Shudra and India's Caste System
Shudra, the
lowest rung on the ladder of India’s caste system, is a word that is a
flashpoint for ideological, religious, political, moral, and ethical
discussions—and arguments.
“Brahmana class did not come independently
into existence. Just as the human being is the highest form in evolution, the
Brahmana is the highest stage in human evolution. The original stage of the
human form was Shudra, who with the help of Brahmakriya, ascended to the stage
of Brahmana.” –
The
Talks of Sadguru Upasani-Baba Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A, page 31
I have been
reading The Talks of Sadguru Upasani-Baba Maharaja for over thirty
years. These talks contain spiritual treasures that cannot be found anywhere
else and I have been inspired to share them with others—but there are some
difficulties…
First, there
is the question of language. The talks were given primarily in Marathi, written
down, and then translated into English by Indian speakers, and so the talks do
not read in a way that is familiar to most Western readers.
Second, the
majority of Upasani Maharaj’s followers were Hindus and thus, though the
subject matter of his talks is universal, he often uses language and
terminologies that require a measure of familiarity with Vedic philosophy and
Hindu customs, traditions, and practices, as well as a working knowledge of the
various forms of yoga practiced by serious seekers of Truth in the East and
West..
Third, these
talks are the talks of a God-Realized Master and so reflect his Infinite Knowledge
and direct experience of states of
consciousness that lie beyond the experience of the average person. But, as
Kabir said, “Until you experience it, it
is not true,” and so when there are claims that one is a Perfect Master—a
God Realized Soul—whose knowledge is Infinite and unquestionable, then where
one stands in relationship to the personage and authority of such a being is a
factor in how one responds to his words and deeds.
And there is
a forth problem also that is revealed
in this statement by Avatar Meher Baba; “In
the Spiritual Game, the loser rejoices and the winner feels ashamed!” How
at odds do the Spiritual Game and the Game of Life appear to be—and how often
are the differences misinterpreted!
But, first,
what is the Game of Life? – for India’s caste system creates a model for how
the game of life is to be played; and with regard to a human being, the
elements that make up the conditions of the game have been inherited from the evolution
of the soul’s consciousness through previous animal forms and consist almost exclusively
of the activities of:
Eating
Sleeping
Keeping from being eaten
Procreating
1
These four
domains of activity consume 100% of the animal form’s attention and it is the
same for the human form throughout most of the Process of Reincarnation. Only
after a sufficient number of incarnations does consciousness begin free itself
from these four domains of activity and to edge closer to the Process of Involution—the
path to God— the path that leads to the consciousness of Infinite and Eternal Self.
There is no
real freedom in the stages of evolution, reincarnation, and involution, but, as
consciousness begins to work its way free of the four domains, it does begin to
experience what can be called the shadow
of freedom in such forms of leisure as the arts, sports, and various
intellectual, religious and spiritual interests. Of course, these activities
are not free of the concerns of the four domains—the concerns just become more
and more refined—less gross—until consciousness can begin to experience through
these forms a sense of the real freedom which finds its absolute
and ultimate expression in the consciousness of God.
As Meher
Baba put it, it is all a dream until one awakens. Evolution, Reincarnation, and
Involution are all dreams within dreams within a dream, but there is a
distinction between the dream of life and the divine dream of becoming God, or,
it can be said, between the Game of Life and the Spiritual Game.
Karma is the cards that one holds, and Dharma is the way that one plays those
cards. In Evolution and most of Reincarnation there is no real Dharma because
the cards, as it were, play themselves. Especially in Evolution, the cards play
themselves and play themselves perfectly—unless the cards have been tainted by
proximity to unnatural impressions
acquired through contact with the human form when it is itself tainted with unnatural impressions. This is
especially true during the cycle of time called Kali Yuga—the Yuga we still find ourselves in these days.
Choice
begins to emerge toward the end of the Stage of Reincarnation. This choice is
by no means absolute. Meher Baba once asked a follower to pick up one leg when
he was standing. The follower did so. Then Meher Baba asked him to pick up his
second leg…
The limited
choice that can be exercised in the Game of Life and the Spiritual Game is
called Dharma. Dharma, as said before, is the way one chooses to play the
karmic cards ones has been dealt, but
these games are very subtle games,
because their aims and rules appear to change with the consciousness of the
game player and his or her position in the Stages of Reincarnation or Involution.
