Interpretation

Krishna now applies the guna framework to social roles. The four varnas — Brahmana (teachers/priests), Kshatriya (warriors/administrators), Vaishya (merchants/agriculturalists), and Shudra (artisans/service-providers) — are not fixed by birth but by one's svabhava (intrinsic nature) which is itself shaped by guna-combination. This is the Gita's implicit critique of caste by birth: what matters is the quality of consciousness (gunas) and resulting natural aptitude, not hereditary accident. The varna system, properly understood, is a map of social functions arising from natural human diversity.