12-15-2004, 03:30 AM
Lest I be branded a north Indian Brhamin supremacist too, let me just declare that my spiritual guru is a south Indian woman saint from Kerala who was born in a fisherman's family.
So much for caste and spirituality.
All along India's history we have had spiritual gurus and leaders from all castes. Once a person takes sanyaysa his/her previous caste doesn't matter.
In north India, Kabirdasa, ravidasa and many such saints are revered and their songs sung by all even though they were not from upper castes.
This is the strength of our Hindu tradition. That once a person is recognized as being of higher spiritual level, his/her caste doesn't matter.
We do need to break down the caste barriers and discrimination on all the levels. And India is perhaps the only country in the world to have such wide ranging affirmative action plans.
But if some people want to use this to engage in reverse discrimination, then that will not be acceptable.
Pathma gave the justification of karma of the Acharya to let him suffer. Just to follow it further and to show how hollow this line of reasoning is, consider this. When Brahmins were discriminating against the lower castes, was it the karma of the lower castes to be discriminated against? When Hitler was slaughtering the Jews, was it the karma of Jews to be slaughtered? Perhaps. But how the devil does it follow from here that one should not fight against such injustices? If this were the case, any kind of injustice can be justified. This is not how I understand the doctrine of karma or what Krishna taught in the Gita.
So much for caste and spirituality.
All along India's history we have had spiritual gurus and leaders from all castes. Once a person takes sanyaysa his/her previous caste doesn't matter.
In north India, Kabirdasa, ravidasa and many such saints are revered and their songs sung by all even though they were not from upper castes.
This is the strength of our Hindu tradition. That once a person is recognized as being of higher spiritual level, his/her caste doesn't matter.
We do need to break down the caste barriers and discrimination on all the levels. And India is perhaps the only country in the world to have such wide ranging affirmative action plans.
But if some people want to use this to engage in reverse discrimination, then that will not be acceptable.
Pathma gave the justification of karma of the Acharya to let him suffer. Just to follow it further and to show how hollow this line of reasoning is, consider this. When Brahmins were discriminating against the lower castes, was it the karma of the lower castes to be discriminated against? When Hitler was slaughtering the Jews, was it the karma of Jews to be slaughtered? Perhaps. But how the devil does it follow from here that one should not fight against such injustices? If this were the case, any kind of injustice can be justified. This is not how I understand the doctrine of karma or what Krishna taught in the Gita.