Caste System

Introduction

In India caste system has prominent place for several centuries. The topic has been discussed extensively by various scholars. Still there seems to be some confusion among people regarding the actual intended classification which existed long time back. The mis-understanding also leads to lot of conflicts between people of various castes and suppression of lower caste and women in Hinduism. Some of the rituals like Upanayanam was denied to lower caste and especially women. This increased the splits in Hinduism, and lead to its downfall. In this article we will systematically analyse the caste system to remove these mis-understandings to end the splits in Hiduism.

The situation of caste system in the beginning of this creation

God said in the Gita that He created four castes based on qualities and deeds and that He is responsible for the caste system and that He is also not responsible for the caste system (Chaaturvarnyammayaasrushtam, gunakarmavibhaagashah, tasyakartaarapimaam, viddhyakartaaramavyayam...). The total verse shall be understood carefully with the help of shrewd analysis. There are three points:- i) Caste system is created by God based on qualities and deeds only. ii) God is responsible for the caste system decided by qualities and deeds in the beginning of creation. iii) But, later on, He was not responsible for the caste system. Based on these three points, the concept must be built-up.

In the beginning of creation, God created four castes based on qualities and deeds. This means that in the beginning God created four types of souls assigning them their individual duties. On performing these duties, corresponding qualities also are developed in these four types of souls. For example, a Brahmana type of soul was doing propagation of spiritual knowledge and devotion to lead all the souls towards God (Brahma nayatiitiBraahmanah). By this duty, the quality of awareness and alertness of intelligence is developed.

The issues of Brahmana were also trained by his elders in the same duty and the issues were also doing this duty very well. Here lies the important point. This may look that the issue of Brahmana must be also Brahmana by birth itself since the qualities of Brahmana must have been passed to his issue. This is the wrong concept developed showing that caste is by birth only. It is not so. The issue of Brahmana also became Brahmana not by being the issue of Brahmana, but, became Brahmana due to the training given by his father and other ancestors. This truth is misunderstood and misinterpreted as the concept that the issue of a Brahmana shall be Brahmana since the qualities are transferred through blood. The genes don’t transfer the qualities, which can transfer only certain mannerisms.

If you take the first generation of caste system, it is created by God in the sense that certain specific duties coming under the name of a caste were assigned to a type of soul and by this the caste system is created by God. But, the qualities related to a caste are not created by God, which are only learnt by the souls while performing their specific duties. This establishes the following points:-

1) The caste system originally created by God was only assigning specific duties to specific souls.

2) The qualities (talents) related to the castes were not given by God, which were imbibed by the specific soul in performing those specific duties.

3) The qualities imbibed in performing specific duties are not transferred from the soul to its issue.

4) The same qualities are seen in the issue of a specific type of soul only due to the training given by its ancestors, which didn’t come through the blood of ancestors.

5) This whole system appeared in wrong way that the issue of a Brahmana shall be Brahmana because the qualities of father will be transferred to his issue through blood. The actual truth here is that the qualities of the issue of a Brahmana appeared due to the training given by his ancestors and surrounding atmosphere.

6) A quality enters the human soul from the surrounding atmosphere only and not from blood.

God said that He is the establisher of the caste system in the beginning by assigning specific duties of a caste to a specific soul (Braahmanosyamukhamaasiit…Veda). In this situation only God is the creator of caste system in the sense that He assigned certain duties to certain souls in the beginning. Later on, the issues imbibing the qualities and professional talents through training from ancestors and from surrounding atmosphere appeared as if they have attained these qualities through blood.

But, an issue may not have interest in that specific profession and may be interested in some other profession. In such case, such issue will not get the caste of its father, but, gets the caste of the profession in which it is interested. In this situation, God says that He is not the establisher of the caste system since any soul can get any caste by taking intense interest in such profession and get its related qualities. Vishwaamitra born as Kshatriya became Brahmana by the qualities and deeds imbibed from the atmosphere. Similarly, Parashuraama born as Brahmana became Kshatriya.

This finally means that the caste system is not by birth, but, by qualities only. Shri Rama and Shri Krishna are Brahmanas by qualities and Ravana and Ajaamila are not Brahmanas due to absence of the specific qualities. A Brahmana born to a Brahmana can become Brahmana by the qualities imbibed in the atmosphere of his family. But, a Brahmana born to a Brahmana can’t become Brahmana simply by birth without the related qualities and deeds. Such Brahmana by birth (means born to a Brahmana by qualities) is called as Brahmabandhu (means related to Brahmana by birth) and can’t be called as real Brahmana.

