10.6 Conceptual quartets in Hinduism
Hindu tradition offers the following four-fold schemes that help illuminate society, divinity, and existence:
a) Social quartet: 1. Helpers 2. Producers 3. Organizers 4. Seers
Or in Hindu terms:
1: Shudras – servants and laborers, supporting the community’s functions.
2: Vaishyas – merchants, producers and farmers, engaged in trade and sustenance.
3: Kshatriyas – warriors and rulers, responsible for protection and order.
4: Brahmins – priests and teachers, linked with knowledge and ritual.
This quartet reflects not only hierarchy but also the idea of complementary roles.
b) Divine quartet:
In Hindu theology there are the following main dimensions of divinity:
1. Brahma 2. Vishnu 3. Shiva 4. Brahman
(Creator) (Preserver) (Destroyer) (Ultimate Reality)
Together they describe the cycle of creation, maintenance, and dissolution within the greater unity of Reality.
c) Yoga quartet
In Hinduism, yoga offers four main paths aimed at achieving spiritual liberation (moksha) or union with the divine:
1. Karma Yoga (Path of Selfless Action)
– focuses on performing actions without attachment to outcomes, acting in accordance with dharma, and offering the fruits of action to the divine. The goal is purification of the mind and spiritual freedom through selfless service.
2. Bhakti Yoga (Path of Devotion)
– centers on love, devotion, and surrender to God, expressed through prayer, chanting, worship, and ritual. The aim is to cultivate a deep emotional connection with the divine.
3. Raja Yoga (Royal Path / Path of Meditation)
– emphasizes mastery of mind and body through discipline, including ethics, sense control, physical postures, breath regulation, and meditation. The goal is samadhi, unity with the Absolute.
4. Jnana Yoga (Path of Knowledge)
– focuses on inquiry and self-realization through study, reflection, and contemplation of the self (atman), ultimate reality (Brahman), and the illusory nature of the world (maya). The aim is liberation through wisdom and realization of unity with the divine.
These paths address different temperaments and can also be combined in practice.
d) Temporal quartet
Hindu cosmology also describes time itself through four great ages (yugas), which follow one another in a cyclical sequence:
- Satya Yuga (Age of Truth) – the golden age, marked by righteousness, harmony, and closeness to the divine.
- Treta Yuga – a gradual decline of virtue, where truth and dharma remain strong but begin to weaken.
- Dvapara Yuga – further decline, with increasing conflict and loss of spiritual balance.
- Kali Yuga – the dark age, characterized by strife, materialism, and moral decay.
These four ages together form a complete cycle (mahayuga), after which the sequence begins again. According to Hindu tradition, humanity is currently living in the Kali Yuga, the stage of greatest decline, before a future renewal.
e) Consciousness quartet:
Another powerful conceptual quartet originates from Vedantic philosophy (especially Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta), describing the four states of consciousness:
1. Jāgrat (Waking State): The physical reality, representing our daily, objective world.
2. Svapna (Dream State): The subjective reality of the mind, manifesting as the illusory world of dreams.
3. Suṣupti (Deep Sleep): A state without the awareness of duality, approaching pure consciousness.
4. Turīya (The Fourth State): The superconscious state, the absolute reality, representing union with Brahman (ultimate truth).
f) Shakti quartet
Hindu thought also portrays divine activity through the feminine principle, Shakti, the energy that moves life in four primary forms of the cosmic Goddess:
1. Sarasvati – Creativity: the flow of knowledge, speech, and inspiration that gives form and meaning to existence.
2. Lakshmi – Nurture: the gentle force of harmony, beauty, and abundance that sustains life and restores balance.
3. Durga – Protection: the power of courage and integrity that defends truth and battles inner and outer demons, preserving the order of being.
4. Kali – Transformation: the fierce energy of time and renewal that dissolves illusion, destroys the ego, and opens the way to liberation.
Together, these four dimensions illustrate how the sacred feminine animates creation – generating, sustaining, protecting, and transforming the world in a continuous rhythm of life.
g) Qualitative quartet:
Hindu philosophy interprets the workings of nature (Prakṛti) through three fundamental qualities, or gunas:
- Sattva: clarity, harmony, and purity.
- Rajas: activity, passion, and drive.
- Tamas: inertia, darkness, and resistance.
These three interweave to shape all phenomena – both material and psychological. They cannot be separated; only their proportions differ and influence happenings and behaviours.
Yet Hindu thought also acknowledges a fourth principle, called Purusha: the Unmanifest Pure Consciousness, which stands beyond the gunas and gives them their ground. This recognition creates a qualitative quartet, in which the interplay of the three qualities finds its ultimate context in the Essence that is untouched by them.
