Aryans and Us

One who is constantly absorbed in activity which contradicts instructions of holy scriptures, being material and stubborn, cheating and constantly insulting others, lazy, all gloomy, postponing for the future, acts under the influence of the guna of ignorance.

Any cause-and-effect relation appears due to interaction of these factors: the knowledge, the known object and the knower.

The structure of society should be such that the above mentioned three factors would be in the guna of goodness. This is the only recipe for real prosperity of society. If any of these components “advances” towards the guna of goodness it “moves up” all the rest with it, and soon there appears the result in the form of happiness, prosperity, peace and so on. In fact, this knowledge is very comprehensive. Our aim is to show which particular regularities were considered by the Aryans for organization of their society. Everything begins from knowledge. As we have seen in the verses, goodness starts from awareness of the overall spiritual nature of all living things, consequently from the study of the relevant knowledge.

All problems arise from the point of view which makes us see the difference between living beings that hinders perception of their unity. The bodily concept makes to reject those who do not give us pleasure and seek for those with whom we can enjoy the world. This mood, in its turn, allows us to quietly kill those we hate and protect those we “love”. But perception of the uniform spiritual nature allows us to implement in practice the principle of justice. According to the above mentioned verses, when knowledge in goodness is developed, a person addresses regulating principles of behavior which control our sympathy and hatred (the basis of injustice). As a doer of activity, such person becomes resolute, exuberant and, mostly important, balanced in success and defeat. Such person is not proud (does no violence), when he/she wins (does not give rise to envy) and does not revenge when he/she loses (does not cause troubles).

Influenced by the guna of passion, a person differentiates living beings according to their bodies (not beautiful so not comfortable for pleasure, etc.). Under this condition, the basis for evaluation is pleasant/unpleasant people and whether happiness and grief, pleasures and danger are coming from these people. Such person is greedy, envious and impure (due to differentiation of living beings). Victory makes such person keep acting with great pains and defeat completely destroys the interest in activity. For purposes of society protection, such people cannot be relied on as their resolution is unstable. The main feature of a person in ignorance is that he/she considers his/her activity to be the only important thing. Such approach usually causes plenty of conflicts. Being doers, such personalities are materialistic, stubborn (in the negative meaning of this word), they like to resort to different types of force (for everyone to do what they want) and like to humiliate (give troubles). For the sake of their goal, they do not consider the amount of force they need to resort to and which suffering they cause to others. In society, such persons introduce the principle of the utmost injustice (a dictatorial regime).

Society is always composed of good, passionate and ignorant persons. Religious figures are truly full of goodness, rulers and warriors are of the mixed nature of goodness and passion, the mixture of passion and ignorance is inherent in merchants and producers and ignorance is inherent in servants and laborers. Accordingly, the first ones use their intelligence and control their senses; the second ones appeal either to intelligence or senses; the third ones appeal mainly to senses and sometimes to intelligence and the forth ones appeal to senses. And, respectively, they can be trusted certain types of activity. Advisors of society must be those who are strong in goodness. Protectors of society shall be persons who are of the passionate nature and like to act, but they are able to listen to advices and obey them. Producers shall be those who are apt to create material values and, thus, to money-making but at the same time they shall be ready to distribute accumulated wealth. And laborers and servants are those who lack the creative intelligence and can be only performers of someone’s will (constantly need guidance). These four types of people need each other. This need makes them cooperate for purposes of creating a harmonious society.

On the other hand, if people let themselves go (for the sake of enjoyment and power), then competition becomes the reason for a hard-fought battle. A person happens to accept cooperation and at the same time shows the mood of competition. This makes one’s life dangerous and full of anxiety with resulting suffering.

In the material world, a living being has got two forms of “egoism”. One is called concentrated egoism and the other is extended egoism. When a person fights for satisfaction of needs of own body and mind, such egoism is called concentrated. But when a person based on own attachments fights for well-being of the family, loved ones, members of society, nation and, finally, mankind, it is called the extended egoism. Any material activity is based on these two forms of egoism. When considering this fact from the point of view of the gunas of material nature, it can be said that those influenced by ignorance are interested in satisfaction of needs of their bodies and minds only. Those whose life is influenced by passion are interested in satisfaction of their needs and the needs of their loved ones. Those in goodness worry about well-being of society, nation and mankind in general.

