgrace and disrepute.⁽⁴⁾

In their efforts to perpetuate their exploitation without hindrance, the pseudo-vaeshyas make use not only of their economic intellect but also of whatever other intellectual capacities they possess. By hook or by crook they even seize governmental power. They then use that power as an instrument of exploitation, a cruel machine to ruthlessly pulverize the whole of society. Out of fear that their descendants may face financial difficulties in the future due to their lack of competence, they not only continue to exploit the whole of society, but also set aside for those descendants huge sums of money which remain wholly or partially unutilized.

The non-utilization of capital is the worst consequence of economic exploitation. Exploited and downtrodden people who do not want to be exploited to death, revolt. Thus shúdra revolution occurs during the period of the Vaeshya Age which is dominated by dishonest vaeshyas.

The vitality of the Kśatriya Age gives way to the intellectuality of the Vipra Age, and the intellectuality of the vipras is bought for money in the Vaeshya Age. The vaeshyas buy the vipras’ intellect with money, and with the help of that intellect they build up their state, society and economic structure, putting them to work as they choose.

Generating Collective Wealth

Nothing in the world is exclusively good or exclusively bad. Is the Vaeshya Age only an age of economic exploitation? Is there nothing good in this present Vaeshya Age, and has there never been anything good in it? Although it is a fact that the vaeshyas’ economic exploitation has always surpassed their service, they have nevertheless done service, however small or insignificant it may have been. When the vipras collect something (directly or indirectly), they decide how and to what extent it can be put to use, how it can be enjoyed by the people and how it can be utilized for their welfare. But the vaeshyas collect things without thinking about how they can be utilized for social welfare. Instead they think about how to compel people through circumstantial pressure to buy those things so that they can earn money in exchange.

Material goods have no practical value for the vaeshyas, except as a source of income. This type of mentality leads them to illegally hoard foodstuffs out of a greedy desire for greater profits, depriving millions of people of food and pushing them down the road towards death.

We do not expect vipras to do such things. The vipras do promote their personal interests and their domination, but they do not try to deprive the shúdras and kśatriyas of a chance to live. But if the vaeshyas think of the kśatriyas or shúdras as thorns on the path of making money, they will deprive them of a chance, and often out of greed for greater profit indirectly kill them.

Having said all this, I still contend that nothing in this world is exclusively good or bad. For any individual or collective endeavour, capital, either in the form of money or resources, is initially required. The opportunity to create such capital, to create capital in a massive way or in a widely-diversified way, comes in the Vaeshya Age. With the help of such capital, wealth can be generated for both individual and collective needs, and this is what happens.

In order to raise the general standard of living in a society, state or economy, capital is required, whether the capital comes from within a particular country or from outside. No matter where it comes from, it must be controlled partly or completely by an individual. The individual controller is, of course, the vaeshya. But if, without examining how it should or should not be used, the use or control of the capital is entrusted to a government, a cooperative or a representative of the public, non-utilization or misutilization of the capital will be inevitable in all circumstances. This is one of the main reasons why capitalistic countries develop extremely rapidly in the material sphere.

Furthermore, if large amounts of capital are placed under collective management, a small error on the part of the managers will lead to gross misutilization. This is the main reason why the system of collective farming, or the commune system, has failed in socialistic countries. If the ownership of wealth is taken away from individuals and placed in the hands of the state – in other words, if the vaeshya system is abolished by force – managers will not have the same control over that wealth as individual owners would.

State Capitalism

One thing more needs to be said about collective capital: collective capital does not always mean the establishment of socialism. Where collective capital means the capital of the state, if the state tries to increase its national wealth without stopping exploitation in society and without trying to increase individual wealth, increasing the national wealth will mean increasing the individual wealth of only a few people in power. Thus, although there is an increase in the per capita income, the per capita income of the poor does not increase, and the per capita income of the well-to-do does not decrease.

