Part 1 - Introduction to Varṇāśrama-dharma (the wholeness of one’s life)

Social customs and ethical codes serve as a parameter for assessing the welfare of people. And these are best test-indicators of efficient administration of justice. In the Indian tradition, the unity and conformity in the web of Indian culture has been strongly permeated with the ideals of life and legal tradition which has always imbibed changes.

Among four puruṣārthas Dharma plays an important role in everyone’s life, in order to sustain universal harmony. Those directions for ourselves as individuals and also to the society in a collective manner are termed “Dharma”.

Haradatta in his commentary on Gautama Dharmasūtra states that Smṛtikāras treat Dharma as five-fold viz.

1. varṇa-dharma,
2. āśrama-dharma,
3. varṇāśrama-dharma,
4. guṇa-dharma and
5. naimittika-dharma.^[1]

Dharmasūtras and Smṛtis give very much importance to these Dharmas and they deal with them elaborately. Apart from these Dharma, there is a vide variety of subjects dealt in Smṛtis such as property inheritance and dispute, laws on justice, humanic values, customs and codes related to marriage, origin of universe, restrictions on food, duties of king, civil and criminal laws and strīdhana (not in the sense of modern dowry system but a technical term having specified meaning) etc.

All of these topics including Varṇāśramadharmas evolved through ages and were never static. The laws and customs inscribed in Smṛtis such as Manusmṛti, Yājñavalkyasmṛti etc. are suggesting the means for an ideal society. There are laws related to contract, property inheritance etc. And if people were found guilty according to law, they are punished severely. Smṛtis mention Anuloma and Pratiloma marriage types and the consequences of such marriages. If a law book is explaining a huge amount of consequences on institution of marriage, certainly people would have committed Anuloma and Pratiloma marriages. Smṛtis made flood of laws, it doesn”t mean they were all executed. But through them to an extant we can understand the ethics and customs of a society.

As said earlier the purpose of Dharma is to uplift man from this physical plane and make him function at higher levels. The saṃskāras of the Dharmaśāstra play the same role. They cover the whole life of an individual. Manu does not specify the total number of the saṃskāras, different Smṛti works specify their number differently. While Gautama gives the largest number, forty, the principal ones are sixteen.

The Varṇāśramadharma is reflected in saṃskāras also. Niṣeka or garbhādhāna relates to proper conception. Jātakarman is performed at birth. Of these that follow, Upanayana or initiation is of foremost importance. Without Upanayana, the Dvija becomes deprived of initiation into the adoration of the Gāyatri and Manu says that without it he is no better than a vrātya (out caste).^[2]

The initiation and Vedic studies cover the first of four stages or āśramas called Brahmacarya, Gārhasthya, Vānaprastha and Sannyāsa. In Brahmacarya, at the stage of studentship he eschews strictly all kinds of sense pleasures and attractions, the term Brahmacarya means also celibacy and continence. At the end of the studentship, the first āśrama, there is the ceremony of samāvarttana or snāna bringing the life with the teacher to an end.

After the Brahmacarya stage, One may elect to enter the next stage of the householder (Gṛhastha). As the greater part of the Dharmas ordained by the śāstra including the sacrifices, big and small, have to be performed with wife, as the Brahmacarins and Sannyasins have to live with the help of the householder and his life, with all its duties to the Gods, sages and fellow beings, forms an excellent ground for the discipline of the body and the mind, this stage of life, the Gṛhasthadharma, has always been eulogized in Smṛtis.^[3]

While treating Gṛhasthadharma, Manu deals also with marriage which is a major and central saṃskāra with which the organisation of varṇa is inseparably bound. The so called exaltation of the Brahmin in varṇadharma is balanced by the more onerous duties and more severe standards expected from him. The varṇadharmas show that, as we go lower, “Dharma” becomes more flexible. There is no sin for Śūdra as stated by Manu.^[4] A Brahmin who fails to perform customs and rites as advised by the society, inspite of being a learned Vedic scholar, is considered as a blind man who gets a beautiful wife. Such Brahmin does not get any happiness.^[5] These references points out the different side and view point of varṇāśramadharma from what we have noticed till.

