Cash-tism with a Caste of Billions An Outcaste’s View on the Confusion Regarding the Classification of Humans
Cash-tism with a Caste of Billions An Outcaste’s View on the Confusion Regarding the Classification of Humans
“If by Caste one means, “Privileged by birth only and without the need for personal qualifications”, then I don’t see a culture now or throughout history that has not had problems with caste. That form of “caste” is simply the sequestering of power and privilege within family groups based on human greed and insecurity. My point here is that the thing that is called caste is a universal human distortion which occurs everywhere when birth and power are the qualification for position or status within society.”
Jeffrey Armstrong (Kavindra Rishi)
Jeffrey Armstrong /Kavindra Rishi
VASA Vedic Academy of Science & Arts
Presentation for the WAVES Conference 2011 New Jersey
REVISED May 2023 to reflect more decolonization of the English language
In the last 500 years, during which the European powers have been colonizing the world (in particular India) at an unprecedented rate, the knowledge of India has also been transferred to every country and language at an ever-increasing pace. The result is an appropriately unorganized new group of self-proclaimed Hindus calling themselves Yogis, followers of the Vedic Sanatan Dharma, Sadhus, Gurus, Hindus, etc. None of them are Indian by birth or parentage.
They are all out caste, out Jati, out of any social classification that arises from bloodlines in India. All are Ferengi, Chandala, Melecha or worse. At the least, in the Kalisampana Upanishad, the Vedic Shastra says, “Kalau shudra sambhavat” or “everyone born during Kali Yuga is a shudra until they are otherwise improved by some process.” Obviously, in this case shudra must mean an unrefined and unregenerate state of the human being that is universally capable of improvement somehow or another. This applies to India as much as anywhere.
Most of us in this group of self-proclaimed Hindus were born cow and pig eaters, drinkers, users of various drugs, often sexually promiscuous and seriously degraded by any Vedic standard. Yet, all of us have embraced the Vedic knowledge of India of our own free will, without coercion or conversion, more often in spite of contemporary Indian culture rather than because of it. As the saying goes, “For 500 years the world tried to conquer India with gunpowder and failed, but in the meantime, with no effort, India conquered the world with curry powder.” I would add that along with masala and chutney, Yoga in all its forms, which is the myriad streams of India`s ancient wisdom — is also spreading around the world.
I, Jeffrey Armstrong/Kavindra Rishi am one of the self-appointed spokespersons for this new non-group group of “born again” Hindus. We are clearly very far on the wrong side of the “Sindhu” river but if anything, our “Hindurella” (think Cinderella) story of spiritual rags to riches, makes us the smart colonizers. Instead of taking India’s wealth, we accepted the treasure of Her Spiritual knowledge. In the process, many of us abandoned our parents, culture, religion, and even financial prospects, to become Yogis/Hindus, while often our brown skinned Hindu by birth cousins were becoming wealthy working for the modern day Ravanas. It is ironic, don’t you think? Are we the Chandala vegetarians and they the meat-eating Brahmins? How do we categorize humans using Vedic knowledge?
In this article, I am going to present an outsider/insider’s view of this thorny issue of “so-called” castism, which like Vedic Culture itself, is currently misnamed. The view presented here warns us of the dangers of calling ourselves by the labels given by our enemies. I am also a completely lapsed Christian from birth and therefore have very little sympathy for a religion that once prided itself in burning people at the stake for holding minor differences in philosophical viewpoint. I have no doubt that such human barbeques in the name of Jesus would still be going on today if hardcore Protestants and Catholics were not afraid of public opinion. Therefore, before any Christian takes aim at Indian social practices with the pebbles of self-righteous criticism, they had better take a close look at the historical “rock and a hard place” where they are and have been standing.
Moreover, do not even get me started about the millions of women killed as witches by the wicked priests of Christianity. If any Christian or Muslim says that India burns women by means of Sati, just remind them that for every one instance of such behavior in peace-loving India, thousands were burned and slaughtered by their detractors in the name of Islam and Christianity. I am saying this now because I am not even going to speak to Christians and Muslims about their use of so-called caste as a whipping post for aggression toward the culture of India, which they mostly hate and wish to destroy. They are not “reformers” but rather “deformers” who will take the aggressive role with anyone who disbelieves their sham of historical respectability and supposed righteousness.
