In the following video, T.M.Krishnan,
a famous Carnatic musician interviews Suraj Yengde (SY) - a dalit scholar from
Harvard, both happily engaged in demonizing Hindu religion and Brahmins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKqGzTbCNg8
Every society has good (sattvic)
people, bad (tamasic) people and in-between (rajasic) people. Good (sattvic) people
will never oppress anyone. Generally, brahmins in India are predominantly good
(sattvic) people and practice a peaceful lifestyle given to spirituality,
devotion, non-violence and sacrifice. Likewise, there are so many non-brahmins
also who lead a sattvic (good) life without oppressing anyone. In every society
there will be cases of oppression and all kinds of oppression happens only
because of lack of spiritual awareness and education. But blaming the entire
community of Brahmins and others based on such stray incidents is not right.
Caste is essentially an extended family and is a natural consequence of
retaining the job skills within the family. In every society, people tend to
keep trade secrets within the family. So, diversity of varna/caste helps to
retain and nurture various job skills that are essential for the society. Thus,
castes are not bad but inter-caste hatred and the feeling of high and low needs
to be eliminated. All kinds of oppressions in the society needs to be condemned
and people have to be educated and corrected to respect each other. The word
dalit is not there in the Vedas. The Vedic varnashrama is a system that
recognizes diversity in society based on the capability and tendencies of
people and is based on mutual co-operation. Oppression is not prescribed in the
Veda. Dalits and downtrodden people have to be educated and taken care by the
society so that they can realize their true potential. But it is wrong to blame
the entire brahmin community for oppressions practiced by ignorant (tamasic)
people who are unfortunately in majority, in these days.
In this regard the conclusions drawn
by many, so called “intellectuals” like Mr. T.M.Krishnan and Suraj Yengde, is
blatantly wrong. Here is an attempt to capture their allegations or purvapaksha
and refute the same:
1) "Caste is
something of the past and so why do you make me pay for the atrocities done
by my ancestors" - (this is supposed to be a question asked by a brahmin.)
SY: "Caste is not of the past, it
is very much now. Little children are taught how to differentiate between them
and others (untouchables). There are so many incidents of atrocities by
brahmins on the dalits. Brahmins are only 4% but still own about 49% of assets
while rest of the poor lower caste don’t own anything. These assets, brahmins
have are not earned by them but have been accumulated by looting, thuggering
and exploiting. But, no, they don’t have to pay anything. They just have to
give up their identity and their cultural capital and return back whatever they
have robbed to the lower caste.
If Dalits are getting monitory help
from the govt, they are actually paying back with their services. Their labor
helps to produce things in the society unlike brahmins who don’t do any
physical work but still make hefty sums of money.
Answer:
Well, knowledgeable traditional
brahmin's will never ask such a question! because they know for sure that they
have not harmed any living being and whatever they have is earned by them
through dharmic means.
Yes, caste has existed in the past,
existing now and will continue to exist in future. Not all humans are created
equal. Every soul, the moment it is born, is casted into a body. The work that
humans do for a living would always be as per the nature and capability of
one's body, mind and intellect. In any free society, humans of same or similar
nature and profession tend to form groups, in general. So Varnasrama, whether
based on birth or guna/nature is going to be there in all human society. Yes, labor
class in general would always be a majority and that simply does not make them
oppressed and their employers as oppressors. This Marxist idea, pedaled by perverted intellectuals
from Harward and other "elite" universities, is quite obsolete and
not relevant any more.
Hindus generally do not touch anyone.
They just greet by folding hands. Brahmins themselves don't touch other
brahmins and nobody touches a traditional sanyasi! Hindu parents generally
teach their children to be clean, respect every human being, greet others with
folded hands and to SEE God in every being and in everything in nature. This
universal view gives rise to values like cleanliness, ahimsa or non-violence,
mutual respect and harmony. Yes, parents may also teach children to be away
from evil people, but definitely not to look down upon or hate anyone based on
caste or religion.
In the Bhagavad gita, it is taught
that educated people will look upon, a learned brahmin, cow, elephant, dog and
a dog eater with equal vision. So, the narrative that parents teach children
how to differentiate between – “us and they (untouchables)”, is a baseless
generalization.
Yes, cases of oppression and consequent
retaliation has happened and can happen in all societies. That would be
definitely due to ignorance and ego, that needs to be opposed and controlled
and perpetrators have to be punished under the law. But it is wrong to
generalize the same and label the entire varna/community as either oppressor or
oppressed. This is obviously Communist / Marxist idea used to demonize Hindus
and in particular brahmins.