During this householder life, men are enabled to discharge the three debts with which they are born. The debt to the Gods, to be discharged by performing sacrifices, the debt to the ṛṣis, by maintaining the study and teaching of the Vedas and allied learning and debt to the ancestors, by begetting children. It is already discussed that the householder should also do five propitations. Hence a householder is a high minded person of simple habits, free from greed and the tendency to hoard. The means of livelihood resorted to should involve the least harm to anyone.^[6]

In the scheme of four stages of life, the latter two Vānaprastha and Sannyāsa, prescribe a life of retirement. Manu says that it is only after discharging the three debts that one should direct one’s mind towards mokṣa, to do otherwise is sinful.^[7] When the wrinkles and grey hair appear in a person and a grandson also appeared in the house, it is time for a householder to retire and he should leave the village and go to the forest; he may go either with his wife or leaving her in the care of his sons, but in the forest he should live a life of continence and abstinence from sense-enjoyments.^[8] He then passes to the next stage, that of a Parivrājaka, which would roughly cover the fourth part of his life. He takes into himself, so to say, the sacrificial rites and moves out of his habitation. He should keep moving till his body falls. By such control of the senses, extinction of likes and dislikes and non-violence towards all beings, one becomes qualified to attain to immortality.^[9] Hence Varṇāśramadharma depicts the wholeness of one’s life.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

pañcavidho dharmaḥ -varṇadharma āśramadharma ubhayadharmo guṇadharmo naimittika [dharma] śceti | Gautama Dharmasūtra, Haradatta com., 3.1

[2]:

ata ūrdhvaṃ trayo'pyete yathākālamasaṃskṛtāḥ |
sāvitrīpatitā vrātya bhavantyāryavigarhitāḥ || Manusmṛti, 2.39

[3]:

yathā vāyuṃ samāśritya sarve jīvanti jantavaḥ |
tathā gṛhasthamāśritya vartante sarva āśramāḥ || ibid., 3.77
yasmāttrayo'pyāśramiṇo jñānenānnena cānvahan |
gṛhasthenaiva dhāya?[ç]nte tasmājjyeṣṭhāśramo gṛhī || ibid., 3.78
brahmacārī gṛhasthaśca vānaprastho yatistathā |
ete gṛhasthaprabhavāścatvāraḥ pṛthagāśramāḥ || ibid., 6.87
sarveṣāmapi caiteṣāṃ vedasmṛtividhānataḥ |
gṛhastha ucyate śreṣṭhaḥ sa trīnetān bibharti hi || ibid., 6.89
yathā nadīnadāḥ sarve sāgare yānti saṃsthitim |
tathaivāśramiṇaḥ sarve gṛhasthe yānti saṃsthitim || ibid., 6.90

[4]:

na śūdre pātakaṃ kiñcinna ca saṃskāramarhati |
nāsyādhikāro dharme'sti na dharmāt pratiṣedhanam || ibid., 10.126

[5]:

ācārahīnasya tu brāhmaṇasya vedāḥ ṣaḍaṅgāḥ tvakhilāḥ sayajñāḥ
kāṃ prītimutpādayituṃ samarthāḥ andhasya dārā iva darśanīyāḥ || Vasiṣṭhadharmasūtra, 6-4

[6]:

adroheṇaiva bhūtānāmalpadroheṇa vā punaḥ |
yā vṛttistāṃ samādāya vipro jīvedanāpadi || Manusmṛti, 4.2

[7]:

ṛṇāni trīṇyapākṛtya mano mokṣe niveśayet |
anapākṛtya mokṣaṃ tu sevamāno vrajatyadhaḥ || ibid., 6.35
adhītya vidhivadvedān putrāṃścotpādya dharmataḥ |
iṣṭvā ca śaktito yajñairmano mokṣe niveśayet || ibid., 6.36
anadhītya dvijo vedānanutpādya tathā sutān |
aniṣṭvā caiva yajñaiśca mokṣamicchan vrajatyadhaḥ || ibid., 6.37

