Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 158)

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Parts 1 to 157 were posted earlier. This is part 158. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 158

 

b) The Degeneration of the Caste System Has Led to India’s Downfall

1. The Heredity Caste System Must Go, for It has Replaced the Original System Based on Individual Qualities

From the time of the Upanishads down to the present day, nearly all of our great teachers have wanted to break through the barriers of caste, i.e. caste in its degenerate state, not the original system. What little good you see in the present caste clings to it from the original caste, which was the most glorious social institution.(9)

The jati dharma or dharma enjoined according the different castes, this swadharma, that is, one’s own dharma (the set of duties prescribed for people according to their capacity and position), is the very basis of Vedic religion and Vedic society…. It is the path of welfare for all societies in every land, the ladder to ultimate freedom. With the decay of this jati dharma, this swadharma, has come the downfall of our land. But the jati dharma or swadharma as commonly understood at present by the higher castes is rather a new evil, which has to be guarded against. They think they know everything of jati dharma, but really they know nothing of it. Regarding their own village customs as the eternal customs laid down by the Vedas, and appropriating to themselves all the privileges they are going to their doom! I am not talking of caste as determined by qualitative distinction, but of the hereditary caste system. I admit that the qualitative caste system is the primary one; but the pity is that qualities yield to birth in two or three generations.(10)

There is a certain class of people whose conviction is that, from time eternal, there is a treasure of knowledge which contains the wisdom of everything past, present and future. These people hold that is was their own forebears who had the sole privilege of having the custody of this treasure. The ancient sages, the first possessors of it, bequeathed in succession this treasure and its true import to their descendants only. They are, therefore, the only inheritors to it; as such, let the rest of the world worship them.

May we ask these people what they think should be the condition of the other peoples who have not got such forebears? "Their condition is doomed" is the general answer. The more kind-hearted among them are perchance pleased to rejoin, "Well, let them come and serve us. As a reward for such service, they will be born in our caste in the next birth. That is the only hope we can hold out to them.Well, the moderns are making many new and original discoveries in the field of science and the arts which you neither dreamt of, nor it there any proof that your forebears ever had any knowledge of. What do you say to that?Why, certainly our forebears know all these things, the knowledge of which is now unfortunately lost to us. Do you want proof? I can show you one. Look! Here is a secret Sanskrit verse…." Needless to add that the modern party, who believes in direct evidence only, never attaches any seriousness to such replies and proofs.(11)

That we have fallen is the sure sign that the basis of the jati dharma has been tampered with. Therefore, what you call the jati dharma is quite contrary to what we have in fact. First, read your Shastras through and through, and you will easily see that what the Shastras define as caste dharma has disappeared almost everywhere from the land.(12)

The caste system [as practiced] is opposed to the religion of the Vedanta. Caste is a social custom, and all our great teachers have tried to break it down. From Buddhism onwards, every sect has preached against caste and every time it has only riveted the chains. Caste is simply the outgrowth of the political institutions of India; it is a hereditary trade guild. Trade competition with Europe has broken caste more than any teaching.(13)

Although our caste rules have so far changed from the time of Manu still, if he should come to us now, he would call us Hindus. Caste is a social organization and not a religious one. It was the outcome of the natural evolution of our society. It was found necessary and convenient at one time. It has served its purpose. But for it, we would long ago have become Muslims. It is useless now. It may be dispensed with. The Hindu religion no longer require the prop of the caste system.(14)