Also too, at a certain point, both the Game of Life and the Spiritual Game are
realized to be only different aspects of the same one game—the Game of God’s Awakening.
The Glass Bead Game
We re-enact with
reverent attention
The universal chord,
the master’s harmony,
Evoking in unsullied
communion
Minds and times of
highest sanctity.
We draw upon the
iconography
Whose mystery is able
to contain
The boundlessness, the
storm of all existence,
Give chaos form, and
hold our lives in rein.
The pattern sings like
crystal constellations,
And when we tell our
beads, we serve the whole,
And cannot be dislodged
or misdirected,
Held in the orbit of
the Cosmic Soul.
– The Glass Bead Game, a novel
by Hermann Hesse
In India’s
caste system, Shudra is considered to be the lowest rung of the ladder. But
what does that really mean? Upasani Maharaj’s Talk illumines this question from
the perspective of a God-Realized Perfect Master.
From the
Truth perspective of the God Realized Masters, all life and all creation has
but one objective and one purpose and that is to evolve and involve consciousness
so that the Eternal Infinite soul can realize it’s Eternal Infinite Reality.
The process is not as difficult to understand as many have made it out be.
Consciousness evolves through numerous forms from gaseous to stone, stone to
vegetable, insects to reptiles, etc. until it reaches the final form, the human
form.
Creation is
characterized by duality, every light has its shadow; every knowing has its
unknowing; every pain has its pleasure; every face has two eyes; and every left
has its right…
By
experiencing an almost endless array of opposites, the dust—what Meher Baba
calls sanskaras—that covers the
mirror of consciousness is loosened and ultimately removed.
Attainment
of the human form marks the achievement of full consciousness, but that consciousness
needs to be wiped clean of the dust of its journey through Evolution. Numerous
lifetimes in the human form—the Process of Reincarnation—loosens the dust from
the mirror sufficiently to allow the Process of Involution to then remove that
dust so that the Eternal and Infinite soul can see and then merge with its own
Eternal Infinite Reality.
“If we have to come back, we cannot stop it.
We are in a train, the train is going somewhere. All we can do is to pass the
time in the train differently…”—The Fourth Way, by P.D. Ouspensky, final sentence,
page 437
Meher Baba
tells us that the end—union with God—union with Self—is assured for each and
every soul in creation. But if we are not driving the train, is there a best
and most expedient way to pass our time while on the train?
Meher Baba
was very clear on this point, He said, “Don’t
worry, be happy!” The Lord wants us, each and every one of us, to be happy,
but this happiness is something other than the endless pendulums of pleasure
and pain so often experienced in life.
Time
revolves in endless cycles of Yugas. There are four Yugas. We are now experiencing
the end of the fourth Yuga in the cycle. Like the seasons, Yugas do not change
all at once—a day in late summer that feels like fall—eventually those days
come more often, summer wains and eventually gives way to the new season.
We are now
in that transitional period between the end of Kali Yuga and beginning of Satya
Yuga. Satya is a Golden Age; souls born in Satya are totally oriented to the
light; spirituality is natural and there is no need for austerities, penances,
or yogic practices.
But as the
cycle of Yugas progress, more shadows begin to appear and the need for techniques
and teachings become more necessary. India’s caste system can be traced back to
the transition between the third and fourth Yugas of the cycle—Dwapara and
Kali—though it may have existed before then…
References
to India’s caste system can be found in the Bhagavad Gita—the source of
the teachings of Krishna who lived in the transitional time between Dwapara and
Kali. Kali is generally understood to have begun around 3102 BC. So, India’s
caste system’s origin is at least 5,000 years ago. Using Ouspensky’s analogy of
the train, the purpose of India’s caste system is to assist embodied souls to
best use their time on the train.
It is my
understanding that the choice of actions while on the train has more effect on
the ‘happiness index’ of the individual than on the overall time of the
individual’s journey—in the sense that the journey can be more or less
difficult. To speed up the journey requires the Grace of the Avatar or a Perfect Master.
Shudra is inspired by a talk by Upasani
Maharaj titled of The Glory of Faith – The Talks of Sadguru Upasani
Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A. It focuses on, what for many readers may find a very uncomfortable
subject, India’s caste system and what is considered the lowest rung of that ladder,
the caste called Shudra.
