Varna Migration - Few Examples

The concept of Varnas – Shudra, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Brahmin – being merit based and NOT birth based is not merely a theoretical concept. It was practiced in ancient era. In Vedas it is mentioned that Head is Brahmin, Arms is Kshatriya, Stomach is Vaishya and Feet is Shudra. There is no question of any differentiation among them. The body which is having these is Hindu. If you take out any one component body/society cannot survive.

Here are few examples from our ancient history:

1> Aitareya Rishi was son of a Daasa or criminal but became a Brahmin of highest order and wrote Aitareya Brahman and Aitareyopanishad. Aitareya Brahman is considered critical to understand Rigveda.

2> Ailush Rishi was son of a Daasi, gambler and of low character. However he researched on Rigveda and made several discoveries. Not only was he invited by Rishis but also made an Acharya. (Aitareya Brahman 2.19)

3> Satyakaam Jaabaal was son of a prostitute but became a Brahmin.

4> Prishadh was son of King Daksha but became a Shudra. Further he did Tapasya to achieve salvation after repenting. (Vishnu Puran 4.1.14)

5>Vidur was son of a servant but became a Brahmin and minister of Hastinapur empire.

6> Vatsa became a Rishi though born to a Shudra (Aitareya Brahman 2.19)

7> Trishanku was a king but became a Chandal.

8>Dhrist was son of Nabhag (Vaishya) but became Brahmin and his son became Kshatriya (Vishnu Puran 4.2.2)

9>  Nabhag, son of King Nedishtha became Vaishya. Many of his sons again became Kshatriya. (Vishnu Puran 4.1.13)

10> Further in his generation, some became Brahmin again (VP 9.2.23)

11> Sons of Vishwamitra became Shudra. Vishwamitra himself was a Kshatriya who later became a Brahmin.

12> Matanga was son of Chandal but became a Brahmin. (Mahabharat Anushasan Parva Chapter 3)

13>  Shaunak became Brahmin though born in Kshatriya family. (VP 4.8.1). In fact, as per Vayu Puran, Vishnu Puran and Harivansh Puran, sons of Shaunak Rishi belonged to all four Varnas.

14>  As per Bhagvat, Agniveshya became Brahmin though born to a king.

15>  Haarit became Brahmin though born to Kshatriya (VP 4.3.5)

16> Pravriddha was son of Raghu King but became a Rakshas.

17> Raavan was born from Pulatsya Rishi but became a Rakshas.

18> Rathotar born in Kshatriya family became a Brahmin as per Vishnu Puran and Bhagvat.

19>  Many verses of adulterated Manu Smriti (10.43-44) says that certain castes were earlier Kshtariya but became Shudra later. Inspite of the fact that these are adulterated but prove that concept of Varna migration did exist. 

Several gotras are common across Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Dalits implying that all of them hailed from same family but rather got entrapped in the stupid casteism.

Bunch Of Thoughts: The Nation and its Problem - IX - 2

                                             Wanted Heroic Devotion

Theme: Devotion to motherland should be dynamic not passive. This earth is for valiant. We should aim to bring the motherland in the undivided original form.

Detailed Explanation:

  Some people say “What is this so-called motherland, except stones and clay’. Same people don’t have answer why one consider his mother different from others. Why have devotion to her? Mere intellect is not enough.

 Take example for frog and snake. They have no idea of mother at all. Gradually as life evolves, in mammals mother feeds her young ones in their childhood. Birds take care of their offsprings, once offspring are independent they leave their mother.  Man is supposed to be at top in the scale of evolution.If he is cultured, his love and adoration for his mother continues even after she ceases to be physically useful to him.He sees so many other things to which he owes a debt of gratitude. He begins to look upon them also as mother.e.g, river, cow, soil, etc, Thus to look upon one’s land of birth as mother is a sign of a high state of human evolution. 

The Vedas declare.

 (The Earth is my mother, I am her child.)

   The devotion to motherland should be dynamic. Formal way like worshiping with flowers, lights, chants of hymns, etc is passive way. Dynamic aspect of devotion is to manifest in practical national life a spirit of sacrifice in every possible way.A heart fired with such devotion can never tolerate the slightest affront to the object of its devotion. Dynamic devotion can only protect dharma. We can see in past when many foreign aggressors attacked Nation. At that time only dynamic one was able to save the Nation. That is also the lesson of our puranas which depict the stories of the struggle between devas(gods) and rakshasas(demons). We often see devas, in spite of their divinity, being beaten down by the organised and aggressive rakshasas. And it was only when the devas roused themselves to heroic action that they could triumph over the rakshasas.

