who is constantly absorbed in activity which contradicts instructions of holy scriptures, being material and stubborn, cheating and constantly insulting others, lazy, all gloomy, postponing for the future, acts under the influence of the guna of ignorance.
Any cause-and-effect relation appears due to interaction of these factors: the knowledge, the known object and the knower.
The structure of society should be such that the above mentioned three factors would be in the guna of goodness. This is the only recipe for real prosperity of society. If any of these components “advances” towards the guna of goodness it “moves up” all the rest with it, and soon there appears the result in the form of happiness, prosperity, peace and so on. In fact, this knowledge is very comprehensive. Our aim is to show which particular regularities were considered by the Aryans for organization of their society. Everything begins from knowledge. As we have seen in the verses, goodness starts from awareness of the overall spiritual nature of all living things, consequently from the study of the relevant knowledge.
All problems arise from the point of view which makes us see the difference between living beings that hinders perception of their unity. The bodily concept makes to reject those who do not give us pleasure and seek for those with whom we can enjoy the world. This mood, in its turn, allows us to quietly kill those we hate and protect those we “love”. But perception of the uniform spiritual nature allows us to implement in practice the principle of justice. According to the above mentioned verses, when knowledge in goodness is developed, a person addresses regulating principles of behavior which control our sympathy and hatred (the basis of injustice). As a doer of activity, such person becomes resolute, exuberant and, mostly important, balanced in success and defeat. Such person is not proud (does no violence), when he/she wins (does not give rise to envy) and does not revenge when he/she loses (does not cause troubles).
Influenced by the guna of passion, a person differentiates living beings according to their bodies (not beautiful so not comfortable for pleasure, etc.). Under this condition, the basis for evaluation is pleasant/unpleasant people and whether happiness and grief, pleasures and danger are coming from these people. Such person is greedy, envious and impure (due to differentiation of living beings). Victory makes such person keep acting with great pains and defeat completely destroys the interest in activity. For purposes of society protection, such people cannot be relied on as their resolution is unstable. The main feature of a person in ignorance is that he/she considers his/her activity to be the only important thing. Such approach usually causes plenty of conflicts. Being doers, such personalities are materialistic, stubborn (in the negative meaning of this word), they like to resort to different types of force (for everyone to do what they want) and like to humiliate (give troubles). For the sake of their goal, they do not consider the amount of force they need to resort to and which suffering they cause to others. In society, such persons introduce the principle of the utmost injustice (a dictatorial regime).
Society is always composed of good, passionate and ignorant persons. Religious figures are truly full of goodness, rulers and warriors are of the mixed nature of goodness and passion, the mixture of passion and ignorance is inherent in merchants and producers and ignorance is inherent in servants and laborers. Accordingly, the first ones use their intelligence and control their senses; the second ones appeal either to intelligence or senses; the third ones appeal mainly to senses and sometimes to intelligence and the forth ones appeal to senses. And, respectively, they can be trusted certain types of activity. Advisors of society must be those who are strong in goodness. Protectors of society shall be persons who are of the passionate nature and like to act, but they are able to listen to advices and obey them. Producers shall be those who are apt to create material values and, thus, to money-making but at the same time they shall be ready to distribute accumulated wealth. And laborers and servants are those who lack the creative intelligence and can be only performers of someone’s will (constantly need guidance). These four types of people need each other. This need makes them cooperate for purposes of creating a harmonious society.
On the other hand, if people let themselves go (for the sake of enjoyment and power), then competition becomes the reason for a hard-fought battle. A person happens to accept cooperation and at the same time shows the mood of competition. This makes one’s life dangerous and full of anxiety with resulting suffering.
In the material world, a living being has got two forms of “egoism”. One is called concentrated egoism and the other is extended egoism. When a person fights for satisfaction of needs of own body and mind, such egoism is called concentrated. But when a person based on own attachments fights for well-being of the family, loved ones, members of society, nation and, finally, mankind, it is called the extended egoism. Any material activity is based on these two forms of egoism. When considering this fact from the point of view of the gunas of material nature, it can be said that those influenced by ignorance are interested in satisfaction of needs of their bodies and minds only. Those whose life is influenced by passion are interested in satisfaction of their needs and the needs of their loved ones. Those in goodness worry about well-being of society, nation and mankind in general.
Individual satisfaction depends on the external world and that is why one is in want of communication. Originally communication is the source of bliss of the soul. Bliss comes from the contact with perfect living beings, and in the spiritual world everyone is as such . Whatever our emotions might be, when we approach the Lord and His confidential servants, the result is the bliss only. In the material world, according to the principle of reflection, the emotional approach to any object causes many troubles, disappointments, tension and other negative feelings which are not inherent in the soul. This happens because of the imperfect consciousness of living beings in the material world. Expectations of sense pleasure, self-centered consciousness make communication devoid of bliss. In the spiritual world, the soul strives to satisfy everyone approaching it and in the material world it strives to satisfy the self using capabilities of other living beings. In the material world, therefore, there appears the need for regulating principles of behavior which are called the etiquette. This happens for the simple reason that material consciousness in the uncontrolled state strives to subdue everyone to its will. When all are obsessed with this desire, there appears the need for the “queue”. The Aryan philosophy states that the “queue” acts from life to life: today I’m a master – you are a servant, tomorrow it will be vice versa.
The low position or, in other words, bad destiny causes envy. The superior position or good destiny causes arrogance. This is the basis of all psychology of the material world. These two positions transfer human relationships to the field of enmity and humiliation. Psychology of a living being in the material world is the expression of the desire to be God and includes the aspiration for leaderiship battle and the inability to accept higher position of another individual. What does leaderiship provide? The pleasure to be the supreme enjoyer and ruler. And what is unwillingness to accept another’s position driven by? By the desire to be in his/her shoes. Those who reach leaderiship develop pride and “enjoy” the pleasure to dictate their will to others. Those who fail develop envy and hatred to lucky ones. If society does not follow certain rules of behavior, these two feelings will make society filled with violence and make people’s life impossible. When people are uncivilized, the natural selection law is in place where the strong oppress the weak. Subsequently, the weak understand that by uniting they can get the strength to overthrow the strong. The weak, therefore, try to unite and the strong do their best to prevent it. This happens when society is secular or pseudo-religious. According to the Aryan concept, humanity does not make progress but degrades from God-centered, and consequently from the civilized society, to society that has rejected God and, consequently, is uncivilized. This topic will be considered in the chapter “Epochs and Qualities Manifested in them”.
Material consciousness seeks for power and enjoyment; if no regulating principles of behavior are accepted, it gains the liberty to get desired things through violence. If behavior rules are accepted, they always focus to put envy and arrogance under control. A secular society solves this problem with the help of two ideologies:
1) Power and enjoyment belong to the elected and commoners are meant to serve the interests of elected ones. The basis of this concept is violence (a dictatorial regime which inevitably implies revolutions).
2) Power and enjoyment belong to the strong, gifted, skillful,