[8]:

evaṃ gṛhasthaśrame sthitvā vidhivatsnātako dvijaḥ |
vane vaset tu niyato yathāvad vijitendriyaḥ || ibid., 6.1
gṛhasthastu yadā paśyed valīpalitamātmanaḥ |
apatyasyaiva cāpatyaṃ tadāraṇyaṃ samāśrayet || ibid., 6.2
santyajya grāmyamāhāraṃ sarvaṃ caiva paricchadam |
putreṣu bhāryāṃ nikṣipya vanaṃ gacchet sahaiva vā || ibid., 6.3
agnihotraṃ samādāya gṛhyaṃ cāgniparicchadam |
grāmādaraṇyaṃ niḥ sṛtya nivasenniyatendriyaḥ || ibid., 6.4

[9]:

vaneṣu ca vihṛtyaivaṃ tṛtīyaṃ bhāgamāyuṣaḥ |
caturthamāyuṣo bhāgaṃ tyaktvā saṅgān parivrajet || ibid., 6.33
nābhinandeta maraṇaṃ nābhinandeta jīvitam |
kālameva pratīkṣeta nirdeśaṃ bhṛtako yathā || ibid., 6.45
avekṣeta gatīrnṛṇāṃ karmadoṣasamudbhavāḥ |
niraye caiva patanaṃ yātanāśca yamakṣaye || ibid., 6.61
viprayogaṃ priyaiścaiva saṃyogaṃ ca tathāpriyaiḥ |
jarayā cābhibhavanaṃ vyādhibhiścopapīḍanam || ibid., 6.62
dehādutkramaṇaṃ cāsmāt punargarbhe ca saṃbhavam |
yonikoṭisahasreṣu sṛtīścāntarātmanaḥ || ibid., 6.63
adharmaprabhavaṃ caiva duḥ khayogaṃ śarīriṇām |
dharmārthaprabhavaṃ caiva sukhasaṃyogamakṣayam || ibid., 6.64
sūkṣmatāṃ cānvavekṣeta yogena paramātmanaḥ |
deheṣu ca samutpattimuttameṣvadhameṣu ca || ibid., 6.65
dūṣito'pi cared dharmaṃ yatra tatrāśrame rataḥ |
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu na liṅgaṃ dharmakāraṇam || ibid., 6.66
phalaṃ katakavṛkṣasya yadyapyambuprasādakam |
na nāmagrahaṇādeva tasya vāri prasīdati || ibid., 6.67
saṃrakṣaṇārthaṃ jantūnāṃ rātrāvahani vā sadā |
śarīrasyātyaye caiva samīkṣya vasudhāṃ caret || ibid., 6.68
ahnā rātryā ca yāñjantūṃhinastyajñānato yatiḥ |
teṣāṃ snātvā viśuddhyarthaṃ prāṇāyāmān ṣaḍācaret || ibid., 6.69
prāṇāyāmā brāhmaṇasya trayo'pi vidhivat kṛtāḥ |
vyāhṛtipraṇavairyuktā vijñeyaṃ paramaṃ tapaḥ || ibid., 6.70
dahyante dhmāyamānānāṃ dhātūnāṃ hi yathā malāḥ |
tathendriyāṇāṃ dahyante doṣāḥ prāṇasya nigrahāt || ibid., 6.71
prāṇāyāmairdahed doṣān dhāraṇābhiśca kilbiṣam |
pratyahāreṇa saṃsargān dhyānenānīśvarāṃguṇān || ibid., 6.72
uccāvaceṣu bhūteṣu durjñeyāmakṛtātmabhiḥ |
dhyānayogena saṃpaśyed gatimasyāntarātmanaḥ || ibid., 6.73