The evil of Caste System || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Full Video: Caste System: The Final Word || Acharya Prashant, with SPA Delhi (2023) Link:    • Caste System: The Final Word || Achar...    ~~~~~  ‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ~~~~~  Video Information: : 22.02.23, SPA College (Online), Greater Noida  Context: ~ Where did caste system originate?  ~ What is Acharya Prashant's stand on caste?  ~ Is caste system bogus? ~ Why does caste system exist in India?  ~ How to resolve caste-based discrimination?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Good evening, sir. I'm Krishna and I'm a student of town planning and I'd like to ask about

00:08casteism. So there's an age old debate about caste in India where some people say that

00:14it is an embodiment of systematic exploitation while others say it is just a division of

00:18labor that got corrupted with time. So you've spoken previously about true meaning of caste

00:24based upon Upanishads. So what are your views right now about the Indian caste system?

00:33Does not depend what criteria you use to divide man from man. It is bogus. Full stop. Even

00:44if you need to have division of labor, why does that have to be from birth? How is birth

00:52a criteria to decide who will pursue what kind of vocation? How is it guaranteed that

01:02someone born to an ironsmith would be great with metals or that someone born to a family

01:13of priests would indeed be a wise person? So all that is quite bogus. Doesn't matter

01:26how you want to interpret it or justify it. Just leave it to the history and museums now.

01:34It's outlived its utility if ever there was any. I really don't think there ever was any

01:43utility. It's just an expression. The caste system is just an expression of the tendency

01:50of the ego to divide because the ego is a limited thing and all limits mean boundaries.

01:56The ego therefore cannot live without boundaries. It needs to find some way, one way after the

02:03other to divide one person from the other. The criteria could be anything. Gender is

02:11a criteria, obviously money is a criteria, economic status, color of the skin, ethnicity

02:20and race and creed, you name it and it becomes a dividing line. And that is also the reason

02:32you see you don't find this kind of casteism only in Hinduism. Most people because they

02:43are not very acquainted with how the society is working, do not know that even in Muslims

02:51there is a rigorous caste system. So it's there everywhere. Look at the divisions in

03:00Christianity. Obviously there you don't have untouchability and stuff. But look at the

03:05divisions and look at the violence. Look at how that thing exists even in the streams

03:14that emerged with a view to purge Hinduism of its corruption. Think of Sikhism, think

03:25of Buddhism. What do you think? You don't have caste distinctions there. Then you do

03:31not know how the societies are operating. So yes, obviously no point denying that it's

03:42the most rampant in Hinduism to the point that it in fact became a distinctive feature

03:50of Hinduism. Nobody wants to deny that. When I give the example of how caste operates or

03:56how divisions operate in other religions, it's just to exemplify that the ego loves

04:04to divide irrespective of where the egoistic mind is stationed. The mind could be stationed

04:10in Saudi Arabia or in Europe or in Russia or in China or in Sri Lanka. It's going to

04:16divide, divide on some possible criteria. So I don't know why we still have a debate

04:25over caste. That's what is quite astounding. Caste should have been relegated to the museums

04:36and the history books by now. It should have become a non-issue. What's interesting is

04:43who are the people who still keep it alive as an issue and what do they want. So it's

04:51a relic. No place. You should not even know somebody's caste. That's how caste disappears.

05:03As long as you are interested in somebody's caste, what's your caste by the way? If I

05:10am interested then I am casteist. Caste goes when you do not even know the other's caste

05:19and that's how the society must be. You meet someone, that person is standing in front

05:25of you. Assess him. The person could be good, bad, virtuous, ill, evil, whatever. The person

05:36is right there in front of you. Why do you need to know his caste? The person is sufficient.

05:43Is he not? Yes sir. If he is sick, you want to help him or would you ask for his caste?

05:54And if he is arrogant, you want to show him his place. You don't want to inquire into

06:00his caste. Closer to your age, there is a beautiful girl and she is beautiful and she

06:17appears intelligent also in many ways. She is someone you want to approach and you approach

06:24her and the first thing you ask is, what's your caste? How do you sound? Who are you?

06:34What kind of beastly question is this? So it's a non-issue. It's a non-issue and those

06:46who are still keeping this issue burning, they should be brought to justice. What's

06:52the point? What's the point? Why are you still interested in raising this again and

06:58again? Why this bogey? You will never have a complete absence of duffers, you see. Even

07:11I suppose after 100 years from today, you will continue to have people who believe in

07:16things like purity of blood. They will say, we have this kind of blood, falana blood,

07:24and therefore we cannot marry into some other caste or something. The blood will become

07:29impure. Covid came to teach them what blood really is. Or a road accident, the best teacher,

07:40when you require immediate blood transfusion, you inquire into the caste of the blood donor,

07:47you will die and then you in fact do not because you know in your own heart that all this is

07:53just sham and your son is dying and you say, please, please, please, get me B positive.