In the
opening statement of His talk, Upasani Maharaj tell us that human form
represents the crowning creation of evolutionary consciousness that began with the
stone form and evolved through the mineral, vegetable, worm, fish, bird,
reptile, and animal forms. He then goes on to say that of the human form represented
by the Brahman class represents the highest stage in human evolution and the
Shudra class represents the lowest, or the first, stage in human evolution.
“It is the human form alone that is capable
of understanding—knowing—attaining—enjoying the Original state—the Brahma; that
is the reason for the creation of the human form.
“Since the visible human form is the
natural outcome of the formless invisible Brahma, the first stage of that form
is bound to be of the highest importance; this primary—original—human state has
to be given some name for the purpose of identification, and hence the name
explaining the natural state of Brahma was chosen for it, and that epithet is
Shudra.
“I have told times out of numbers
that names are given in accordance with the qualities presented by the subject.
It is on this principle that the epithet Shudra was chosen to name the primary
human form. I will now tell you what is the real—the subtle—meaning of the word
Shudra.
“The word Shudra consists of three letters—Shu,
plus ut, plus ra; Shu means Shuddha—pure—without any
admixture; ut means high—higher status; ra means luminous, full
of knowledge, Satchitananda (knowledge, power, and bliss) Brahma (Creator).
Thus the primary state of the human form is Brahma itself; or it could be said
that primary evolutional human stage of Brahma has been named Shudra.” – The Talks of Sadguru Upasani
Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A, pages 32-33
Much of the
meaning of this statement hinges on the meaning of the terms primary state of the human form and primary evolutional human stage. In God
Speaks Meher Baba distinguishes the first human form from the birth of a
human being:
“This (most first) human form is no other
than the consolidated mold or cast of the impressions of the most-last species
of animal-form.” – God
Speaks, 2nd edition, page 28
Unlike
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution which is concerned with the evolution of forms,
Meher Baba uses the term evolution to mean the evolution of consciousness. In God
Speaks, Meher Baba details the evolution of consciousness through all of
the gross forms of creation from stone to vegetable to fish, bird, and
animal—all the forms that lead up to the first human form. This first human
form stands on the line of demarcation between the last animal form and the
first birth of a human being. With
the first birth of a human being begins the process that Meher Baba calls reincarnation:
“Through the first-most human-form the
consciousness of the souls experiences and exhausts the impressions of the
most-last species of animal-form.
“When all the impressions of the
most-last species of animal-form are experienced and exhausted by the
consciousness of the soul, then the soul dissociates itself from the most-first
human form and the conscious soul automatically drops or sheds the body
association. This is called the death
of the most-first human form.”—Ibid.
In the next
paragraph Meher Baba explains that when the soul identifies with the next human
form it is called “the birth of a human
being.” —Ibid. page
29
One question
I have is whether Upasani Maharaj’s use of the term Shudra is synonymous with
the first-human form or the form called the first human being? I tend to favor
the former over the latter, but with reservations…
In His talk
Upasani goes on to describe the qualities of the primary state of the human form:
“Now look at the qualities presented the
Shudra. He does not generally play any part in the good or bad affairs of the
world. He just works for the bare necessities of life. He has not much
impression of pleasure and pain. Except for self-protection he has hardly any
desires. He hardly evinces any egoistic attitude. He has a tendency to behave
in accordance with the formula, ‘Be as it may.’ Desires and anger hardly affect
him. He has no particular form of conduct or any thought.” – The Talks of Sadguru Upasani
Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A, page 33
It is
important to keep in mind that Shudra does not here signify a person as much as
it signifies a state of consciousness. This state of consciousness is a rung on
the ladder of the soul’s ascent to Self-Realization. All souls passing from the
Process of Evolution into the Process of Reincarnation pass through the Shudra
state—whether it is identified as Shudra or not. The Shudra state is not
limited to India’s caste system, but in that system it is given the name
Shudra.
To the
worldly intoxicated, Upasani’s description of the Shudra state may not seem very
appealing, but looking deeper at the qualities, there is much to be
appreciated. “Desires and anger hardly
affect him.” If one is honest with oneself does not one agree that both
desire and anger are painful states of restlessness?
