Jaati, which has been wrongly termed as caste, is that not part of Hinduism? It has been a part of the grass roots of Hinduism from millennia. It has been there, parallelly along with the Varna system. In the Vedic body of literature we have arguments both pro and against Jaati, which is essentially a birth-based system. But what is the ground reality which has been existing for millennia. It is most definitely Jaati.
Why are we being bullied into this idea that this Jaati system, essentially what is being wrongly called the “caste system” is something of a dark chapter in the pages of Hindu history? This idea that Jaati is inherently hierarchical has been disproved. There is nothing inherently hierachical about it, unlike some other modern day systems.
I think we need to stop obsessing over Varna, which started with 1 Varna, then split into 2 and then into 3 and then became mixed with the already present Jaati sytem and proudly reclaim our Jaati identity.
This obsession primarily stems from the fact that Bhagavadgita says in Chapter 4, in its 13th Verse about the four categories of occupations created by Krishna according to people’s qualities and activities.
Let us examine the exact verse
chātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛiṣhṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśhaḥ
tasya kartāram api māṁ viddhyakartāram avyayam
If we read the verse thoroughly and we understand Samskritam, we would know that Krishna is talking in the past tense. Krishna is saying “I have created the 4 Varnas according to the Gunas and in extension the Karmas of the people,” “created” being the operative word here. Created is past tense. It is neither present tense nor future tense, but past tense. Hence, he is definitely talking about Prarabdha Gunas and in extension Prarabdha Karmas.
He is not saying they “will be created” due to the Gunas and in extension the Karmas of the present birth.
Now let us examine another verse from Bhagavad Gita. It is Verse 6 from the 8th chapter:
yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajatyante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ
What is this verse saying? It is stating that the Jiva residing in the past body, just before the moment of death, which is called the “Avyavahit Poorva Kshanam” by Nayyayikas, contemplates about the Guna-Karmas of the present birth and thinks about what kind of a birth the Jiva wants in the next birth. Based on this you are given your next birth.
This clearly implies that in chapter 4, verse 13 Krishna is talking about Prarabdha Gunas and Karmas and not the present ones.
Let us examine another verse from another chapter in Bhagavadgita that speaks about the contemplation that happens just before death mentioned in the 6th verse of the 8th chapter. It is the 37th verse from the 3rd chapter, which says:
kāma eṣha krodha eṣha rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ
mahāśhano mahā-pāpmā viddhyenam iha vairiṇam
Essentially this verse is speaking about the nature of desire. If desire arises, Rajoguna is rising within the individual. If Rajoguna rises, desire is again born. Bhagawan Shree Adi Shankaracharya considered both as the cause of each other.
Keeping this in mind, if we again examine the 6th verse from the 8th chapter, again we can conclude that this contemplation is also a desire and according to the verse desire stems from the Gunas of the person.
This is discussed in other parts of Bhagavadgita as well.
In the last line of the 62nd verse of the second chapter of Bhagavadgita Krishna says “kāmāt krodho ’bhijāyate” which means “desire leads to anger.” Again, if anger is born then Rajoguna increases. Once Rajoguna increases, in turn anger also increases.
Again, in the last line of the 2nd verse in chapter 15 of the Bhagavadgita, Krishna says “karmānubandhīni manuṣhya-loke” which means the entire human society is based on Karmic actions and in extension inactions.
This is not limited to Bhagavadgita. In all of Dharmic literature, everywhere we agree that due to the past Gunas and Karmas we have gained the present body. Essentially our present birth and present life. Within the limits of this body we gain, our present Varna. Within the limits of our Varnas, we gain our Ashramas. Within the limits of Varnashrama we gain our punah-Karma.
This is the cyclic nature in which Varna-Ashrama Vyavastha exists. This is not disputed by any other piece of literature in the whole Vedic body of literature.
To understand this better, let us examine another verse from our Vedic body of literature. It is from Patanjali Maharishi’s Yoga Darshanam. In the Sadhana Paada chapter, verse 13 says:
sati mūle tad-vipāko jāty-āyur-bhogāḥ
So very clearly this verse is talking about Jaati, Ayushu and Bhogam being the 3 phalas of your birth.
Bhagvadgita in the first chapter itself there is extensive discussion about Kula Dharma and Jaati Dharma. Why are we ignoring this discourse? Let us let go of this conspiracy to trap us into an argument that stops us from re-claiming our true identity.
Bharat Mata ki Jai!
Jai Hind!
– Sadyogi
Thanks for confirming that caste is birth-based. This really helps our Conversion efforts. Your explanations make it very clear that Dalits have no way to escape this birth based identity except by converting out of Hinduism. I will share your articles widely so that we can increase our efforts to rescue people. No wonder so many desperate people are eager to leave Hinduism!
Thanks for confirming that you are a conversionist, as such, a religious supremacist, a religious imperialist and a religious expansionist. You made very clear your imperialist and expansionist intentions behind your lip-sympathy and crocodile tears for the plight of the communities that you would bundle up as “Dalits.” If you read my article with the minimum acumen required to grasp such nuanced analysis, you would have noticed that I pointed out lack of provision for choice-based practice of occupations as the flip side of caste system in its traditional form. The reality of social order today in India is not just a 100% execution of caste-system in its traditional form. The communities that are variously categorized as SCs, Dalits, etc are provided and are receiving several privileges under the constitution and laws, so much that there is a greater and greater demand from different communities to be recognized as SCs, OBCs, etc. This is not given by any rice-bag conversionist religion but is provided by our constitution as part of the ability of Indic society to the changing requirements of times. It is this ability that has been failing you and will continue to do so.
Yes, please embrace birth based identity. It makes missionary work much easier. No one in the 21st century wants to feel trapped in a birth based identity dictated by religion.
1. Thanks for revealing that you are a missionary, evangelist, desperate to convert in the only country where you failed miserably for centuries.
2. If the failure of the proselytizing book-religions in one and only country and the blamed caste system being in that one and only country are correlated, your blundered hypothesis that, that social system helps evangelism gets debunked without any effort.
3. Your efforts to cover up your rice bag methods under the garb of helping people out of the social system that they never wanted to leave is a rice bag full of fakery.