Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1997

by Swami Krishnananda

11. The Caste System

(Darshan given on February 12th, 1997)

Swamiji: The caste system is a classification according to the disposition of the mind and the ability to contribute to society. It has nothing to do with superior/inferior and all that, as is the case nowadays. It is a tragedy to consider something as superior, something as inferior.

In the Purusha Sukta of the Veda this caste system has been mentioned. The face or the brain of the Virat Purusha is Brahmana, the arms are the Kshatriya, the thighs are the Vaishya, the legs are the Sudra. Now, do you mean there is inferiority and superiority there? Can you say the legs are inferior? It is the cooperative activity of the social system depicted in this analogy of the Purusha Sukta.

There are four things necessary for administration. There must be spiritual direction; everything is based on spiritual direction. Then there must be administrative capacity. There must be trade, and there must be production. The production is Sudra. Trade, commerce, etc., is Vaishya. Administrative capacity and political administration are Kshatriya. And wisdom is Brahmana. So all the four are necessary. The brain has to work, the arms have to work, the thighs have to move, and the legs have to move. It is an organic conception of society which has nothing to do with superior and inferior. Brahmana is superior to Sudra; this idea must go. It is a cooperative action. It is like saying the brain is very important, the legs we don't want. You should not say like that. Which part of your body is a Sudra? You have no such thing. It is yourself. They perform functions in different ways. It is a functional cooperative system. But prejudice has entered into it, and one man says someone is inferior to someone else. That is a tragedy that has crept into the originally well-conceived social organisational system. Otherwise, it is perfectly in order. Everywhere you will find... Right from Plato's time it is going on. There is an administrator, there is a warrior, there is a tradesman, there is a producer. Everywhere you will find these four varieties. Society cannot exist unless these four cooperate with each other.

A visitor: But Sudras are debarred from the study of Vedas.

Swamiji: That is a tragedy, again. They should not be debarred. There is no inferiority/superiority among human beings. Only their capacity might be less or more because of the preponderance of the gunas, that's all. Otherwise, basically, you cannot consider any person as an evil man. It is not proper. There are no evil people in the world. That is not correct. It is only a gradation of capacity and the power of absorption, understanding. In a motor car, is the engine more important or are the wheels more important, or the steering is more important? You should not compare like that. All are important. You want only the engine; if you say like that, the wheels will not work.

You must have a charitable heart, and broad-mindedness. Too much constriction of the heart is no good. The universe is one family, and which member is a bad man? In a family, no member is bad. They are all cooperative people. The whole universe is one family under the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. But people degenerate into selfishness gradually, little by little, and say, “I am all right, and you are not all right.” This idea of 'I and you' must go away.

Visitor: This is not correct to debar them from the study of Vedas?

Swamiji: No, they can study. But if they are unable to understand it and chant it, then there are other scriptures like the Puranas, Mahabharata, etc. The Vedas have to be recited with proper effort. Even among Brahmins, all cannot chant. Some of them simply go on saying something but the intonation is not correct because they are not trained. They are simply reading a passage and chanting.

There is a special technique of chanting Veda mantras. It is like music, raga; everybody cannot sing music. You can read the words of the song, but you cannot follow the tune. Without the tune, there is no music. The words are not the song; the tune is the song. Like that is the Veda also. You can chant it, but it is not like prose. It has got a tune. That is the speciality of Veda; there is a sonorous tune and an emphasis on high pitch and low pitch, and so on. Without knowing that, you should not chant it, just as ragas are mutilated if you don't know the pitch and notation, etc. Otherwise, no objection. Anybody can do it.