Although one cannot support this sort of state capitalism, one cannot deny that the state has to utilize capital in order to increase the wealth of the state. If state capitalism actually increases the per capita income of every person without constantly seeking to exploit, we cannot but praise it – it can be considered exemplary socialism. After all, a state must invest capital if it wants to increase the national income. Such capital investment is clearly a vaeshya system.

Perpetuating Exploitation

The vaeshyas became established through their materialistic intellect. First they defeated the vipras through their materialistic intellect and financial machinations, then they turned them into sycophants so that they could harness their intellects in order to increase their wealth.

Although the production, accumulation and distribution of things indispensable for the preservation of human life are carried out under the ownership or partial supervision of the vaeshyas, those whose labour, personal force and intellect are actually used to produce and distribute essential commodities are not vaeshyas. In order to meet their own needs those people mortgage their labour, personal force and intellect to the vaeshyas. The vaeshyas clearly understand that their system of exploitation will fail without the help of the shúdras, kśatriyas and vipras.

Thus behind their grandiloquence the vaeshyas continue their psychological manipulations in order to perpetuate their capitalistic rule. Through this process the shúdras and kśatriyas readily become their slaves. Although the vipras understand what is happening, after a short struggle they are also compelled to surrender to the vaeshyas like a fly caught in a spider’s web.

These psychological manipulations, a part of vaeshya philosophy, begin to fail only when the shúdras, kśatriyas and vipras lose their minds due to excessive exploitation. They then become desperate, blind, mindless people who completely lack conscience, intellect or rationality. One day they mercilessly smash the vaeshya structure to pieces. How or why they did it, or how the new structure will be built – these considerations, this type of thinking – never enter their minds. They only jump into the struggle in order to survive. They think, “Since there is no point in living, let us die sooner.” While this directionless revolution is going on, the condition of the shúdras, kśatriyas and vipras becomes almost the same. It is useless to expect from them anything worthy of human beings.

Intellect controls strength; therefore the vipras control the shúdras and the kśatriyas. But, Annacintá camatkárá [“Wonderful are the ways of hunger”] – when even intelligent people find themselves struggling to survive, they readily sell their intelligence for money; for this reason the vipras sell themselves to the vaeshyas. They not only sell themselves, but also surrender the shúdras and the kśatriyas, whom they had previously controlled, at the holy feet of their vaeshya overlords. Without the help of the vipras, it would be virtually impossible for the vaeshyas to force the shúdras and the kśatriyas to work.

It is therefore evident that in a capitalistic structure, when the vaeshyas struggle to perpetuate their system of exploitation, they do not physically struggle, they merely spend money. Upon taking the money, the vipras then fight with their nerves, the kśatriyas with their muscles, and the shúdras with their sweat and labour.

Thus it is clear that in any type of communal or other reactionary-instigated conflict, there are wealthy bosses on both sides behind the riots and fracases. The bosses themselves never take up spears, lances or axes and fight.

The victory of wealth over intellect, the vipras’ surrender at the feet of the vaeshyas, does not come about in a single day. As mentioned earlier, the vipras get caught like a fly in a spider’s web; they do make some efforts to understand their situation, but finally they become so entangled in the web that their vitality gets exhausted in the struggle and they have no alternative but to surrender. They are then compelled to sing the victory songs of the vaeshyas as they beat their heads in despair.

Through the power of money the vaeshyas take over all the constructive work accomplished by, or useful things built by, the intelligence and ideological commitment of the vipras, the sacrifice and personal force of innumerable kśatriyas, and the labour of countless shúdras. Sometimes the vipras, kśatriyas and shúdras seek the help of the unworthy vaeshyas in order to preserve some worthy institution. But for the sake of money, they are compelled to name the institution after those vaeshyas.

However, the vaeshyas’ cunning methods of economic exploitation do encounter set-backs according to time, place and person. Whenever they see the vipras, kśatriyas and shúdras moving towards counter-evolution or counter-revolution, they adopt new forms of deception in order to save their position. Until an actual shúdra revolution occurs, they engage themselves untiringly in trying to discover newer and more artful methods of deception.

