The Caste System
Perhaps one of the most controversial and emotive topics within Hinduism is the caste system. Most people seem to have a negative opinion or bad experience related to caste. Therefore, the word ‘caste’ has become synonymous with prejudice, discrimination, hierarchy, elitism and injustice. The exact opposite of Dharma. Before we can make an objective judgement about ‘caste’, let us 1st understand some basic facts…
There is no such word as ‘caste’ in Hinduism. This is a Portuguese derived word. So, let’s drop the word ‘caste’ and use the closest Sanskrit term: ‘varna’.
So what is varna? It is a societal structure spoken of in the Vedas which is intended to help every person in a society achieve the ultimate goal of life – freedom from suffering (Moksha). Inner peace and a lasting feeling of fulfilment (Moksha).
How does this varna system work? The varna system prescribes a particular structure for the duties required in a healthy functioning society. i.e.
- Cultural Duties (teachers, spiritual leaders, priests)
- Political Duties (civil servants, police, soldiers, ministers – protectors of society)
- Economic Duties (business, trade, retail, finance)
- Supporting Duties (those who support the functioning of the other 3).
If 1,2,3,4 are all fulfilled by the right people in the right jobs, a society can work harmoniously with everyone’s material needs adequately fulfilled. The reason is, all 4 are interdependent. Just imagine if all teachers went on strike tomorrow – what would happen in society? Chaos! Kids can’t go to school. Parents can’t go to work as they must take care of their kids. All their jobs (finance, civil servants, engineers, doctors, retailers, lawyers, administrators) are not done. Therefore patients don’t get treated, houses don’t get built, business transactions don’t get processed, shops shut down. You can see how the whole economy and society suffers all due to just 1 set of people (teachers in this example) not doing their duty (sva-dharma). This proves how delicately balanced and inter-dependent the functioning of our society is.
Therefore it is essential everyone plays their role and does their duty in any society. This was true in 2018BC and still is true in 2018AD. We already have all 4 job roles being fulfilled by various people today – so we effectively have varna system in place right here.
It is important to note that there is no hierarchy of importance in 1,2,3,4. All 4 roles are equally important and deserve equal respect. This is as per Veda and Gita (gita: adveshta sarva-bhutanam).
In the Vedic Varna system, what is it that determines which of the 4 duties a person undertakes? It is Birth (Jati) or Character (Guna). For example, a person with a more intellectual character and has parents who are both teachers, is very likely to do well as a teacher. But, a person who enjoys risks, is good with money and has parents who run a business, will likely do very well at running their own business. But if the business minded fellow becomes a teacher, and the teacher minded fellow becomes a businessman – we’ll have failed businesses and struggling schools! This is because the 2 jobs demand different mind sets. Not that 1 is better than the other, they are just different by nature. So to, all the 4 duties require distinctly different mental characteristics (sattva/rajas/tamas).
How does birth factor into this? It’s all psychology (and some law of karma). Our childhood has such a huge impact on our adult thinking, consciously or sub-consciously. Hence it is natural that whatever jobs, skills and environments we are exposed to as a child – we naturally have a tendency for. This is not true for all and there are of course exceptions to this, but if you look around you today, you can probably observe this to be the case. So even though we choose a job as per our mental character, our mental character is determined by our childhood, and our childhood is determined by our parents and the jobs they do. Hence birth (the family we are born into) does inevitably have an impact on the types of jobs we would be inclined to do. But there are exceptions of course.
In Sanskrit we call: 1 – Brahmana, 2 – Kshatriya, 3 – Vaishya, 4 – Shudra. Remember, there is no hierarchy. Brahmana is not better than a shudra, or vice versa. All deserve mutual respect as taught in the Vedas.
Unfortunately, today in modern India, the true spirit of the varna system is largely lost. What we see today is a distorted version of varna, where a hierarchy has been wrongly imposed (i.e. one group thinks they are superior to another) and has caused many social and economic problems. Injustice and suffering is rife due to this distorted version of the ‘caste system’. This is not the Vedic Varna System described above. If the original intended varna system were followed (like it was for thousands of years in India until British rule 200 years ago), the country would be far more just, prosperous and spiritual than it is today. There is a lot of history as to why the caste system in India has become as bad as it is today, especially connected to the British rule in India and some Indians falling prey to selfish greed (ref: Hindu Dharma by Kanchi Paramacharya). The value for moksha (inner peace) has been replaced by a value for artha (money) and kama (pleasure). Everyone wants to do a job which pays the best, not the job which their heart tells them to do and they will actually enjoy. This is why we have a shortage of teachers, nurses, engineers, carers, labourers here in the UK – because no one wants to do these jobs as they do not pay much. Society is suffering for lack of a varna system. Varna system is all about following your heart, living a simple content life, gaining wisdom, and achieving Moksha.
Om Tat Sat
Aditya