As for Islam, if we want to use the word “caste” then there are at least five built into the Sharia law; Islamic men, Islamic women, Slaves, members of other religions and kafir—the rest of us pagans and infidels who are completely disposable. And I won’t say “if they like to throw stones”, since they obviously do, but I need to point out that the culture which spread itself throughout the world by violence and depredation, raping and pillaging, is hardly in a position to criticize India about the very social problems often caused or confounded by Islamic invasion. In this case, we not only have a “caste” system, we have the ultimate totalitarian government with vengeful tribal Gods whom I call “My way or the highway Yahweh,” or “Allah you do it my way”. They are hardly the poster children for love and social equality. Under their iron, male-only thank-you fist, all three of the Abrahamic Religions have been instructed or inspired to go out into the world and kill anyone who disagrees with them and their tribal dogma.
So, right from the start I am going to reframe this conversation from an inquisition against India by Her enemies to a discussion between various practitioners of the Hindu/Vedic/Sanatan Dharma Culture. If we cannot appeal to Vedic Shastra for the answers to this inquiry, then there will only be politicized personal opinion (the other name for Kali Yuga “The Age of Quarrel” is “The Age of Opinion”). Just as there is really no such thing as a “Hindu” in the Vedas, so there is no such thing as “caste” in the Vedas. But if by caste one means, “Privileged by birth only and without the need for personal qualifications”, then I don’t see a culture now or throughout history that has not had problems with caste. That form of “caste” is simply the sequestering of power and privilege within family groups based on human greed and insecurity. My point here is that the thing that is called caste is a universal human distortion which occurs everywhere when birth and power are the only qualification for position or status within society. But anyone who has read the Vedas carefully will see that their entire message is based upon the development of very specific qualities that ennoble and enable the individual. I will show this in some detail in a moment.
My other qualification for speaking on the subject of classifying humans into groups is that for 50 years I have been a Jyotishi or Vedic Astrologer. I am always amazed that I almost never hear modern Indians speaking of Astrology except perhaps obliquely around the time of a wedding or to ask a fatalistic question or two. In addition, I never hear them speak of the Ayurvedic body types, and even worse, the three gunas is never a subject of discourse when the question, “What is a Hindu?” is raised. Yet the gunas and doshas, as well as the reincarnating atmas and their karmas, are the basis of any big picture view of society and the individual in the Vedic context. After all, guna, karma and dosha are the descriptive language of the atma’s embodied status from life to life. The next usually unspoken point is “sukriti” or “the merit accumulated from life to life that cannot be lost under any circumstances. This is not removed even by taking a low or difficult human birth”. This process is described by Bhagavan Shri Krishna. BG 6.43-44
So before going into the body of our discussion on the much-abused notion of caste, we first need to compare worldviews. Those who have invented this idea that India is a caste-based culture (from the Portuguese word “casta” meaning “privilege of birth”), have considered India their enemy for thousands of years. At the basis of this enmity is a single teaching. This is the great divide of which Kipling spoke when he said, “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.” In fact, the Catholic Church has, since the time of the Nicene Councils of Constantine, called this view the “Eastern Heresy”. I am referring of course to the basic doctrine of all Vedic thought: that there is both a transcendental world “Brahman”, and a material world “prakriti” and that all the countless living entities, in numberless universes are transcendental in nature, are from the Transcendental, and are here visiting the realms of matter to learn and gather experience through the process of reincarnation— through all the species.
In the absence of this grand worldview, life is reduced to a single, unfair, arbitrary, unjust and meaningless experience with no past, no future and no dignity for the individual. At least that is how we Vedics see it. For the Abrahamic religions, God then becomes an arbitrary dictator who awards one life in random circumstances while somehow expecting everyone to reach a difficult-to-achieve ideal under the threat of dire punishment. Meanwhile, materialistic science, the once abused child of the medieval Catholic church, promotes the religion of consumerism as the desperate goal of one meaningless life. For them there is no moral basis for existence, no other purpose or goal, and no interest in enquiry that might move them past the boundary of a “one-life” within matter paradigm.
Bharata, on the other hand, is the stronghold from which this broad-minded, all-embracing view of every living being has been emanating for tens of thousands of years or longer. So, before we accept the frame that India and ipso facto the Vedas are a “caste by birth” form of social enslavement, let us look beneath these slurs to see the inner workings of a society that holds the grandest and most ennobling worldview on our planet. One that sees eternal divine beings caught in limiting bodies due to their own previous actions or the current manipulations of others.
