[world-vedic] Untouchability

[Guest guest]

Kailash Srivastava wrote:

[world-vedic] Untouchability

When and how did it originate in the Indian society? Does it exist in other society or culture?

 

Its only in vedic society this is known. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Swami Prabhupada the current acarya of the discplic succession gives the

following answers on this.

 

770418rc.bom ConversationsPrabhupada:

They are... They are... They are described in the Bhagavata, papinah. Those who

are killing other animals for maintaining his own body, they are very, very

sinful. Very, very sinful. Therefore untouchable. According to Vedic

civilization, the animal-killers, mlecchas, they are untouchable. They are so

sinful.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam B 5.1.35 T The Activities of Maharaja Priyavrata

naivam-vidhah purusa-kara urukramasya pumsam tad-anghri-rajasa

jita-sad-gunanam citram vidura-vigatah sakrd adadita

yan-namadheyam adhuna sa jahati bandham

SYNONYMS

na--not; evam-vidhah--like that; purusa-karah--personal influence;

uru-kramasya--of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; pumsam--of the devotees;

tat-anghri--of His lotus feet; rajasa--by the dust; jita-sat-gunanam--who have

conquered the influence of the six kinds of material whips; citram--wonderful;

vidura-vigatah--the fifth-grade person, or the untouchable; sakrt--only once;

adadita--if he utters; yat--whose; namadheyam--holy name; adhuna--immediately;

sah--he; jahati--gives up; bandham--material bondage.

TRANSLATION

SB 5.1.35

My dear King, a devotee who has taken shelter of the dust from the lotus feet

of the Lord can transcend the influence of the six material whips--namely

hunger, thirst, lamentation, illusion, old age and death--and he can conquer

the mind and five senses. However, this is not very wonderful for a pure

devotee of the Lord because even a person beyond the jurisdiction of the four

castes--in other words, an untouchable--is immediately relieved of bondage to

material existence if he utters the holy name of the Lord even once.

PURPORT

Sukadeva Gosvami was speaking to Maharaja Pariksit about the activities of

King Priyavrata, and since the King might have had doubts about these

wonderful, uncommon activities, Sukadeva Gosvami reassured him. "My dear King,"

he said, "don't be doubtful about the wonderful activities of Priyavrata. For a

devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, everything is possible because

the Lord is also known as Urukrama." Urukrama is a name for Lord Vamanadeva,

who performed the wonderful act of occupying the three worlds with three

footsteps. Lord Vamanadeva requested three paces of land from Maharaja Bali,

and when Maharaja Bali agreed to grant them, the Lord immediately covered the

entire world with two footsteps, and for His third step He placed His foot upon

Bali Maharaja's head. Sri Jayadeva Gosvami says:

chalayasi vikramane balim adbhuta-vamana

pada-nakha-nira-janita-jana-pavana kesava dhrta-vamana-rupa jaya

jagadisa hare

"All glories to Lord Kesava, who assumed the form of a dwarf. O Lord of the

universe, who takes away everything inauspicious for the devotees! O wonderful

Vamanadeva! You tricked the great demon Bali Maharaja by Your steps. The water

that touched the nails of Your lotus feet when You pierced through the covering

of the universe purifies all living entities in the form of the River Ganges."

Since the Supreme Lord is all-powerful, He can do things that seem wonderful for

a common man. Similarly, a devotee who has taken shelter at the lotus feet of

the Lord can also do wonderful things, unimaginable to a common man, by the

grace of the dust of those lotus feet. Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore teaches us

to take shelter of the Lord's lotus feet:

ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram patitam mam visame

bhavambudhau krpaya tava pada-pankaja-

sthita-dhuli-sadrsam vicintaya

"O son of Nanda Maharaja, I am Your eternal servant, yet somehow or other I

have fallen into the ocean of birth and death. Please pick me up from this

ocean of death and place me as one of the atoms of Your lotus feet." Lord

Caitanya teaches us to come in touch with the dust of the Lord's lotus feet,

for then there will undoubtedly be all success. Because of the material body,

every living entity in material existence is always disturbed by sad-guna, six

whips--hunger, thirst, lamentation, illusion, invalidity and death.

