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About the belief in varna and its persistence

Any organized society establishes a hierarchical scale based on moral or practical values, in which the practice of ritual, the public administration, or the control of money, generally gives the right to positions of choice to their holders. In the traditional Hindu society the existence of castes (varna or color) finds its justification in the myth of Purusha sukra, of which existence goes back to Rig Veda, that is to say more than 3000 years. According to this myth, the brahmin (one uses also the word brahman leading to confusion), owner of knowledge and practising the functions of teacher and priest, comes from the mouth of Purusha. The kshatrya, warrior and administrator, is the arms of Purusha. The vaishya, artisant or tradesmen, is the thighs and the shudra or servant is the feet of Purusha. This last role is in no respect degrading, as emphasized in Bhaagvata Purana and other texts since the Man stands on his feet. The brahmin has a holy character for the simple reason that by his knowledge and attributions he is better qualified to succeed in the release of embodiment (moksha). The brahmicide is a horrible sin which leads to darkest hells. To release oneself from the cycle of rebirths (samsara) requires a long purification of one's former faults and a detachment of material bonds in this world, to which do not predispose the tasks of the warrior, administrator, banker or tradesman. The farm worker or any other man exercising humble tasks is generally not cultured enough for knowing all the requirements of the dharma. So, he can hope by accomplishing his role correctly to get the benefit of being reborn in a higher caste in forthcoming life. Therefore, the brahmin is called twice born, term gradually granted in the course of times to the kshatrya then to the vaishya. But the exception justifies the rule.

mam hi paartha vyapaashritya
ye pi syuh paapa-yonayah
striyo vaishyaas tathaa shudras
te pi yaanti paraam gatim

