So many souls.. & Caste system

[Guest guest]

Responses on 'caste' and 'about souls taking birth and dying.'

 

Caste

We explain the caste issue in our Hinduism classes as under:

Caste mentioned in the Purush Shukta of Rig Veda or in Chapter 18 of Gita talks about division of labour based on age and aptitude. This is quite an acceptable comment. It simply says we should engage ourselves in work that we are most suited to.

 

Then what we see happening is that this caste idea turnes into a hereditary affair and further deteriorates into a hierarchical system. It then is no longer Hinduism but an atrocity committed in the name of Hinduism. Teaching hereditary caste system as Hinduism is like teaching the crusades as Christianity .. it is nonsense. We had to fight very hard in the UK to demolish such poor teaching of Hinduism in schools. We have won our battle in the UK.

 

Atman is never born nor does it die says the Gita but then we talk about souls being born and dying. .. so how do we explain this contradiction?

We make a distinction between Atman (or Self) and Jivatman (or embodied Self). The first one is never born nor does it die but the second one comes and goes. The metaphore we use to explain this is as under:

 

Imagine going to the seaside on a sunny day. On the surface of the sea on the crest of every wave we see a shimmer. It appears as if the whole sea has come alive with lots of shimmering suns on the surface of the water. These shimmering shapes seem to be alive, acting, interacting, appearing and disappering. Equate the 'Self' with the sun.. the little sparkles on the crest of every wave are the 'Embodied self' or Jivatman. The sparkles appear and disappear but the sun is not effected. In the same way we (the jivatman) seems to come and go and yet the 'Self' has done no such thing.

 

hope this helps

jay