Weekly page from Hindu Dharma: Unity in Diversity

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This week's page from Hindu Dharma (see note at bottom) is "Unity in Diversity"

from "The Vedic Religion And Varna Dharma". The original page can be found at

http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part3/chap3.htm.

 

Next week, you will be emailed "Divided by Work but still of One Heart" (from

"The Vedic Religion And Varna Dharma")

 

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for kamakoti.org

 

 

Venkatesh

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Unity in Diversity

from The Vedic Religion And Varna Dharma, Hindu Dharma

 

Talking of the varna system I am reminded of the early days of aviation.

In the begining the air ship[dirigible balloon] was filled with one gas bag. It

was discovered that the vessel would collapse even if it sprang just one leak.

So it was fitted with a number of smaller gas bags and kept afloat without much

danger of its crashing. The principle of different duties and vocations for

different sections of society is similar to what kept the old type of airship

from collapsing. In the varna system we have an example of unity in diversity.

 

Fastening together a large number of individual firesticks is not easy: the

bundle is loosened quickly and the sticks will give way. The removal of even one

stick will make the bundle loose and, with each stick giving way, you will be

left with separate sticks. Try to tie together a handful of sticks at a time

instead of all the sticks together. A number of such small sheaves may be easily

fastened together into a strong and secure larger bundle. Even if it becomes

loose, none of the smaller bundles will come away. This is not the case with the

large bundle bound up of individual sticks. A bundle made up of a number of

smaller sets will remain well secured.

 

To keep a vast community bound together in a single uniform structure is

well-nigh an impossible task. Because of its unmanageable size it is not easily

substained in a disciplined manner. This is the reason why - to revert to the

example of the fuelsticksl-the community was divided into jatis [similar to the

smaller bundles in the analog of the firesticks] and each jati assigned a

particular vocation. Each varna was divided into a number of jatis [smaller

bundles], with each jati having a headman with the authority to punish

offenders. Today criminals are sentenced to prison or punished in other ways.

But the incidence of crime is on the increase since all such types of punishment

have no different effect. In the jati system the guilty took the punishment to

heart. So much so that, until the turn of the century, people lived more or less

honourably and there was little incidence of crime. The police and the

magistrates did not have much work to do.

 

What was the punishment meted out to offenders by the village or jati headman?

Excommunication. Whether it was a cobbler or a barber - anyone belonging to any

one of the jatis now included among the "backward" or "depressed" classes - he

would feel deeply stung if he were thrown out of his jati: no punishment was

harsher or more humiliating than excommunication.

 

What do we learn from all this? No jati thought poorly of itself or of another

jati. Members of each jati considered themselves the supreme authority in

managing their affairs. This naturally gave them sense of contentment and

satisfaction. What would have happened if some jatis were regarded as "low" and

some others as "high"? Feelings of inferiority would have arisen among some

sections of the community and perhaps, apart form Brahmins and Ksatriyas, no

jati would have had any sense of pride in itself. If each jati had no respect

for itself no one would have taken excommunication to heart. When the entire

society was divided into small groups called jatis, not only did one jati have

affection for another, each also trusted the other. There was indeed a feeling

of kinship among all members of the community. This was the reason why the

threat of excommunication was dreaded.

 

Now some sections of the community remain attached to their jatis for the only

reason that they enjoy certain privileges as members belonging to the "backward"

classes. But they take no true pride in belonging to their respective jatis. In

the old days these sections "enjoyed" no special privileges but we know it to be

a fact that, until some three or four generations ago, they were proud of

belonging to their jatis. We must add that this was not because - as is the case

today - of rivalries and jealousies among the various groups. There were indeed

no quarrels, no rivalries, based on differences of jati. Apart from pride, there

was a sense of fulfilment among members of each jati in pursuing the vocation

inherited from their forefathers and in observing the rites proper to it.

 

Nowdays trouble-makers defy even the police. But in the past, in the system of

jatis, there was no opposition to the decisions of the headman. The police are,

after all, part of an outward system of discipline and law enforcement. But in

jati rule the descipline was internal since there was a sense of kinship among

the members of each jati. So in the jati set-up crime was controlled more

effectively than in today's system of restoring to weapons or the constabulary.

Though divided according to jatis and the occupations and customs pertaining to

each of them, society remained united. It was a system that ensured harmony.

 

 

 

 

 

Note:

Hindu Dharma is a translation of two volumes of the well known Tamil Book

"Deivatthin Kural", which, in turn, is a book of 6 volumes that contains talks

of His Holiness Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Mahaswamiji of Kanchipuram.

The entire book is available online at http://www.kamakoti.org/ .