 Indeed, "veerabhogya vasundhara" (This Earth is for the valiant) sums up the philosophy of a successful life in this world.

  There was indeed this lack of devotion, that's why partition happened. The son of this soil were not courageous enough to prevent that. Partition cannot be a settled fact. We are here to unsettle it. Things get settled or unsettled solely by the will of man. A true son can never accept other than a whole mother.A spirit of compromise, an attitude of purchasing peace by parting with portions of our motherland to whoever chooses to lay axe on her, has taken hold of our people. Even the memory of those parts under enemies’ possession is dying away.We have especially to guard ourselves and our coming generations in this regard.

   At times, political boundaries undergo some changes on account of political impacts and the whimsical fortunes of war. But it can never mean that the portions we have lost politically are not parts of our motherland at all.Was not the whole of our country, until recently, under the foreign domination of the British? Before that, was not part of our country under Muslim domination for centuries?If, today, we say that what we have lost to the aggressors, whether they be the Muslims or Chinese, is not ours but belongs to them by right, then it only means that we have lost the will to fight, that we have forsaken our manliness to the extent that we have begun to glorify our defeats and humiliations.

 We should bring to life the dream of Bharat Mata reinstated in her pristine undivided form.

Bunch Of Thoughts: The Nation and its Problem - IX -1

                                                            Our Motherland

Theme: It's Bristishers propaganda that Bharat never existed. From thousands of years it has been mentioned in various Ved, Puranas about this motherland.


Detailed Explanation:

   In our cultural tradition, the respectful way of calling a woman is by her child’s name. Bharata was well known and this land was called as his mother, Bharat, the mother of all Hindus.Some persons says that Bharat was never there. This land was divided, sub-divided. It was Britisher, who to achieve his ulterior imperialistic motives, set afloat all such false notions so that our people loose the sense of patriotism and duty towards our motherland. Long ago our forefathers sang:

(The land to the north of the oceans and south of the Himalayas is called Bharatavarsha, and Bharatis are her children.)

Kalidasa, our great national poet, has described the Himalayas as:

(At the North is the divine Himalayas, the King of mountains, stretching its arms to the ocean on the east and west and standing as the measuring rod of the earth.)

Chanakya, who has been held an authority on our political science, has stated:

(To the north of the oceans up to the Himalayas, the country is 1000 yojanas in length.)

That only means, the poet Kalidasa’s description tallies with the statesman Chanakya’s statement in giving us a fairly correct picture of the vastness of our motherland.It is mentioned in our Puranas:

Afghanistan was our ancient Upaganasthan. Shalya of the Mahabharata came from there. The modern Kabul and Kandahar were Gandhar from where Kaurava’s mother Gandhari came. Even Iran was originally Aryan. Its previous king Reza Shah Pehlavi was guided more by Aryan values than by Islam. Zend Avesta, the holy scripture of Parsis, is mostly Atharva Veda. Coming to the east, Burma is our ancient Brahmadesha. The Mahabharata refers to Iraavat, the modern Irrawady valley, as being involved in that great war. It also refers to Assam as Pragjyotisha since the sun first rises there. In the South, Lanka has had the closest links and was never considered as anything different from the mainland.

It was this picture of our motherland with the Himalayas dipping its arms in the two seas, at Aryan (Iran) in the West and at Sringapur (Singapore) in the East, with Sri Lanka (Ceylon) as a lotus petal offered at her sacred feet by the Southern Ocean, that was constantly kept radiant in people’s mind for so many thousands of years.

All our important religious ceremonies start with bhoomi-poojan-worship of earth. There is a custom that as soon as a Hindu wakes up in the morning, he begs forgiveness of the Mother Earth because he cannot help touching Her with his feet throughout the day.

(O Mother, the Divine Consort of Almighty, with ocean as Thy embroidery and mountains as Thy breasts, forgive me for touching Thee with my feet.)

Bunch Of Thoughts:The Mission - VIII

                                                   Vision Of Our Work

Theme: To avoid slavery or bloody revolution and provide enduring peace and freedom to society, our ancient Hindu thought and practice had kept economic power away from the hands of the state. Our culture survived because we have entrusted saint and sages as the torch bearer of our ancient culture.

Detailed Explanation:

People want quick result and short cuts to success. This mentality has entered every sphere of our National life. For quick success, a person is ready to descend to any level. Many people wonder are there short cuts in sangh works also. They are of the opinion that with vast political power face of the country can be changed and mould the coming generation through education. We can see example all over the World were a Nation is dependent on its political master. In Persia the emperor was supreme head and controlled all aspect of people’s life including their religion. But the empire crumbled at the very first shock from Arab invasion. The same fate overtook the empires of Rome and Greece.

