​Why were the lower castes so abused in the caste system, though it was given by Krishna?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
My second question is that why is the caste system so misunderstood? Why are the Shudras treated so badly? If Krishna is present in the heart of everyone, then shouldn’t everyone be respected? Actually, see, every system of organization, it is only as good as the people who are executing that organization. The original purpose of Varanashram, the word caste system is a western nomenclature for what was then the traditional Indian culture. And the word caste actually, if you look at its origin etymologically, that is related with color.
And it is based on basically racial conceptions. So, that is not the original understanding. Varanashram is based on the dispositions of people.
So, the original is guna karma vibhagash. It is by politics and activities. So, the original purpose was that different people are good at different things.
And if they can all be engaged at what they are good at, then there can be cooperation. So, the original purpose was cooperation. And people of a particular vocation, if they come together, then they have a sense of community that is bigger than a family.
So, people of a particular profession, people who are artisans, people who are shopkeepers, they all form one community and they have a belonging to a bigger family. So, the Varana system, there was division. But the purpose of the division was actually bringing people together.
It was to create a greater community. But unfortunately, just like in a country, we may have provinces or states. And the purpose of the provinces is not to divide the country.
The purpose of the provinces, is to bring people, bring those people who are geographically or culturally or climatically, whatever, in a similar situation, bring them together closer, give them a facility to come closer. But the same system of division, which is meant to bring people within a state together, that can actually create conflict between the states. So, like that, the purpose of Varana Ashram was cooperation among the various Varanas and greater integration within the Varanas.
But what it led to was exploitation and discrimination. And why did this happen? Because those who were in power, they neglected or forgot the original purpose. The purpose of Varana Ashram is that everyone should be spiritually elevated.
And they should be given material engagements that are harmonious with their nature, by which they can be productive and they can focus on spiritual growth. But when the spiritual dimension was removed, then the material discrimination became highlighted. And yes, so those in power like the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas, they have often treated the Shudras and lower castes very badly.
And unfortunately, there is no denying it. It’s a very terrible reality of Indian society. But at the same time, we have to see that India is still the world’s, we could say practically the only living civilization.
Even older than Chinese. India existed even before. So if the Indian society has been so brutally discriminatory as is often portrayed in the media, how did the society stay on? You know, China was never invaded for thousand years by foreign rulers whose culture was very antagonistic to the original culture.
So there is a tremendous amount of resilience within the Indian civilization. So if the Varana Ashram was simply filled with so much discrimination, then this amount of resilience would not have come. There would have been insurrection and the whole society would have got disrupted.
The fact that this has not happened, it is a pointer towards the reality that there was something within this social division that gave it robustness, the capacity to endure inner shocks as well as outer shocks. Inner shocks means discrimination if it was there, outer shocks was outer aggression. And that’s one thing.
Second thing is, actually this is not to deny that discrimination was there. This is simply to point that discrimination was not the only thing that was happening. If that was the only thing that was happening, people would have revolted long ago.
Society would have got discriminated. Second thing is that even when discrimination has happened, if we compare in other parts of the world, you know, in America what happened? The natives were practically eradicated. That has not happened to Shudras in India.
Nobody has eradicated them. There may be, there is discrimination, no doubt. But if we compare in other parts of the world, the brutality of some things that happened, say when, not just in North America, but in South America, you know, the original Mayan civilization and everything was just within a 100-200 years when the European colonizers and missionaries both came there, just wiped it out.
Thousands of years were just wiped out. So, discrimination is a horrible fact of life and it needs to be countered. But the magnitude of the discrimination that is there in the caste system, that is exaggerated far beyond proportion.
And far more grievous things have happened elsewhere. So, the cause of discrimination is actually spiritual ignorance. So, to the extent people see each other at the level of the body, I see I am fair, this person is dark, or I am born in this caste, this person is born in this caste, then it leads to discrimination.
Now, the only solution is spiritual awareness. Now, without spiritual awareness, Karl Marx tried to create a classless society in Soviet Russia. And the result of that was, you know, George Orwell was the English social critic.
And he says, all people are equal, but some people are more equal than others. That’s what happened in Russia. There were masses who were poor and there were rulers, they were quite well to do.
And the masses kept getting poorer and poorer. So, at a material level, no social organization is perfect. And even the social organization that was meant to create a classless society, that also ended up creating at least two classes, the rulers and the ruling.
The solution actually is to elevate people’s spiritual consciousness. And to the extent that spiritual consciousness is elevated, then discrimination can be avoided. And that is what Srila Prabhupada did vigorously in the Krishna consciousness movement.
And that’s why we see that, or to speak of Shudras, you know, people who are from the traditional point of view, considered even lower, Mlechas and Yavanas, you know, they have become so spiritually exalted, that they, many times in India, they, you know, they are initiating people who are born in Brahmana families. So, one of my, another senior devotee is in India. He is from a traditional Vaishnava family.
And he got connected to the Skaun and then he was very inspired by it. He was from a Vaishnava family only, but he found the bhakti in Skaun very serious. So, he said, I want to take initiation over here.
So, his uncle got furious. He said that, you know, you are born in a Vaishnava family, you are born in India, in Brahman family. If at all you want to take initiation, take initiation from an Indian Brahmana.
Don’t take initiation from an American. So, this devotee is very intelligent. He said, you know, I have seen my spiritual master.
He is so deeply devoted to bhakti. He said, actually, when I go to him, I don’t see America at all. I see bhakti.
In fact, I see more of America in you than in him. Because so many Indians are westernized. I am not saying that anything is bad about America.
I am simply talking about the point over here, that this material vision, it can be reversed by spiritual realization. And if to the extent we practice bhakti and we share bhakti, we can actually address the materialistic consciousness that leads to discrimination. Does it answer your question? Thank you.