The welfare of all · 9 of 10
The social cycle
Society moves in a cycle (samája cakra): laborers, warriors, intellectuals and capitalists dominate one after another. The cycle cannot be stopped, but the exploitation in it can.
On each page the marked passages are the words of Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, from the books, as they are printed. The lines between them are ours and only lead from one passage to the next.
One class is always on top
The social cycle (samája cakra) is the order in which four classes come to dominate society: shúdras, kśatriyas, vipras and vaeshyas.
A class here means a cast of mind and a capacity, not a birth. Birth was made to count because each ruling class wanted to keep its place.
Since no well-knit social order had evolved in the distant past, we may call that age the Shúdra Age; in those days all people survived by their manual labour. Then came the age of clan leaders – the age of the strong and the brave – which we may call the Kśatriya Age. This was followed by the age of intellectuals, which we may call the Vipra Age. Finally came the age of capitalists, the Vaeshya Age. When the warriors and intellectuals are reduced to the level of manual labourers as a result of exploitation during the Vaeshya Age, shúdra revolution occurs. The shúdras have neither a well-knit social order nor sufficient intellect to govern society. Hence, the post-capitalist administration passes into the hands of those who provide the leadership in the shúdra revolution. These people are brave and courageous, so they begin the second Kśatriya Age.
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.
The Kśatriya Age: rule by force
A kśatriya has the mind of a warrior. The kśatriyas gave society its first government, and they gave it by force.
To maintain society an administration is necessary, and to maintain the administration a system of government is necessary. No one would submit to the administration of a shúdra. The kśatriyas introduced the first administrative system through brute force. The shúdras and the weak kśatriyas submitted to the brute force of the stronger kśatriyas and accepted the latters’ patriarch as king. Under the administration of this king, a social and governmental structure began to form.
We do not have to waste words to convince people that in the life of a fighting group discipline is extremely important. There cannot be any doubt that in kśatriya society, whether it is a genuine society or not, there must be a well-knit system. Under this system the chariot of exploitation may run over the weak without slowing down, the hunger of millions of people may provide opportunities for one person to live in great luxury, and a relationship of exploiter and exploited may be established among people instead of fraternal relationships, but it is still a system. Regardless of its merits and demerits, it is the nature of kśatriyas to try to perpetuate the system they are living under.
The Vipra Age: rule by intellect
A vipra lives by intellect. This is how the lead of society passed from the warriors to the intellectuals, and what the intellectuals did with it.
Those with intellect encouraged the kśatriyas to look in directions where they had not looked before, and repeatedly explained to them things they had never understood. After this state of affairs had continued for some time, the kśatriyas began to submit to the intellectuals and, recognizing their superiority, began to use their forceful personalities to carry out the intellectuals’ instructions. The intellectuals gradually wrested the right to lead society from the kśatriyas and maintained their supremacy in society with the help of kśatriya power. Although the kśatriyas remained alert, once they submitted to the intellectuals, to the vipras, the Kśatriya Age ended. The vipras compiled the Puranas and wrote the glorious history of the kśatriyas. Right in that history they made it clear that it was the dharma of the powerful kśatriyas to worship the vipras. Those powerful kśatriyas could not see through this strategy. In simple faith they submitted to the intelligent, shrewd and deceitful vipras.
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.
The Vaeshya Age: rule by money
A vaeshya has the mind of a capitalist. The intellectuals, in their turn, ended up selling themselves to those who had wealth.
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.
If, in the history of human struggle, the role of the vipras is one of parasitic dependence on others, I cannot find words to describe the role of the vaeshyas. Both the vipras and the vaeshyas exploit society, but the vipra exploiters are not as terrible as the vaeshya exploiters. The vaeshyas are like a deadly parasite on the tree of society which tries to kill the tree by sucking dry all its vital sap. But if the tree dies, the parasite will also die. The vaeshya parasites understand this and therefore try to ensure the survival of society by making some donations; they build temples, mosques, churches and pilgrims’ inns, give little bonuses, feed the poor; etc. Calamity only comes when they lose their common sense out of excessive greed and try to suck society completely dry.
This is the point at which the shúdra revolution comes, and with it a new round of the cycle.
Evolution, revolution and their reverse
The cycle can be pushed forward or turned back, with force or with tremendous force. Each of the four movements has a name.
A sadvipra is a moralist who fights exploitation, whichever class it comes from.
When warriors degenerate into exploiters, sadvipras will establish the Vipra Age by subduing the exploiting warriors. Consequently, the advent of the Vipra Age, which should have occurred through a natural process, is expedited by the application of force. A change of ages in this way may be called kránti [“evolution”]. The difference between evolution and svábhávika parivarttana [natural change] is only this: in evolution the movement of the social cycle is accelerated by the application of force. 5-4. Tiivrashaktisampátena gativardhanaḿ viplavah. [Accelerating the movement of the social cycle by the application of tremendous force is called “revolution”.] Purport: When a particular age is replaced by the successive age within a short time, or when the application of tremendous force is necessary to destroy the entrenched hegemony of a particular age, then such change is called viplava [“revolution”].
If any age reverts to the preceding one by the application of force, such a change is called vikránti [“counter-evolution”]. For instance, the establishment of the Kśatriya Age after the Vipra Age is counter-evolution. This counter-evolution is extremely short-lived. That is, within a very short time this age is again replaced by the next age or the one after it. In other words, if the Kśatriya Age suddenly supersedes the Vipra Age through counter-evolution, then the Kśatriya Age will not last long. Within a short time either the Vipra Age, or as a natural concomitant the Vaeshya Age, will follow. 5-6. Tiivrashaktisampátena vipariitadháráyaḿ prativiplavah. [Reversing the movement of the social cycle by the application of tremendous force is called “counter-revolution”.] Purport: Likewise, if within a very short time the social cycle is turned backwards by the application of tremendous force, such a change is called prativiplava [“counter-revolution”]. Counter-revolution is even more short-lived than counter-evolution.
The wheel cannot be stopped. Exploitation can.
The cycle will keep turning. What can be prevented is that the class on top exploits the rest. That is the work of the sadvipras.
Life is a dynamic principle, and the movement of the samája cakra continues without any break or pause. The cycle cannot be checked, as stagnation implies death. The function of a sadvipra shall, therefore, be to see that the dominating or the ruling classes do not have any scope for exploitation. The moment one class turn into exploiters, the life of the majority becomes miserable; a few enjoy at the cost of many whose lot is only to suffer.
Society belongs to all, but its leadership will be in the hands of sadvipras. The responsibility for leading society cannot be left in the hands of the kśatriyas, because they will try to enforce kśatriya rule. They will exploit the non-kśatriyas and chew the bones and marrow of the weak. Nor can the responsibility for leading society be left in the hands of the vipras, because they will try to establish vipra rule. They will exploit the non-vipras and chew the bones and marrow of the non-intellectuals. Likewise, the responsibility for leading society cannot be left in the hands of the vaeshyas, because they will try to impose vaeshya rule. They will exploit the non-vaeshyas and chew the bones and marrow of the toiling mass. Shúdras cannot undertake the leadership of society.