It should be remembered that in countries where the dominant vaeshya structure is at present extremely firm and stable, the strength of that structure was not created in a day. The vaeshyas laboured a long time to build it and they will try to maintain it by any means. To expect, under such circumstances, that they will be won over by humble requests, or will voluntarily put on a loincloth and renounce the world, is sheer lunacy. Actually such things are possible if they become inspired by a great spiritual ideology; however, this would require the long-term, continuous propagation of morality-based spirituality among the vaeshyas. Intelligent people should certainly consider whether it is really rational to allow the exploitation of the masses to go on until such a day comes.

The occasional charity works that the vaeshyas undertake are only a trick to maintain their exploitation. Most of their charitable activities are not inspired by humanism; their sole purpose is to keep the machinery of exploitation, that is, the vipras and the shúdras, functioning. If the vipras and the shúdras die, who will there be to exploit? The cunning vaeshyas consider such charitable activities as investments.

The help that vaeshyas extend to poor people in difficult times, during floods and famines, they afterwards recover with interest. They are benefited in various ways. First, their businesses continue to run and they make good money. Secondly, people who are disgruntled with the vaeshyas’ exploitation are to some extent pacified and their wounded minds are temporarily soothed.

Of course these comments do not apply to those vaeshyas who do social service out of humanitarian or spiritual inspiration. No doubt there are some honest vaeshyas who are worthy of veneration by everyone.

Whatever dignity a person possesses as a human being in either the Kśatriya Age or the Vipra Age is dealt its heaviest blow in the Vaeshya Age. In the Vaeshya Age a person’s dignity is measured in terms of money. The repercussions of this defective evaluation of human beings are not confined only to the realm of dignity; they have far-reaching effects in all spheres of society.

No matter how many other qualities they may possess, vipras and kśatriyas who think independently, possess a sense of dignity or are self-reliant, cannot establish themselves unless they learn to flatter the vaeshyas in a psychological way. Even the unworthy son or relative of a wealthy person has the opportunity to sit at the head of society, and through the power of money an unattractive daughter is properly married to a good bridegroom. A good marriage cannot be arranged even for the sons of the poor, intelligent and educated though they may be, let alone the daughters of the poor. In fact in the Vaeshya Age people cannot hope to be respected unless they are rich. Those who hope for respect or have gained it, depend or have depended on the mercy of the vaeshyas.

Yasyásti vittaḿ sah narah kuliinah;
Sa pańd́itah sah shrutavána guńajiṋah.
Sa eva vaktá sa ca darshaniiyah;
Sarve guńáh káiṋcańamáshrayanti.

[Those who have wealth are high-caste, are well-educated, possess many abilities, are good orators and are good-looking. They have all these qualities because they have money.]

The methods of social exploitation used in the Vipra and Vaeshya Ages are somewhat similar. Certain aspects of society in the Vipra Age therefore remain unchanged in the Vaeshya Age, such as the social system, the law, the status of men and women and the right of inheritance.

Breaking the Vaeshya Structure

The difficulties faced by those who have tried and are trying to break apart the structure of the Vaeshya Age in order to rebuild society on a humanistic foundation, are not less, but are in fact a little more, than the indescribable social tortures that great people suffered in the past when they tried to reform the social structure of the Vipra Age. This is because those who wanted to break apart the vipras’ structure had to fight the vipras and also the kśatriyas and shúdras under their protection, but those who want to strike at the vaeshyas’ structure have to fight against all the vipras, kśatriyas and shúdras who are obedient to the vaeshyas.

But there are similarities between the two. The common people misunderstand great people who act on their behalf and for their welfare, or even if they understand them, they do not give them their support. Their nerves, courage and labour are bought with the vaeshyas’ money.

The vipras exploit the masses in the Vipra Age under the pretence of religion, which cannot be challenged. The same thing occurs in the Vaeshya Age, but vaeshya exploitation is more dangerous. In the Vipra Age the vipras exploit others through religion in order to promote their personal interests, but in the Vaeshya Age the vipras exploit others through religion in order to promote both their own and the vaeshyas’ interests.