“He does not generally play any part in the
good or bad affairs of the world.” Again, do not the good and bad affairs
of the world just go on and on? One has to decide for oneself if deeper and
deeper involvement with these affairs actually leads to any real and sustained
happiness for oneself or anyone else?
Then too,
there is Upasani’s statement; “He has a
tendency to behave in accordance with the formula, ‘Be as it may.’” To those familiar with Upasani’s talks, this
formula, Be as it may, represents the
highest state that one can achieve in the world. To identify someone as being
in the state of Be as it may is the
very highest of praises.
As has been
stated; Karma is the hand one is dealt; Dharma is the way one plays that hand.
There is no choice in Karma, but there is some choice in exercising one’s Dharma.
Choice in Dharma is guided by what one takes the object of the game to be. One
plays the game according to what one takes as the highest directive of one’s
conscience and consciousness.
On the
Karmic pendulum, the beggar and the king continue to exchange their roles until
the pendulum stops moving—and it will stop moving, eventually. The question
becomes; are there actions that one can perform that can inhibit or expedite
the stopping of the pendulum?
“If we have to come back, we cannot stop it.
We are in a train, the train is going somewhere. All we can do is to pass the
time the time in the train differently—do something useful or spend it quite
uselessly.”—The
Fourth Way, by P.D. Ouspensky, final sentence, page 437
“Now
look at the qualities presented the Shudra. He does not generally play any part
in the good or bad affairs of the world. He just works for the bare necessities
of life. He has not much impression of pleasure and pain. Except for
self-protection he has hardly any desires. He hardly evinces any egoistic
attitude. He has a tendency to behave in accordance with the formula, ‘Be as it
may.’ Desires and anger hardly affect him. He has no particular form of conduct
or any thought.” – The
Talks of Sadguru Upasani Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A, page 33
He then went
on to explain;
“In the good old days these were the
qualities presented by Shudras and Shudras should be like that. It is in this
form of Shudra that Bliss evolved as the first stage of the human form. We know
that Shudra means Satchitananda. It is this Shudratva that is useful for the
Brahma Sanskara to become a Brahmana.” – Ibid.
“The good old days…” When Upasani Maharaj
speaks about the good old days, he is
speaking about a time many hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago when the
state of consciousness called Shudra (Shudratva) had none of the negativity
implied by the term as it is used in the remnants of India’s caste system as it
is found in the much more recent 20th and 21st centuries.
Satchidananda
means Infinite Knowledge, Infinite Power, and Infinite Bliss. These are the
qualities of God as Creator—Brahma—and Brahma Sanskaras refers to the impressions
of, in this case, Infinite Bliss, which can be experienced—can be manifested—
in the human form, i.e. in state of God (Self) Realization. He underscores this
point in the following statement;
“It brings forth one important point, that
the human life—the form of the human being—is not born for worldly pleasures,
or to deal with the affairs of the world.” – Ibid.
Once again,
the consistent message of all the Perfect Ones, that creation exists wholly and
solely for the evolution and involution of consciousness to realize God (Self).
“A thousand times I have looked and a
thousand times I have ascertained that the universe and all its concerns are
truly nothing into nothing.” – Hafez
Over and
over again, the Masters are always reminding us of the meaning of our state in
the process of God Realization. God Realization implies consciousness and
consciousness is acquired through the processes that unfold in creation—the
dream state of God.
“To come to the human state is to descend
from the original; it is also called Sansara (the word literally means slipping
down) and is commonly taken to mean worldly life. To become a human thus is
coming down; but it does not mean that we should get engrossed in the affairs
of the world and thus cause oneself to suffer for births on end. Having
descended, to try for and attain the Bliss once again (consciously) is to
ascend.” – The
Talks of Sadguru Upasani Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A, page 34
And so, how
should one try to live in the world—in the human form—in the state of the
dream?
So many answers have been given;
“Be in the world, but not of it.”
“Trust in God, but tie your camel first!”
“Don’t worry, be happy!”
Gurdjieff
once said, “He who is really serious
takes nothing seriously; he who takes everything seriously cannot be very
serious!”
