Why Varnasrama Was Introduced (by Syamasundar Das)



There has been much interest in varnashrama
dharma in ISKCON since Srila Prabhupada left.
He said that he left us to implement Varnashrama,
that he gave us the framework but we must fill it in.

Over the years there has much talk about what
varnashrama is and how it works etc. But after all
was said and done; more was and and less was
done. With the result than we are no closer to
varnashrama now than we we were before. I would
like to suggest that the reason for this may be that
those involved in all the talking, theorizing,
organizing meetings etc. may have overlooked some
very practical things regarding varnashrama and that
they may be trying to put the cart before the horse.
For example can anybody say why varnashrama
was instituted (don't cheat by looking ahead)?
There is no varnashrama in Satya-yuga (Krta-yuga)
but it only starts in Treta-yuga. Why? There are
very practical reasons for the institution of
varnashrama which are so obvious yet they seem to
have escaped us. "Utility is the principle."

The following information from the Puranas
describes precisely why varnashrama is created at
the beginning of every Treta-yuga. It was created to
solve the most basic of human problems in the
material world. The eating problem, filling our belly.
If we don't fill our belly we will experience pain. So
varnashrama is meant to remove the pain of the
empty belly. It is that simple.

The texts also point out why we have failed to
institute varnashrama. Unless you have an agrarian
based society you cannot have varnashrama. All
these conferences on Social Developement are a
waste of time unless we have real farming going on.
No farming no varnashrama. Farming equals
varnashrama. Varnashrama is simply the division of
labour for food production.

The spiritual importance of varnashrama is also
there. But in Satya-yuga spiritual life was practiced
without varnashrama. Varnashrama was instituted
when the spiritual potency diminished as will be
described in the following texts.

This material is from my Vedic Astrology Course
FOUNDATIONAL TOPICS IN VEDIC
ASTROLOGY. Astrology is a super science which
deals with the fourth dimesion--the time factor. In
this section, after discussing philosophical issues
relating to the Time factor and the measurement of
time, we discuss how time manifests in the different
yugas. In this discussion we find out why
varnashrama was created by Lord Brahma.