[Advaita-l] Buddha confirmed to preexisting social norms of the Vedic society of his time

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Dear Sri Kalyan
Yes I too say that things are not so simple.

I was only observing the insistence of even the earliest Buddhists that the
Bodhisattvas could be born only in a brahmana and Kshatriya womb and cannot
be in a mixed caste etc. Where is the egalitarianism in this?

In contrast, Vedic acceptance of Bhagavan Vyasa of mixed caste as a great
aadhikaarika puruSha would be make it more egalitarian than even Buddhism
atleast in certain contexts.  Therefore we cannot rush to conclusions about
Buddha's egalitarianism vis-a-vis Vedic social norms.

The so-called egalitarianism of Buddhism was  conditional and did not
extend many privileges  to the other castes such as cart-makers and pipe
makers as per the earlier quote i mentioned.

Also the Buddha quote - 'anyone from the four castes who becomes a monk, an
Arahant who has destroyed the corruptions, who has lived the life, done
what had to be done, laid down the burden,819 reached the highest goal,
destroyed the fetter of becoming, and become emancipated through
super-knowledge — he is proclaimed supreme by virtue of Dhamma and not of
non-Dhamma.' is no more egalitarian than

 Sri Adi Shankara saying in the maniShA panchakam that
'If a person has attained the firm knowledge that he is not an
object of perception, but is that pure consciousness which
shines clearly in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep,
and which, as the witness of the whole universe, dwells in all
bodies from that of the Creator Brahma to that of the ant, then
he is my Guru,** irrespective of whether he is an outcaste or a
Brahmana. This is my conviction.**

Om
Raghav









On Mon 19 Mar, 2018, 10:24 AM Kalyan via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear Sri Raghav,
>
> The issue is not so simple. The Buddha strongly denounced the superiority
> of the brahmins over other castes. Please see below -
>
> https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.093.than.html
>
> Above is from Assalayana sutta. (Incidentally, the above also shows that
> Vedic people used to shave their heads. So all arguments that this is
> purely a Buddhistic practice, fall apart.)
>
> The Buddha also accepted people from 4 castes as his disciples. Below is
> from Agganna sutta where Buddha once again denounces the caste system and
> superiority of brahmins -
>
>
> http://www.palicanon.org/en/sutta-pitaka/transcribed-suttas/majjhima-nikaya/142-mn-88-bhitika-sutta-the-cloak.html
>
> //‘Now since both dark and bright qualities, which are blamed and praised
> by the wise, are scattered indiscriminately among the four castes, the wise
> do not recognise the claim about the Brahmin caste being the highest. Why
> is that? Because, Vasettha, anyone from the four castes who becomes a monk,
> an Arahant who has destroyed the corruptions, who has lived the life, done
> what had to be done, laid down the burden,819 reached the highest goal,
> destroyed the fetter of becoming, and become emancipated through
> super-knowledge — he is proclaimed supreme by virtue of Dhamma and not of
> non-Dhamma.//
>
> Another case in point is of one of Buddha's disciples Upali, who was a
> barber. This example also goes to show that the Buddha admitted people from
> all castes. Please see below link.
>
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upali
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