08:01You do not say, I want only Brahmin or Kayasth or Rajput B positive. You don't do that or

08:08do you do that? Then all these notions of superiority and purity of blood, they just

08:13vanish. The thing is, we all are people of mixed blood now. Think of your own lineage.

08:25Somebody in your line must have had a blood transfusion at some point in time, either

08:30your father or grandfather or somebody. So you have mixed blood. So have I. Everybody

08:37has mixed blood. So caste is gone anyway. Finished. Even if you go to the scriptures,

08:48they are very clear. Very clear. Jayate Shudra. The one who takes birth is Shudra. The meaning

08:57is very clear. The body is Shudra. So there is no difference at the time of birth. Only

09:08the beast is born and then depending on how you navigate through life, the kind of choices

09:15you make, the status of your consciousness is determined. How can caste be something

09:24that comes by birth? And you have already said that I have spoken on it. Yes, an entire

09:31Upanishad is devoted to this. Vajrasuchika Upanishad. The student is asking the Rishi,

09:38what is caste? And the Rishi in the way of the Upanishads. The Rishis were very fun loving

09:46people. They loved to kind of toy with the disciples. They said, please tell me. Does

09:53the body have caste? Does the blood have caste? Does the bone have caste? What has

09:59caste? And the disciple is intrigued. No, no, no. All these things cannot have caste

10:05because these are just panchbhut. How can that have caste? This is just soil. How can

10:10soil have caste? They said, ok, ok, fine. So does the pure self, Atma have caste? And

10:17this is Upanishad. This is Vedanta. Does the Atma have caste? The Rishis and the disciple

10:24is again, the Atma is not even born, sir. How can it have caste? The Atma has no name,

10:31no form, no shape, no upadhi, no upma. How can it have caste? No attributes. How can

10:36it have caste? Rishi says, don't you understand then what is caste? Caste is an imagination

10:43of the mind. Caste is neither in the body nor in the self. It is just in the mind. It's

10:51an imagination of the mind. It's a mental construct. It's a man-made thing. It's a man-made

10:57thing that I doubt ever had any utility and even if it had some dubious utility at some

11:03point, it has long outlived its utility. Drop it. Drop it right now. Full stop. But to drop

11:12it, you'll need to have self-knowledge. You'll need to understand why you held on to it in

11:19the first place. To drop something, you must first of all know why you were clinching at

11:27it for so long. Caste didn't come to us. We kept clutching at caste, didn't we? So why

11:38did we do that? You have to realize. You have to go into yourself. You have to understand

11:41how the mind functions. You have to understand the ways of the ego and then you will know

11:46how things like caste survive. The more you understand the nature of the mind, the more

11:53spontaneously stupidities like caste will drop. And what's more, not only will you drop

12:00caste, you will drop several other stupidities as well. I'll tell you the man who believes

12:05in caste is also the man who believes in thousand other stupidities because they belong to the

12:10same family. For example, it is very difficult to be casteist and not ritualistic. The man

12:21who will be casteist will most probably be ritualistic as well. So these stupidities

12:26go together. For example, it's very difficult to be casteist and not superstitious. The man

12:32who will be casteist will also be superstitious. It's very difficult to be casteist and not

12:37violent. The casteist man will be violent as well. So when you drop caste, you find

12:43all these other things are dropping as well and they'll be dropped only when the center

12:47that holds them together is dropped. That center is called ignorance of the self. When

12:54the inner ignorance is dropped, then all these stupidities, they all are together in one

12:59basket and they go together in one basket. Is it making sense? Yes sir. Is it because

13:17of your caste that this thing is making sense? No sir. Did I speak to your caste? No sir.

13:25It is because of my study. I am a town planner. So sociology becomes one of the most important

13:29things to study. So this comes really. So when you were studying me, that is when you

13:35were listening to my words, were you listening to my caste? No sir. Okay, good. So that's

13:41who both of us are. Consciousness, attentiveness. That's what Vedanta teaches us. Both is our

13:51nature. In caste etc, the Rishis don't even bother to speak too much on them. Once in

13:57a while they speak on these things just to denounce them, repudiate them, negate them.

14:06So don't think that caste comes from spiritual philosophy either. No. Caste is a social construct.

14:18Deep spirituality has nothing to do with caste. It does not have anything to do with

14:24even your body. You go to Vedanta, you are told you are not even the body. If you are

14:28not even the body, how can you have a caste? So that's another thing. Those who are victims

14:36of caste oppression, they start hating all the scriptures and I keep telling them, don't

14:41throw the baby out with the bath water. Yes, I understand. There are certain books that

14:48promoted the caste culture but those books are not at all central to religion and they

14:56are not at all to be counted as spiritual. So keep those books apart. Go to the real

15:04books. Go to the real spiritual philosophy and that's the reason why I love Vedanta so

15:11much. Vedanta has no space for all this nonsense. Anything left to ask?

15:31No sir. Thank you sir.

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