In the Vaeshya Age this religious exploitation is more psychic than physical, because the vaeshyas use the vipras to try to spread intellectual propaganda among the masses to prevent them from finding any philosophical justification for their suppressed grievances against the vaeshya structure. This intellectual propaganda aims to convince people that they are the victims of circumstance. It argues, “Everything is destiny. Everything is preordained.” Such doctrines help the vaeshyas to perpetuate their structure. They destroy the personal force of people and make them the playthings of fate. People accept the idea that everything is preordained, and support the status quo.

Those who try to break the structure of the Vaeshya Age and show the downtrodden the path of liberation, will have to advise the people to free themselves from the intoxicating effect of the opium of religion; otherwise how will they be able to serve the downtrodden people?

A group of exploiters loudly object to a remark that was made by the great Karl Marx concerning religion. It should be remembered that Karl Marx never opposed spirituality, morality and proper conduct. What he said was directed against the religion of his time, because he perceived, understood and realized that religion had psychologically paralysed the people and reduced them to impotence by persuading them to surrender to a group of sinners.

Footnotes

(1) In the winter of the Bengali year 1368 [end of 1961 or beginning of 1962 BCE], some opportunistic astrologers (vipras) declared that the world would soon come to an end following the conjunction of several planets in a particular house of the zodiac. Perhaps they thought that the public would be frightened by such a declaration, and just prior to the cataclysm might renounce everything and donate a large part of their wealth to the vipras in an effort to ensure that they would go to heaven. This plan of the Indian vipras met with some success; out of fear many sinners undertook charitable activities.
The frightened vaeshyas arranged sacrificial fires presided over by the astrologer-priests. They thought that perhaps the smoke from the sacrificial fires would change the course of the planets concerned, moving them out of the zodiacal house they were in and thereby preventing the destruction. The commercial mentality of the vaeshyas (capitalists) was glaringly evident in their temporary religious fervour.
Along with this there was another amusing thing I noticed. For use in the sacrificial fires the vaeshyas sold unsaleable ghee, which was unfit for human consumption, at exorbitant prices.

(2) [[Because the vaeshya will try to sell the item to the customer at an exorbitant price.]] –Trans.

(3) Shreśt́hii, “man of wealth” was coined from shreśt́ha, “superior man”. –Trans.

(4) For descriptions of shúdras cast in similar roles in the Kśatriya Age, and kśatriyas cast in similar roles in the Vipra Age, see pp. 14 and 39. –Trans.

Chapter 4	Human Society Part 2

The inevitable consequence of vaeshya exploitation is shúdra revolution. When the vaeshyas, maddened with excessive greed, lose their common sense completely and forsake their humanity totally, then for shúdra revolution the opportune time has come. However, it cannot be said that shúdra revolution will automatically occur just because an opportune time has come. Proper conditions relating to place and person will bear much of the responsibility.

Revolution takes place when, from the economic perspective, only two classes remain in society: the exploiting vaeshyas and the exploited shúdras. But if there are no vipras and kśatriyas from a mental standpoint – in other words if there are no people who, though shúdras from an economic standpoint, are vipras or kśatriyas from a mental standpoint – shúdra revolution will not be possible. It is not the work of people who have a shúdra mentality to bring about revolution. They avoid struggle; they are playthings of the vaeshyas.

At the high point of the Vaeshya Age, the vaeshyas easily manipulate the shúdra-minded shúdras. If the kśatriya- and vipra-minded shúdras lack spirit, they will also be bought by the vaeshyas’ money. Thus shúdra revolution ultimately depends on shúdras who have sufficient spirit and are mentally vipras or kśatriyas.

