Significance of Caste, and Questions Regarding the Sources of Self Sonsciousness

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavatas,

 

I saw several postings regarding caste, the distinction between Vdagali and

Thenkali, and what it means to be a Sri Vaishnava in January's list; I

thought that by sharing my perspective on the matter, based on the little

knowledge that I have acquired so far from my readings and contemplation on

the matter, I may refine my own understanding of these concepts (through

the comments and insights of others.) Further, I will pose two queries at

the end of my posting regarding the two sources of consciousness; I will be

very happy if somebody can enlighten me as to the nature of the two types

of consciousness.

 

I will deal with caste in this posting and the other two subsequently.

 

Caste:

 

As far as I know, caste can only be applied to the Jagat (body), as gunas

are attributes associated with prakriti (matter) and not with the soul, and

this is true of any of three major interpretations of vedanta.

The assignment of a body to an individual soul is determined, by the

ordainer, in accordance with the Prarabdha Karma (maturing load of Karma)

attached to that soul. Now, the key things to note are: caste denotes a

predisposition and not a guarantee, at birth, for spiritual progress.

Further, predisposition towards spirituality is often misinterpreted as a

social status; our load of karma is such that we are almost one with

inanimate matter (we even have a highly contracted dharmi jnanam.) It is

up to the individual soul (with contracted dharmi jnanam (self

consciousness) and contracted Dharam Bhuta Jnanam, or consciousness of its

own position relative to Ishvara and other jiva's) to exercise its will and

progress spiritually from the starting point (direction and speed of

progression depend on the prarabdha Karma and on the grace of god.)

 

Queries:

 

1. Is the consciousness born of Cit the consciousness one has when ones

load of Karma is so strong that one identifies oneself with the gross body?

 

2. Can the self consciousness arising from dharmi jnanam be thought of as

the first step in the spiritual progress, or is it always fully expanded?

 

*Please excuse any spelling errors or misinterpretations of terminology as

I am a neophyte.

 

Respectfully Yours,

Venkat