Individual satisfaction depends on the external world and that is why one is in want of communication. Originally communication is the source of bliss of the soul. Bliss comes from the contact with perfect living beings, and in the spiritual world everyone is as such . Whatever our emotions might be, when we approach the Lord and His confidential servants, the result is the bliss only. In the material world, according to the principle of reflection, the emotional approach to any object causes many troubles, disappointments, tension and other negative feelings which are not inherent in the soul. This happens because of the imperfect consciousness of living beings in the material world. Expectations of sense pleasure, self-centered consciousness make communication devoid of bliss. In the spiritual world, the soul strives to satisfy everyone approaching it and in the material world it strives to satisfy the self using capabilities of other living beings. In the material world, therefore, there appears the need for regulating principles of behavior which are called the etiquette. This happens for the simple reason that material consciousness in the uncontrolled state strives to subdue everyone to its will. When all are obsessed with this desire, there appears the need for the “queue”. The Aryan philosophy states that the “queue” acts from life to life: today I’m a master – you are a servant, tomorrow it will be vice versa.

The low position or, in other words, bad destiny causes envy. The superior position or good destiny causes arrogance. This is the basis of all psychology of the material world. These two positions transfer human relationships to the field of enmity and humiliation. Psychology of a living being in the material world is the expression of the desire to be God and includes the aspiration for leaderiship battle and the inability to accept higher position of another individual. What does leaderiship provide? The pleasure to be the supreme enjoyer and ruler. And what is unwillingness to accept another’s position driven by? By the desire to be in his/her shoes. Those who reach leaderiship develop pride and “enjoy” the pleasure to dictate their will to others. Those who fail develop envy and hatred to lucky ones. If society does not follow certain rules of behavior, these two feelings will make society filled with violence and make people’s life impossible. When people are uncivilized, the natural selection law is in place where the strong oppress the weak. Subsequently, the weak understand that by uniting they can get the strength to overthrow the strong. The weak, therefore, try to unite and the strong do their best to prevent it. This happens when society is secular or pseudo-religious. According to the Aryan concept, humanity does not make progress but degrades from God-centered, and consequently from the civilized society, to society that has rejected God and, consequently, is uncivilized. This topic will be considered in the chapter “Epochs and Qualities Manifested in them”.

Material consciousness seeks for power and enjoyment; if no regulating principles of behavior are accepted, it gains the liberty to get desired things through violence. If behavior rules are accepted, they always focus to put envy and arrogance under control. A secular society solves this problem with the help of two ideologies:

1) Power and enjoyment belong to the elected and commoners are meant to serve the interests of elected ones. The basis of this concept is violence (a dictatorial regime which inevitably implies revolutions).

2) Power and enjoyment belong to the strong, gifted, skillful, rascals (depending on the social system) and are available to all those who are capable to take possession of them (“democratic” states which often change their leaders giving the possibility for many to enjoy the power).

Piousness contains the component of awakening the spiritual consciousness which is based on faith. With such consciousness, a person can quietly face the other’s superiority and when meeting such personality think that the Supreme Ruler had some grounds (past lives) to reward that person with one of the six opulences: beauty, noble birth, education, strength, wealth, renunciation.

The Aryan society was based on the guna of goodness and searched for satisfaction of needs of all members of society but since it was God-centered it subordinated such satisfaction to Lord’s satisfaction. When there is no any personality capable to focus everyone on the self due to unique qualities (God), the fight for sense pleasure gets started which excludes the principle of justice. A strong individual attains the power and then begins to use this position and power to keep it. The God-centered society has got very interesting specifics. In the secular society, the one who is in power loses fear and develops the mood of all-permissiveness. But the God-centered society due to the real communication with God does not let such mood be developed even by world rulers because everyone understands the dependence on God. Such consciousness significantly reduces the competitive spirit. People with the secular habit of mind destroy each other in this competitiveness, but to get the same result a God-centered person tries to be pleasant to God. To destroy rivals, vicious qualities are required but to satisfy God pious qualities are required. In one case a person tries to destroy all pious qualities to be able to withstand harsh laws of competitiveness and in the other case a person tries to destroy all vicious qualities to be able to appease the Lord. From the point of view of the attitude and the target, these positions are absolutely different.

In this world, the material body obliges everyone to solve the problems of existence (food), peace, reproduction and protection. There are two types of activity which ensure the settlement of problems of existence: subtle (activity of mind) and gross (activity of body). Activity of mind ensures knowledge. And on the basis of this knowledge activity of body ensures existence. Influenced by different gunas, people refer to different knowledge and, respectively, solve problems by different methods and get different results.

Animals solve these problems according to their bodies in which they have appeared using that very little intelligence that is given to them and being under the power of respective instincts. Instinct is God’s help to those living beings who lost the possibility to use their intelligence as the result of their sinful activity.

