Varna, Ashrama System in Hinduism

Hindu society has been categorized into four classes, called varnas. They are:

• Brahmins: Vedic teachers and priests;
• Kshatriyas: warriors, nobles, and kings;
• Vaishyas: farmers, merchants, and businessmen; and
• Shudras: servants and labourers

Bhagavad Gita, the sacred text of Hindus, links the varna to an individual’s duty (svadharma), inborn nature (svabhāva), and natural tendencies (guṇa).

Ashram System

Traditionally the life of a Hindu is divided into four Ashramas (phases or stages).

• The first part of one’s life, Brahmacharya, the stage as a student, is spent in celibate, controlled, sober and pure contemplation under the guidance of a Guru, building up the mind for spiritual knowledge.
• Grihastha is the householder’s stage, in which one marries and satisfies kāma and artha in one’s married and professional life respectively.
• Vānaprastha, the retirement stage, is gradual detachment from the material world. This may involve giving over duties to one’s children, spending more time in religious practices and embarking on holy pilgrimages.
• Finally, in Sannyāsa, the stage of asceticism, one renounces all worldly attachments to secludedly find the Divine through detachment from worldly life and peacefully shed the body for Moksha.