“To come down to the human state and go
back—ascend to the original state completes the circle; to ascend is the duty
of a human being. To become second from the one and become one once again is to
complete the work for which the second came into existence. Only coming down to
the human state is not completing the task.” – Ibid, page 35
How is it
possible to understand anything without a right sense of everything? Is this
why sleeping man seems unable to
understand himself and the creation and God? If life is viewed as an end in
itself, rather than as a means to an end, then how is it possible to understand
rightly the meaning and purpose of birth and death, happiness and misery,
failure and success—all of the dualities and all of the apparent contradictions
that plague the mind of man? And so it
is the work of the Avatar and the Perfect Masters to continue remind us of the
meaning and purpose of the state we find ourselves in.
Consider the title of
Meher Baba’s book, God Speaks—The
Theme of Creation and Its Purpose.
The Avatar
and the Perfect Masters are very practical. They know our precarious position
better than anyone. They know that until the Goal is reached we will continue
to miss the mark—the word in the New
Testament is hamartia—the word that
has been translated into English as sin.
As Meher
Baba said, in the false consciousness of man, “Illusion appears to be most real and God appears to be most unreal!”
And so the Avatar and the Perfect Masters keep reminding us even though, or
perhaps because, as Kabir put it, “Until
you experience it, it is not true.”
No doubt
India’s caste system as it is found these days is degenerated and has become
obsolete. In His life and work, Meher Baba demonstrated again and again that
all souls are equal in the eyes of God—giving no importance to caste, creed, or
religious affiliation.
So the purpose of this series of posts titled Shudra
is not to promote or justify the caste system, but to recognize what it was
implemented to do in a different time and for a specific period of time—and
perhaps, for some other time in the future that has yet to come. For although times and cycles of time continue
to change, seemingly endlessly, the meaning and purpose of creation remains the
same, and it is for this purpose alone that Upasani Maharaj’s talk is of the
utmost value and importance. Can we call it a prodding to awaken?
“We lower a pail in the well, but this is not
completing the task; only when we raise it up full of water and bring it to the
surface is the task of obtaining water is completed. To lower the bucket is
effortless—it just slips down. Descent is natural and effortless, but to raise
it up requires effort and time. Upon raising it up we get the water for which
we used the pail.
“Descent and ascent are required to
complete any task, and in that too, the two actions are always opposed to each
other; this is the Siddhanta. Exactly like the descent of Bliss to the primary
human state—the Shudra—is only half the task—the effortless part of it; the
second part of the task is to make efforts and realize one’s Self—attain the
Bliss—the original state of one’s Self—this is the effortful part of the task.” – Ibid. page 35
So lowering
the pail takes no effort, but raising the pail does—makes sense—seems clear—but
how does it apply? Perhaps each and every soul has its own way—its own path.
There are as many paths to God as there are souls in creation.
A Buddhist
teacher once said, “Truth is like the hub
of the wheel. Spokes from the hub fan out to the rim. At the rim the spokes are
very far apart, but as they move toward the center—the hub—they come closer and
closer till at the center they become one.”
The mind
thinks effortlessly and who would deny that for the average person the vast
majority of these thoughts are concerned with life and life’s problems. To
think about God—to remember God—takes effort and the efforts that are most
efficacious are according to unique impressions—sanskaras—gathered by each
soul’s mind during the course of the evolution of its consciousness.
Meher Baba
often explained, that once the consciousness of the soul reaches the human
form, that consciousness is full and complete and is capable of realizing God,
but because of the burden of sanskaras gathered during the evolutionary process
that continue to cling to the mind like dust on a mirror, consciousness
experiences not God, but instead, it continues to experience its own
impressions of illusion.
Since the matrices
of impressions are different due to the uniqueness of each souls journey, the
efforts necessary to remove those sanskaras will necessarily be different, and
even differ for the same soul at different stages of it journey. This is why
there are many religions and many teachings and many isms and non-isms.
“Alas, don’t
tell me the Christians are lost,
Don’t tell me
the Jews are lost,
Don’t tell
met the Infidels are lost.
Alas my
brother, you are lost,
That is why
everyone else seems lost!” – Rumi
To those gathered
that day to hear Upasani Maharaj’s talk, he said, “Even though the word Shudra actually means the Almighty—the Infinite
Bliss—you people look down upon a Shudra as the lowest.” – The Talks of Sadguru Upasani
Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A, page 35.
How can one
know the truth and speak the truth if one is not one with the truth? And so to
His followers He explained that in their topsy-turvy understanding of truth
they should consider that whatever it is that they take to be the lowest, is,
in fact, where the Bliss resides.