Furthermore, another sad-guna are the mind and five sense organs. Not to speak

of a sanctified devotee, even a candala, an outcaste, who is untouchable, is

immediately freed from material bondage if he utters the holy name of the Lord

even once. Sometimes caste brahmanas argue that unless one changes his body he

cannot be accepted as a brahmana, for since the present body is obtained as a

result of past actions, one who has in the past acted as a brahmana takes birth

in a brahmana family. Therefore, they contend, without such a brahminical body,

one cannot be accepted as a brahmana. Herein it is said, however, that even

vidura-vigata, a candala--a fifth-class untouchable--is freed if he utters the

holy name even once. Being freed means that he immediately changes his body.

Sanatana Gosvami confirms this:

yatha kancanatam yati kamsyam

rasa-vidhanatah tatha diksa-vidhanena

dvijatvam jayate nrnam

When a person, even though a candala, is initiated by a pure devotee into

chanting the holy name of the Lord, his body changes as he follows the

instructions of the spiritual master. Although one cannot see how his body has

changed, we must accept, on the grounds of the authoritative statements of the

sastras, that he changes his body. This is to be understood without arguments.

This verse clearly says, sa jahati bandham: "He gives up his material bondage."

The body is a symbolic representation of material bondage according to one's

karma. Although sometimes we cannot see the gross body changing, chanting the

holy name of the Supreme Lord immediately changes the subtle body, and because

the subtle body changes, the living entity is immediately freed from material

bondage. After all, changes of the gross body are conducted by the subtle body.

After the destruction of the gross body, the subtle body takes the living entity

from his present gross body to another. In the subtle body, the mind is

predominant, and therefore if one's mind is always absorbed in remembering the

activities or the lotus feet of the Lord, he is to be understood to have

already changed his present body and become purified. Therefore it is

irrefutable that a candala, or any fallen or lowborn person, can become a

brahmana simply by the method of bona fide initiation.

 

Nectar of Devotion 21 Qualities of Sri Krsna Krsna's fine

discretion was exhibited when He was fighting with the untouchable king who

attacked the city of Mathura. According to Vedic rites, those who are

untouchable are not to be touched by the ksatriya kings, not even for killing.

Therefore, when the untouchable king seized the city of Mathura, Krsna did not

think it wise to kill him directly with His own hand. Still the king had to be

killed, and therefore Krsna decided with fine discretion that He should flee

from the battlefield so that the untouchable king would chase Him. He could

then lead the king to the mountain where Mucukunda was lying asleep. Mucukunda

had received a benediction from Karttikeya to the effect that when he awoke

from his sleep, whomever he might see would at once be burnt to ashes.

Therefore Krsna thought it wise to lead the untouchable king to that cave, so

that the king's presence would awaken Mucukunda and he would at once be burnt

to ashes.

 

Caitanya Caritamrta

Adi 17.44 The Pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His Youth "O son of

Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth--women,

vaisyas [ merchants], as well as sudras [workers]--can approach the supreme

destination." There are many untouchables of the lower caste in India, but

according to Vaisnava principles everyone is welcome to accept this Krsna

consciousness movement on the spiritual platform of life and thus be freed from

trouble. Equality or fraternity on the material platform is impossible. When

Lord Caitanya declares, trnad api su-nicena taror iva sahisnuna, He indicates

that one must be above the material conception of life. When one thoroughly

understands that he is not the material body but a spiritual soul, he is even

humbler than a man of the lower castes, for he is spiritually elevated. Such

humility, in which one thinks himself lower than the grass, is called

su-nicatva, and being more tolerant than a tree is called sahisnutva,

forbearance. Being situated in devotional service, not caring for the material

conception of life, is called amanitva, indifference to material respect; yet a

devotee thus situated is called mana-da, for he is prepared to give honor to

others without hesitation. Mahatma Gandhi started the hari-jana movement to

purify the untouchables, but he was a failure because he thought that one could

become a hari-jana, a personal associate of the Lord, through some kind of

material adjustment. That is not possible. Unless one fully realizes that he is

not the body but a spiritual soul, there is no question of his becoming a

hari-jana. Those who do not follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu

and His disciplic succession cannot distinguish between matter and spirit, and

therefore all their ideas are but a mixed-up hodgepodge of problems. They are

virtually lost in the bewildering network of Mayadevi.