{Excerpt} "Sheldon's classification of body types and temperaments can be usefully supplemented by that of Manu. Though this system is very ancient and the rigid caste structure it imposed on the social life of India is, to our way of thinking, very repulsive, it does contain elements necessary for an understanding of man's essence. The laws of Manu divided men into four groups, brahmis, kshatriyas, vaisyas and sudras. The division was based on essence qualities. These essence qualities. These essence qualities were designated svabhava, which an roughly be translated "self-being," and on a man's self-being depended his self-duty (svadharma), the role he was properly fitted to play in life. The importance of svadharma is emphasized in this verse from the Bhagavad Gita: "Better one's own duty though imperfectly performed than the duty of another well performed. Better is death in the doing of one's own duty: the duty of another is fraught with peril."
The essence nature of the type called brahmin is an urge to know the truth...The true brahmin pursues truth at all costs and will not permit consideration of comfort or convenience to stand in his way. His most outstanding characteristic is his objectivity, his ability to rise above the dust of the arena, to resist the hypnotizing effect of words and the blind passions of cults, political or religious.
People of this type have a vital role to play in society. Their objectivity gives them the power to evaluate correctly the forces at work in society at any given moment. They are not executives themselves but are the natural advisers of executives, not kings bu the counsellors of kings. Objectivity is a part of their essence. When their essence becomes polluted by the persona or false ego, this objectivity is betrayed...
That phenomenon which Lucien Benda called
"The Treason of the Intellectuals"
is the result of sacrifice of objectivity by members of the brahmin caste...In a healthy society the brahmins (objectivity men) are responsible for the formation of its aims. They are the spiritual descendants of the prophets equipped by their special capacity to function as the conscience of society...Hence Benda's wry comment on the treason of the intellectuals "Although Orpheus could not aspire to charm the wild beasts with his music one could at least have hoped that Orpheus himself would not become a wild beast."
The kshatriya in ancient India was a warrior, ruler or both. The essence quality of this type is the will to power as that of the brahmin is the will to truth. In a healthy society the kshatriya, the man of action, warrior, natural temporal ruler, is guided by the brahmin, the objective man, prophet or seer. Without such guidance, the schatriya type becomes lost in the maze of his own activity, loses sight of long-term ends and higher principles, governs on a day-to-day basis in a more or less opportunistic manner. The kshatriya is typically a high mesomorph and his temperament is correspondingly high in somnatonia. He has strength but lacks insight. He may rise to a position of great power in the state; but only when has standing behind him the impartial observer, sufficiently removed from immediate problems not to be swayed by day-to-day emergencies, can the kshatriya steer the ship of state correctly...
The vaisya, whose essence fits him to play the role of merchant or artisan, performs his essence duty by satisfying needs, buying and and selling, manufacturing, undertaking business enterprises of various kinds. Like the kshatriya, he tends to become overimmersed in activity but he is dominated by the will to possessions not by the the will to power...
The sudra, traditionally lowest of the four castses, is a being of limited outlook , concerned with the satisfaction of his physical needs. Because of his essence limitations, he cannot do much more than work at a physical level. Inc ancient societies, in which manual work was despised, the sudra was also despised, reduced to a condition of slavery or serfdom, robbed, exploited and deceived by by members of the other castes. He was looked upon as being incapable of independent thought, suggestible, easily deceived, easily misled. It was regarded as essential that he should submit to the guidance of those above him in the social hierarchy. Should he take power into his hands, it was thought that the collapse of society would follow inevitably, the higher orders would be destroyed, all spiritual values would be lost, the surviving members of the stricken society would be dragged down to the condition of animals."
