कृषिगौरक्ष्यवाणिज्यं वैश्यकर्म स्वभावजम् ।
परिचर्यात्मकं कर्म शूद्रस्यापि स्वभावजम् ॥ १८.४४ ॥

kṛṣi-gau-rakṣya-vāṇijyam vaiśya-karma svabhāvajam |
paricaryātmakam karma śūdrasyāpi svabhāvajam || 18.44 ||

Characteristics of vaiṣyas & śūdras

Krishna describes the next two categories quite briefly:

Agriculture, animal husbandry and trade – these form the nature and activities of a vaiśya. Service to others forms the nature and activities of a śūdra.

Life needs food for survival and nourishment, and Nature provides these. Human beings use their ingenuity to grow grains and vegetables to suit their tastes and needs. Thus, agriculture involving a variety of tasks relevant to the seasons and other climatic conditions, becomes an important wing of activity in human society.

While agriculture involves cultivation of crops and harvesting, its produce will have to be collected and taken to the market places, located sometimes very far away, so that the consumers can avail of them. This comes under trade and commerce, calling for investment, storage, distribution and other measures. These constitute a subject by itself. Krishna lists both agriculture and trade under one group called vaiśya.

There is still another category, called śūdra. Krishna describes it as oriented to work for others. Śūdras are primarily people with bodily strength who can be employed for physical activities. They do not have the capacity or aptitude for work involving thinking, planning, investing or management. Their attunement is to work and serve the society following others’ orders and wishes. They are not intellectuals. Physical strength and sensory life are their mainstay. Their percentage in the society will always be more.

Unless we have all these four groups, the needs and welfare of the society cannot be fulfilled. The division in the tendencies and activities in humanity, as a result of which people form themselves into four categories, is designed by Nature itself.

These are days when human intelligence has established its place in every walk of life. Science and technology have taken over every field of activity. Knowledge-workers, with technological skills, are rendering a large number of physical workers redundant, creating an imbalance in the society.

Can we design our population, in number and qualities alike, so as to make it a viable composite, to fulfil rightly the need of the society? If not, what would be the remedy?

Nature alone is at the back of this fourfold division. If Nature’s divisions were interfered with by man’s ingenuity and skills, where would the society drift? The question is how to ensure a feasible proportion in the four categories.

As long as human ingenuity indiscreetly tampers with Nature’s arrangement, will it not result in grave disharmony? There must be constant effort to discern what Nature has provided and intends. By that alone, a proper fulfilling role can be played by the human to vindicate himself and enrich the world!