Jaati and Varna ≠ Caste!

Translating Jaati/जाति  and Varna/वर्ण as caste is not only incorrect, it is completely misleading. Here's why.

The Sanskrit texts refer to two words, one is Jaati/जाति which defines your or your familial profession/occupation which could be an engineer, doctor, jeweler, businessman, soldier etc. in the contemporary context. 

Varna/वर्ण on the other hand is something entirely different. It has nothing to do with the family you are born in or any other aspect of your physical identity, but everything to do with your mental setup or Vrutti/वृत्ति. Vrutti/वृत्ति is loosely translatable as your mentality that makes up your personality that forms your aptitude. Vrutti/वृत्ति is formed from your Sanskaar/संस्कार  and the karma/कर्म you do and these Sanskaar/संस्कार feed back to shape your Vrutti/वृत्ति forming a continuous loop. Sanskaar/संस्कार itself is a loaded term which essentially is everything that you take as an input from the world and makes you who you are as a person right from what your parents, family, teachers taught you when you were little to what you are now ingesting via social media, TV, friends, books etc. the good, bad and ugly! 

What the scriptures say is that what you do in this life (via thought, speech and action) is your karma/कर्म that defines or forms the basis of who you are in your next life. Add to this the trigunatmak/त्रिगुणात्मक nature of this universe. Which means, made up of the 3 gunas/गुणाः (loosely translatable as qualities) of Sattva/सत्त्व, Rajas/रजस् and Tamas/तमस्. We can think of these as three broad categories of qualities: the best, the average and the worst.  According to the Bhagvad Geeta/भगवद् गीता, when one leads a life with good thoughts, kind speech and deeds, then one's nature, Vrutti/वृत्ति becomes Saattvik/सात्त्विक. This Sattva/सत्त्व guna divides itself into irregular parts to create the Brahmin/ब्राह्मण  and Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय Varna/वर्ण. So a person that has lived a Saattvik/सात्त्विक life (i.e. a life of selfless service to others and being always kind in thought, word and deed) is born in the Brahmin/ब्राह्मण or Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय Varna/वर्ण. A combination of the Sattva/सत्त्व and Rajas/रजस् creates the Vaishya/वैश्य Varna/वर्ण whereas a combination of the Rajas/रजस् and Tamas/तमस् create the Shudra/शूद्र Varna/वर्ण. 

Therefore, a person is Brahmin/ब्राह्मण by Varna/वर्ण, because of the Saattvik/सात्त्विक qualities they have at the time of birth based on their actions (karma/कर्म) in past lives. So their last name, what family they are born in or even what religion they follow has nothing to do with it! Therefore, anyone in this world belonging to any race, religion, nationality etc. who is Saatvik/सात्विक by nature is a Brahmin/ब्राह्मण by Varna/वर्ण! The physical identity is irrelevant and immaterial. 

Why and how did we end up using aspects of physical identity such as last names/surnames to decide "caste" is a topic in itself and many have done justice to it but the simple fact of the matter is, if name or family identity was the deciding factor, wouldn't the Bhagvad Geeta/भगवद् गीता and other scriptures list out the last names that correspond to either a Jaati/जाति  or Varna/वर्ण? While people had titles in ancient times, and we see that today too, did they have surnames or last names? That needs to be researched.

Bharat has many thousands of Jaati/जाति and over the course of its long history especially the past 1000 years when due to a continuous stream of invaders, the civilization underwent a lot of trauma causing it to constrict and focus on survival. It is perhaps during this time that the terms Jaati/जाति and Varna/वर्ण were mixed up. The categorization of the Jaati/जाति that I use below is an attempt to disentangle the Jaati/जाति - Varna/वर्ण mixup. It is my own interpretation and attempt at understanding the mapping between the two and the reader should take a note of that. This may not align with what we currently know (and currently is the keyword here) but considering the massive loss of records and scriptures in the past 1000 years, the misunderstanding could have started with the terms Jaati/जाति - Varna/वर्ण being used interchangeably adding to all this confusion to which the British only happily added to, or perhaps they were the key creators, by forcing people to put down their "caste" in the British census forms.  

Today we mostly seem to associate Jaati/जाति based on a person's surname/last name or their family identity. So in the case of certain last names that we know of today as belonging to the Brahmin/ब्राह्मण Jaati/जाति,  at best we can say that their ancestor's Jaati/जाति was Brahmin/ब्राह्मण. They were either teachers, educators or purohits earning their living by those means as well as studying the vedas and the scriptures and living a life of austerities, not amassing any wealth but having their needs provided by the state and the community. They taught students of all Jaati/जाति in their gurukuls and were highly valued for the guidance and direction they provided to society by educating the young. They were responsible for making sure the Dharma/धर्म, i.e., the moral and ethical framework of civilized society, was upheld and hence also had the strictest of laws applied to them among all the Jaati/जाति, with the strictest of punishments for those that broke these well defined codes of conduct. Similarly, the Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय Jaati/जाति were the rulers or administrators, Vaishya/वैश्य were the farmers, traders and businessmen and Shudra/शुद्र were the service sector and artists that supported the other three  Jaati/जाति to enable the smooth running of society.

