Caste System Of Hinduism

 

The single inconsistency, in my humble opinion, militating against the characteristic universalism and tolerance of Hinduism,  is unfortunately the layered 'Casteism' that it unwittingly promoted  over perhaps millennia!

Hinduism is indeed the embodiment of dharma and culture of Indians,  which unfortunately is referred to as a 'religion' ( à la Semitic Religions) from the time of the cataclysmic invasions of a few centuries ago that happened from our northwestern frontier. It existed from pre-historic times for over 5000 years in India, distinct from and beyond the restrictive semitic definition of 'religion'.

 'Casteism' by itself is, in my view, a brilliant concept  introduced to enable specialisation in specific professions by ensuring that future practitioners could learn the profession from birth, watching parents practising the profession,  within the four walls of the household. Such a possibility of INHERITING the profession alone will provide the necessary environment to attain perfection in it and to take it to its pinnacle of excellence.

Today's 'professional societies' aim at the same goal but without the possibility of INHERITING the profession, thus mitigating the opportunity that promotes excellence. 

The problem arose when the concept of Hierarchy got superimposed on Casteism, obviously due to the narrow selfish interests of a section of the society and as a sequel the liberty to change the profession at any point in future was denied.

A consequence of fundamental and far-reaching effect of such a Caste System was that the right to know about the spiritual/philosophic aspects of the Hindu culture became the  prerogative of a certain section of the society and others were denied the knowledge. The great Vedic literature, Upanishads,  the Itihasas and other spiritual texts thus remained beyond the reach of other sections of the society. 

It is only for the last few decades that an effort is on to propagate the knowledge and to grant access to the texts, thanks to the great services of Swamy Vivekananda, Swamy Chinmayananda in the beginning, and  is continued by spiritual gurus like Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, Mata Amritanandamayi, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Swamy Bhoomananda Tirtha and many others who are alive and working in present times.

 The Hindu temples are yet to take up this responsibility of interpreting the wealth of our spiritual texts to commoners and to make it possible for them to learn the great language of these texts, Sanskrit, to enable them to read and understand the texts directly.

No wonder that Hadiyas are born in the Hindu Society because the youngsters are ignorant and defenceless spiritually!

The culture of Hinduism is fundamentally secular ( not in the sense certain political parties are now preaching) and welcomes all cultures of the world to coexist with it and  welcomes the members of all religions to live and prosper in this land as it's neighbours. It has never exerted an anti-foreigner preference, though paradoxically that very same attitude has been so cruelly and unethically exploited to subjugate this great country of ours and its basic culture! If some fringe elements of that culture is acting against this basic tenet, know that it is as a natural human response to the attitude of aggression and forcible conversions directed towards it.

It's unquestionably to its credit that it so admirably withstood the incessant onslaughts by the semitic religions in the nature of forced conversions and brutal diabolic torture and extermination they unleashed on it from the time of Moghal rule and also to the additional psychological aggression through Macaulayan strategy by the British employed to instill inferiority about our culture, language and all the wealth of spiritual, philosophical, artistic, medical, scientific, astronomical and mathematical  achievements of a few thousand years! 

The testimony to its relevance today is the fact that it survives with  unquestionable validity despite the propagation of some semitic religions which took birth thousands of years later with ostensibly more and more modern concepts about God and Creation!  

The western civilizations, for the past couple of centuries, seem to have realised the lofty principles on which Indian culture is founded and are progressively welcoming it's propagation on their shores and their members are arriving in India in large numbers to attend discourses at the Ashrams of our modern-day Gurus.

'LOKA SAMASTA SUKHINO BHAVANTU !' ( May the people of the whole world flourish in Happiness, Harmony, Peace and Prosperity!) the great Upanishadic principle still continues to govern India's great indigenous culture. 

Let us not provoke that culture to discard that  universal message of the Upanishad!