The Four Varna’s outlined in The Laws of Manu

Types and Castes

Sheldon's classification of body types and temperaments can be usefully supplemented by that of

Manu. Though this system is very ancient and the rigid caste structure it imposed on the social life

of India is, to our way of thinking, very repulsive, it does contain elements necessary for an

understanding of man's essence. The laws of Manu divided men into four groups, brahmins,

kshatriyas, vaisyas and sudras. The division was based on essence qualities. These essence qualities

were designated svabhava, which can roughly be translated "self-being," and on a man's self-being

depended his self-duty (svadharma), the role he was properly fitted to play in life. The importance

of svadharma is emphasized in this verse from the Bhagavad Gita: "Better one's own duty though

imperfectly performed than the duty of another well performed. Better is death in the doing of one's

own duty: the duty of another is fraught with peril."

The essence nature of the type called brahmin is an urge to know the truth. Depending on the

strength with which this urge is felt, the man with this kind of self-being will play the Science

Game, the Art Game or the Master Game. The true brahmin pursues truth at all costs and will not

permit considerations of comfort or convenience to stand in his way. His most outstanding

characteristic is his objectivity, his ability to rise above the dust of the arena, to resist the

hypnotizing effect of words and the blind passions of cults, political or religious.

People of this type have a vital role to play in society. Their objectivity gives them the power to

evaluate correctly the forces at work in society at a given moment. They are not executives

themselves but are the natural advisers of executives, not kings but the counsellors of kings.

Objectivity is a part of their essence. When their essence becomes polluted by the persona or false

ego, this objectivity is betrayed. They then become guilty of bad faith. Those who play the Science

Game hanker for Nobel awards instead of knowledge. Those who play the Art Game employ slick

tricks and become mere showoffs. Those who play the Master Game set themselves up as gurus and

measure their attainments not by inner standards but by the number of their followers.

That phenomenon which Lucien Benda called "The Treason of the Intellectuals" is the result of

sacrifice of objectivity by members of the brahmin caste. This treason has resulted in the genesis of
a number of pathogenic ideas that, in our century, have proved as destructive as any of the great

plagues of history. Such ideas as "All is Permitted," "The Master Race," and "Class War" have

brought death to millions, misery to millions of others. All these deadly ideas have been brewed in

the minds of traitor intellectuals who, having lost their objectivity, have started to play the game of

political passions.

In a healthy society the brahmins (objective men) are responsible for the formulation of its aims.

They are the spiritual descendants of the prophets equipped by their special capacity to function as

the conscience of society. In a sick society, in which the objective men are guilty of bad faith, they

not only fail to perform their function as navigators but become largely responsible for running the

ship on the rocks. Hence Benda's wry comment on the treason of the intellectuals: "Although

Orpheus could not aspire to charm the wild beasts with his music one could at least have hoped that

Orpheus himself would not become a wild beast."

The kshatriya in ancient India was a warrior, ruler or both. The essence quality of this type is the

will to power as that of the brahmin is the will to truth. In a healthy society the kshatriya, the man of

action, warrior, natural temporal ruler, is guided by the brahmin, the objective man, prophet or
seer.Without such guidance, the kshatriya type becomes lost in the maze of his own activity, loses sight

of long-term ends and higher principles, governs on a day-to-day basis in a more or less

opportunistic manner. The kshatriya is typically a high mesomorph and his temperament is

correspondingly high in somatotonia. He has strength but lacks insight. He may rise to a position of

great power in the state; but only when he has standing behind him the impartial observer,

sufficiently removed from immediate problems not to be swayed by day-to-day emergencies, can

the kshatriya steer the ship of state correctly. For the same reason, if he chooses to play the Master

Game, he will need as his teacher objective man, the brahmin.

The vaisya, whose essence fits him to play the role of merchant or artisan, performs his essence

duty by satisfying needs, buying and selling, manufacturing, undertaking business enterprises of

various kinds. Like the kshatriya, he tends to become overim-mersed in activity but he is dominated

by the will to possessions not by the will to power. Whereas the kshatriya tends to set in motion the

Moloch Game and to try to achieve his political ends by violence, the vaisya becomes totally

preoccupied with Hog in Trough and the accumulation of vast quantities of possessions. As the
kshatriya is predominantly a mesomorph, the vaisya is predominantly an endomorph.

The sudra, traditionally lowest of the four castes, is a being of limited outlook, concerned with the

satisfaction of his physical needs. Because of his essence limitations, he cannot do much more than

work at a physical level. In ancient societies, in which manual work was despised, the sudra was

also despised, reduced to a condition of slavery or serfdom, robbed, exploited and deceived by

members of the other castes. He was looked upon as being incapable of independent thought,

suggestible, easily deceived, easily misled. It was regarded as essential that he should submit to the

guidance of those above him in the social hierarchy. Should he take power into his hands, it was

thought that the collapse of society would follow inevitably, the higher orders would be destroyed,

all spiritual values would be lost, the surviving members of the stricken society would be dragged

down to the condition of animals.

In recent times the sudras have revolted and, in some cases, taken power, often proving the truth of

a saying of Solomon's that there are few disasters worse than "the servant when he reigneth." Which

does not alter the fact that, when the sudra fulfills his essence duty, he is just as capable of playing

the Master Game as is the kshatriya or vaisya because, being more down to earth, he is less apt to be

led astray by false theories. The sudra is a simple soul, essence dominated. He often knows a great

deal but he knows it in essence and therefore is incapable of expressing it in words. This quality of

the sudra often endears him to the brahmin. Hence Tolstoy's passion for the Russian peasant and T.

E. Lawrence's romance with the "children of the desert." New religious movements may start with

an appeal to the sudras because members of this caste are less loaded with possessions and cluttered

with preconceived ideas than are their social superiors. It is significant that Jesus preferred the

company of fishermen to that of scribes, lawyers or Pharisees.

- From The Master Game by Robert Ropp