Obstacles to Revolution

Those who want to bring about proletariat revolution with the help of manual labourers only will not succeed unless they take into consideration the mentality of the people involved. Shúdra-minded people do not understand their own problems; they do not even have the courage to dream about solving them. No matter how well labour leaders explain the problems to them or how fiery their lectures on the need for struggle be, it will not have any influence over their minds. They will spend their time eating, drinking, and getting violently drunk. They cannot think about who in their families is eating properly or getting an education or not. If their bosses increase their wages, they will merely spend more on their addiction; their standard of living will not be raised. That is why I say that such people do not and cannot bring about a shúdra revolution. It is not only undesirable but also foolish for those who want to bring about revolution to depend on such people; their static nature will thwart its movement, their cowardice will prematurely extinguish the fire of revolution.

Besides this type of mentality, national and religious traditions also often thwart revolution. It is extremely difficult for kśatriya- and vipra-minded shúdras to go against such traditions, let alone shúdra-minded shúdras. People become averse to revolution due to the following ideas: “Whatever is fated will happen; does fighting accomplish anything?”; “Our days are somehow passing by, so why should we trouble ourselves?”; or incorrect interpretations of the niśkáma karmaváda [doctrine of desireless action] of the Giitá or other scriptures.

In fact, a subtle analysis will reveal that the policy of establishing a welfare state on a democratic base is also an obstacle to revolution; as are the ideals of Gandhism and the high-sounding theory of democratic socialism.

The Bhúdán movement is also a reactionary movement in this way. Although I have high regard for the founders of Gandhism and the Bhúdán movement – as men they are second to none – their philosophies are extremely harmful for poor people.

Some of the philosophical interpretations of janmántaraváda [the doctrine of transmigration of souls, or reincarnation] also oppose revolution; that is, they argue, “You are starving in this life because you committed many sins in your last life, so what is the point of launching a movement? Destiny cannot be changed.”

That is why I have said that kśatriya- and vipra-minded shúdras will bring about the people’s revolution. For this, these shúdras will have to be thoroughly prepared, suffer a lot and make great sacrifices. They will have to fight against opposing groups and doctrines.

The Pioneers of Revolution

It is very easy to talk big about revolution. Audiences may be awestruck and applaud, but to actually bring about a revolution is not at all easy.

Those kśatriya- or vipra-minded shúdras who are the pioneers of revolution will have to learn to be disciplined, take proper revolutionary training, build their character, be moralists; in a word, they will have to become what I call sadvipras. A sadvipra will not launch a movement against honest people, even if he or she does not like them. But a sadvipra will definitely take action against dishonest people, even if he or she likes them. In such matters it will not do to indulge any kind of mental weakness.

Such strict, ideological sadvipras will be the messengers of the revolution. They will carry the message of revolution to every home in the world, to every vein and capillary of human existence. The banner of victorious revolution will be carried by them alone.

Moralists and spiritualists can be found among all types of people, regardless of whether they are rich or poor. Everyone knows that the idea that rich means honest is completely false. But most sadvipras will come from the middle class. By “middle class” I mean the vipra- and kśatriya-minded shúdras.

One may ask whether rich people who are moral and spiritual can be sadvipras or not. In reply I will say yes, they can be. But in order to be sadvipras they will have to come down to the level of the middle class, because they cannot live in indolent luxury on capital acquired by sinful means. In order to follow the principles of Prout,⁽¹⁾ they will have to fight against sin and injustice, and in order to conduct such a fight properly, they will not be able to keep their wealth – they will have to become middle-class.

The meaning of the word sadvipra is “a person who is a moralist and a spiritualist and who fights against immorality”. Earning money in a sinful way or accumulating great wealth is against the fundamental principles of Prout. It will be quite impossible for people who are not following the fundamental principles of Prout to bring about shúdra revolution.

One may also ask whether poor people can be sadvipras. In reply I will say that yes, they can be. But only poor people who have the minds of kśatriyas or vipras can bring about a revolution, and such poor people I call the middle class. That is how I explain the term madhyavitta samája [“middle class”].

I do not agree with those who are of the opinion that people who do not work physically but intellectually are middle-class. I do not agree either with those who believe that those whose income is neither high nor low are middle-class. If we were to accept this second interpretation of “middle-class”, I would have to point out that the income of many shúdra-minded shúdras who perform manual labour in society is higher than that of many kśatriya- or vipra-minded shúdras.