Humans are different from animals in the level of development of intelligence and the ability to have faith in God. In all other desires, humans and animals are alike. They want to exist, rest, be protected and reproduce, but unlike animals humans base themselves on intelligence. For existence they develop agricultural and industrial sectors, for rest they build homes (motherland), for protection they make weapons, for reproduction they amass riches. When these four types of activities are done with the intention to enjoy and have domination over the nature, society is secular, but when the same activity is done in compliance with religious principles and for the sake of achieving the highest objective of religiosity, society is called the Aryan or God-centered. This is the difference between a secular and God-centered society. A secular society is focused on the search for all kind of new methods of sense pleasure, but a God-centered (the Aryan) society is focused on application of principles of liberation from this world. The only goal of a secular and pseudo-religious society is sense pleasure.

A real religious society is based on understanding of the soul eternity, the connection with God, temporality of the material existence and it is quite differently oriented. In this context, the material world is perceived as a temporary place to stay where living conditions are not very important and, respectively, tolerable. Society in general and each individual are centered on the idea of liberation from this material captivity. This intention restrains their malign desires. Today people have gained the liberty to act sinfully and virtue has lost its significance. Virtuous people feel oppressed. People are glorified not for virtue but for the ability to please senses as perversely as possible. In the real religious society, vicious people feel constrained (reserved), but righteous people are free to be in their nature of goodness. Society cannot encourage vice and hope for pious results. Such hope is absurd. The truth is that the material world is created for habitation of vicious souls, but it is also the truth that here God offered codes of conduct which would help us overcome our vicious nature and return to the spiritual world, our eternal abode. The eternal nature of the soul (freedom from the fear of death) in the spiritual world is the guarantee of a peaceful life of all living beings. A spiritual body is eternal and no one wants to do harm to it and, most importantly, no one can do it. A temporary body contributes to maintaining the atmosphere of struggle for existence because everyone who wants to do harm can do it and the reincarnation concept makes it possible to realize the need to consider each other.

From birth, people are usually gifted with certain qualities. There are those who possess the ability for mental labor, others – for physical labor, others – for manufacture and trade and others should be under the guidance of more skilled persons as they have no creative capabilities but can realize others’ ideas at a very high level. When person’s mental abilities serve to satisfy the propensity for sense pleasure, such person is considered learned. When physical strength serves materialistic goals, a person starts abusing others, a nation does it with other nations in order to use others’ benefits and achievements for own interests. By means of power, they impose upon others their way of thinking. When creative power serves materialistic ideas, a person tries to impose upon others the own world perception which usually does not make anyone happy or solve any problems. When one is capable of simple work, such person tries to sell this work as dear as possible.

Any society faces the need to ensure the harmonious interaction of these capabilities of people. Harmony means the use of such mechanism which enables to control and if possible completely destroy arrogance of the strong (the propensity for humiliating the weak) and envy of the weak, their desire to make revolutions to destroy the strong and take their place. If society has got the mechanism which allows to solve this problem and at the same time to ensure people’s happiness both in this life and the next one, such society can be considered perfect. These problems cannot be solved by ordinary people because whoever they are they belong either to proud or envious men and, accordingly, protect interests of their group. Only the Supreme Personality of Godhead can affirm the principle of justice as He is unbiased. What is the nature of God’s equity? In fact, all living beings are God’s parcels and, respectively, are equally precious for Him. All other living beings are subject to cause-and-effect relationships of desire and hatred or sympathy and antipathy and therefore they are not able to be just. The Lord is the solely one who can cope with the need to develop mechanisms for satisfaction of those souls who have developed the desire of leaderiship (material consciousness) and at the same time to solve the problem how to restore the spiritual consciousness. According to the Aryan understanding, this is the main problem and the main difficulty.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna says (chapter 4, verse 13):

According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.

When a person (or society) suffers enough on the way to reach sense pleasure, one (or society) tries to accept certain regulating principles of behavior. This attempt already contains the component of virtue. From now on, a person is able to accept the system offered by the Lord which is intended for step-by-step sequential transformation from material to spiritual consciousness.

The above mentioned capabilities of people in society provide execution of four social functions. Mentally-developed persons are usually thought leaders of society. Ones with physical strength and strength of mind are its protectors. Producers ensure economic growth and laborers and servants help other social classes realize their ideas. Figuratively speaking, these four functions constitute different parts of one body and have their own terms in Sanskrit:

1) Intellectuals – religious figures (brahmanas) – the head.

