Strength of Unity

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Strength of Unity

(HinduDharma: Varna Dharma For Universal Well-Being)

 

When there are so many jatis and each lives separately from the rest,

how can the community remain united as a whole? But the fact is unity

did exist in the past. Indeed it is now that our society is divided

because of ill-will among the various groups. The binding factor in

the past was faith in our religion and its scriptures. The temple

strengthened this faith and the sense of unity, the temple which

belongs to the whole village or town and which is situated at its

centre. People had the feeling of togetherness in the presence of

Isvara as his children. In festival all jatis took part contributing

to their success in various ways.

 

In the rathotsava (car festival) of a temple, all sections including

Harijans pulled the chariot together. On returning home they did not

bathe before eating. This practice has the sanction of the sastras.

[Talking of the past] it was a time when people were divided in their

callings but were of one heart. Though stories are concocted that

there was no unity since society was divided into a number of jatis,

the fact is people then had faith in the sastras and in the temples

and this faith was a great unifying force. Today, ironically enough,

hatred and enmity are spread between the various jatis in the name of

unity. That is the reason why nowadays the cry against the caste has

become a cry against the vedic dharma and temples.

 

The vedas themselves proclaim that when a man attains to the highest

state [that is jnana] he does not need either the Vedas themselves or

the temples. The Upanisads too have it that in the state of jnana or

supreme awareness the Vedas are not Vedas, the Brahmin is not a

Brahmin, the untouchable is not an untouchable. It is to reach this

state - the state in which the Vedas and all the differences in

society cease to be- that you need the very Vedas, temples and caste

differences. The condition of utter non-difference, may it be noted,

is realised through these very means.

 

He who constantly strives to be free from worldly existence

ultimately discovers that everything is one, so proclaim the Vedas.

Krsna Paramatman pronounces the same truth when he says that in the

end there is worklessness - " Tasya karyam na vidyate " .

 

In the phenomenal world with its works and day-to-day affairs, it

does not make sense to claim that there are no differences. The

sastras, however, teach us that even in such a world we must be

filled with love for all castes, for all creatures and we must look

upon all as the same without regarding one as inferior to the rest or

superior. It means the attitude of non-difference is in love, not in

karma. " We must always feel inwardly that all are one and we must be

permeated with love for all. But in karma, in action there must be

differences, " such is the teaching of the sastras.

 

" Bhavadvaitam sada kuryat, kriyadvaitam na karayet " , so it is said.

Oneness must be a matter of our feelings, not our actions. Unless

differences are maintained outwardly the affairs of the world will be

conducted neither in a disciplined nor in a proper manner. It is only

then that Atmic inquiry can be practised without confusion and

without being mentally agitated, In sanatana dharma worldly life has

been systemised as though it were real for the very purpose of its

being recognised and experienced as unreal.

 

In this worldly life, the four varnas developed branches and many

jatis came into being. From the saptasvaras (the seven notes) are

formed the 72 melakarta ragas. And from them have developed countless

musical modes called janya ragas. In the same way, from the four

varnas the numerous jatis were born. Separate dharmas separate

customs and rites, evolved for these jatis.