Natural affinity for evolution: Educator to Warrior
The educator evolves to become a warrior-educator who is wise as well as disciplined and self determined. He is a potent force for impacting society now, by leading with his knowledge and wisdom. He is the sage who rules. Barack Obama is one such educator who imbibed the qualities of a warrior as he took up the most coveted office in the land as the leader of the free world.
Barack Obama is an educator type who evolved into a warrior type
Natural danger of devolution: Educator to Labourer
In devolution the sage becomes a labourer-educator. This is the pedantic, rigid theologian or scientist who is closed minded. He rejects new ideas, new methodologies. He is comfortable in the established ways and change or upheaval is anathema to him. The modern religious and in fact the modern scientific institutions have become jarring examples of such devolution. The quest for true knowledge cannot end in uncompromising dogmatism, be it religion or science. Change, restructuring and reorientation are the only true ways for progress. The religious framework has become frozen for over two thousand years now and it is annoying to watch the scientific one is heading that way too. Scientists are becoming adamant hard-liners and as bull-headed about their ways as theologians have always been. An outsider, an iconoclast must stop this devolution in its tracks. An outsider who must move in to innovate the current scientific world view. Another Albert Einstein, another Bill Gates or Steve Jobs must arise, if science or religion is to make any progress from the current gridlock each individually faces.
Natural affinity for evolution: Warrior to Educator
This is the brave king who has become wise and just too. He has imbibed the educator quality of discrimination, of ‘Viveka’. He knows when to fight when to hold back and when to heal. He can channel his might and power prudently and fairly. He delivers healing justice. e.g.: Ashoka
Natural danger for devolution: Warrior to Merchant
This is the powerful leader who gets swayed by the lust for power and wealth. He forgets to serve, to be fair and just, he serves his own-self, blinded by strength of his power. He is the unethical mercenary, the corrupt politician.
Natural affinity for evolution: Merchant to Labourer
This is the charming, charismatic businessman who uses his wealth to serve society, not by making donations in charity alone, but by running a business which solves people’s problems. A successful, profitable venture which solves a real-world problem is the epitome of an evolved merchant’s dharma. Muhammad Yunus
Natural danger for devolution: Merchant to Warrior
This is the affluent businessman who assumes positions of power to serve his own ends. One who uses the political machinery for profit, a mercenary whose sole aim is to generate wealth for himself. e.g: Elizabeth Holmes
Natural affinity for evolution: Labourer to Merchant
This is a social servant who uses his charm, networking capacities and sales skills to serve many more people. Oprah Winfrey
Natural danger for devolution: Labourer to Educator
The narrow minded, dogmatic pedantic who has taken the role of an educator. He is the fundamentalist whose ideas have become fixed and unchanging, set in stone. He will follow the letter of law just for its sake, without using his own discretion. These are the fundamentalists, the bigots of religion and of science, who have no business becoming thinkers and philosophers.
Our modern world is skewed towards Merchant and Labourer types
It is critical to realise that our contemporary 21st century society has become, for at least as 200 years now, a predominantly merchant society. Merchant type ideals dominate it, merchant characteristics and needs drive it. The unrelenting climb upwards on the social ladder, whole lives run on economic determinism, and the unabashed pursuit of sensory pleasure. Unceasing refinement, even more luxurious comfort. A flood of gripping entertainment. We are all goaded by our societies and families to get the fancier education for that coveted job. For that sophisticated social circle, for those expensive gadgets and vacations. Aren’t we?
These are the hallmarks of a merchant society which has overstepped its jurisdiction and function. The merchants are an integral part of a society, but they cannot be its thought leaders, its rule makers. That is the purview of the evolved educators and the evolved warriors, the wise kings and the influential sages. Unfortunately, the merchant ideology has become the society’s ideology today, affecting not only economics but national and geo-politics, social structures, culture, even law. The merchant ideology has seeped into every aspect of our lives so deeply that the other dharma types; the educators, warriors, labourers and outsiders must forsake their own paths to confirm. To confirm, so they can survive.
The educator who is best left in solitude as he pursues knowledge must now take part in the daily grind of earning a living because no one will take care of him. He must forsake his own dharma, he must marginalise his potential to tread another’s path, to follow another’s dharma. The warrior who was best fit to rule, to protect and serve must redirect his discipline and focus towards the ‘job’ of making money. The labourer who served the community by devotional service must now worry only about his rent, his mortgage and his bills alone. The outsider who should have left society to undertake his solitary journey of discovery and innovation must now bend down to the mundane demands of simply running his life.
No, that is not everybody’s road to success and happiness. Even if the overpowering merchant society of today sells you, lures you, fascinates you with that promise. No. One cap does not fit all. Not everybody’s dharma should be the dharma of making money. All your lives must not run on the engine of economic determinism. It cannot be; the dream hawkers, the merchants are selling you the wrong dream. You might jump into the enchanting dream of beauty and prosperity, but that will not bring you your bliss. You marginalise your own potential, you will waste your own talents; you will have forsaken your dharma. You will have forsaken your own fulfillment. You will not become what you could have. In fact, the merchant’s dream should not be your dream at all. It will become your cage of frustration and disappointment.
“Why chase after different destinies, when it is hard to find your own”, asks the Bhagwad Gita.
This imposition of the merchant ideology on current society is oppression. No dharma type will achieve its highest potentials, reach its peak states and attain fulfillment in a society where ideals of one dharma type dominate. Not even the merchants themselves because they will not fulfill themselves. For fulfillment, they must serve and assist other types to actualise their own potentials. They must provide food, goods and services to the other types so they can focus on their own strengths instead of spending time and effort in earning money just to run their lives.
The Labourers oversimplify.
The other dharma type that has an overbearing influence on the thought paradigms and culture of our current civilization are the labourers. Labourers who have devolved into pedantic educators, those narrow minded fundamentalists in almost every arena of life. Be it the suicide bombing terrorists of religion, the draconian rule makers of theocratic states, the women-suppressing patriarchs of societies who refuse to budge. Even the rigid scientist who will never consider an alternate world view or the immature bully of an atheist who devotes himself blindly to science. All and everyone who will let others do their thinking for them. All who follow the rules for the sake of the rules. All who are dangerously comfortable with established modes of thought, all those who undyingly cling to tradition. Tradition might provide a sense of order, of structure and certainty. Without a doubt, tradition gives us some foothold in the groundless uncertainty of life, but it is not the only way, nor the best way.
The labourer type does not have a very curious or analytical bent of mind, like an educator or outsider might. He simplifies the world by breaking everything down to the basics, but this often leads to oversimplification. Of course, not everyone wants to spend time in research and analysis, especially when it is not their strength. But then, giving away the responsibility of discretion and honest analysis to previously established dogma, for the sake of simplicity is bad. Tradition for the sake of tradition is unhealthy. Loyalty for the sake of loyalty is fatal. Rigidity for the sake of adherence is dangerous. Oversimplification for the sake of simplicity is a curse.
Remember, labourers, you may glorify tradition, revel in your adherence because it gives you an ideology to follow without the burden of thinking for yourself. However borrowed ideas might not be always beneficial to present times. Change and overhaul are necessary for development, for advancement. Transformation is unavoidable for progress.