“Whatever is considered lowest by you
the Bliss is there.”
– Ibid.
Explaining
further He said, “Without
smallness—humility—ignorance—one cannot attain that Bliss. ‘Ignorant’ means a
person who understands nothing of the world, and unless one attains the state
of not understanding anything pertaining to the world, one cannot attain the
Bliss.” – Ibid.
“Ignorance is Bliss.” I remember hearing
that when I was a child.
As a child,
I lived in my dreams; the world of my waking state made little sense to me and
the explanations of my family, teachers, religion, etc. did not have the ring
of truth that I found in fairy tales and old sayings;
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the
stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.”
“But there
must be real truth and there must be people who know it,” I thought, and became
a seeker and eventually, by the grace of God, I heard the messages and
teachings of advanced souls and the Avatars and the Perfect Masters.
In the
conclusion to His book, God Speaks, Meher Baba states;
“Nevertheless, all that is said here and
explained about God to appease the intellectual convulsions of the mind of man
still lacks many words and further explanations because the TRUTH is that Reality must be realized and the
divinity of God must be attained and lived.”
Some have
used this statement to support the claim that knowledge and understanding are
somehow unimportant, but, Meher Baba did write the book, the fact of which
makes me assume that a mind appeased of
intellectual convulsions is a happy mind, and a happy mind is a great thing
to have along the path to God.
“When a problem comes to a man with a
troubled mind, it is like chiseled into the stone; but when a problem comes to
a man with a happy mind, it’s like written in the sand.” – Old Sanskrit saying.
Meher Baba
always reminded us, “Don’t worry; be
happy!”
The Avatar
and the Perfect Masters want us to be happy in life; they don’t like glum and
sour faces that betray a state of mind that believes in the ‘reality’ of
illusion. Sure, there is and will be suffering along the way, but a mind
appeased of intellectual convulsions—a happy mind—is a mind that is best
prepared to take on this illusion of reality. A mind appeased of intellectual
convulsions stands almost next to God Realization itself in rarity and value.
India’s
caste system of old was a kind of mechanism that
helped all souls who had achieved the human form and its consequent state of
reincarnation to progress with most expediency and happiness to the state of
involution of consciousness and its ultimate goal of God Realization. But, its
efficacy was dependent upon a high degree of natural impressions impressing the
consciousness of creation in the stages of evolution and most importantly,
reincarnation.
Apparently we are not now
is such a period of time. The Kali Yuga is a time in which non-natural
impressions burden human consciousness in the state of reincarnation and that
is why it is so difficult to have any real understanding of truth.
Upasani
Maharaj was not arguing for the continuation of the caste system at this time,
He was just reminding us of times when life was more natural—more in tune with
its purpose.
“Once the Brahma is attained and the actions
to attain it are ceased, the only thing that remains is the state of being
engrossed in that Infinite Bliss. What is that Bliss, how much it is, what is
its extent, what is its nature, is only understood when one reaches it—when one
attains it—it is like the old proverb, ‘Jave tyachya vansha tevan
kale,’—meaning, if you want to understand a particular state, you have to go
into that state.” – The
Talks of Sadguru Upasani Maharaja, Volume 1, Part A, page 36
“It is now clear why and how the Shudra
becomes a Brahmana. Once the Shudra becomes a Brahmana—attains the Brahma
state—though he ceases to be recognized as a Shudra, yet he shows all those
real qualities of the state of Shudra, i.e., actionless, egoless, conductless,
thoughtless, etc., i.e., the state of ‘Be as it may’. A person who reaches this
high state of ‘Be as it may’ is the Brahmana.” –Ibid. page 37
“Be as it may.” Upasani Maharaj refers to
this state again and again throughout His talks. To the topsy-turvy mind of the
worldly minded, “Be as it may” might
suggest a state or practice of dullness, lack of ambition, drive, goalessness,
or indifference—a waste of a perfectly good life.
But in the
natural world—the world that understands its purpose, place, and meaning in the
greater theme of creation—the state in which one actions are motivated by the
needs of others, rather than the desires of oneself—Be as it may is a prescription for playing the game of life (Dharma)
at the highest of levels—the highest common denominator.
“Real happiness lies in making others happy.”
– Meher Baba
But how can
one make others happy if one is always thinking and acting on one’s own behalf?