If anybody objects to the use of the term “middle class”, or if anybody says that “middle class” refers to those who have an average amount of wealth and that therefore the pioneers of the revolution – the kśatriya- or vipra-minded shúdras – may or may not be middle-class, I am prepared to use the term vikśubdha [disgruntled], instead of “middle-class”, to describe the revolutionary shúdras. The vikśubdha shúdras are a constant source of uneasiness for the tyrannical vaeshyas. The capitalists are not afraid of labour unrest, but they are afraid of the labour leaders, the vikśubdha shúdras.

The capitalists like democracy as a system of government because in the democratic system they can easily purchase the shúdra-minded shúdras who constitute the majority. It is easy to sail through the elections by delivering high-sounding speeches. No difficulties arise if election promises are not kept later on, because the shúdra-minded shúdras quickly forget them.

It can be unequivocally stated that if only educated people instead of all adults were given the right to vote in any country, the governmental structure of most democratic countries would change. And if sadvipras alone had the right to vote, there would be no difference between the real world and the heaven people imagine.

In a capitalistic social system or in a democratic structure the situation of middle-class people (the vikśubdha shúdras) is generally miserable. This is because they are the greatest critics of capitalism and the strongest opponents of exploitation. An increase in the number of vikśubdha shúdras in a society is an early omen of a possible shúdra revolution. It is therefore the duty of those who want to create a world free of exploitation to help to increase the number of vikśubdha shúdras. It will be harmful for the revolution if these people die or are transformed into shúdra-minded shúdras. All the sadvipras in the world should be vigilant to make sure that the number of vikśubdha shúdras does not decrease due to unemployment, birth control, or other bad practices or policies.

Democratic Change

Revolution means a great change. In order to bring about such a change it is not inevitable that there will be killing and bloodshed. If the kśatriya-minded vikśubdha shúdras are in the majority, or are most influential, however, the revolution will indeed come about through bloody clashes. Iit cannot be unequivocally stated that a revolution can never be brought about through intellectual clash, without bloodshed – it is possible, if there are a large number of influential vipra-minded shúdras among the vikśubdha shúdras. But we cannot have much hope that this will be the case; so it has to be said that the liberation of the people generally involves bloodshed.

Some people claim that they will be able to bring about socialism or communism or the liberation of the people through democratic methods. Generally speaking, a welfare state is based on the same principles. They often say that England, France and some other democratic countries are progressing towards socialism. But I would ask, what is the use of tortoise-like progress such as this? Many countries which do not follow a democratic system have brought about the welfare of their population with greater speed than has Great Britain within a democratic structure, over a period of hundreds of years. In this situation speed is the most important factor.

Countries that exploited their colonies used to make efforts to promote the welfare of their population within the democratic structure, but if they had wanted to contribute to social welfare and had stayed outside the democratic framework, preferring instead the path of shúdra revolution, they would have progressed faster, and without exploiting any colonies. In fact, in a democratic structure the people’s progress is very slow. It cannot be called revolution; rather it is evolution, that is, gradual change.

If undeveloped countries avoid the path of revolution and choose the path of slow change, or deliberately ignore the defects in democratic socialism or in the concept of a welfare state, the welfare of their people will never be anything but castles in the air. In order to secure votes in a democratic structure, the assistance of thieves, thugs and other antisocial elements is required. These antisocial elements certainly do not support candidates selflessly. They expect that when their candidate becomes a minister he or she will then turn a blind eye to the antisocial behaviour of their supporters.

