Monday, August 3, 2009

Rationalizing the caste system

While looking up karma on Wikipedia, I happened to click on this external link to a despicable article trying to justify the caste system. I don't know enough about Hinduism to know where this website, GitaMrta, fits in, but this is just too terrible to pass up.
We all work. At work we have a boss. Your boss is higher than you and you are lower than your boss. Does this mean that your company is bad for making you lower than your boss? No. You are lower than your boss, because your boss deserves to be higher than you. He is better qualified and experienced and thus he deserves to be higher than you. You are less qualified and experienced and thus you deserve to be lower than your boss.
Ugh! So it's saying that when we work for someone else, we're necessarily beneath that person. And since we're beneath another person, we must deserve it. This is the worst kind of confusing is and ought.
Every organization in the World is following the Hindu caste system. As the employees in every organization are given a role in the organization according to the qualifications of the employee.

The current caste system practiced in India is based on birth and not qualifications and thus it should be rejected. As stated in the Bhagavad-Gita.

It's funny how the one real caste system is so horribly wrong, even they have to admit it. But according to their reasoning, it couldn't possibly be because the caste system itself is wrong. It must be a case of mislabeling. See, all those other more just systems are really caste systems, and the one in India is just some corrupted version.

The Bible openly advocates enslaving human beings. Is this not far worse than the Hindu caste system?

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." (Ephesians 6:5)

They can only make the caste system look good by comparing it to slavery of all things? Gosh, well at least Christians have the decency to ignore, reinterpret, or do whatever they need to do to rebuke slavery. I don't see GitaMrta rebuking the caste system.
Is everyone of the same intelligence? Is everyone very clean? Is everyone very honest? Is everyone very religious? Is everyone very peaceful and non-violent?

The simple answer to the above questions is NO. Thus this proves that everyone is not equal.
The Hindu caste system states that there are 4 categories to which a person belongs to, according to his/her qualification.
  • Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness are the qualities of Brahmans. They should be the leaders of society so that others can follow in their footsteps.
  • Heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity, and leadership are the qualities of Ksatriyas. They should be the administrators of society.
  • Those who have diminished qualities from those above, are the Vaisyas. They are the producers of society.
  • Those who have further diminished qualities from above, are the Sudras. They are the workers.
For a moment, I considered being charitable. Perhaps they are just arguing for a meritocracy. But no, they advocate a strictly structured system, nearly like the one in India. Hint! Just because people are unequal doesn't mean they make an ordered set! It does not mean that you can or should separate them into four categories from best to worst! It does not mean that jobs should be assigned according to these preposterous groups!
Note that those who eat meat or kill (humans or animals) don't fall within the 4 categories. They are not qualified to be called civilized humans. They are called Yavanas and Mellechas, the lowest among mankind.
This final note is especially ironic considering another thing they had said earlier:

Every second, the unbelievers are born and this is simple proof that the all mighty God very much loves the unbelievers. Also the fact that the unbelievers have existed for millions of years and the believers for only 1400 years, is proof that God wants the unbelievers to exist more so than the believers.

The real God (Lord Krishna) is full of love and mercy, he is not a bully or dictator or hater of any living being.

This is love and mercy? Bullshit.

1 comment:

DeralterChemiker said...

To be somewhat fairer to the Bible, most of us grew up with the King James version, which says the following for Ephesians 6:5: "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;" The word "servants" is substantially softer than "slaves."

It seems to me that the philosophy expressed in GitaMrta is not limited to Hinduism. It is the philosophy that “this is the best of all possible worlds, so don’t try to fight it.” Strangely, there is a small grain of truth in it---but just a small grain. Each one of us is indeed limited by the genome that we inherited from our parents. That genome (plus possibly some slight alterations that may occur during our lifetime) predisposes us to do certain things and react to our environment and experiences in certain ways. However, none of us know how we are limited by that genome. We all have the option to push our capabilities to the limit if we choose. Our genome is like a hand of cards dealt to a card player. Each of us can play that hand of cards in many different ways, and how we choose to play it is generally dependent on our environment and the people around us. But we can’t play cards that we haven’t been dealt by nature. Therefore, each of us is stuck in a niche, just as the Hindus say; but none of us know how limiting or how expansive that niche is until we live our lives and find out for ourselves.