However, in case of our Nation the situation is totally different. For centuries continuous invasion happened from the most barbaric races. The situation was so dark that during Aurangzeb rule, the great martial saint Samartha Ramadas said that an Incarnation of the Almighty alone could save the Hindu society from total annihilation. Same British tried, even today there are many adharmic elements are having their heyday but our society survived. Our glorious tradition continues. It is clear the basis of our National existence was never any political power. It is saints and sages who contributed to this. They presented the Dharmasatta. The great saviour Sri Rama was moulded and guided by sages like Vishwamitra, Vasistha and Agastya. After Buddha his followers invited and helped foreign aggressors. Saint Sri Shankaracharya roamed on foot from one end of the country to another end. The true national consciousness and selfless service that they roused, helped society to find its feet once again and throw out the treacherous elements.

 Even during the days of Muslim domination great saints and sanyasins rose to continue that tradition. All those stalwarts – Chaitanya, Tulsidas, Surdas, Jnaneshwar, Ramananda, Tukaram, Ramanuja, Madhwa, Nanak and a host of such others – flooded the land from one end to the other with religious devotion. We see the same spiritual content present in the national resurgence against the foreign yoke of the British also. The spiritual sun broke forth in all its glory in Bengal as the Sri Ramakrishna-Vivekananda order, in the Punjab in the form of Swami Dayananda and Ramatirtha, in the South Maharshi Ramana and Yogi Aurobindo – all of whom infused the spiritual content of nationalism in to the people’s mind.

 Today government is trying to centralise all power and authority and secure almost all spheres of society. If the state were thus to dominate the whole range of human activity, the individual will exist only as a slave bereft of all initiative. The state could do good to society only so long as it remained as the upholder of dharma – the higher law of the good life – and not as an end in itself. They, therefore, placed our rulers under the guidance and control of the dharmic authority in the form of selfless and disinterested persons-the sages and seers living in hermitages. Political power shall only reflect the radiance of culture, integrity and power of the organised society that we want to build up-just as the moon reflects the radiance of the sun.

Bunch Of Thoughts:The Mission - VII

                                              Live Positive Dynamic Hinduism

Theme: Live a life of a true positive hindu. We should be hindu by conviction not by raction. We should remember our age old sanskar and practice it in our day to day life.

Detailed Explanation:

 Hindu cannot be defined.In a way, we are ‘anadi’, without a beginning. To define such a people is impossible. Human take birth again and again so long as the least trace of ignorance of his true Divine self remains and in every birth he will be able to make further progress if he makes honest efforts. We believe that all is not over with this present life. Our philosophy says, do your work, do your duty in a selfless spirit.

 On other countries military hero, king is worshiped while in our land great heroes have worshiped the dust of the feet of half naked sanyasins. This is because of our realization that inner being alone is abiding. We should be hindu by conviction not by reaction.We should be keenly conscious in our day-to-day life of our Hindu heritage and should mould every little aspect of our life in keeping with those great traditional values.

 A person can be either Hindu or a communist. He cannot be both. We are organising Hindus not to counter Muslims. Even if muslims were not there, we would have taken up this work if we had found Hindus in the same disorganised, self-forgetful condition as present.

 It is of no use to talk of Hindu Nationhood and Hindu way of life without following those sanskars. There is a story of sadhu.  His mother use to wake up early in the morning and reciting in her melodious voice about the glory of the Divine mother of the universe. Those words he use to listen immediately after he woke up. Which gave him faith and strength to resist all the wordly temptations and devote to the service of the Mother. This is Hindu sanskar.A Hindu is born to be trained in a life-long course of discipline and self-restraint, which purify and strengthen him to reach the Supreme Goal in life.

 In the name of modernisation we have forgot our sanskar. We take pride in it but don't follow anything. We are having living example of Lord Rama, Shivaji, Vivekanand which were not touched by this kind of modernisation.

 Family is the first self-expansion. Then, all the various duties which need to be fulfilled as part of family. Lord Rama fulfilled all his duties whether it is of a son, a brother, husband, student very very well. The the hindu tradition, the shishya looks up to the guru as the very embodiment of knowledge and divinity and behaves towards him in a spirit of humility and devotion.

