What Is the Meaning of Vaishya?
A person characterized by cleverness, creativity, and selfish motivations; a merchant. Vaishya is one of the four Hindu castes. (1)
Representing the second Hindu caste, or varna in the ancient system, vaishyas are characterized by their intelligence. In the vaishya type, the energy to create is present, although it is not refined enough for the vaishya to reach out sympathetically to other people. (1) The other castes of sudras (peasants), kshatriyas (warriors), and brahmins (priests) represent the other three levels of spiritual consciousness. (2)
Members of the vaishya caste are driven by the motivation of artha, or gain. They live a life in which they accumulate wealth and possessions to fulfill their selfish ends. They also learn to control their sensual desires. (3)
What Do Vaishyas Do?
Traditionally, vaishyas are designated to serve society through mental means. (3) While it is not realistic to ask a member of the vaishya caste to devote himself to social upliftment, the traditional varna system encourages vaishyas to use their creativity and intelligence to work for themselves egotistically, albeit responsibly and usefully. Thus, vaishyas develop a sense of pride in being human. Vaishya types are naturally drawn to the merchant occupation, in which they aggregate wealth to fulfill their desires. (1)
Vaishyas as a class of spiritual aspirations tends to make bargains. For example, the vaishya devotee equates effort with results, seeking spiritual experiences as well as good karma and material abundance in order to “acquire merit.” (2) Vaishya may also refer to the social caste in India based on heredity; however, the ancient Hindu varna system was actually based on man’s natural inclinations and purposes despite his social class at birth. (3)
Originally, this caste system was not according to birth. While dealing and working in the outer world every human being naturally expresses a certain level of awareness and certain type of attitude that expresses their level of consciousness. This also signifies their stage of spiritual evolution. Conscientiously working on attitudes, A vaishya can change oneself to a higher consciousness as that of kshatriya or brahmin.
In the case of vaishya, whatever work or profession they do, their main focus is to earn money and wealth for themselves and their family. This is a natural trait found in a person of vaishya consciousness. The mind is calculative and the continuous thought is, “What I am going to get out of it or lose due to it?” This gives the scope to have financial control over their social circle and society.