You shall not say that the issue of a Brahmana by birth is Brahmana whether the issue possesses the qualities of Brahmana or not. We shall not also say that the issue of a Brahmana by qualities shall not become Brahmana whether it possesses the qualities or not. Both these are negative extremes. The real point is that anybody having the qualities of Brahmana alone is Brahmana. When the qualities of Brahmana caste are absent, a person born to a real Brahmana can’t be Brahmana simply by birth. This is perfectly logical and completely justified concept.

The very first sentence of the verse is that the caste system is simply based on qualities and deeds and this system was created by God. This first sentence is the soul of the concept presented in the beginning itself. In the next sentence of the verse, the above concept is not contradicted at all. The second sentence only says that God is the creator and not creator of the caste system. This mutual contradiction can be solved by taking the two possibilities separately.

First possibility:- God created the caste system (Tasyakartaaramapi…). This applies to the beginning situation of the creation when there is no caste system and simply four souls are created as per the Veda. Each soul is assigned specific duty of a caste. Here, these four souls are not different in qualities because all the four souls are born to the same God. Hence, all these four souls have the same qualities. God created four types of duties coming under four headlines of castes. This creation means that God created theoretically the caste system. Remember that the souls were not differently created. God only created the system of castes and did not create four souls belonging to different castes because all the four souls came from the same God. These four souls do not have previous births so that you can assume some difference in their qualities.

The created four souls have human bodies with blood. You may argue that the issues of these four souls belong to the same castes of their fathers. This is not possible because qualities are not transferred through blood. Hence, even if you argue that the first four souls created by God have different qualities induced by God (because Brahmana is born from face having intelligence originally), you cannot achieve anything since the blood of four souls can’t transfer those qualities to the issues respectively. Hence, the qualities are induced in to the issues only by the training given by forefathers. Even the original souls attained the qualities relevant to their castes while doing their duties. A teacher gains teaching talent while he is teaching and the experience of the profession alone induces its related qualities. This possibility is more correct since the first four souls were not having previous births. Even if you say that God induced four different qualities in to four souls by which the four souls did their professions very well, we don’t have any objection to this opinion, but, there is no trace of use of this opinion since the blood of the four souls do not transfer the qualities in to their issues.

Second Possibility:-Second Possibility is that God is not creator of the caste system (Viddhyakartaaramavyayam…). This applies to the situation of the world after the creation. This indicates the running system of classification of castes after the creation. This means that God is not interfering with the caste system because the caste system is simply based on qualities and deeds only. This means that a Brahmana by birth having qualities of Brahmana becomes Brahmana and a Brahmana by birth not having qualities of Brahmana is no more a Brahmana.

In this way, God is creator of caste system in the beginning of creation only and not after the creation since the qualities and deeds naturally decide the caste in which God is not involved. This interpretation gives the concept, which is properly correlated. ‘Caste system by birth’ created by foolish tape-recorder priests has brought split in Hinduism. This is time to bring out the concept perfectly to unite Hinduism. Unless we unite one religion, how can we unite different religions? Retaining superiority complex by birth without qualities and deeds is illogical, unjust and foolish.

Blood or Genes of The Parents Don’t Pass on Their Qualities To The Issues

Four castes were created by God as per the qualities of the souls and the corresponding professional deeds done by the bodies containing souls as said in the Gita (Gunakarmavibhaagashah). The quality exists in the individual soul (Jiiva) since the individual soul is a bundle of the qualities. When the soul gets the inert body in this world, as per qualities of the soul, the deeds are done by the inert body. When the soul leaves the body, the body is just an inert stone without any deed. Hence, the birth of the body to a couple belonging to a caste by their qualities need not get the same qualities through genes or blood, which is unscientific concept. The blood or genes of the parents don’t pass on their qualities to the issues. Due to this point, the body generated in the womb of the mother doesn’t get the qualities of its parents. The soul having some specific qualities enters the sperm of the father. The soul is not generated by the parents. The qualities appearing in the issue after birth belong to the soul only and not to be body. Hence, the body delivered from the womb of mother does not have its own qualities except the qualities of the soul present in it that entered the sperm of the father and such entry is clearly described by the Brahma Sutras.

The qualities existing in the soul before its entry in to the sperm are only expressed in the issue. But, when the issue grows in the atmosphere of certain qualities existing in the parents, such qualities of the parents also enter the issue from the external atmosphere since any quality enters the soul from external atmosphere only (input). Generally, there is every chance of the qualities of parents to enter the soul of the issue and in such case, the qualities of the parents may dominate the existing qualities of the soul and may be expressed. In such case, we are misunderstanding the issue as gaining the qualities of the parents through the blood. Actually, it is not the truth. The truth is that the child acquired the qualities of parents due to constant association of parents, training their issue with their qualities, which enter the issue in the training. Hence, the qualities are either present inherently in the soul (acquired from previous births) or acquired by the soul of the issue through their training in the present birth, but never acquired through the blood of parents. The qualities of the issue generated and grown are either inherent of the soul or acquired in the training by parents.

