Varna System

Osho, I have two small questions about yesterday’s talk. One friend asks: in light of what you said about the varna system, would it be appropriate, given today’s conditions, to bring that system back? And the second question is: you spoke about the ashramas and about the division by life-stage—sannyas comes in the fourth stage. Yet you are initiating very young people into sannyas; is that proper?

Yes, Vivekananda emphasized service because he came from a Shudra family, a Kayastha. He modeled the Ramakrishna Mission exactly after the Christian missionary pattern. Vivekananda brought the word “service” into India’s religious vocabulary; later Gandhi stressed it too. These are types. Outside a Brahmin’s imagination is the idea that pressing a Shudra’s feet will lead to Brahman. Outside a Shudra’s imagination is that closing the eyes and plunging into emptiness will lead to Brahman. Outside a Kshatriya’s imagination is that without fighting anything can be attained—not even Brahman. Outside a Vaishya’s imagination is that without wealth anything can be reached—not even religion. If a Vaishya reaches religion, it will be through wealth. These are types. And when I say it is a matter of types... Varna is not a question of low and high in society. Varna is the question of diversity of individuality. Therefore four kinds of people will…

Osho, a question in continuation of the previous discussion. It is said that, according to qualities and actions, humanity was divided into four broad categories. Now, if a man born in a Shudra household is endowed with the marks of a Brahmin, should he perform his own prescribed duty, or would the path of knowledge and a Brahmin-like life be more beneficial for him? Please clarify.

And note this too: that fifty percent learned by age three is the foundation. It can never be changed. What is learned later is the structure built upon it; that can be altered. What can be altered is not the foundation. And if the foundation is altered, the child will become deranged. Therefore, if the varna system says that a child born in a Shudra home should strive to attain his destiny by the order and style of life of his own family, and a Brahmin child should seek by his own order and destiny, this is profoundly psychological. Because by age three half the learning is complete, and by thirteen or fourteen almost all learning is complete. You will be startled to know that during the last world war, when mental tests were conducted on graduates entering the U.S. military, the average mental age of those university graduates turned…

Osho, in your ashram people from many countries and many castes are dyed in the same color and engaged in all kinds of work. But isn’t this a new kind of varna system, a new kind of ashram system? The scientific system Maharshi Manu gave thousands of years ago may change in form, but its foundations can never be erased. Varna and ashram have always reappeared in new forms. In that sense your sannyasins are not new, nor is your ashram system new. Can you prove Maharshi Manu’s scientific system and the ashram system wrong?

Pandit Gyan Shankar Jha, try asking someone here whether he is brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, or shudra—and then see how he treats you. A scuffle might break out. The question itself is inhuman. But in this country such inhuman questions are common. Asking someone’s caste, varna—bad manners. Yet people here even ask salaries: “What do you get paid?” They even ask, “And, anything under the table…?” And the fun is, the answerer responds without shame: “Yes, a little under the table too—God’s grace.” No shame in either. “Salary isn’t much, but there’s plenty on top, so we’re happy; the household runs fine.” No embarrassment to either party. But in this ashram be mindful what you ask. No indecency is tolerated. On what basis do you say, Pandit Gyan Shankar Jha, that the “scientific system” of Manu—its forms may change, but not its foundations? It has no foundation—baseless, forcibly imposed, artificial. Man…

Osho, if we have the talent to give birth to a scientist, then surely we also have the talent to give him a job.

India divided the whole society into four varnas, and it tried to ensure that when a Brahmin’s soul dies, it enters the Brahmin varna; when a Kshatriya’s soul dies, it enters the Kshatriya varna. Naturally, if varna is assured in a society, when a Kshatriya dies he is very likely to search in the neighborhood and enter a Kshatriya family. And if a person’s soul remains Kshatriya for five or ten births, the kind of Kshatriya that emerges cannot be produced by a day of military training. And if a soul is born for ten or twenty births in Brahmin families, the purest Brahminhood that arises cannot be created by setting up a gurukul and schooling someone. You will be surprised to know that while we think of educational methods within one lifetime, some people devised an educational arrangement across countless lifetimes. Hence it was a marvelous experiment. But it…