By the way, the next time you hear a Hindu friend say with a smile that all religions are the same, please remind him or her that such a view is naive, ignorant of the facts and a cowardly avoidance of the discomfort of disagreeing with others. Then remind your friend that Religion and Vedic Dharma are NOT the same. The same friend may reply that “Hinduism is a way of life”. Do they not know that Religion (re-ligare) means following a book of rules in all you do? The Abrahamics are followers of a religion and one book, whereas we in the Vedic culture are practitioners of Sanatana Dharma with a library of knowledge. We are aspiring to cooperate with Mother Nature and to achieve moksha or return to the transcendental. BG 7.19
This forms the necessary context for what comes next. In the Hindu/Vedic worldview, which rests upon a body of evidence called the Vedas, we are all viewed as potentially eternal, conscious, joyful, and individualized atmas who have come to prakriti and are currently encased in bodies made of the “gu” of matter. BG 7.13 So just as guru means “matter remover” (ru = to remove), guna means the state, mode or stage of development of any particular piece of the goo. The “gu” itself is unconscious, inert, static, temporary in form and without distinct individuality or volition. This definition forms the basis of Vedic Science. BG 7.5-6
All matter is infused with energy at the moment of creation. It maintains that energy for some time and then finally breaks down and is recycled. The core principles of modern science —the two laws of thermodynamics—were “borrowed” from this Vedic formulation: 1) Matter is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes form, and 2) All matter goes from a higher state of energy to a lower state over time by giving off energy and waste. This is the ‘so called’ Law of Entropy within matter, but for thousands of years it has been the Vedic Law of the Three Gunas. BG 14.3-27
In BG 2.4-5, Bhagavan says that the Vedas are mostly about the three Gunas —which a yogi must learn to transcend. Early in the book, BG3.38, he describes the gunas as coverings upon the atma like 1) smoke covering a fire, 2) Dust covering a mirror or 3) the womb covering the embryo. These are called rajas, sattva, and tamas. With this knowledge in mind, any piece of the “gu”, or any person covered in the “gu”, can be classified according to the degree and density of this covering and whether they are governed in their behavior by the Creative, the Sustaining or the Destructive forces of Nature. It is inevitable, then, that beings of a similar guna are attracted to each other or are repelled by one another. With a scientific method like the gunas, it is this discernment or “discrimination” that forms the basis of everyday life choices. One must develop “good judgment” regarding the guna of every person, object, plant, and animal etc. In some ways, this is no more complicated than expecting a surgeon to have clean hands or a cook not to eat in the kitchen. It would perhaps be simple, except the material world is a school where all the atmas of any given society are in different grades. Some look like humans but their behaviors are still animalistic. Others are selfishly human and self-centered and still others are looking to cooperate with Nature.
In other words, some are mostly tamasic. At a higher level of development, some are very driven by their sensual appetites – a mix of tamas and rajas. Another level up, they are highly focused and driven by an intense creative force and need to rule or exert control —Rajas and Maharajas. And finally, the upper class who are sattvic are almost ready to graduate. They are very refined, with hardly any material desires remaining. Since these gunas always co-exist within matter and can never fully agree, they must always compete against one another to some degree. The Vedic question has always been, “How do we create a society where sattva rules, while leaving room for those in rajas and tamas to grow through experience in their respective gunas?” And what do we do with those who refuse to work within the Vedic cultural process?
Now, meditate on that tension of the gunas in society—bearing in mind that the gunas create an unavoidable rivalry in Nature and a constant tension with one another in the struggle for supremacy. Remember, also, that due to the downward pull of entropy, (tamas) down is always the easiest way to go. The rule of the gunas is, “Whatever you associate with— you become like”, or “like attracts like”. Therefore, the big question for humans is, “What ARE you GUNA do?”
The next piece of Vedic information we need to deconstruct—the “caste” misunderstanding—has to do with the nature of our own body/mind complex.
As I mentioned earlier, Ayurveda and Jyotisha both have an important contribution to add to this conversation. Just as all processes within nature (prakriti) are contained within the actions and reactions of the three gunas, so the substance of the “gu” is divided into five component elements: earth/prithivi, water/apas, fire/agni, air/vayu, and space/akasha. All things within prakriti are made of some specific combination of these elements. The result for humans is a system that delineates the ten Ayurvedic body types — with each type designed to perform specific tasks in life according to the mix of the five elements. Just as there are various cars or trucks built for specific tasks, we humans are born into a body or vehicle that is intended to perform a certain kind of work. This Five Element body type is called one’s “dosha” and just like our genetic code, it is fixed at birth and can only be slightly modified. This is where Ayurveda and Vedic astrology meet. The function for which our body/mind was designed can be seen by a skilled Jyotish. Without this inside knowledge, it is more difficult to discover the ideal occupation or marriage partner for your particular body type.
