Bhagavan Sri Krishna in BhavatGita
says that catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah; “the Varna of an
individual is determined by the combination of Guna & Karma”, including the
karma of past lives. If an individual is given an option to choose one’s Varna,
s/he would choose the Varna that resonates her/his Guna (temperament, attitude)
and karma (Buddhi karmaanusaarinaa! In other words one makes one’s own fate).
There is no escape from this. Probably that's why Bhagavan continues his statement
with tasya kartaram api mam viddhy akartaram avyayam; “thus
determined, even I cannot undo that”.
Now if we look around, any
individual with absolute freedom to choose one’s life partner, would choose someone that
resonates with his/her own Guna & Karma; in other words Sa-Varna marriage. That's
why we see the so-called love marriages to be of Sa-Varna in nature to the
extent that IT people marrying IT people, doctors marrying doctors etc., of
course for convenience and mutual compatibility. In a Sa-Varna marriage the
Guna plays dominant role while Karma follows it.
When the society gave the
education and work/social profession suitable to one's own Varna, there was no
need for love-marriage because parents found them to be not against the system.
Coming to Sa-Kula marriages,
these are mostly arranged by families or outsourced to parents by young for,
again, convenience. Parents, in addition to looking at basic socio-economic
comfort zones, rely mostly on already established Kula-definitions; which themselves
started based on some Varna a long, long time ago.
In a Sa-Kula marriage, parents/families
rely more on Karma (the reason why a soul chooses a specific life in a given
cycle) than Guna because they assume the Karma (or initial conditions) have
more influence on a certain outcome than an individual's choices/perseverance.
This is no different from the secular and modern liberals thought process
concerning things like IITs and Ivy Leagues. Getting into an IIT, the initial
condition, is good enough to determine one’s social recognition, irrespective
of one's intellectual aptitude or social contribution. This is just a less
risky option for individuals. This is same as an Indian preferring an Indian
spouse than say an African spouse; Kula being a much more specific preference
group.
Going thru the life trajectories
that we have gone thru in our lives and those of people around us, we can
sufficiently understand and appreciate this rationale. Only a handful of us
moved beyond the life-changes that are destined by our initial conditions be it
in social, economic, spiritual or nationalistic planes of mind.
For example, say I am an Indian
and my spouse is an African. When someone asks our children about their background
and my children respond with Indo-African (mixed blood), neither my children nor
the society get worked up. But secular minds get worked up if/when my daughter
says she is a Nishada because she is mix of Brahmana-Sudra parents! English
words are good, Samskruta words are bigoted/outdated to a secular mind.
Sa-Varna marriages (a.k.a Love
marriages) bring a new dimension in to social discourse; what happens to the
children of these marriages? Their parents created a new “initial condition”
for these children. So it is only natural for these children to face problems
(in some cases) when they want to rely upon the existing Kula-structures and those
families are apprehensive if a Sa-Kula marriage would work for the child as
his/her initial condition is more Guna based than Karma based. Often such Sa-Varna
children ending up blaming the Kula-structures instead of understanding this
simple logic.
Author’s note: This opinion is
written as part of a discussion on Bharat Rakshak Forum. Request readers to
visit the forum to get complete discussion and participate.