The Veda says that the four castes are born from various related limbs of the body of God by His unimaginable power (Braahmanosya mukham…) because such generation without the help of female is beyond the laws of nature. You may say that these qualities are created by God and hence, exist in those prescribed castes to continue from one generation to another by birth. Even in this argument, the qualities must be seen in a human being and if the qualities are seen, we have no trace of objection to call the human being by the name of that caste even though the Veda doesn’t say the point mentioned by you as above. If you insist that even if the qualities are not expressed and the corresponding professional deeds are not delivered by a human being, still, the human being shall be called by the name of that caste only, we object to this blind argument. If you say that the qualities of ancestors are transmitted by blood, such argument is proved unscientific in the case of genes that may transfer certain mannerisms only. The qualities are always induced in to the soul from the external atmosphere of the association and such qualities might have been introduced into the soul in the previous birth or in the present birth. The meaning of the Gita is that whatever may be the background, based on the qualities and corresponding professional deeds (expressed to prove their existence) only the caste system is approved by God. If the qualities and deeds of other castes are expressed in a human being, such human being belongs to the other caste only and not to the caste in which it is born.

We never disagree that an issue born to the parents having a caste by qualities is very much having a fair chance to acquire the qualities of the parents in their training and to get the same caste of the parents. Since the qualities are seen in the issue, we will certainly agree to call that issue belonging to the same caste based on the qualities seen in that issue only and not simply by birth without such qualities. If the issue is getting interest in the qualities and deeds of other caste, we will call that issue belonging to the caste of parents by birth, but, belonging to the other caste by deeds decided by the corresponding qualities. Let us take the case of Parashurama. He was born to Jamadagni, who has all the qualities of Brahmana. But, Parashurama got the qualities of Kshatriya due to the boon given by his grandfather to his grandmother. Hence, we shall call Parashurama as Brahmana by birth (Janma Brahmana or Brahma Bandhu as called by the Veda) and Kshatriya by practice (Karma Kshatriya). Brahmana by birth means that his parents were Brahmanas by qualities. Kshatriya by practice means that he is Kshatriya by qualities generating subsequent practice.

Brahmana must have the quality of spiritual knowledge and must have the practice of propagating the spiritual knowledge in the profession of the priest guiding the rituals done by every human being in the society. This work is very important since every human being in the society develops inbuilt-resistance towards sin due to love or fear to God. This is the most precious and pious duty. Brahmana means that he/she leads the society to the concept of God in both worldly and spiritual lives (Brahma nayati iti). This word also means that he/she leads the society towards the true spiritual knowledge of the Veda since the word Brahma also means Veda. The knowledge given by the priest clears all the doubts in the worldly and spiritual activities (Ye tatra Brahmanaah sammarishinah... Veda). This caste (by qualities and not by birth) is given the supreme most place since correct guidance in the whole life of every human being is given by the priest.

Kshatriya means he/she capable of physical fight in protecting the justice from unjust devilish people. Vyshya means the person doing business on ethical lines for the convenience of the society. Shudra means doing agriculture to give food to the society. All the three castes are related to the worldly frame only and not to the divine domain. If a Brahmana by birth is not becoming Brahmana by practice also, we will clearly call him/her as Brahmana by birth only but, not Brahmana by practice. A Brahmana shall do the spiritual work as service of God without aspiring any fruit from public. Such Brahmana will never suffer for the basic needs of life since God will take care of all his/her needs since any human being is just a doll in the hands of God. Public inspired by God will certainly reward him with all facilities since it is the service of God. If a Brahmana by birth is not doing the profession of Brahmana, he/she shall not object another person to do the same profession even though he/she is born in other caste by birth having the qualities of the Brahmana caste. Neither you do spiritual practice nor allow others to do! Is it justified?

The profession of Brahmana priest (not by birth but by qualities) is not to blindly recite the Veda without explaining the spiritual knowledge of the Veda that helps both worldly and spiritual sides of any human being. If other person (born in other caste having Brahmana qualities) is again doing the same foolish activities of blind recitation of the Veda, even the other person is not justified. Today, you find in the society several great saints belonging to various castes (by birth) are doing excellent spiritual service through preaching. All such saints are the real Brahmanas irrespective of their castes by birth. The priest is expected to do the same service individually on the occasion of performing rituals in each house so that the sin is arrested at the root itself and devotion to God is developed in the heart of every human being so that God is pleased to bless this earth with all gifts preventing every calamity resulting in the world peace.

References

This article "Caste System" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Caste System. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---