But how can I apply this today? If I see for myself, I'm not an educator or policy maker so am I a Brahmin/ब्राह्मण by Jaati/जाति?  Not really. Am I a soldier or in administration or politics? No. So that means I'm not of the Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय Jaati/जाति. Then, am I farmer or in the financial and economical domain having a business or dealing with finances? No. So I'm not of the Vaishya/वैश्य Jaati/जाति. So what am I? I work in the service industry and offer my skills in return for pay which makes me of the Shudra/शुद्र Jaati/जाति. Should I be offended? Absolutely not! The Shudra/शुद्र are the load bearing pillar of society and the majority of the masses! They are often portrayed by malicious minds as toilet cleaners, but that is just one group. There are also the skilled artisans, craftspeople, artists, sculptors, musicians, technicians, plumbers, electricians and people working in the service sector like me. Hard working, honest tax payers who are the core of a nation and society! Each of the four Jaati/जाति have their place and importance and each is required for society to be whole and functional! Doing comparisons and putting one up and the other down is basically creating a divide and pitting people against each other.

This thought of Jaati/जाति is essentially a classification, a grouping of society.  Similarly, the Varna/वर्ण is a classification by qualities. Jaati/जाति is horizontal where every Jaati/जाति is equal and Varna/वर्ण is vertical where one must aspire to go up from the lowest to the highest to realize their true divine nature. What is important to note is both these are flexible and changeable, based entirely on the individual's choice.

This thought is beautiful because it is inclusive and universal in nature. How so?

Inclusive because it is recognized that if someone is of a Shudra/शुद्र Varna/वर्ण (not Jaati/जाति, mind you, but Varna/वर्ण which applies to the qualities of an individual, in this case someone having the worst of qualities, Tamoguni/तमोगुणी), when in the company of a Brahmin/ब्राह्मण Varna/वर्ण (someone with the highest of qualities, Sattvaguni/सत्त्वगुणी), then they will also improve and evolve because of the good company they are in. Thus no one is ostracized from society even when they may have the worst of qualities. Everyone has a chance to evolve, become a better human being with a way to do so.

Universal, because this definition of Jaati/जाति and Varna/वर्ण is applicable to any group of people across the length of time and the breadth of geography. It can be applied to anyone, anywhere, anytime irrespective of race, religion, nationality etc.

Does  Varna/वर्ण help determine Jaati/जाति? Perhaps it does sometimes. It is apparent that our Vritti/वृत्ति shapes our aptitude so if a person is Saattvik/सात्त्विक्  by nature then they would be naturally inclined to study, teach and practice austerities (Dhyana/ध्यान, Dharana/धारणा etc) leading a simple life with simple tastes in food and lifestyle essentially choosing a profession that suits their Vritti/वृत्ति. But it is important to decouple the two (Jaati/जाति and Varna/वर्ण) and recognize that one can belong to any Jaati/जाति but still be a Brahmin/ब्राह्मण by Varna/वर्ण.

History gives ample proof of this! The saints of Bharat are a case in point where you will see saints from every Jaati/जाति. Examples are Dnyaneshwar/ज्ञानेश्वर, Eknath/एकनाथ, Ramdas Swami/रामदास स्वामि, Tulsidas/तुलसीदास, Shankaracharya/शङ्कराचार्य of the Brahmin/ब्राह्मण Jaati/जाति. Tukaram/तुकाराम, Namdeo/नामदेव of the Vaishya/वैश्य  Jaati/जाति. Meerabai/मीराबाई , the Sikh/सीख gurus of the Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय Jaati/जाति and Kabir/कबीर, Chokhamela/चोखामेळा, Soyrabai/सोयराबाई, Janabai/जनाबाई  of the Shudra/शूद्र  Jaati/जाति. But each and every one of these saints were Brahmin/ब्राह्मण by Varna/वर्ण!  They had evolved to a state of going even beyond the Sattva/सत्त्व  Guna/गुण to become Gunaateet/गुणातीत and realize their true nature of Brahman/ब्रह्मन् which is also what the Upanishads/उपनिषद् and all scriptures teach us as the underlying truth of the entire universe.

Jaati/जाति were also not inflexible as the word "caste" seems to imply but were completely flexible where people had the freedom to change their professions and therefore Jaati/जाति much like we can do so today. Again, history provides ample examples of people having done so. The entire Maheswari/माहेश्वरी community changed their Jaati/जाति from being rulers (Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय) to businessmen (Vaishyas/वैश्य). It was simply a change of profession and not viewed as anything else. The great Maratha/मराठा  king, Shivaji Maharaj/शिवाजी महाराज, had many soldiers who were of the Shudra/शूद्र  Jaati/जाति but had chosen to fight for Swarajya/स्वराज्य under the able guidance of Shivaji Maharaj/शिवाजी महाराज. Thus their Jaati/जाति was now Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय. Mahakavi Valmiki/महाकवि वाल्मीकि is an excellent example of someone having not only changed their Jaati/जाति but also evolved their Varna/वर्ण in one life. He gave up his life as a robber to become a Maharishi/महर्षि and achieved enlightenment, thus moving from a Shudra/शूद्र to a Brahmin/ब्राह्मण in Jaati/जाति and Varna/वर्ण!  Raavana/रावण on the other hand is an example of someone degrading in Varna/वर्ण.  He was the son of a rishi/ऋषि so his father's Jaati/जाति was that of a Brahmin/ब्राह्मण but he himself being a ruler had chosen the Kshatriya/क्षत्रिय Jaati/जाति. He was a devotee of Lord Shiva/शिव and had done many years of Tapa/तप but his inability to control his Vritti/वृत्ति of greed and lust degraded him to the lowest Shudra/शूद्र Varna/वर्ण!

Now to translate and condense all of the above as hard coded, non-flexible, discriminatory "caste" is at best ignorant and at worst malicious. Therefore, Jaati/जाति and Varna/वर्ण cannot be equated to caste! 

Primary source and inspiration: Dnyaneshwari/ज्ञानेश्वरी: Aadhyay/आध्याय - 18: Ovi/ओवी - 828, 829