So, what needs to be eliminated is not
the varna/caste but the feeling of high and low and the hatred that obtains
between them. The VedAntic teaching of seeing One Brahman/God as the connecting
link between every being belonging to any varna, should help to achieve the
spiritual unity in diversity. True Brahmins are already practicing these
values.
2. Upper caste includes
all the forward caste. But why do you use the word brahmin?
SY: Brahmins have mistakenly taken
this as applicable to them. But it is partly yes and partly no. Brahminical is
the system which believes in the teaching called purusha sukta where all upper
caste comes from head, hands and thighs of God while dalits come from the leg.
This has given unmeritorious upper status to brahmins without having to do any
work or contribute anything and lowermost status for sudras in spite of their
hard work and labor. This is the root cause of discrimination.
To counter this, we have to have a
system that penetrates not just caste but other issues like sexism, misogyny
and so on and Brahminical is the right word that includes all of these.
Answer:
Not all humans are created equal and
so their duties depend on their nature and capability. Every civilized society
will have the four varnas consisting of spiritual/intellectual, Administrative /
Defense, Business/Trader and Service/Labor, whether it is recognized openly or
not.
In the Purusha Sukta, which is the
essence of Veda, the entire universe is looked upon as the body of God! He is
described to be having 1000 heads, eyes and limbs. It simply means, everybody’s
head is God’s head and everybody’s limbs are God’s limbs. Every part of God is
sacred. So, the idea that Sudras are considered low as they have come from
God’s leg is a blatantly false. The Bhagavad Gita 11th chapter also
teaches this universal form of God. Accordingly, the entire world and the society
are structured and supposed to work exactly like a human body where
all the different parts are engaged in discharging their respective duties
without fear or favor, in total co-operation and mutual trust. The differences
in the body parts are recognized and accordingly the nature of one’s duty is
determined. Though there is difference in the nature of service of each body
part / varna, they all ultimately culminate in the service of the Self / God
only indwelling in the body/society. No other structure can be as natural and experientially
real as this Self-body relation taught in the Purusha sukta.
Yes, brahmana's duty is to protect the
scripture by memorizing and performing sacrifice for the good of the world, and
Kshatriya's duty is to protect the society as a whole and they both are
supposed to do the same even at the cost of their life. That is why they are
respected. On the same tone, a Brahmana without knowledge and a Kshatriya
without courage to face the enemy, are totally useless and they lose all their
respect. The same can be said about Vaishyas and Sudras engaged in their respective
duties. People who go against this principle of not doing their sva-dharma can
come from any varna. So, it is not just the birth but the conduct that makes
one high or low!
It is childish to say brAhmaNas have
not contributed anything to the Indian society. There is no knowledge area that
brAhmanas have not excelled. In addition to protecting scriptures and being
spiritual, brahmin's contribution in the field of Spirituality, Philosophy, Mathematics,
Medicine, Music, Dance, Literature and so on is very well known. A true
brahmin’s life is given to learning, teaching and sacrifice. Likewise, there is
no part on the earth that Dharmic Kshatriyas have not ruled. No society can
sustain itself if there are only traders and laborers.
3. Caste is found in all
religions but why are only Hindus being targeted?
SY: Yes, this caste hierarchy is not
just a Hindu thing and is present in all religions in India where women and
dalits are made to wake up at 4am in the morning and clean the shit that people
do. Even Ambedkar went thru caste discrimination and this is the system where
the lower caste is oppressed and this is what we are fighting against.
Answer:
Mr. Yengde is right for once that
caste is present in every society. He should also realize that currently, it is
not just dalits and women but others are also doing cleaning work, in India. As
already mentioned, all cases of oppression at any point of time happens due to selfishness
and ignorance and true dharmic brahmin community itself has taken many actions
to eradicate that much before the British. Sri Ramanujacharya was one such
spiritual saint who legitimized entry of dalits into the temple. Likewise, many
other saints and sadhus have done lot of work to eliminate oppression. There
have been many saints and sadhus coming from the lower caste and brahmins
worship them even today.
It is true that there are still many
dalit communities are still engaging themselves in sewage work and society as a
whole must do everything to help them move out of that profession and improve
their life condition. Nowadays, people from other communities also are engaged
in cleaning/sewage work. In any society someone has to do that job and
generally it is not the caste but the economic status that drives people to
take up such jobs.
No society/religion is free from
defects and Hinduism is flexible enough to change the smruthi texts that govern
the practical aspects of social life and Sadhus and Saints have been
continuously helping to reform and re-establish dharma. There are many Brahmins
engaged in this kind of social reforms. Instead of demonizing true brahmins and
the all-encompassing Hindu religion, dalit leaders have to recognize their good
intentions and work with them co-operatively for overall good.
Namaste
Suresh
No comments:
Post a Comment