Varṇa

Classification of the natural propensities of the mind (svabhāva) that determine each person's natural function in society. There are four varṇas: brāhmaṇa (teaching and knowledge), kṣatriya (protection and leadership), vaiśya (trade and sustenance), śūdra (service and support). Varṇa is not determined by birth, but by each person's predominant nature. In the Bhagavad Gītā (4.13), Kṛṣṇa says: 'The four varṇas were created by me according to qualities (guṇa) and actions (karma).' Just as today a person in adolescence chooses in a university what to do according to their propensity, in the tradition there was this process of identifying each one's aptitude and function in society — their varṇa. The hereditary caste concept that exists today in various parts of India, with its limitations and ignorance, is widely understood in the tradition as a result of British colonization — which projected onto Indian culture its own hierarchical system of lords and counts. The original varṇa carries no prejudice or birth-based rigidity.