Additionally, why does he define Brahmanas and Kshatriyas by psychological virtues (verses 42–43), while defining Vaishyas and Shudras by specific occupations (verse 44)?
First, about the swadharma and the gunas. Swabhava and Swadharma belongs to the Soul’s unique status and mode, its natural poise and characteristic temperament in a particular life. Gunas are the qualitative modes of Nature that are everywhere. Speaking of them as if one and the same will create confusion. Swabhava and Swadharma help the individual Soul move through the fields of life towards a higher and higher becoming until it is ready to go beyond the entire field of Nature to the Lord.
Each soul type is therefore a stair climbing towards God. Since in the beginning man is hardly conscious of anything beyond his physical-material existence, he is a shudra, small in his consciousness. He moves up the ladder of consciousness when he enlarges his field of interest and enters into the world of commerce and interchange. Thus he becomes a Vaishya. The Gita does describe passingly the work appropriate to each, that is to say, paricharya or service to the society and community for the Shudra, whereas Krishi, Agriculture and Vanijya, business, Goraksha, taking care of the prosperity as the work of Vaishya.
Here, in these two types or layers of humanity, the consciousness is turned outwards. The real ascent of man begins as he grows into a Kshatriya, wherein he begins to become aware of certain inner qualities and lives with certain noble and high values such as chivalry, sacrifice, forgiveness, generosity, etc. This inner evolution culminates in the high Brahmin temperament tending towards self-mastery, inner and outer control, peace, cleanliness, turning towards knowledge and eventually God.
If you see clearly, it is the movement of consciousness from the outer to inner and from lower towards higher things through a number of lives, that is rebirth. It is therefore a summary also of man’s evolutionary journey where the high transition towards noble values and higher seeking begins with the Kshatriya and completes itself in the Brahmin, finally going beyond to all these moulds and formats. Hence the hierarchy due to the progressive evolution of life. At the same time, each stage and its activities are important for going up the ladder of inner evolution to the next rung. A wrong turn at any stage can turn our feet in the opposite direction, leading to slips and falls.
As to the gunas and karmas, the Shudras, dealing primarily with the sensory world, would be mostly driven by Tamo-rajasic. In Vaishya, it reverses to Rajo-tamasic with some touch of the Sattwa. The Kshatriya is primarily the high Rajasic or Rajo-Sattwic, whereas the Brahmin is supposed to be largely Sattwic. The soul is still bound to the gunas in all the four types but the chain is becoming lighter, from iron, through silver to gold, until it is ready to leave all the bonds and live and act in the freedom of God.
Though the hierarchy is part of the evolutionary process, the soul can awaken at any time and leap across held by the Divine Grace and complete its journey very fast, rather than go through the hierarchical long process of Nature. Once it turns to the Divine in earnest and gives itself to God, then the play of Nature, the chain of gunas and the soul-types or Varna ceases and it recovers its lost spiritual status. That was the logic behind giving a new name to the initiated, as after that they belonged only to God, were part of His vansha, Harivansha, and none else.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