 Even if, by chance, there is a conflict with our elders on points of ideology, our respectful behaviour towards them need not change. In the Mahabharata war, when Bhishma and Arjuna faced each other, Arjuna directed his first five arrows to the feet of Bhishma. The charioteer of Bhishma was amazed to see Arjuna’s unfailing arrows falling at Bhishma’s feet instead of striking his chest. Bhishma said "My beloved Arjuna is prostrating before me with all his five pranas seeking my blessings".

Let us not forget our old puranic stories. In each stories there lies the touch of our culture.

Bhagawad Gita says:

 Even death while performing one's own dharma brings blessedness, taking to another's dharma is fraught with fearful consiquences.

Bunch Of Thoughts:The Mission - VI

                                                      For True National glory

Theme: Unlike other Nations which measure happiness in material terms only we give importance to  mind of the individual which should gradually rise above all to reach divinity. Dharma and Moksha are two aspect of this. Also, such individual possess strong body, pure character, keen intellact and should be fearless in order to make a organised society.

Detailed Explanation:

   Ordinarily, the glory of a Nation is measured in terms of its material affluence.Aspect of material happiness:

1. Artha (the amassing of wealth)

2. Kama (the satisfaction of physical desire)

But our ancestors declared there are two more aspects of human endeavour.

3. Dharma

4. Moksha

Chaturvidha Purushartha - Society built on above four pillars. It is said follow Dharma and Dharma will give Artha and Kama.

Definition of Dharma is two fold:

1.Proper rehabilitation of mind - Mind is controlled, if it is left than there is no difference than animal. So, it needs to be cultivated in self restraint and certain other great qualities. Attributes of good conducts are mentioned in Bhagavad Gita and other Holy scriptures.They have described 5 yamas for the body and 5 niyamas for the mind.

2.Adjustment of various individuals for a harmonious corporate existence,i.e, a good social order to hold people together.

-Arrangement which enables and encourages man to control his desires and create within himself the competence to realise the divine essence or the external reality even while enjoying a rich material life is Dharma.

-Power which brings individual together and sustains them as a society is called Dharma.

National life is permanent and individual is impermanent. Like a drop of water which impermanent but flow of river is permanent. Individual come and go but Nation remains.

Physical desires can never be satiated. In America in spite of its boundless affluence and prosperity, incidence of crime is on rise, millions drug themselves, sleeping pills before going to bed.The first and foremost pre-requisite is the invincible organised life of the people without which even the highest National prosperity will crumble to dust in no time.We also find that it is easier to gather together selfish people without character for purposes, which are detrimental to social welfare. Same like if we just throw a piece of flesh many crow can assemble in no time. This is herd instinct. Therefore, we conclude that organised strength has to be built up by the bringing together of proper persons. Then, what are the qualities required of individuals who will form the living limbs of such an organised strength?

Strong Body-> Purity Of Character -> A keen Intellact -> Fortitude (Fearlessness)

Strong Body:

 Our Shastras says:- Body is the primary instrument for fulfilling our duties in life.

Swami Vivekanand:- I want men with muscle of Iron and nerves of Steel.

Without an able body we cannot achieve anything. Even to see God, a healthy and strong body is required. God is not for weak.

Purity Of Character:

Strength without character will only make a brute of man.There is a story of Prahlad who became the king of Gods after dethroning Indra. Indra approaches Brihaspati-the guru of Gods and explained his plight. He asked how can he reclaim the throne. Brihaspati suggested to ask for Sheela (character) from Prahlad in the hour of Icchadan. Indra dressed as an ordinary mendicant and did the same. Prahlad gave his Sheela to Indra. As soon he sees that a image leaves his body which is Sheela after that Shaurya also leaves. Since, Shauraya serves Sheela only. After Shauraya many other images also leaves and entered the body of Indra. At last Rajshree also leaves Prahlad. As a result, Prahlad lost all his power and glory and Indra regained his throne. The moral of story is with character we can achieve anything but without it we stand to loose everything.

A keen Intellact:

We should  develop power of concentration, sharpen our intellect and acquire the power to pitch upon the right action at the right moment.

Fortitude:

Since, all the time circumstances won't be in favor of us. So, we shall have to face obstacles and adversities. Fearlessness is the first virtue of a hero.The spirit of heroism is necessary even to worship God. A coward cannot do it.

That is not all. We need an urge to develop in ourselves all these qualities. Intense devotion to the ideal that we have place before us, will give us the necessary urge to equip ourselves with all the great qualities required for achieving the glory of our nation.On the occasion of conflict, take a detached view and respond to the supreme call of the ideal that we have chosen for our life. Stroy of Tanaji Malasure is a shining example in this regard.

