How Brahmins spread their power in the Vedic society.
The term Vedic society refers to a state that is organized according to directions given in the ancient Vedic literature. The Vedic social structure is not man made but divinely inspired. And it is not an idealistic, imaginary system, but it existed in the past for thousands of years. The here Krishna movement is trying to revive on ideal society founded on the teachings of the Vedic literature. Although in the modern age it would be impossible to adopt all the aspects of the traditional Vedic society, the principles upon which the society ran are as appropriate today as they ever were.
The original Vedic society was different from India’s modern-day caste system. The Vedic society is called varnashrama, which refers to its four material divisions and four spiritual divisions. These divisions are not arbitrary; they are made according to natural differences in individuals. By organizing society into the divisions of atmarama, the state allows people to work according to their propensities and at the same time gradually elevate their consciousness. The ultimate goal of the atmarama system is self realization,
The four vaishya are 1. Shudra (laborer class ) 2. Vaishya (productive class) 3. Kshatriya (avdministrative class) 4. Brahmana (intellectual class) If we analyze any society, we will find these divisions. Some people are inclined to crafts and manual works, some are inclined to business or agriculture, some to administration, and some to intellectual pursuits.
Modern secular, egalitarian society fails to recognize basic differences in individual propensities but adopts systems that use the individual as a commodity regardless of his nature or inclinations. Ultimately, no one benefits from such systems, because they are not natural. There cannot be equality on the physical platform. People obviously have different abilities and inclinations.
In the Bhagavad-gita. Lord Krishna says, According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them the four divisions of human society are created by me. In other words, the four divisions of varna are determined by guna and karma, by one’s qualities and one’s work not by birth.
Therefour, if the son of a shudra exhibits the symptoms of a brahmana, be must be accepted as a brahmana. And if the son of a brahmana either has the qualities of shudra or does the work of a shudra, he is considered a shudra. The saint Narada Muni, one of the great authorities of Vidic culture, makes this same point in srimad Bhagavatam.
The failing of modern Hinduism is that its followers disregard this scriptural injunction. In Vedic culture there is a natural respect for the higher classes, especially the brahmanas. Today, However, the higher classes cling to their status even when they are unqualified. In order to maintain their false status, they have concocted the idea of caste by birthright this allows them to enjoy privileges, and it bars the members of the other castes from ever questioning their qualifications. The practice of recognizing caste by birthright has caused much resentment in modern Indian civilization.
The Vedic literature compares the four divisions of society to the human body. The legs represent the shudras, the belly the vaishyas, the arms the kshatriya. And the head the brahmanas. All these parts work together for the benefit of the whole body. When one part of the body is sick, the whole body suffers. Similarly, when one part of society is not functioning properly the whole system suffers. Therefore, each part is important .
Formerly, brahmanas would study the vedic scriptures and become expert in one or several fields of knowledge. They were teachers. Doctors, Priests, astrologers, political advisers, and so on. They never changed for teaching, but those who took advantage of their knowledge supplied them with their necessities of life. The brahmanas would not accept more than necessary for a simple, austere life, and if they owned more, they would give it away in charity.
Vedic power generation. Am I proud to be an Indian? I briefly touched upon Indian’s glorious past and the abundant knowledge in Vedas and Upanishads. Having said that it is very difficult to interpret Vedas and understand the real meaning. This is mainly because the language of Sanskrit is much more complex than any other languages and each word conveys many meanings. But my simple question was if we have so much of knowledge and intellectual wealth, why can’t we use them for welfare of human beings? To my surprise, recently I found one classic example for this. Before getting into details let me give some back ground information.
One of my very close friends is working for an IT company in Bangalore and couple of months back they celebrated technology day in their organization. They invited Mr. Satish Chandra for a guest lecture.
Brahmin communities the Brahmin castes may be broadly divided into two regional groups Pancha-Gauda Brahmins from Northern India and considered as Aryans and Pancha-Dravida Brahmins from Southern India considered as Dravidian as per the shloka, holhana which is composed only in 11th CE and many communities find their traces from sages mentioned in, much older Vedas and puranas.
