In the vast tapestry of Indian civilisation, the concepts of Varṇa and Jāti have often been misunderstood, oversimplified, or distorted. Colonial classifications and modern interpretations projected a rigid hierarchy onto a system that, in its original vision, was organic, ethical, and deeply spiritual. As historian Dharampal ji notes, even the term “Dalit” is largely a colonial creation, and many communities categorized as untouchables were not so perceived in earlier centuries.

Dharampal ji further illuminates the Purusha Sukta, one of the earliest references to the four varṇas:

“The Sukta presents the world as an extension of the body of Brahman… nowhere does it say that some of these tasks, and consequently the performers of those tasks, are better than others… it is only upon the feet that a man stands securely on earth; when the feet are not firmly placed, nothing else remains secure.”

Here, the Indian vision comes alive: Varṇa was never a hierarchy of worth, but a metaphysical and functional understanding of society, a recognition of the diversity of human capacities as expressions of the one Divine. Each varṇa had its role in the cosmic order, each function necessary for the harmony of the whole.

It is in this light that Sri Aurobindo’s essay “Swabhava and Swadharma” in Essays on the Gita becomes profoundly relevant. He explains that each person’s swabhava—their innate nature—determines their swadharma, the path through which their unique energy and calling find proper expression. When individuals act in accordance with their true nature, society itself becomes a living harmony — not through uniformity, but through the conscious unfolding of diversity under the guidance of the Divine.

Sri Aurobindo reminds us that the essence of dharma is not external conformity but inner authenticity. Each soul must discover its own law and express it fully; through this, the collective life of society is perfected.

In revisiting the wisdom of the Gita through Sri Aurobindo’s lens, we see that the true spirit of Indian social thought was never about rigid hierarchies or imposed sameness. As Dharampal ji explains, the Purusha Sukta portrays the varṇas not as a ladder of worth but as different expressions of the one cosmic reality, each necessary for the harmony of the whole. In this context, we can understand that:

“Equality is not to make all men the same, but to discover the same Divine in all and to express It through the diversity of their natures.”

When each individual acts according to their own swabhava, fulfilling their swadharma, society flourishes as a living organism — vibrant in its diversity yet united in its spiritual essence. This is the profound vision of Varṇa and dharma: a call to recognise the sacredness of individuality, the dignity of varied callings, and the deeper unity that underlies all human life.

To truly understand this inner law of being and the subtle genius of the Indian psyche, we invite you to explore the next part of this blog, where we delve into Sri Aurobindo’s essay “Swabhava and Swadharma”, a meditation on how the Divine manifests uniquely through each human life and the harmonious order it creates in society.