This specific body type is not a direct reflection of family, class, or other birth-related social factors. Every body is built for a specific use and will perform best at that skill. This is a non-negotiable within Vedic Science. The Sanskrit term for this body type and the nature and abilities contained within it is “svadharma” or “one’s own particular occupational nature”. Both Jyotishis and Ayurvedic Vaidyas are experts in determining this specific material Nature. Astrologers see it from within through the horoscope and Vaidyas from without through pulses and examination. It is this “dosha” that needs to be discovered in order to direct a child to the proper educational path, no matter what the parents’ work may be.
The gunic propensity is also visible in the horoscope at birth, but guna can be greatly modified by association. Knowing this, the Vedic culture implemented 16 basic samskaras or refining processes, designed to improve the guna of all members of society. Anyone within the fold of Vedic culture would participate in these anti-entropic rituals – ideally conducted by real brahmins, the learned and sattvic class of persons who were supposed to be solidly situated in sattva and constantly connected to Brahman the Transcendental. The brahmins’ job being to constantly tug society upward toward the freedom and cooperation of sattva, and away from the chaos and destruction of tamas. This is the real meaning of the proverbial ‘tug of war’ between the devas and asuras – the churning of the milk ocean out of which all good things (and some inevitable poison) are constantly arising.
Now let us add one more unique feature into the equation, before we explain the inner workings of the idealistic Vedic culture. As I mentioned earlier, the Vedas are not one book with a few stories, moral instructions, and rules for everyday living. The Vedas are a library of both “transcendental” and “material” knowledge. That library is written and spoken in Sanskrit, the most precise language existing on our planet. The 4,000 grammatical rules and perfect construction of Sanskrit make it possible for an entire library to move forward through time without becoming degraded or distorted by linguistic drift or coercive social pressure. But in order for this to be possible, the six Vedangas or supportive limbs of the Vedas—grammar/vyakarana, etymology/nirukta, phonetics/shiksha, rituals/ kalpa, poetry/chandas, and astrology/jyotish had to travel along with the Vedic library, to ensure its survival.
Given that the culture and knowledge of the Vedas are vast, they always needed a specific class of humans who could be trained not only as a living “recorder” of the knowledge but as an “interpreter and example” of it. In addition, the six kinds of scholars required for the six different Vedangas had to be trained and supported in each successive generation. They also need to be sattvic in their behavior. Under ideal social circumstances, a universal education system would naturally try to find those persons most qualified for this very demanding and precise learning. In fact, it is always in the best interest of the Vedic culture to find such talented individuals and train them properly. To perform this crucial service to society, they must have very high-level intellectual skills, and they also need to be in Sattva Guna in order to wholly dedicate themselves to embodying the content of the Vedas and by so doing inspire others to hear its messages.
In order for this otherwise “unproductive group” of “knowledge workers” to exist and function safely and securely, they required the support of a second social group. They needed “protectors” who were skilled in the use of weapons and were capable of managing the logistics of a country. It is hard for most moderns who have not studied martial arts, to understand that before modern weapons, the skills of a warrior required many years of sophisticated training and was a necessary and valuable part or the equation for society to flourish. In the modern world there is no required curriculum of training for political leaders. This means they enter office through manipulation and power but are not qualified in the actual qualities of a ruler.
As much as we might think that in a Democracy, those ruling the world are elected, the Vedic truth is that it is always power that rules. An election cannot remove power for long from those who have it. In every so-called modern democracy, behind the scenes is the coercion of raw power. In the Vedic culture, at its most ideal, those in power revered and supported the more peaceful and refined learned Brahmin class of workers and thus their Kshatria power protected the Vedas and society but was simultaneously held in check by the wisdom of its sage counselors. This is just the opposite of our modern world in India and elsewhere—where persons of no training or character can possess and learn to use weapons of immense power. At least in ancient times, the very process of learning to wield power imbued more character into those so intensely trained.
Intrinsic to this highly organized and cooperative Vedic society, was a third group of persons whose ability and temperament suited them to produce and manage wealth, food and resources. The sacred trust held by this group was first and foremost to honor Mother Earth. Unlike the exploitive producers of modern life, these highly skilled Vaishyas managed the cycle of harvesting, renewal and restoration of the forests, land, waterways and animal kingdom. In the absence of such Earth-centric wisdom, it is well known that a civilization will degrade and be destroyed in a few short generations, as soil becomes depleted and water becomes polluted. This group functioned as the energy scientists – masters of the Laws of Nature but also working in close cooperation with all living entities. This group also needed the protection of warriors and the inspiration of the sage/scholars. Through the study of history, it is well known that only those societies with surplus food production over a long time period, can develop a sophisticated and sustainable culture.
