Should the Guna-Karma told in Gita to be taken as good and bad qualities or as professional qualities?

[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked (on phone): In the Gita, God mentioned only qualities and deeds (Guna-Karma). Are these qualities and deeds to be taken as good and bad qualities or as professional qualities?]

Swami replied (on phone): There are two types of caste systems.

i) Good and bad castes (Two-tier caste system)

ii) Caste system based on professional qualities (Four-tier caste system).

In the two-tier caste system, the good caste is far better than the bad caste. In the four tier caste system, there is no reference to good or bad and hence, all castes are different but equal. The four-tier caste system is based on professional qualities and professional deeds. The professional qualities and deeds are different but equal. In professional qualities, there is no question of good or bad. If we correlate both types of caste systems (two-tier and four-tier), in each caste of the four-tier system, the two-tier system exists. For example, in the caste of the Brahmanas, there will be good Brahmanas and bad Brahmanas. Similarly, in the caste of the Kshatriyas, there will be good Kshatriyas and bad Kshatriyas. Similarly, in the other two castes also, good and bad people exist. The integrated total caste system becomes a eight-tier system due to the presence of good and bad people in each of the four castes.

In the above four-tier caste system, there is no question of good caste or bad caste because the four-tier system is based on professional qualities and professional deeds and not based on good qualities and good deeds or bad qualities and bad deeds. In the Gita, Krishna mentioned the four-tier caste system (cāturvarṇyaṃ mayā sṛṣṭam…). Since this is the four-tier caste system, the qualities and deeds mentioned in this verse must be professional qualities and professional deeds only and not good qualities and good deeds or bad qualities and bad deeds. If you bring good and bad system, it must be the two tier caste system and shall not be the four-tier caste system. Hence, the word guna here means professional qualities and the word karma here means professional deeds only.

In the Veda, it is mentioned that a bad soul will be born in the womb of a bad mother (Kapūya caraṇāḥ kapūya yonim…). Here, the context is good and bad only, and the four-tier caste system does not come here at all. This means that a bad soul will be born to a bad mother and such bad mother may belong to any caste of the four-tier caste system. You should not say that a bad soul is born to a bad mother belonging to a specific caste of the four-tier caste system. The reason is that there is no question of good and bad in the four-tier caste system.

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