Swabhava and Swadharma

By Sri Aurobindo

The Gita has laid some stress on this point and even assigned to it a great preliminary importance. At the very start it has spoken of the nature, rule and function of the Kshatriya as Arjuna’s own law of action, svadharma; it has proceeded to lay it down with a striking emphasis that one’s own nature, rule, function should be observed and followed, —even if defective, it is better than the well-performed rule of another’s nature. Death in one’s own law of nature is better for a man than victory in an alien movement. To follow the law of another’s nature is dangerous to the soul, contradictory, as we may say, to the natural way of his evolution, a thing mechanically imposed and therefore imported, artificial and sterilising to one’s growth towards the true stature of the spirit. What comes out of the being is the right and healthful thing, the authentic movement, not what is imposed on it from outside or laid on it by life’s compulsions or the mind’s error. This swadharma is of four general kinds formulated outwardly in the action of the four orders of the old Indian social culture, cāturvarnya. That system corresponds, says the Gita, to a divine law, it “was created by me according to the divisions of the gunas and works,”— created from the beginning by the Master of existence. In other words, there are four distinct orders of the active nature, or four fundamental types of the soul in nature, svabhāva, and the work and proper function of each human being corresponds to his type of nature. This is now finally explained in preciser detail. The works of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, says the Gita, are divided according to the qualities (guṇas) born of their own inner nature, spiritual temperament, essential character (svabhāva). Calm, self-control, askesis, purity, longsuffering, candour, knowledge, acceptance of spiritual truth are the work of the Brahmin, born of his swabhāva. Heroism, high spirit, resolution, ability, not fleeing in the battle, giving, lordship (Īśvara-bhāva, the temperament of the ruler and leader) are the natural work of the Kshatriya. Agriculture, cattle-keeping, trade inclusive of the labour of the craftsman and the artisan are the natural work of the Vaishya. All work of the character of service falls within the natural function of the Shudra. A man, it goes on to say, who devotes himself to his own natural work in life acquires spiritual perfection, not indeed by the mere act itself, but if he does it with right knowledge and the right motive, if he can make it a worship of the Spirit of this creation and dedicate it sincerely to the Master of the universe from whom is all impulse to action. All labour, all action and function, whatever it be, can be consecrated by this dedication of works, can convert the life into a self-offering to the Godhead within and without us and is itself converted into a means of spiritual perfection. But a work not naturally one’s own, even though it may be well performed, even though it may look better from the outside when judged by an external and mechanical standard or may lead to more success in life, is still inferior as a means of subjective growth precisely because it has an external motive and a mechanical impulsion. One’s own natural work is better, even if it looks from some other point of view defective. One does not incur sin or stain when one acts in the true spirit of the work and in agreement with the law of one’s own nature. All action in the three gunas is imperfect, all human work is subject to fault, defect or limitation; but that should not make us abandon our own proper work and natural function. Action should be rightly regulated action, niyatam˙ karma, but intrinsically one’s own, evolved from within, in harmony with the truth of one’s being, regulated by the Swabhava, svabhāva-niyatam karma.

What precisely is the intention of the Gita? Let us take it first in its more outward meaning and consider the tinge given to the principle it enounces by the ideas of the race and the time —the hue of the cultural environment, the ancient significance. These verses and the earlier pronouncements of the Gita on the same subject have been seized upon in current controversies on the caste question and interpreted by some as a sanction of the present system, used by others as a denial of the hereditary basis of caste. In point of fact the verses in the Gita have no bearing on the existing caste system, because that is a very different thing from the ancient social ideal of cāturvarn. a, the four clearcut orders of the Aryan community, and in no way corresponds with the description of the Gita. Agriculture, cattle-keeping and trade of every kind are said here to be the work of the Vaishya; but in the later system the majority of those concerned in trade and in cattle-keeping, artisans, small craftsmen and others are actually classed as Shudras, —where they are not put altogether outside the pale, —and, with some exceptions, the merchant class is alone and that too not everywhere ranked as Vaishya. Agriculture, government and service are the professions of all classes from the Brahmin down to the Shudra. And if the economical divisions of function have been confounded beyond any possibility of rectification, the law of the guna or quality is still less a part of the later system. There all is rigid custom, ācāra, with no reference to the need of the individual nature. If again we take the religious side of the contention advanced by the advocates of the caste system, we can certainly fasten no such absurd idea on the words of the Gita as that it is a law of a man’s nature that he shall follow without regard to his personal bent and capacities the profession of his parents or his immediate or distant ancestors, the son of a milkman be a milkman, the son of a doctor a doctor, the descendants of shoemakers remain shoemakers to the end of measurable time, still less that by doing so, by this unintelligent and mechanical repetition of the law of another’s nature without regard to his own individual call and qualities a man automatically farthers his own perfection and arrives at spiritual freedom. The Gita’s words refer to the ancient system of cāturvarn. a, as it existed or was supposed to exist in its ideal purity, —there is some controversy whether it was ever anything more than an ideal or general norm more or less loosely followed in practice, —and it should be considered in that connection alone. Here too there is considerable difficulty as to the exact outward significance.

To be continued in next week’s blog.