Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 46

 

Chapter XVII

 

Fourfold Social Division

 

Creation of caste

 

Hindu dharma and its rules of life are based on caste (varna) and stage of life (asrama). Let us take first the principle of caste in religion. 

 

The codes of law (smrithi) declare, “The four castes are created by Me (chaathur varnyam, maya srishtam)”; and the Vedas (sruthi) say, “The brahmin emerged from the face, the warriors rose from the arms, etc. (brahmanosya mukham aseeth; baahuu-raajanyah krithah, etc.)”. It is clear that the caste system is created by the Lord. If it is propagated that the caste system has brought about disastrous distinctions, the fault lies in misinterpretation of the word.

 

 

Names and forms: handiwork of God

 

To prove that trees exist, the word “tree” is enough. A word is just sound, but it indicates something that exists. The sound “elephant” is proof of the existence of that animal. 

 

The sounds were there even before us. We were born into the tangle of sounds. We did not originate them. So, for every current word, a meaning must adhere. The words with their implications are there already, even before our birth. We just use them, whichever we want, whenever we need.

 

Similarly, the words brahmin and labourer (sudra) inform us that there were persons answering to those words. The questions “Who is a brahmin? Who is not a brahmin?” are irrelevant in this discussion. What is being made known is only the conceptions of “word” and “meaning”. The entire cosmos is subsumed under “word” and “meaning”; it is sheer name and form (the name being the word; the form, the meaning).

 

The Vedas (sruthis) declare: “Name and form are one single indivisible unit (vaachaarambho vikaaro naa- madheyam)”.

 

Since they are based on the divine Lord, who is the splendour of wisdom and the repository of innate glory, the darkness of delusion, ignorance, or nature should not overpower us. Where light is present, darkness has no place. The Lord declared, “I shall become many,” and that Will resulted in the cosmos and is directing it forever. 

 

Therefore, name and form are the results of that Will, and not of any human will. It would be an absurd claim for people to pretend that they originated them. The All-powerful Lord alone has willed so. That is why He is designated as the Supreme. To the question, “Does God exist?”, the existence of the word God is the indisputable proof.

 

The world consists of multifarious objects, each with a name. No one has discovered how or why these names got attached to these objects, nor is it possible to explain this. Even if an attempt is made, the result can be only a guess and not the truth. So it is best to conclude that it is divinely descended. Words used between birth and death, or current before birth or after death, words indicating mother and children, or words like righteousness (dharma), unrighteousness, heaven (swarga) and hell (Naraka) are certainly not human artifices but divine dispensations. The Vedas are the authority for this declaration.

 

So, when it is declared that the brahmin manifested from the face (brahmanaasya mukham aaseeth) or that the four castes (varnas) were created by Me (chaathur varnaym mayaa srishtham), doesn’t that also posit that there must have been castes that are denoted by the word and people who could be described as examples or representatives of that word? Don’t these declarations make plain to us that the very God who created them grouped them on the basis of their tendencies and activities as castes?

 

Primal qualities created by innate desires

 

So the word caste (varna) can be understood in all its bearings only if deep inquiry is made and clear thought is directed on it. The meaning of caste, the most common among the people and current everywhere, is “colour”. But how this word came to be attached to that meaning is not known to many. This has to be known in order to grasp the true significance of the word. 

 

In the word varna, the root vri means description, elaboration, and also the process of counting. The roots r and rn that form words like ramana mean enjoyment, pleasure, etc., so varna signifies “accepting with pleasure after elaborate consideration”.

 

Individuals take birth according to the tendencies they appreciate, aspire for, and adopt. So the castes into which they are born are determined by themselves and not by any external authority. Which particular tendency they choose to cultivate depends on their intellectual level. It is generally believed that desires shape the intelligence. 

 

Intelligence molds the activities, and activities decide the character and nature of life. This is the correct interpretation of the expression Guna karma vibhaagasah.

 

While the Vedas (sruthis) and the codes of law (smrithi) indicate so elaborately the causes that lead to the individual’s birth, life, and death in particular castes, religions, families, and sections, people who are unable to understand them lay down theories according to their own limited intelligence and derive satisfaction therefrom.

 

What else is this but sheer ignorance? Or it may be egotist pride exhibiting that they know everything, for isn’t egotism itself the progeny of ignorance? The conclusion is that caste, social status, family and even religion are determined by quality (guna) and karma. They are not amenable to human manipulation. The Vedas declare so; they posit that it has been so decided by divine Will.

 

Love.