Apropos of Chaturvarņa in Sanatan Dharma, Paulette has sent me the Mother’s talk dated 25 August 1954 bearing on this theme. The same is being posted here now. Our sincere thanks to Paulette not only for this, but also for the significant comment she has made in this regard: “As for the system of Chaturvarņa, streaming from the Virat Purusha or Universal Spirit and codified by Manu, it was strictly related to the individual’s swabhāva, one’s inborn nature, the truth of one’s being, which determined one’s belonging to a specific varņa. As such, Chaturvarņa has nothing to do with the perversion of the caste system, rigidly established on heredity instead of one’s inner predisposition. As Sri Aurobindo points out, the betrayal of Chaturvarna is a major cause of the present degeneration.”

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The concept, if it can be called so, of the four aspects of the Mother as given to us by Sri Aurobindo is not altogether new. But it puts in focus the active powers that are presently operating in this creation. In the Vedic tradition,—and also of the Gita,—it is the Purusha who is represented in his several expressions for upholding the universe. But Sri Aurobindo sees them as mights, powers, aspects of one transcendental Shakti. That these are soul-forces operating in the cosmos is what is being revealed to us in this formulation, the true basis of splendid and well-thought Chatrurvarņa system, it conducting the harmonious functioning of the social order.

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