One of the most important basic features of socialism is cooperative bodies. Cooperative bodies cannot survive unless the state administration is run by honest citizens. Similarly, a socialistic state cannot survive unless the cooperative organizations are run by honest citizens. Hence if the public does not have a very high moral, spiritual and educational standard (an average standard or above average standard will not suffice), we cannot expect to find worthy people as representatives, as ministers, or as directors of cooperative bodies. Dishonest directors of cooperative institutions will steal money; dishonest ministers will indirectly support such activities; and weak-minded ministers will deliberately avoid looking into those activities out of fear of losing their ministerships, or in hopes of securing votes in the future. If such abuses continue, it will never be possible to build up cooperative institutions, corruption will never be flushed out of the courts and secretariats, and socialism will never be established.

It is extremely difficult, although not totally impossible, to attain the high moral standard necessary to establish socialism within a democratic structure. Thus while democratic socialism is theoretically not bad, we cannot hope that it will ever be possible in the real world.

Post-Revolution

Whether they have kśatriya intellects or vipras intellects, the vikśubdha shúdras who take over the leadership of the shúdra revolution are kśatriyas in terms of their courage, personal force and capacity to take risks. After the shúdra revolution the leadership of society passes to the vikśubdha shúdras, at which point their kśatriya qualities become still more strongly expressed. In the post-revolutionary period they cannot be called vikśubdha shúdras; by that time they have become the kśatriyas of the second rotation of the social cycle.

The moral, spiritual fighters who keep an eye on the kśatriyas to ensure they do not descend into an exploitative role in the future, are called sadvipras. If the kśatriyas descend into exploitation, the sadvipras will fight them and establish the Vipra Age in the second rotation of the social cycle. If the vipras descend into exploitation, they will also fight against the vipras and initiate the Vaeshya Age of the second rotation. And if the vaeshyas descend or wish to descend into an exploitative role, the sadvipras will inspire the vikśubdha shúdras and bring about a second shúdra revolution.

The social cycle will rotate continuously. Nobody can stop its rotation. If the post-revolutionary Kśatriya Age is called thesis, the steps taken by the sadvipras against the kśatriyas who descend into exploitation are called antithesis. The post-revolutionary Vipra Age which evolves out of this conflict is called synthesis. If, in a later period, the vipras wish to descend into exploitation, the steps that the sadvipras take against them are called antithesis. Therefore the post-kśatriya Vipra Age cannot be called synthesis at that time. It can be called the thesis of the next stage.

Nobody can stop the rotation of the social cycle, not even the sadvipras. They stay in the nucleus of the social cycle, wakefully and vigilantly observing the process of rotation. One after another, one age follows the next: Vipra after Kśatriya, Vaeshya after Vipra. The sadvipras cannot stop this process.

After the establishment of the post-revolutionary Kśatriya Age, the sadvipras will have to keep a vigilant eye on the kśatriyas so that they, as the representatives of kśatriya society, only rule and do not descend into an exploitative role. When they show signs of beginning to exploit, the sadvipras will immediately create an antithesis to end the Kśatriya Age. They will do the same thing in the Vipra and Vaeshya Ages. In other words, they will not allow society to follow the process of natural evolution. They will bring about social revolution whenever necessary.

So the sadvipras will have no rest. A time will never come in the life of a sadvipra when he or she will be able to sit back in an armchair and say, “Ah, I have nothing to do today. Today I will have a nice rest.”

Sadvipra Society

So far in the first rotation of human history on this earth, no sadvipra society has been formed. In most countries the last stage of the first rotation is in progress. In a few countries the post-shúdra-revolution Kśatriya Age has been established, and here and there the first indications of the Vipra Age are beginning to emerge. As there is no sadvipra society, the social cycle is rotating in a natural way.

In every age the dominant social class first governs, then starts to exploit, after which evolution or revolution takes place. Due to the lack of sadvipras to lend their help, the foundations of human society fail to become strong.

Today I earnestly request all rational, spiritual, moral, fighting people to build a sadvipra society without any further delay. Sadvipras will have to work for all countries, for the all-round liberation of all human beings. The downtrodden people of this persecuted world look to the eastern horizon, eagerly awaiting their advent. Let the blackness of the new-moon night be lifted from the path of the downtrodden. Let the new human beings of a new day wake up to a new sunrise in a new world. With these good wishes I conclude my discourse.