(Bh.G.9-32): Those who take shelter in Me, even though they are women, vaishya or shudra, can also attain the supreme destination.
There are many instances in the mythology of louts, in particular of devils, who reach moksha by behaving with devotion at the time of their death. Conversely, the practice of long penances, such standing a few thousands years on one foot and feeding of water then of air, often gives only the right to wise men in scriptures to go to the paradise of Indra or Brahma (Brahmaloka). Among other cases, one may feel revolted by the injustice of the gods who refuse to Trishanku, mythical king of the line of the sun and ancestor of Raama, to reach the rank of brahmin, on the pretext that he lacks of humility. He will finally be granted a place within the firmament, but the head upside down.
The originators of this system of varna had the presentiment of a loosening of moral standards, from which come the idea of a division of times in Yuga. Without entering into the details somewhat confusing of the time subdivision of Brahma life, each of His days (Kalpa during 4 billion years) is made up of 1000 mahaa yuga and each mahaa yuga is subdivided into 4 yuga named krta, tretaa, dvaapara and kali yuga, of decreasing durations. The interesting point is that during the first of these ages, the krta yuga, the men are probably all brahmin since they know the dharma- they are saatvic. During the tretaa yuga their life acquires a somewhat rajasic character and the kshatrya are authorized to practise sacrifices. The tamas becomes vigorous during dvaapara yuga and the vaishya also take part in the rites. We entered a kali yuga approximately 3000 years ago, just after the mythical battle of Kurukshetra (central event of the Mahaabhaarata epopee - see appendix), during which Lord Krishna has “given notice” to the caste of kshatrya because of their lack of respect of essential moral values (adharma).
Many Hindus are convinced that this system no more finds any justification during modern times, when one may expect that education reaches also the working classes and the warriors yielded the place to the princes of money. But on effective point of view, in the course of centuries, a system of jaati based on the ethnic origin was grafted in the varna scale, of which each jaati claims to comes within a varna, according to the principle that the social activity of an individual (varna) is prescribed by his birth (jaan). On the moral point of view, the abnegation of ego (ahamkara) is a basic virtue of Hinduism which remains of actuality. Consequently, the man who, by his moral value more than by his birth, can claim to be a brahmin deserves the devotion of common people. According to the principle of our fundamental unity within Aatman, one must facilitate the accession of this brahmin to moksha, by avoiding him to disperse his energy in material activities. My purpose by saying that is not to justify the persistence of the castes system in modern India and especially the social exclusion of out-of-caste people, fought by all men in good faith (often in a clumsy way by the politicians) but to try to explain this obvious injustice.
I should probably start by pointing out the origin of out-of-caste status (untouchable, Dalits, Harijan or “children of God”). The Aryans called Rakhsasas (devils characterized mainly by their cannibalism) the natives who did not share their faith in Veda. The tribes, not taking part in full title to the Indian society still nowadays, constitute a noticeable fraction of the population (approximately 5%). Their political status of “scheduled tribes” differs little from that of the “scheduled castes” allotted to untouchable, excluded among other things from the participation in the religious rites because of their impure activity. These impure activities include in particular all the tasks requiring the handling of the human or animal corpses, other cleaning tasks and the tanning. Their untouchability is not, to my knowledge, justified anywhere in the scriptures. Who knows if at the origin the untouchables were recruited among the servants of tribal origin? Anyway all human being deserve the respect: "man pashyati sarvatra" means clearly that God pervades all of us. In addition, if the fate reserved to the scheduled castes is infamous, the people really rejected from social progress are by their number the shudra (approximately 60% of the population) and these people find few defenders. The intra-caste marriage and more precisely intra-jaati is still the common rule, mainly because marriage within the Hindu society is a co-option of 2 families before being that of 2 individuals. The fact that 70% of the population still reside in villages supports the communalism. There does not exist an obvious solution to the paradox of communalism, which consists in associating preferably with individuals sharing the same faith, then gradually tighten the criteria to the same moral values, the same status, to finish by a list of more or less fraudulent family trees, and in any case in dividing the society. In fact, a solution lies undoubtedly in the restriction of the family ties to some close relatives, inherent in the adoption of the western lifestyle. There is no need to say that this relaxation of the family structure is regrettable in many respects: the lack of mutual aid and fate of elders in western society is to be feared in the future. One can think that the disappearance of arranged marriages between families might solve more simply the problem, but its viability still proves more reliable than for co-opted unions between individuals if one refers to the proportion of divorces. Some may argue that the stability of Hindu marriages is explained before anything else by the status of the woman: “in load of her father then of her husband to become above all other considerations a mother”. But the "pati-patli" bond which would require more detailed comments seems me to have a greater weight on the religious level than the marriage within the Christian, Jewish or Muslim communities. Then? Is this utopian to hope that, education helping, the men understand that the religious scriptures have their history and that consequently they are not indelible. A common feature of religions based on Bible is their ostracism of other groups of devotees believing in the teaching of this same book. As well the Qur'an (in Al-Baqarah sura) than the Gospels (for instance in the discussion between Jesus and Nicodem) condemn those who don't abandon their old faith for following the new prophet. To the credit of Jews, their scriptures just state that there will be no other Thora. Beside that, clergimen of all these faiths expurgated or modified some parts of their respective holy books, while declaring that they contain the only truth. Would not it be more credible to admit that all of them all the fruits of a human philosophical activity and consequently temporal and imperfect (and restore them in their integrity). Why some Hindus become so dogmatic when someone arises the question of varna, harping the refrain of traditions constituting the pillars of the society? If they feel allowed to claim that Hinduism is a progressive way of thinking, seeking improvement by the confrontation of ideas and experiments, they should sometimes question these traditions. Siddhartha Gautama Buddha took for priority in his meditation to improve the human condition, refusing even to decide as for the existence of God. As a matter of interest, note that is undoubtedly the reason of the failure of the “Buddhist religion” in India. But the refusal of the castes system made its success during a certain time, just as it continues to be one of the bases of the strength of Sikhism. So lets hope that the changes on hand in the social activities of people, in disagreement with their nominal belonging to a varna, will put an end to the contempt for the humblest servants of God (up to now called shudra and dalit).

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