2) Leaders-warriors (kshatriyas) – the arms.

3) Farmers-producers (vaishyas) – the belly.

4) Laborers-servants (shudras) – the legs.

No one can arrange functioning of society when neglecting these four classes. For harmonious functioning of society, there are required:

1) Intellectuals who advise and indicate ways of society development;

2) Producers (farmers) and merchants who create material values and provide food;

3) Laborers who do hard work;

4) Rulers who ensure the harmonious collaboration among these three classes and warriors who protect everyone from enemies from within and without.

As it is impossible to say which part of the body is more important, so it is impossible to say which social class is more important. Once the matter of priority rises, any system turns into the system of privileges and humiliation. Considering the psychology of persons influenced by the three gunas of material nature, it can be said that success of society depends on which guna persons carrying out these functions are influenced by. If, for instance, a person under the influence of ignorance executes duties of a counselor, society develops according to principles of violence and cruelty within the state and conducts an invasive foreign policy. If a counselor is influenced by the guna of passion, then such a person is sure to divide society into friends and enemies (clans). And if one is influenced by the guna of goodness, such a person will lead society to the overall equality and become the source of overall happiness (without creating unnecessary conflicts). People influenced by ignorance abridge people’s freedom because they think that only they have rights for enjoyment and domination over this world (dictatorial rulers). Those in the guna of passion lead society to freedom of senses (I can do what I want) for the sake of sense pleasure (democratic states). In goodness, moderation of senses is proposed for the sake of freedom from suffering and anxiety (the Aryan society). There is one more category of people, the Lord’s devotees, who suggest the freedom of senses but for the sake of the Lord’s satisfaction (inhabitants of the spiritual world).

While performing activity, as said above, the result achieved depends on the knowledge. Development of knowledge is the duty of brahmanas. Due to God-centered system, the Aryan society especially valued development of the spiritual knowledge as it is the basis for a person’s release from vice. Vicious persons cannot connect with the Lord. The Lord is the absolute purity and He does not contact with anything impure. The Aryan society was based on the Vedas which are composed of different parts discussing various material problems and specifying godly ways of their solution. The main idea is that all living beings depend on the Lord and have to satisfy Him or His representative to solve arising problems.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna says (Chapter 3, verses 10 and 15):

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajna (sacrifice) because its performance will bestow upon you a life of ease and, eventually, liberation.

Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.

To satisfy the Lord, it is required to make sacrifices and for these sacrifices to be accepted pure persons are needed. These pure persons are brahmanas. The condition of society was dependent on their qualifications. Where qualified brahmanas live, God Himself lives. Brahmanas have got different qualifications. The simplest brahmanas were those who studied the karma-kanda section of the Vedas, lived a pure life and made sacrifices for fulfillment of material desires by religious methods. They were responsible for material prosperity of society and the minimal spiritual development.

Sacrifices were the axis of the activity of the Aryan society. Here the subject for a serious discussion is raised. In fact, the Vedic literature is full of descriptions of sacrifices; for a modern man their process and especially the results are unclear and unreliable. So, there is the need for the answer on the most important question: what was God-centeredness of the Aryan society based on? The answer on this question hides the difference between pseudo-religious and the Aryan societies. The Aryan literature is full of descriptions of meetings with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No any other ancient and even more modern literature contains detailed descriptions of the personality of Godhead, the demigods and other personalities coming to us from different planets. It seems so impossible that modern scientists declare such descriptions fiction or revaluation of really existing “lesser mortals” who had displayed some incredible capabilities and therefore were worshiped on the same basis as gods. On the one hand, the Vedic literature includes very serious knowledge and till now its secrets have remained inaccessible to modern scientists, philosophers and ordinary people. On the other hand, incredible events, from our view point, are described there. Such contradiction makes the Vedas something unclear for people with secular mind habits.

In order to look no fool, people try to select from the Vedic literature aspects which seem to them believable and clever and reject those things which look like a fiction. The chaos is created in which the final goal of the Vedas remains inaccessible to the majority except for those who study them under the guidance of a genuine spiritual master. The secret is the Vedas shall be conceived comprehensively for their intrinsic meaning to unfold. Otherwise, they cannot be applied but can only serve as the basis for different philosophic contentions. In fact, things in the Vedas which seem incredible are the results which one receives by following them. If one follows the principles described in the Vedas, such person really gets those results which are described by the Vedas and which seem incredible to us. In fact, if there are no such results, then there is no need to follow the Vedas.