There seems to be two correct options; either act out of the real interest of
others, or not act at all—beyond responding to the exigencies of the situations
one finds oneself in. Recently a friend passed this advice on from a friend of
his, “There are only two businesses; my
business and none of my business.” My friend then went on to say, “But, in
fact, there is only Baba’s business,” (God’s business). The Shudra’s business is
his own business—the life he lives—the affairs of others, the affairs of the
world, do not even touch him.
One who is
in the real state of Shudra acts correctly, but acts without consciousness. It
is a divine irony that the Shudra has to lose his Shudra state in order to
regain it again consciously.
“The pure Shudra and the pure Brahmana were
the only two states to begin with. First appeared the pure Shudra; then he
became the Brahmana with the help of Brahma-kriyas—(practices). The other two common states (castes) of Vaishya and Kshastriya, to which the
majority of the human beings belong in the world, are meant for the proper
working—for the stability—of the human society. For attaining the Bliss, the
pure states of Brahman and Shudra are alone qualified.” – Ibid. page 38.
When Perfect
Masters speak about the beginning, they
are speaking about a time when the sanskaras that impress consciousness were
natural—about a time when consciousness did not, as it were, dote along the way
of reincarnation. It appears that we are not now in that period of time.
“Right to begin with, thus, there were only
these two states of Shudra and Brahmana, but later, as the objects and affairs
of the world began to affect them, many of these pure Shudras and pure
Brahmanas could not keep up their levels and began to degrade themselves; they
lost their Brahma-kriyas and thus they and their descendants became impure and
degraded. To establish proper order amongst the human beings under those
circumstances the four-fold class system of Brahmana, Kshastriya, Vaishya, and
Shudra was instituted. If human beings behave according to what is laid down
for their class, they soon attain the pure Shudra or the pure Brahmana state.
This happens by exchange of births from one class to another on the strict
observance of the different rules meant for each class.” – Ibid. page 39
Farmers and
merchants are in the Vaishya class. They work hard, labor hard, and do spiritual practices appropriate to the
state of their sanskaras. The Kshastriya class is a warrior class; they protect
society. They too have appropriate spiritual
practices they have to maintain. The question arises: In today’s modern
western society, are these castes—these categories—even with all of their
sub-categories, able to account for all of the various individualities of the modern world?
Meher Baba
said many things about the caste system as it is found today; the gist of these
comments is that the caste system is not necessary and that it actually has
become a hindrance along the path to God-Consciousness. Instead, Avatar Meher
Baba—the Ancient One—brought us The New
Life—a life that is as modern as it is ancient and as eternal as it is
timeless.
Reprinted
here, without permission:
“This New Life is endless, and even
after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete
renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust; and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful
actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material
possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor nor shun
disgrace, and fear no one and nothing; by those who rely wholly and solely on
God, and who love God purely for the sake of loving; who believe in the lovers
of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual
or material reward; who do not let go the hand of Truth, and who, without being
upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one
hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and
religious ceremonies.
“This New Life will live by itself
eternally, even if there is no one to live it.” – Meher Baba
“Grandfather, would you like some more tea?”
“Yes my
dear.”
“And Choi?”
“Yes, thank
you Mera. The tea is delicious and sharing this moment with you and your grandfather
here in this beautiful garden, and talking about God and His mysteries has been
special for me.”
“For me as
well… Ah, Ayushya! Please come in!”
“Salam! So
much time has passed since we last met!”
“Still it
only seems like yesterday.”
“The heart experiences
longing while the head experiences time.”
“Yes,
grandfather, that is so true. May we be blessed with consciousness of that
eternal ever-renewing state of the heart.”
“Inshalla! Some tea Ayushya?”
“Yes please
Mera.”
“Ayushya, I
would like to introduce you to our friend Choi.”
“ Hello
Choi, I have been looking forward to
meeting you ever since Mera mentioned you and your interest in Shudra
and the questions you have.”
“Yes thank you. First let me begin by saying that
though I have I read carefully the
first 80 pages or so of Upasani’s discourses I do not claim to be an expert on
his teachings.”
“Nor I.”
“So from my readings, it appears that Upasani makes clear that
the four-fold caste system was inaugurated by God, since time immemorial, and
will go on into the future. Yet, you state in your blog that the caste system
may be for past yugas but not for now or the New Humanity which is
unfolding—can you explain?”