Finally, the most abundant— and essential—class of people on a day-to-day basis, were the many artisans, skilled craftsmen, laborers, musicians, dancers, performers and those in various positions of necessary service. Because this shudra work group is always engaged in supportive and confidential services, their trustworthiness and dedication are crucial to everyone’s well-being.
By now, you should be remembering the Purusha Sukta verses of the Rig Veda (RV 90.10) wherein the Parama Purusha explains that this world of matter is one-fourth of existence, while Brahman, the transcendental, is three-fourths. The Supreme Being then says that this world is one of His great forms, which consists of a head, arms and shoulders, stomach and feet. These four work groups are NOT inventions of any one culture. They are archetypal functions that are the eternal concomitant of all human life within matter, regardless of their country of origin.
Now, to make the connection between the gunas and the doshas— it is first the dosha or body type that determines the class of or kind of work appropriate to each individual. Even though the full delineation of the classes of workers is more complex than just four types, for the purposes of explanation, simply imagine that there are four models of vehicles, each of which is suited to a particular kind of work. In this case, the first qualification for being in a specific svadharma or class of workers is one’s body type or vehicle type.
You cannot be a scholar without the ‘intelligent’ vehicle, a warrior without the ‘powerful’ vehicle, a producer without the ‘practical’ vehicle or a server without the ‘general-purpose’ vehicle. The Vedas always intended that a function be performed by someone with specific skills. Those skills have nothing to do with family of origin, parentage, or social position. They are purely objective measurable skills and qualities that are made up of various combinations of the five elements. Every human body falls into one of these four types by virtue of its—manufacturing specifications—and after birth this cannot be changed. This classification by ability has nothing to do with so-called caste or family of birth — it is simply determined by the previous karmas of the atma who was born with a particular body.
If the Vedic culture had only been concerned with functionality, then its understanding of the body types would have created a very sophisticated class system of workers according to skill. Since the four worker types are universal, some version of worker divisions by skills are visible worldwide. In one way, no one can effectively argue against self-evident abilities. Just like Karna in the Mahabharata, whose skills as a warrior could neither be hidden nor suppressed, or like the sons of Bharata Maharaja, who though indisputably warriors by birth and training, were still not considered by their father to have the true qualities of a king.
While it is true that skills, inherent ability and training qualified someone to be a candidate for a certain Svadharma, the final qualification rested upon a person’s guna. To quote Maharaja Yudhisthira in the Mahabharata:
Yaksha: “What makes one a brahmana, birth, learning or behaviour?”
Yudhisthira: “It is behaviour alone that makes a person a Brahmin. Even one who is expert in the four Vedas, born of brahmin parents, but whose behaviour is not sattvic, should not be considered a Brahmin.”
Remember again that the Vedic culture, while acknowledging the importance of ability in earthly activities, is actually rooted in a higher aspiration. The whole system revolves around moving the atmas up the ladder of the gunas until they are ready to graduate from the material world and return to the Transcendental Realm of Brahman. A mere scholar or intellectual worker is not a Brahmin. Only one, who remains constantly connected to Brahman and has the requisite abilities and knowledge of the Vedas, can properly be called a Brahmin. Such a person may or may not come from a family with a long-standing tradition of performing such work in society.
Since like attracts like, a certain percentage of the time an atma with compatible qualities would often be born into a similar family. In fact, the lifestyle of a true Brahmin was so refined and precise, that the birth of a child would have been preceded by research on the most favorable astrological moment for the conception. This included many rituals of purification and very purposeful rituals of procreation with the express purpose of bringing a spiritually advanced soul into the world. When the culture of India was working ideally, family lineages of such purity and scholarship were not unusual; some even exist today. But lest we think this is the only way a great Brahmin can appear on Earth, the greatest Guru of them all Shri Veda Vyasa, the son of Parasara Muni and Satyavati, the unmarried daughter of a fisherman, should answer anyone’s doubts about parentage being the only indicator of societal status in the Vedic culture. Of course, there are numerous other similar examples.
