[Advaita-l] Advaita and Caste System

[Satish Arigela]

1) I think first you should be aware that since this a traditional list, though 
matters of dharma are discussed in addition, questions like this are out of 
place here.

2) Come out of your colonial mind-set. Systems like those of caste or its 
equivalents have their own merits.
There are some ugly happenings related to caste but caste system or varNa 
system(yes I am aware there is a difference between these two) are not the 
cause. The cause for such happenings is lack of proper education(by education i 
mean something different than getting a degree certificate), narrow-minded-ness 
etc,.

As long as this education(the one that I talk about) is absent, discrimination, 
violence etc happen in the name of caste. If caste is abolished, then they 
happen in the name of language if that is abolished then in the name of region 
or accent or anything else and the list can be endless.

Which is exactly why I remarked that one who tries to abolish caste and or 
varNa is nothing less than a fool.

I will respond to this thread only offline.

And by the way do you research and home work before dishing out non-sensical 
statements like caste /varNa system being equal to racism. I will not discuss 
this aspect till you do your basic homework!




________________________________
From: Suresh <mayavaadi at yahoo.com>
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Sent: Thu, October 28, 2010 11:58:42 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Advaita and Caste System

Namaste,

Thanks for your responses.

There seems to be some kind of confusion, so let me clear this up. Asking why 
caste system is evil is like asking why racism is evil! It is so evident that it 
doesn't merit an explanation. It is dehumanizing when society gets to determine 
an individual's place based upon his birth to certain parents- which caste 
system does. It is similar to how white people used to determine what Blacks 
should and shouldn't do as if the latter were incapable of making their own 
decision.

Anyway, my point is that not one advaitin acharya or scholar has even attempted 
to speak out against caste. At the most, they say the usual platitudes that all 
people are equal and so on, but they continue to maintain the system that puts 
certain people at the top (based upon birth, not even other factors) and the 
rest at the bottom. That's quite hypocritical, isn't it?

That's why I am surprised because I could understand dualists doing this. But 
advaitins not believing in equality is similar to a humanist not believing in 
equality and social justice. It is so contradictory.

Again, I apologize if this offends people but I do not know how else I can put 
it. Caste system is racism and no amount of denial or rationalization is going 
to change that. The question is: what are we advaitins going to do about it?

Regards,
Suresh


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