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.

 

Swami Vivekananda

 

You are strong, omnipotent, and omniscient. No matter that you have not expressed it yet, it is in you. All knowledge is in you, all power, all purity, and all freedom-why cannot you express this knowledge? Because you do not believe in it... Believe in it, and it must and will come out.

 

Swami Vivekananda

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 45

 Chapter XVI

 

Mankind and God

 

For the consummation of human evolution and the realization by people of their highest goal, religion and spiritual discipline are very essential. Religion is the link between the individual and the universe, between the individual soul and God (jiva and Deva). 

 

If the link does not exist, life becomes chaos. A cow caught on a hill, wanting to go to the opposite hill but confronted with a flooded river in between, needs a bridge between thetwo. That is what religion is. Between the hill of individual life and the region of the Universal runs the flooded river of nature, with all its confusions and complexities. It is difficult to discover where it comes from, how it accumulates all that uproar, and where it ultimately ends. But, fortunately, in every human community we have bridge builders who help people to cross.

 

Vedic religion sourced in God, non-Vedic religions in God-man

 

We may have more than one bridge, but the purpose of each is the same. The bridge built by the sages and seers of India is known as the bridge of Eternal Religion (Sanathana Dharma). It is called so because it is an eternal, everlasting bridge based on the ageless foundation of the Vedas, and it can be used reliably by all, in all countries and at all times. That is why it is sometimes called the Vedic bridge and the Vedic path, also as the Aryan Path. 

 

All attempts to trace those who have laid this path have failed. This is why people have given up the search in despair, characterizing the path as undesigned. They assured themselves that the Lord himself was the designer.

 

All religions and spiritual paths laid through the ages are indeed sacred, for they have all been designed by messengers of the Lord, chosen because they are the foremost of people. Buddha, Jesus Christ, Zoroaster, Mo- hammed — such names are known worldwide. Their doctrines, ideals, and thoughts have all become so valid for their followers that their names have been identified with their religions.

 

Doctrine of rebirth unique to Vedic religion

 

In the Christian religion, it is stated that individual beings were created as they are. It is said that Allah did the same. Even Zoroastrian and Buddhist religions describe creation more or less on the same lines. But Vedic religion has a different version. The individual is as eternal as God. He is a spark of God. If there are no beings (jivis) there is no God (Deva). 

 

This is especially emphasized in the Vedas. Followers of other religions are, in recent times, recognizing this truth. The present life of each is only an interval between previous and future lives. It is but a step toward the next. This is indicated in the Vedas. The Vedas instruct about the relationship between the previous and future births. No other religion has revealed so much about previous and future births.

 

Another point: Among the four objectives of life — right action, wealth, desire, and liberation (dharma, artha, kama, and moksha) — various religions describe the stage of liberation in various ways. Each one lays down some doctrine and insists upon faith in it. Therefore, there is no agreement or identity between the experiences they describe. 

 

The Hindu description of the experience, however, can be gained by followers of all religions. There may be agreement in the details of the descriptions in various religions, but the total experience is not described in the same manner. The reason is this: the Hindu religion, which has come down from the timeless past, is really supreme. 

 

Vedic rituals: stepping stones to God

 

In the Hindu religion, rituals and ceremonies were laid down, to be observed from sunrise to nightfall, without intermission.

But these rituals and dedicatory ceremonies were not enough, and elaborate disciplines of living were also laid down. No other religion has so many and so elaborate rules of living. Therefore, it wouldn’t be correct to declare that all religions are the same. They might have adopted a few or many of these rules of living from Hinduism, since Hinduism has laid emphasis on them from the beginning.

 

In order to carry out this heavy schedule of ritual or action (karma), one must have devotion, spiritual wisdom, and self-control (bhakthi, jnana, and yoga). Dharma is the taproot of the great tree of religion. It is the eternal source of its strength. It is fed by waters of devotion; the leaves and flowers are renunciation and other virtues, and the fruit is understanding.

 

Past actions influence future births

 

It is a great source of peace to be content with one’s present conditions because one knows oneself to be the cause and knows that doing good and meritorious deeds now can build a happy future. 

 

Vedic religion is holistic, not partial

 

Religion cannot be, at any time, a mere personal affair. It may be possible to assert so, since each one’s faith is rooted in himself and since each one expresses that faith in their own behaviour and actions. But how far is that statement valid? 

 

The works of Vyasa and Valmiki are very ancient. Such writings of past ages are aptly called Puranas. But, though centuries have flown by since they were born, age is powerless to affect them. 

 

Manu’s code of law is unequaled

 

The Manu Dharma Sastra is unique; no text compares with it in any country throughout history. The doctrines of the Hindu faith and the scriptures (sastras) that enshrine them do not offer homage to material sciences. 

 

The scientists of today call this attitude blind faith; they want it to be discarded. They want every subjective and objective fact to be examined and put to rigorous tests. 

 

There is no need to dig up and lay bare new doctrines. Every principle and path is readily available. Understanding is the only thing we need aspire to. 

 

Love.