To summarize, the Brahman and Kshatriya classes of the Vedic society formed a dynamic balance between the link to the Transcendental Brahman and the maintenance of a balanced system of social administration that protected the Vedic knowledge and ensured its unbroken passage from generation to generation. This meant that Brahmin class of workers had to be vastly knowledgeable and inspiringly sattvic. They had to control the insurmountable powers of rajas with the purity and tapas of pure sattva. Everything depended on this upward pull against the downward pull of tamas and the ever-present entropy of matter. Furthermore, the Vaishya class, responsible for production, received guidance from the Brahmin class and was safeguarded by the Kshatriya class, ensuring their motivation to distribute wealth in a beneficial manner throughout the societal structure.
Seven thousand years ago, at the beginning of the Kali Age, Bhagavan Sri Krishna staged the conclusion to an epic conflict that we know as the Mahabharata. That inter-familial quarrel demonstrated all the problems that were about to afflict both India and the planet. The Royal Kuru and Pandu cousins both had the skills of a Kshatriya, but they did not both have the desire to serve the sattvic goal of moksha. For this purpose, the Purna Avatar Bhagavan Shri Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita and supervised the playing out of the Battle of Kurukshetra, that is to say Dharmakshetra—where Arjuna had to decide between the affection of family or the principle of sattva guna and the higher aspirations of Sanatan Dharma culminating in moksha. Yudhisthira as dharma personified, embodied the principle of a raja who was completely dedicated to protecting the Brahmins or sattva. It is also said that in the great battle, Arjuna had four enemies; blood relations, prestige of habit, established social customs, and obsolete ideologies of the past.
Finally, in the chaotic aftermath of the Kurukshetra war, many social and family problems took root. Gradually the four working classes lost their cohesion. Brahmins lost their purity, truthfulness, and simplicity. Kshatriyas became greedy and abusive rather than noble and protective. Vaishyas began to exploit rather than protect the natural resources. Shudras became disillusioned and lost their loyalty and commitment. Unless these downwards trends can be reversed by renewed inspiration at the leadership level— it is unlikely that the social situation will change from the bottom up.
Kali Yuga —the “Age of Quarrel”, when people are willing to harm each other over differences, not of truth —but of opinion. “Kalau Shudra Sambavat.” Here shudra is not a caste or even a class of workers. The word shudra also means, “destined to suffer as a result of ignorance.” From the Vedic point of view, there is no cure for our social ills except to strive toward sattva guna in a co-operative society based on both skills and moral qualities. Only this leads to moksha or freedom from the bondage to matter. In the Gita, the gunic and doshic qualities of the four working groups are delineated, with the three gunas given the most detailed description. They are the engine of refinement which elevates all atmas from the grasp of ignorance to the creativity of rajas and finally to the clarity and peace of sattva. In true Vedic thinking there is no “caste” issue per se, just a departure from the gunas and dosha as determiners of “svadharma” or “right action for each person in this life.” BG14.5-18; 7.1-22; 18.7-9, 20-40; 18.41-45 (4 orders); 18.45-48 (duty).
Where does this leave us in the Modern World of Kali Yuga, in our attempts to reform, revive and redefine the badly damaged practice of the Vedic evolutionary society?
One important point is that the accusation of casteism in India has been a deliberate strategy employed by Christians, Muslims, and various colonial powers to obscure the profound truths of Vedic Dharma. Over the past 1,250 years, these external forces have capitalized on social problems caused by their own influence to justify their intervention and claim a right to interfere in the social structure of India.
The intervention being imposed directly contradicts Vedic culture and poses a threat to its existence. Consequently, adopting the "caste by birth" framework is not a viable strategic approach to improving the situation in India or elsewhere. The key lies in revitalizing the integrity and qualities (gunas) of the four working classes. Only by pursuing this path can the Vedic ethos be restored, leading to a society driven by liberation (moksha).
This eliminates the entire concept of permanent “untouchability” as an intention of the Vedic culture. It is certainly true that to a sattvic individual, some objects or persons are too unclean to eat or live with. This exists in all modern societies around the world. Unclean people living on the street would not be allowed to enter certain restaurants or areas of business. However, according to Vedic culture, such people are not supposed to become de facto slaves or a permanently disenfranchised group just by circumstance of birth. Yet to call such groups of persons ‘castes’, ‘outcasts’ or ‘untouchables’, is only to exacerbate the problem. To confuse that problem with the original intention of Vedic culture is only to cause more confusion. This suits the enemies of Vedic culture who while espousing Democracy, Marxism or any religion, have no idea of the gunas or the Transcendental Brahman nor the higher aims of the Vedic culture.
