Lesson 258 from Living with Siva The Caste System I am often asked about varna dharma--the social structure of four classes and hundreds of subgroups--commonly known as the caste system, established in India in ancient times. Is the caste system still valid today? Caste--or at least discrimination on the basis of caste--has been thrown out of the culture of India, but people still hang on to it as an ego structure. The high caste people love to hurt the low caste people, so to speak, by ignoring them, treating them roughly. Thats not the way it should be. In many areas of the world the caste system is distorted, and also very strong. If you find the high caste people in your society ignoring and not wanting to speak with and associate with the lower castes, those are nasty people, and those are people you should avoid. Spiritual people, even ordinary kindly people, would never think of behaving that way. The original caste system was based on behavior, as it is now in countries where there is no overt caste system in effect. Those who beat their children, those who become angry and jealous, those who live in fear and those who feign humility are all of the lowest caste. Those who value memory and reason and use their willpower to benefit others--who control themselves and run an orderly home, support the temples and are respected by the lowest castes--are of the business caste. Those who protect the dharma and preserve the scriptures--who protect the temples and all the people, those who are respected by the other castes--are of the princely caste. Those who commune with the Gods and are priests in the temples--who are the disseminators of the highest knowledge and respected by all the other castes--are the priestly caste. These four groups make up a complete society anywhere in the world and at anytime in history. The original caste system had these four divisions. The divisions were all based on the ability of the individual to manage his body, his mind and his emotions properly. If he stopped fulfilling the dharma of his caste, society would recognize that he had moved from one caste and was now in another. The original caste system was based on self-discipline through education and through personal sadhana. The original caste system was based on the unfoldment of the consciousness within each individual through the fourteen chakras. People everywhere naturally divide themselves up into castes. We have the workers. You go to work, you work under somebody else--that happens all over the world--thats the shudra caste. We have the merchants, who are self-motivated. Thats the vaishya caste. We have the politicians and the lawmakers and the law-enforcement people. Thats the kshatriya caste. And then you have the priests, the ministers, the missionaries. Thats the brahmin caste. Every society has these four castes working within it in one way or another. In todays world, if one is not fulfilling the dharma of his born caste, then he changes castes. For instance, if a brahmin husband and wife are working eight to fifteen hours a day in a hospital under others, they are no longer of the brahmin caste, because they are not performing the duties of the dharma of that caste. They are workers, in the shudra caste. We can see around us the deterioration of the system which has been abused beyond the point of recognition. Members of the brahmin caste are now beating their children, abusing their wives. Members of the kshatriya caste disrespect the laws of the land. Members of the business caste are deceptive and dishonest. All are confused, living in anger and in jealousy. No wonder their families break apart and their businesses fail. In the eyes of the Gods, most of those who adhere to the caste system that exists today are low caste. This is because they live in lower consciousness. They look at the world through the windows of the chakras below the muladhara. These undeveloped humans are struggling through the lower chakras, trying to get out of the dark worlds of the mind. Let us not be deluded about what the sapta rishis had in mind when they casted humans according to the souls unfoldment in one or more of the fourteen chakras. We should totally ignore the Hindu caste system as lived in India today and, through example, show a better and more wholesome path for modern society. Sutra 258 of the Nandinatha Sutras Our Sacred Priests My Church honors our mathavasis as its official priesthood. For samskaras and special festivals we may engage closely devoted Tamil priests, as well as hereditary Sivacharyas, who preside at all temple consecrations. Aum. Lesson 258 from Merging with Siva Finding Your Guru I am often asked, When one feels its time to travel the spiritual path, do you recommend he aggressively seek a guru or passively wait and see what happens? When one is ready to swim, should he walk around the swimming pool, or should he dive in and get on with it? Naturally, he should dive in and take each thing that comes along in a very positive way. That is the thing to do. Otherwise, in waiting and putting it into the intellectual mind, all the different doubts come up and make a big fog which again he has to live through. He missed his timing. The guru-disciple relationship is so central in Hinduism. A guru is a helper on the inner path. Visualize a rocky stream path leading up a high mountain. The guru is there to help you over some big boulders and through the swamps and to send out a scout to help you back on the inner path if you become externalized. You dont need a satguru all the time. Most of it you have to do yourself, after you have his grace and learn the rules. But, he is there when you need him inwardly; he is just there, and that is reassuring. Do everything that you possibly can for your guru. The guru is like the wind. You may not always have him as close to you, so throw yourself into his work selflessly. He has a mission that came to him from his guru and his gurus guru. It is your mission in this life, too, realization of the Self God within and helping others do the same. I have been asked many times, How does one choose a guru? Well, if you are in a crowd of people and you hadnt seen your mother and father for five or ten years, you would immediately know them. You could pick them out of a large crowd. Youd immediately know. Not necessarily by how they looked, but by the vibration. Youd immediately know. And so it is with the guru. There are, shall we say, commercial gurus. Pick a guru. Here a guru, there a guru. A guru, in the classical sense of the word, doesnt have a great many devotees. He might have a lot of people who think hes really great, especially if he chants well or does something that is outstanding. Its easy to get a lot of followers. Traditionally, a guru can only take a few close disciples, and he generally does. If youre looking for a guru, try to feel his vibration. Better still, talk to his students to see if they have any substance. Ask them, Have you had any inner experience? If they start talking about everything, telling you all about it or try to convert you, be cautious. On the other hand, if they look content within themselves and test you out a little to see if youre sincere, you know that theyre taught to be wise. Look at the students. See how they interact among themselves. Observe closely what they do. Note how well disciplined they are. In this way, you get to know the caliber of the man who is their satguru. Find out who his guru is and where the line of darshan power comes from. Then you get to know, to really know. Dont be too hasty in picking your guru. That is the best advice. Maybe its not for you in this life to have a guru. Maybe next life or the life after that. Theres no hurry, and yet there is a great sense of urgency on the spiritual path, a great sense of urgency. Dont go hunting for a guru. Just be alert enough to know when you encounter him. How does one know whether an inner experience is real or imaginary? Well, we dont have to go very far in answering that question because everyone has inner experiences. Two people are in love. They fight. They separate. Thats an inner experience. And its real, isnt it? That emotion, that tearing apart, those wonderful mental arguments where nobody quite wins--theyre all real. Even such an argument is an inner experience, but of a more externalized, instinctive-intellectual or gross nature. Yet, its very real. It shakes the muscles. It can even make us perspire. It lives within us. It could keep us awake at night or give us disturbing dreams. Its a real and a vital experience. We have to go through these grosser inner experiences first before our inner life becomes more refined. They are just as real--seeing light within the body, light within the head and hearing the inner sounds. All of the things you have read about come to you after you have gone through the inner experiences of the instinctive and intellectual mind. First we go through our inner instinctive experiences, then our intellectual experiences, then our intuitive or creative experiences. Finally, we come to the Self, which we realize is the totality of all inner experiences, being beyond experience itself.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 12:46:47 +0000
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