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Re: Social Orders of Life
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To: alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: Social Orders of Life
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From: hal_computer@earthlink.net (Debashish Banerji)
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Date: 19 Jan 1995 09:51:03 GMT
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From news@earthlink.net Thu Jan 19 04: 44:41 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: HAL Computer Systems
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References: <3feifv$m0j@ucunix.san.uc.edu>
In article <3feifv$m0j@ucunix.san.uc.edu>, ptbast@wpi.edu (Pete Bastien) says:
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>Debashish Banerji (hal_computer@earthlink.net) wrote:
>: In article <3ei7gn$jj4@ucunix.san.uc.edu>, ptbast@wpi.edu(Pete Bastien) says:
>
>The answer was not directly given by the quote from Sri Aurobindo, but
>from my understanding of the quote, Sri Aurobindo seems to say that
>traditionally or historically there has been a division in society
>and that it was considered that this division was also religious and
>spiritual in nature. In otherwords, Sri Aurobindo reiterates well known
>information. Sri Aurobindo then say that the basis for this division is
>inadequate to reflect reality, and that several additional qualities
>must be considered. And finally, in the "perfect man", all of these
>qualifications do not matter.
Though I am broadly in agreement with this understanding, there are
several aspects of the quote from Sri Aurobindo which, I believe, were
wrongly interpreted.
1.)I can't see anything in the passage to suggest that the four powers
were determined by birth into a person's caste. Sri Aurobindo is saying
that the four castes in Hindu society were created ("built") by the
ancient thinkers of India in response to their consciousness of the four
essential soul-powers of the manifesting Shakti. The early foundations of caste in
Indian society are believed to have been functional, but not hereditary.
2.) Not that the system is simplistic, but its degeneration into a rigid
and hereditary system, made it deviate from the flexible functional mould
for Divine manifestation that had been set up by the ancients.
3.) The truth corresponding to the four soul-powers in the individual
are thus to be found at the subtler plane of personality, character,
temperament, soul-type; using these, the predominant soul-power;
and behind this, the free spiritual Shakti.
4.) In the context of Sri Aurobindo's writings, the free and illimitable
Divine Shakti expresses itself in Nature through four principal
Personlities - Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati. All
individual souls or "jivas" are seen as being "born" from one of these
forms of the Mother, determining the soul-power predominantly at work
in him. These four Personalities of the Divine Mother map respectively
to the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. However, the four forms
are faces of the one Mother, thus the single illimitable Shakti stands
behind them, even in the jiva, and can transcend the mould which
predominates in action. (See "The Mother" by Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo
Ashram Press.)
Debashish Banerji