Next, it is crucial to expose the real modern causes of class disenfranchisement — the current legal, corporate, energy and monetary systems that are rapidly destroying the entire world. The problems in India are not as much "caste" based, they are "cash" based. By that, I do not mean that India simply needs more money — India has a great deal of wealth. The real problem is much deeper and is rooted in a distorted and illusory concept of progress that uses "castism" as a whip to demonize the sad remnants of a once great Vedic cultural ideal. My proposition for your consideration is that the wrongly named "castism” problem, though a real degradation within Indian society, is insignificant compared to the global pandemic of the new social order which I call “CASH-tism”. Cash-tism is a system in which the top 10% have more wealth than the bottom 80-90% at the expense of the planet and everyone else’s well-being. On the other hand, castism involves the transmission of power, privilege, or wealth to unqualified individuals solely based on their birth status.
Throughout India's long history, determining a person's class or category of being and function by birth alone, has always been a symptom of social degradation. At times this has occurred from within, or from without AND within, as is the case now, as the byproduct of more than a thousand years of brutal colonization. Instead of defending the badly damaged Vedic civilization from charges of complicity in a Portuguese word and concept "castism" — a derogatory naming that was imported by India’s enemies, let’s look closer at the real underlying problem, the "new" and supposedly free and democratic world of "CASH-tism."
The forward push of European colonization coincided with the development of increasingly violent weapons based on gunpowder rather than martial skill. For the Kshatriya class in India, the Samurai in Japan, or in the "chivalrous" courts of Europe’s nobility, the restraint in the use of force, protection of women, children and the elderly and the inclusion of artistry, honor and justice were a crucial part of every warrior’s training. With the increasing potency of weapons, armies started to comprise predominantly of inexperienced and expendable soldiers, often referred to as "cannon fodder.". These changes combined with long years of brutal warfare have virtually destroyed India's martial culture. The result of this decline of the true protective warrior spirit is reflected in police, soldiers and politicians who have made bribery rather than honor a way of life. The degrading force that has made this catastrophic and colossal global degradation possible is "fiat paper money."
As the Industrial revolution went into high gear through the use of non-renewable fossil fuel energies like gas and petroleum, the whole planet began a fevered disassociation from any sense of cyclic or renewable lifestyle. There are several obvious results of this race against the Laws of Nature. The first is a new form of corporate colonialism by which, all the previously conquered cultures like India, Africa, South and Central America, have been exploited even more relentlessly. The abuse of natural resources is causing steadily increasing pollution, densely populated and a debt-based economy with criminal leaders posing as democratic leaders or outright and aggressive dictatorships. Again, in all these fragmented cultures, life has become dislocated from Nature, slums abound, 5% - 10% are rich while 90-95% are poor. Violence, kidnapping and pollution abound. Now that the end of fossil fuel energy is within sight, the recent financial pillaging on Wall Street by supposedly honorable banking institutions shows that the social ravages of "CASH-tism" are reaching life-threatening proportions for the entire planet.
The Common Market countries —and especially the UK, EU, Canada, and America —are the poster children for greed, manipulation and no substantial efforts to achieve anything vaguely resembling global sustainability. North America, a small fraction of world population, uses more than 40% of world resources. This can be seen as a version of the Roman Empire in the modern era, albeit with more severe consequences. It is a purported democracy that enslaves the rest of the world by creating paper money without any tangible value to back it, all while possessing the largest arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
This is global " CASH-tism," the culture of empty money, endless greed, power without restraint and this culture has the nerve to accuse India of social problems using a word like ‘castism’ to put India on the defensive. Mother India who invented vegetarianism, organic gardening, healthy child birthing, sustainability over tens of thousands of years; India who never forced her Vedic knowledge onto a single culture, who is and has been the champion of peace, non-violence and human respect for all life, India who was recently honored by the Jewish people for being the only culture in their history not to persecute them and to always give them shelter. This country, who has been the Global Guru for thousands of years, shining the light of eternal wisdom while others lived in darkness. In a world that has seemingly lost its sanity, post-colonial India faces its own set of challenges. However, within its borders lies the potential remedy that can guide the entire world towards a sustainable future.
It is unnecessary to remind you that India is currently facing relentless assaults on its temples, rivers, resources, and the very essence of its culture from various sources. While the issue of claiming superiority based on birth is indeed a real problem in certain locations, the root cause lies in the insecurity stemming from an uncontrollable global culture fueled by greed, driven by technology, private armies, weapons of mass destruction, and facilitated by computers that enable widespread deceit and exploitation of the middle and lower classes on a global scale. The true solution to India's social problems lies in breaking free from the dominance of global "CASH-tism."
