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.