Varna of Iran

October 31, 1994

Q: What varna dominates post-Shaw era Iran in which there is such pervasive involvement of the Mullahs?

The post-Shah era in Iran is one in which there is considerable military activity and considerable unrest among the people. There is an oppressive atmosphere. There is dominance of the religious order, and there is a vaeshyan monetary approach. But the dominance of the religious order and the oppressive tendencies and the strict adherence to religious code with serious punishments for those who are offenders, dictates the qualities and characteristics of a vipran suppressive society.

In a vipran society, there is great belief in the religious order which dominates. The people will be very aggressive in their adherence to the religious code, and they will be very violent in their treatment of those who transgress those codes. These are characteristic qualities of a vipran society. The average person will accept the domination of the priestly class and, not only will they accept the dictates of the religious order, but they will accept the harsh treatment of those who violate the codes of that order.

So Iran, though it may have a vaeshyan monetary system, if you look into the hearts of those people, into the minds of those people, if you see what is the motivating factor, what dominates the people of that land, you will find that they are dominated by a very strong belief in the religious order of the land. They willingly give power to the priestly class, and they do not hesitate to admonish those who would speak against the prevailing philosophy. So, the tendencies of that society are vipran. Women in that society are most repressed. This is also characteristic of a vipran order.

Now, there have been vaeshyan tendencies in this society for some time. There are also ksa'ttriyan tendencies in this society, but they are somewhat less. The vaeshyan approach is not fundamental to the hearts of these people. More fundamental to them is their devotion to their religious unity, their religious order, and their spiritual leaders. You see, all along, though the society had gone the way of a modern vaeshyan civilization, this tendency was in the hearts of the people. In fact, in their hearts they have been vipran for some time. And given the opportunity to undo themselves from an oppressive regime enforced on them by outside forces, what did they do? They came to a vipran solution. It was all along their tendency. Now they have the opportunity to express those tendencies.

So, once again, what was seen was not in fact the varna of that society, but an imposed varna by external forces and internal repressive forces. But the true hearts of the people were all along vipran. And now, when there was a crisis, the solution that was taken was in alignment with their varna, with the inherent tendencies of the people. Like in the sub-Saharan areas, where their solution to crises situations are ksa'ttriyan, the solutions of the Iranian people are vipran.