This will require a new spirit of honorable Kshatriya leadership, and true Brahmins who embody Brahman and are learned spokespersons for the Vedic principles. When India resumes her place in leading the world toward sustainability, free of graft and bribery, portraying all living beings as potentially divine, then the internal issues of class distinction will heal.
This is why the Gita states that each work group must lead and be led by personal example. “Yad yad acharati shrestas…lokas tad anuvartate.” (BG 3.21) By recovering her original intention India may again heal the internal fragmentation that all ancient and indigenous global cultures are experiencing in this final stage of colonization — a pending global collapse driven by “CASH-tism.”
The modern myth is that countries like the USA and Canada somehow represent a classless society based in personal freedom and democracy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The recent world asset robbery of billions of dollars by Wall Street and their allied global partners has reduced the middle class in N. America by 40-60%. One-in-four U.S. parents say they’ve struggled to afford food or housing in the past year. Additionally, about half of lower-income parents (52%) say they have not had enough money for food or their rent or mortgage.
At the core of this global crime of asset theft are a group of the world’s wealthiest families who form a “caste” unto themselves. They are privileged only by birth, family wealth or money acquired by ruthlessly exploiting the planet and all her human, plant, and animal inhabitants. This “caste” is the real problem that the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), India and the Diaspora Indian community should be focusing upon.
The Vedas are very clear about who these beings are. “Hypocrisy, arrogance, pride, anger, insolence, ignorance, impurity, lack of discernment, behaving badly, untruthful, atheistic, cruel, deluded, unclean, hypocritical, based on false notions, self-conceited, stubborn, opposed to the Vedic conclusion, driven by endless desires, malicious, they declare that the Universe is without an intelligent basis, without Divine design or purpose, caused only by sexual desire and powered only by lust. Filled with endless anxiety for material status and possessions, they live only for the gratification of their senses. To achieve this, bound by a hundred snares of false-hope and devoted to desire and anger, they pursue hoards of wealth by unjust means for the gratification of their unlimited sensual desires led astray by vain imaginings, enveloped in a net of illusion— they fall into a hellish condition.” BG. Chapter 16 – The Devic and Asuric Nature.
While the Indian community is shadow boxing with social issues like “caste,” trying to prove themselves as somehow proper to their enemies, they are avoiding the real fight for the future of India and our planet. In case you have not noticed, the U.S. and Canada still have their indigenous First Nations cultures captive and in poverty with no sign of changing their policies. The youth of India from any class background are simply viewed as an intellectual asset, destined to work passively in “CASH-tism” corporations to finish the job of enslaving and exploiting the entire planet. So, without a vision of India as a self-sufficient and sustainable culture and in the absence of morally empowered and outspoken Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras in a new truth-based coalition to create a sustainable future – any attempts to liberate the bottom of the social structure are doomed to failure and will merely be manipulated by crooked politicians.
The Vedic teaching that all living entities are at their core, divine and transcendental beings, was never intended to mean that ‘all beings are equal’ in the way they are manifested on Earth. Our planet is a school, a Universe-ity within which every atma is in a different grade of learning and being. All men/women are not “created equal”— it is their eternal atma that makes them the same—in essence, and yet unique. The gunas and doshas and the continually unfolding karmas of every human being indicate their unique individuality, grade level and responsibilities or duties in life.
In every city in the world there are people living in filth and ignorance. It is the responsibility of Vedic leaders to globally offer opportunities for all humans to improve their guna. But if someone insists upon living in Tamas then they make themselves more or less “untouchable” by those who are clean (sattvic). This is part of the nature of free –will and the material experience. There will always be a clean class and a dirty class, and the clean class will never want to eat food prepared by the unclean/tamasic persons. But those who are sattvic still need to lead the tamasic persons upward with compassion and inspiration. In the Vedic culture this tension between our eternal potential and how we are currently embodying, is the basis of the Brahmin class steadily pulling us upward against the entropy of matter. This tension is not a social problem — it is the problem.
All living entities on the planet are learning through experience within matter. With their free-will, they can choose to change their guna and finally choose to leave matter altogether and return to the Transcendental. They can also choose the dark life of an exploitive and destructive Asura, whose only class distinction is “CASH-tism” or they can emulate the Devas — the invisible beings who function as the Laws of Nature, by cooperating in a cyclic sustainable life of light and truth, following their Svadharma, pursuing the goals of Sanatan Dharma and working for the good of all beings. At this dark moment in our world's history, we need Vedic wisdom more than ever.
Satyam eva jayate. - Truth Alone will Triumph
Contact info: Jeffrey Armstrong
www.JeffreyArmstrong.com
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