Bunch Of Thoughts - The Mission - V

                                              Call of our National Soul

  Revival of old prejudices, superstitions or anti-social customs may be called reactionary, as that would result in fossilisation of society.But "rejuvenation of our culture" we mean the reanimating in our lives of those eternal life-ideals that have nourished and immortalised our national life all these millennia.

   We feel that we cannot define Hindu culture. However, no one can deny something just because it is not defined.e.g, Can anyone define life with definition and mathematical equation.

Pandit Nehru views the problem of life mainly from the materialist standpoint. He said on the instance of immersion of his wife's ashes in Triveni sangam that his intellact,  modern education and training were all in revolt but something in him, something inexplicable, forced him to immerse the ashes in Triveni sangam.  This is sanskar, the imprint of our culture.

  We want a living God.Our forefather said, "Our people are our God". Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa said" Daridra Narayana".

 Sanskrit Sloka says: Brahmin is the head, King the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet. This means that the people who have this fourfold arrangement ,i.e, the hindu people is our god.

  This supreme vision of godhead in society is the very core of our concept of Nation.Every individual is equally sacred and worthy of our service. We cannot discriminate among them.Thus, in our culture, the spirit of social service has been sublimated into worship of God.

  The Upanishads say :God permeates all Creation. Whatever is left over by Him, after offering Him, enjoy only that much. Do not rob what belongs to others.

  We are trustees of society. Instead of rights there should be sense of duty."truth is one, sages call it variously". Tolerance is often used to express this idea is very meek. It implies an element of ego, which just tolerates other viewpoint, without any love or respect for them. But we say there are different path to reach the top of the hill, which appear different from different direction. This description from all direction can define the hill wholly.Same way each and every individual can define the society in full sense. We find great saints and heroes coming from all sections of the society.Our culture does not advocate exhibitionism.If our way of expressing love is considered as dignified, then the silent method of working is also dignified.

Bunch Of Thoughts:The Mission - IV

                                  For a Right Structure : Political and Economic

Theme: Present time election of people is dysfunctional due to various reasons like lack of education, ignorance, selfish motives, money power. Election should be based on territorial as well as functional aspect with more and more decentralized approach.

Detailed Explanation:

 These days because of uneducated, ignorant people wrong persons are getting elected. They are more of politician than representative of the society. The only qualification to get elected will be one’s skill and capacity to manipulate votes and win the elections.

 So the representatives should be elected based on territorial as present and plus on basis of functional. They should be from each and every professional background.

 From ancient times Gram panchayat have been cornerstone of our socio-economic life. There was five member in the panchayat:

1.devoted to study and teaching of material and spiritual sciences

2.those entrusted with the running of administration

3.traders

4. engaged in agriculture and allied handicrafts

5.residing in forests and living on hunting and forest produce. This fifth group was called the Nishada.

These days slogan of panchayat raj is often heard. But due to groupism and casteism functional aspect is lost.Appeal to casteism, lure of money, threats, physical assaults have become the deciding factors.These short comings need to be corrected. Good people should be encouraged to come together.Election should unanimous or if there is no election it will best.Electoral rolls and rules of elections may be suitably modified so as to ensure such a healthy and purposeful structure at the base.

The basic principle of socialism, for example, is decentralization of economic power.Issue crops up when question comes who is entrusted to ensure decentralization is just and proper. Trend is gaining ground that for decentralization, centralization is necessary. Under this political authority become all-powerful and society becomes slave of political masters. Some experiments carried out in best like community cooking, feeding ,etc. But it was observed that man is not a machine and each individual possess some special characteristic which cannot be ignored.

 To decentralized, Mahatma Gandhi propounded the theory of trusteeship in line with our culture. Here a individual is encouraged to produce more and more but he should see this wealth not for himself but belong to the society.This is very excellent approach but these days until someone is not able to secure profit for himself he is not having enough will to work.

 The opposite example of Germany is often quoted. After WW2 it allowed individual full freedom, no control. This helped phenomenal economic growth. Same case with other industrialized nations. But labourers loose incentive to work if they feel they are not getting proper compensation.

So, we have to strike a balance in which the individual’s incentive is kept alive and at the same time decentralisation of the produced wealth is also brought about.Herein comes the genius of the Hindu viewpoint, which prepares the individual’s mind for this adjustment. He should rise beyond his dependence on physical objects, plunge into the depths of his own beings. He will then realise that the people around him are also manifestations of the same Spirit and that the enjoyment of the fruits of his labour by them is equivalent to his own enjoyment. So, he is part of society and cannot be isolated from it.