4.13 Through the distribution of the gunas and karmic action in humanities fold, the mental tendencies formed in caste-like structure. Even though I animated all of this into motion, know also that I am within my own nature immovable.
Sri Swami Satchidananda offers a very insightful portrayal of this formation:
Many have heard of the Hindu caste system. There’s much controversy about it. But the original purpose and meaning was beautiful. The castes were grouped according to the capacities and inborn temperaments of the people. The Sanskrit term for caste is varna, which means color. It refers to the color of the mind. And again, the color is according to the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva is white, rajas is red and tamas is black.
It’s not the color of the skin or of anything you can see. It’s just symbolic of the mental color. A dull mind is always clouded. That is why if you see all clouds in meditation, you know your mind is tamasic. When it’s rajasic, you will see bright colors. If it’s sattvic, you will see golden colors. So from the colors you can guess the calibre of your mind at this time.
Ideally caste is defined according to the color of the mind. People can’t easily change from one to another unless they really work on their minds. [Satchidananda, Sri Swami (2013-09-16). The Living Gita: The Complete Bhagavad Gita: a Commentary for Modern Readers (p. 59). Integral Yoga Publications. Kindle Edition.]
I’m also reminded here of a passage from the Rhineland Mystic, Meister Eckhart:
“When I came out from God, all things said, ‘There is a God!’ But that cannot make me blissful, for with it I conceive myself to be a creature. But in the breakthrough, when I wish to remain empty in the will of God, and empty also of this will of God and of all his works, and of God himself—then I am more than all creatures, for I am neither God nor creature : I am what I am, and what I will remain, now and forever ! Then I receive a jerk, which raises me above all the angels. In this jerk I become so rich that God cannot suffice me, in spite of all that he is as God, in spite of all his Godly works; for in this break-through I perceive what God and I are in common. I am then what I was, I grow neither less nor more, for I am an immovable being who moves all things (emphasis mine). Here God no longer abides in man, for man through his poverty has won back what he has always been and will always be.”
4.14 Within My-Self I am untouched by any form of action, nor do I have any aspirations for tasting the fruit of actions. The Yogin who shares this gnosis within me will never be karmic-bound.
Yet another vibrantly-rich Gnostic assertion: one whose spirit is yoked with the Unborn shares the Self-Same Vibratory-Transcendent-Code.
4.15 In light of this Noble Wisdom, the ancients performed their Sacred Actions. You, too, should also amend your life by attuning yourself with their Sacred Actions of old.
Until the Light of Spiritual Liberation dawns, non-activity will only lead to mental degradation and dependence on the polluted flow of sensate phenomena. Hence, the Ariyan is called to honor one’s Sacred Pledge in accordance with the Sacred Action of upholding the Dharma; in this the yogin is sustained by countless Dharma-Protectors of old.