Footnotes

(1) Progressive Utilization Theory. See Idea and Ideology, 1959. The Five Fundamental Principles of Prout:

(1) No individual should be allowed to accumulate any physical wealth without the clear permission or approval of the collective body.
(2) There should be maximum utilization and rational distribution of all mundane, supramundane and spiritual potentialities of the universe.
(3) There should be maximum utilization of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of unit and collective bodies of human society.
(4) There should be a proper adjustment amongst these physical, metaphysical, mundane, supramundane and spiritual utilizations.
(5) The method of utilization should vary in accordance with changes in time, space and person, and the utilization should be of progressive nature.

–Trans.

	Human Society Part 2

ÁCÁRYA m. or ÁCÁRYÁ f. Spiritual teacher qualified to teach all lessons of meditation.
ANANDA MARGA. Path of divine bliss; Ánanda Márga Pracáraka Saḿgha (Ananda Marga organization).
ÁNANDA. Divine bliss.
AVADHÚTA m. or AVADHÚTIKÁ f. Literally, “one who is thoroughly cleansed mentally and spiritually”. A monk or nun of an order close to the tradition of Shaeva Tantra.

BRAHMA. Supreme Entity, comprising both Puruśa, or Shiva (Consciousness, Cognitive Principle) and Prakrti, or Shakti (Operative Principle).

COMMUNALISM. A group [groupist] psychology based on religion.

DHARMA. Characteristic property; spirituality (“the attainment of bliss or the endeavour to attain bliss through regular SÁDHANÁ in the subtler spheres of one’s nature”); the path of righteousness in social affairs.

KARMA. Action; sometimes, positive or negative action which produces SAḾSKÁRAs.
KARMA YOGA. A form of spiritual practice which emphasizes selfless action.
KRÁNTI. Evolution.
KŚATRIYA. Written as kśatriya, a person whose mentality is to dominate over matter; written as “Kśatriya”, a member of the second-highest caste in India.

MAHÁBHÁRATA. “Great India”; the name of a military campaign guided by Lord Krśńa around 1500 BCE to unify India; the epic poem written by Maharshi Vyasa about this campaign.
MÁRGA. Path.
MARGI. A member of Ananda Marga.
MORALISM. A natural system of morality (Oxford English Dictionary).

PRATIVIPLAVA. Counter-revolution.
PROUT. Progressive Utilization Theory.

SÁDHAKA. Spiritual practitioner.
SÁDHANÁ. Literally, “sustained effort”; spiritual practice; meditation.
SÁDHU. Virtuous person, spiritual aspirant; honest (adj.).
SADVIPRA. Spiritual revolutionary.
SAḾSKÁRA. Mental reactive momentum, potential mental reaction.
SAMÁJA CAKRA. Social cycle.
SAMÁJA. Society. “The concerted effort to bridge the gap between the first expression of morality and establishment in universal humanism is called ‘social progress’. And the collective body of those who are engaged in the concerted effort to conquer this gap, I call ‘society’.”
SHÚDRA. Written as shúdra, a person with a mentality of physical enjoyment only, a member of the labourer social class; written as “Shúdra”, a member of the lowest caste in India.

TANTRA. A spiritual tradition which originated in India in prehistoric times and was first systematized by Shiva. It emphasizes the development of human vigour, both through meditation and through confrontation of difficult external situations, to overcome all fears and weaknesses. Also, a scripture expounding that tradition.

VAESHYA. Written as vaeshya, a person of acquisitive mentality, a member of the capitalist social class; written as “Vaeshya”, a member of the second-lowest caste in India.
VIKRÁNTI. Counter-evolution.
VIKŚUBDHA SHÚDRA. Literally, “disgruntled SHÚDRA”; one who in the Vaeshya Age is economically a shúdra but mentally a
KŚATRIYA or VIPRA.
VIPLAVA. Revolution.
VIPRA. Written as vipra, a person who controls others by his wits, a member of the intellectual social class; written as “Vipra”, a member of the highest caste in India.