View or Download here
Dilemmas of the Kshatria in modernity
Johan Nilsson
This paper will explore the dilemmas that the Kshatria, or psycho-spiritual warrior type (as understood by the Perennialist school of philosophy) faces in the context of modernity. The paper will first outline how those men who find their natural calling in violence where able, in the context of traditional, metaphysically oriented, societies to find transcendence through said calling. Thereafter will follow a description of how these paths have been closed off to the warrior type in the modernity, owing primarily to the disappearance of an empowered priestly caste to whom they may subordinate themselves. Finally, the paper will examine certain exemplary cases of Kshatria in the modern era and consider how these may serve as guides for individuals of this spiritual orientation today.
Throughout history, society has needed people with a capacity to employ often deadly force – and the Kshatria exist precisely to fulfill that role. This is not to glorify violence which, in itself, is routinely bestial and ugly. However, in traditional societies at their best, the Ksyatria could deploy violence in such a way as to ‘alchemically’ transform what is otherwise something debased and dehumanizing into an experience of transcendence. For most people, engaging in violence has a corrupting influence on the soul – degrading them from a human to a bestial, or even demonic, level. A Kshatria, by contrast, is predisposed in such a way that, given the proper context, he can approach violence – not with an attitude of desperate self-preservation or wanton bloodlust – but in a spirit of asceticism and self-sacrifice, thus transmuting his experience of it into something more noble.