The earliest stage of the Vedic religion is polytheism, worship of many gods which are deified natural phenomena. The second stage is Henotheism in which the people selected particular god among these many gods and worshiped a particular time when they needed. From this henotheism later the religion developed into Monotheism later the religion developed into Monotheism, believing in one Supreme Being (Brahma) who created everything in this world. The one being has been called by many names such as purusa, prajapati and visvakarma and so on.
They placed this God as the greatest and the highest, a supreme lord of all beings (prajapati). He had the epithet prajapati or the lord of all beings whish was originally an epithet for other deities. He was a god as the repository of the highest moral and physical power, who recognized the other deities and also was given different names.
Similarly some people ascribed him feature of a creator (visvakarma). He is said to be a father of all beings and a creator or a maker of everything. The people considered him as the earliest god who was responsible for all being and natural phenomena. In order to get blessing from him the people parsied him, offered him food, engaged in sacrifices and so on.
They further developed the belief in creator or one Supreme Being during the Vedic period and Brahmana period. The stage of belief in creator God or monotheism comes into prominence till the Aranyaka period. In this period some Brahmins and Kastriyas began to doubt and sought new means of solving their problems. They gradually gave up the belief in Supreme Being or Creator God. And turned towards spiritual development.
Under this circumstance monotheism gave way to monism. The idea of the creator God in the earlier period rejected and accepted the belief that everything is manifestation of one absolute being. This being is gradually referred to as the neuter Brahman and atman. The Brahman is the universal soul, the great soul and as its counterpart there is the belief in individual soul.
It is believed that it is ignorance regarding the unity of Brahman and atman that is the root cause of the predicament of man in the Universe. Therefore knowledge regarding this unity came to be considered as the one and only mean of attaining salvation. The Upanisad as tat tvam asi and everyone could practice severe ascetic practices to realize the individual soul and universal soul as they were the one thing. Therefor, the belief in Brahman or the universal principle soul (monism) is different from the belief in Brahma or creator God (monotheism) at the earlier stage. The Brahma is considered with the physical form (metaphysical)?
According to archeological traces, Aryan people entered India at about the time of decline of the Indus civilization (about 1600 B.C) they were probably barbarian invaders, who conquered the Indus people and destroyed their cities. These Argans were nomadic herdsmens who spoke in an early form of Sanskrit, called Vedic after the earliest extant Indian texts. (the Veda) which can at present be read. The earliest of these Vedic texts of the Aryans were perhaps composed two or three centuries after the conquest. It is agreed that they migrated from Middle East, perhaps from Iran, through one of the three passages namely Khyber, Macron or Bolan, to halt in India close to the Shindu or Indus river. Thus the Indus civilization suffered a temporary eclipse at the hands of these barbaric nomads. Very soon, however, the barbarians began to follows the ways of the people they had conquered they settled permanently in villages and eventually in cities. They kept their cattle in fields and they harnessed the rivers for irrigation.
Anthropomorphism after they settled in their new Indian home, the Aryans became aware that in fact the various elements existent in nature were important factors affecting their very lives, that these natural elements were somehow powerful or out of their control and at the same time, they were much fascinated by them. Thunders , wind, rain, storm etc. held obviously, as they believed, some kind of standing personalities behind these phenomena that , as they do, possessed manlike nature. As they were aware that these natural forces or supernatural beings were mightier than they were they resolved to create a sort of alliance with these beings by singing their praises and offering worship or sacrifice to these latter in favor of a peaceful and prosper livelihood. This sort of nature worship denotes the earliest form of Vedic religion or the commencement of India’s advancement of knowledge. And this is called anthropomorphism.
Polytheism, as the relationship or alliance between the Aryans and the mighty beings pursued, the Aryans continued gradually to personify the forces of nature and to an extent converted them into particular gods. As resulted from the transitional stage from natural forces to deities, a pantheon of gods eventually emerged. And this is called polytheism, the faith in several gods.
Henotheism, Peculiar to stage of time, the Aryans were disposed to pay reverence to gods as supreme, standing side by side, but at some circumstances only one is holding the highest position. It happened that they choose the supreme gods like Indra, Varuna and Prajapjati.
In this period they seemed to have chosen varuna as the most important or highest one among the three and all the gods. This is called Henotheism. The faith in one supreme got.
I wish to take this opportunity of recording my deep sense of gratitude to all who have given me very valuable suggestions and assistance in various ways.
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