“I will try. Let’s say you have a tool—like a screw driver—and
when you are not using it you put it in your tool box. The screwdriver is still
there, it is just not in use at the time.”
“But when the need arises, it is there in the tool box ready to
be used again.”
“God has many tools, the greatest and dearest of which is His
Advent as the Avatar—when He takes a human birth and lives amongst us—His
creation—His dream— in order to help us remember the theme and purpose of
creation and help us to achieve that consciousness of Self.”
“So true grandfather!”
“Mera can you find that passage in God Speaks that
begins, ‘This eternally one and the same Avatar…?’”
“Yes, Ayushya, it’s here in the chapter, Evolution of
Consciousness. ‘This eternally One
and the same Avatar is made to repeat His manifestation from time to time, in
different cycles, adopting different names and different human-forms, in
different places, to reveal Truth in different garbs and different languages,
in order to raise humanity from the pit of ignorance and help free it from the
bondage of delusions.’”
“And when that tool is out of the box—when the Avatar is among
us—He takes precedent over all the other tools in the box.”
“Yes Choi, and during His time among He also sharpens and
repairs all the other tools in the box.”
“Another question I would like to discuss is that in the Bhagavad-Gita
there seems to be no mention of the
caste system as being ‘hereditary’—it seems to be guided by ‘aptitude’—but
Upasani, seems to suggest it is that it
also hereditary, at least for the Brahmans. I’m curious what your read is on
this?”
“My thinking here is
that when un-natural (non-natural) impressions do not overwhelm the states of
evolution and reincarnation, then, in fact, there is no distinction or conflict
at all between heredity and aptitude—they are virtually the same. But in this present
moment of time, when un-natural (non-natural) impressions overwhelm the states
of evolution and reincarnation, a distinction between heredity and aptitude can
be made because human beings sometimes attempt dharmas which are not appropriate
to their own particular karmas. The Bhagavad-Gita is set in the time of
Krishna—many thousands of years ago—when the cycle of yugas was transitioning
from Dwapara Yuga to our current Kali Yuga. At that time, to attempt to
practice another’s dharma instead of one’s own was more the exception than the
rule.”
“True; I believe it is even said, ‘To practice one’s own
dharma imperfectly is far better than practicing another’s dharma perfectly.”
“It does seem that it is much easier to see another’s weaknesses
than to see one’s own.”
“That is very true granddaughter, very true.”
“Of course Mera, Meherwanji said;
“Repeating His name is the name of the Game!
The name of the Game is repeating His name!”
“I totally agree Mera that this couplet is a most fitting
perspective on this conversation regarding Upasani Maharaj’s talk and my series
of posts called Shudra. In the beginning I was attracted to this talk
because I felt that in it Upasani Maharaj was reminding us again, as He and all
the Perfect Masters and Incarnations of the Avatar do and have always done,
that life is not meant for satisfying one’s own desires—that there was—there
is—another purpose to it all and the seemingly endless rounds of births and
deaths that consciousness experiences in order to finally and once and for all
experience the Bliss of Self.”
“‘When he returns to the door from which he first came out,
although in his journey he went from door to door.’”
“Indeed Grandfather, indeed! And do you have any final thoughts
on the matter?”
“My dear, nothing is ever final until the all beginnings and
endings are dissolved in the Infinite and Eternal. But I can say this; I
have studied Upasani’s Shudra talk many times and feel that the caste system is
like a ladder. Consciousness—souls—ascend and descend that ladder until the
time ordained by God for them to depart that ladder forever. A Brahman, when it
is time for him to leave his body, but whose time to depart the ladder and
experience Fana—the passing away into God—takes another birth in one of the
other castes depending on his karmic inclinations. Thus, there is both ascent
and decent on the ladder. It is my opinion that the key that unlocks the door
to the final Fana is the ability to attend adequately to one’s own karma with
poise and without pride, attachment, or identification.”
“Indeed.”
“Indeed.”
© copyright Michael Kovitz 2018
Labels: Herman Hesse, Meher Baba, P.D. Ouspensky, Shudra and India's caste sytem, Talks of Sadguru Upasani-Baba Maharaja, The Fourth Way
posted by Michael Kovitz at 8:36 AM
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