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Thread: Caste System Debate

  1. #31
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    Re: Caste System Debate

    "Are the Hindus going to repeat the missionary propaganda and deny the strengths of their own civilization or are they going to understand the institution of caste dispassionately?"

    -- an article with a refreshingly different and positive perspective on the caste system at http://www.christianaggression.org/i...&id=1155676617

  2. #32

    Re: Caste System Debate

    Thanks for the post Satay. I came across a similar article in a journal long ago, and it covered much more ground than what is presented here, unfortunately the message has been supressed and no followup research ever conducted. It is indeed tempting to connect genetics with the caste system due to the hereditary nature if it can be verified.(atleast the way it is followed in practice)

    However I see no Hindu really interested in countering the false accusations levied by the christian missionaries upon our sages and charging them with bigotry and racism. Our hindu brethren is either content in ducking under the covers as if he does not care or he tries to divert the topic as if this system did not exist at all. It just makes our position more vulnerable and opens the doors to christian propaganda.

    However, I think the caste system must be discontinued whatever the original motivation was, as it has proved to be more harmful than useful. It has become a power tool in the hands of politicians to control their vote banks.

    In the Yoga tradition, the caste takes a totaly different meaning and it has nothing to do with one's birth, but is connected with one's growth in Yogic awareness. The only reason for the varnashrama is that people have to follow certain duties in life in accordance with Karma as revealed by their birth circumstances - there was never any truly any superior or inferior caste per se. The religions which do not have a four fold system are actually addressing a particular ashrama. For eg, caste system can be abolished by reducing it to the level of sudras or raising it to the level of Brahmanas or something in the middle. For eg, Christianity maybe addressing all its followers as Brahmanas or sudras and hence made no distinctions. But Hinduism is for all mankind, and infact the whole universe, and does not have categories such as infidels.

    Strictly, a Brahmana is a person who strictly abides by the triple vow of truthfulness,chastity and poverty and others follow them in various degrees. When many Brahmans failed from this ideal, the caste system became a joke. That does not make it a wrong system at all irrespective of how it is viewed by others. If some policemen start robbing the public, you wouldn't blame the police force and abolish it, would you?

  3. #33

    Re: Caste System Debate

    Quote Originally Posted by satay
    Ekalavya. So this is nothing new. varna system is as old as Hinduism.

    2. The hereditary system is not based on race or skin color or any discrimination, but a natural law of nature.(genetic law)

    3. It is based on blood group typing with O=Brahmin, A = Kshatriya, B= Vaisya, AB = Sudra. Use your brains please and dont criticize our rishis.

    Any justification for the above claim? Yes.
    Is not this hyphothesis a very week argument. Their are non-brahmin that have the supposed O blood group. This argument is very weak. I can bring in more problems with that Hypothesis.

    Is their any scriptural evidence for this?

  4. #34
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    Re: Caste System Debate

    Hindu Society is often trashed by the ultra-left, Dalits and Christian groups for its apparent belief in Manu Smirit. Ashok Sighal of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, here clearly explains that Manu smirit is not relevant to the modern Hindu society and it has been overwhelmingly rejected by our religious leaders.

    http://sangh.wordpress.com/2006/04/20/test/

    Incidentally, Singhal turned eighty today (Sep 12).

  5. #35
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    Re: Caste System Debate

    Kanchi Paramacharya Sri Chandrasekarendra Sarasvati's teachings on the varnashrama dharma:
    (Source: http://www.kanchiforum.org/forum/vie...1705&start=100)

    Extract from the collection Hindu Dharma

    http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part19/chap3.htm

    Organisations like the Arya Samaj have accepted the right of all to learn the Vedas and perform sacrifices. Here and there a Subramanya Bharati or someone like him imparts Brahmopadesa to a Pancama. This is not acceptable in the least. I am a representative and spokesman of the sastras. It is my duty to state that this is not permitted by the sages who created the sastras and assigned the duties special to each caste. The sages were known for their spirit of sacrifices and impartiality and they had no interest other than the happiness of mankind.

    It is true that Brahmins have gone astray. But what is the meaning of creating a new class of Brahmins? It amounts to saying, "The Brahmin has forsaken his dharma. Now I will take it over." To take up another man's dharma, apart from forsaking one's own dharma is a grave offence, worse than nearly giving up one's own dharma. I have stated repeatedly that all karma has only one purpose, that of destroying one's ego-sense, ahamkara. What is the foundation of varna dharma? It is one's willingness to follow the vocation and dharma that belong to one by hereditary without any consideration of one's likes and dislikes.

    So, though reformers may start a movement to throw open Vedic learning to everybody, only four or five percent of the people will join them. The remaining will continue to be in the old Hindu set-up. Also the few who join the new caste will have a sense of fear and a feeling of inferiority. They will keep doubting whether their actions will yield the desired result. If that be so, how will their minds be pure? It is not only the ego-sense that makes the mind impure but fear, the feeling of inferiority and being racked by doubts. Rites performed in such a frame of mind will not serve the purpose of creating happiness in the world. Besides, members of the new caste are likely to develop conceited thinking that they are doing what Brahmins by birth ceased to do or could not do - there will be a spirit of challenge in their action, a desire to make an exhibition of it, will be no sincerity in their actions. All told, neither they nor the world will benefit from their works.

    If you believe in the sastras you must believe in them fully. If you are an atheist you could reject all of them. But to make a show of being very clever and twist the sastras as you like, accepting some parts or rejecting or changing some others, is an offence more grave than that of being an atheist. To think that Mother Veda should dance to our tune is also a great offence. Learning the Vedas in such an attitude is tantamount to ridiculing them.
    Extract from the collection Hindu Dharma

    http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part20/chap6.htm

    As we have already seen, we cannot sustain the claim that vocations are determined today according to the qualities of individuals and their inclinations or aptitudes. Also untenable is the demand for equal opportunities for all. To take an example: there are a certain number of seats in medical and engineering colleges. For highly specialised and new subjects like nuclear science the seats are very few. When the candidates possessing the same qualifications (or merit) apply for admission to the colleges teaching these subjects only a fixed number are selected. Naturally, it is not practicable to choose all. Would it be right to contend that all candidates, even though equally qualified, who want to do research in a new science like atomic physics, should be given an opportunity? All those who apply for high positions in the government will not be selected for appointment even though they possess more or less same qualifications. The government decides that we need so many doctors in the country, so many scientists, so many specialists and so many officials. In choosing them, a number of candidates are naturally rejected. This system is accepted by all.

    It is in the same way as candidates are selected for seats in the colleges or for appointments in the government that a certain percentage of people are thought to be sufficient for the purpose of conducting the rites meant to invoke the heavenly powers for the happiness of mankind - and these few function on a hereditary basis. Not more are needed for such a task since all the other work required for the proper functioning of the society will otherwise suffer. This is the principle on which vocations are divided. People agitate for the application for the principle of equality (a product of French Revolution) to scriptural matters without realising that it has hardly any place even in worldly affairs.

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