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There is a story that goes as follows: A man once lived a long<br />
and pious life. When he died, God took his hand and said,<br />
“Come, I will show you Hell.” And the Lord took the man to a<br />
room where many people sat around a pot filled with food. The<br />
pot was deep, so a long spoon was needed. Each person held a<br />
spoon, but the spoon was so long that the people could not feed<br />
themselves. The spoons were longer than their arms, so —<br />
although the people tried various ways — they could not carry<br />
the food from the pot to their mouths. The suffering was<br />
miserable. The people were famished and weak.<br />
Next, the Lord said, “Come I will show you Heaven.” He then<br />
took the man to a room that was identical to the first: many<br />
people sitting around a large pot of luscious food. Here the pot<br />
was just as deep, the spoons were just as long, but the people<br />
were joyous and healthy. “I don’t understand it,” the man said.<br />
“Everything is the same as is Hell, but here all the people are<br />
so content and well-fed.”<br />
“The difference between Heaven and Hell,” God said. “Is that<br />
in Heaven people have learned to feed each other.”<br />
CASTE SYSTEM:<br />
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS<br />
1. All His creation is universally one and the same<br />
to God, and even then, today, Hindu religion<br />
appears to be losing its direction by remaining so<br />
grossly divided in terms of castes and their subdivisions.<br />
What, according to you, would be the<br />
way to bring about unity under one umbrella?<br />
The Caste system as you see it today was originally simply<br />
a division of labor based on personal talents, tendencies<br />
and abilities. It was never supposed to divide people.<br />
Rather, it was supposed to unite people so that everyone<br />
was simultaneously working to the best of his/her ability<br />
for the greater service of all. In the scriptures, when the<br />
system of dividing society into four groups was explained,<br />
the word used is “Varna.” Varna means “class” not “caste.”<br />
Caste is actually “Jati” and it is an incorrect translation of<br />
the word “varna.” When the Portuguese colonized parts<br />
of India, they mistakenly translated “varna vyavasthaa”<br />
as “caste system” and the mistake has stayed since then.<br />
Let us realize that left to ourselves we would suffer and<br />
starve. We depend upon each other — humans, animals,<br />
plants, water — to survive. Let us continually remind<br />
ourselves of the ocean in which we are only drops. Let us<br />
not turn a blind eye to the web Mother Earth has so gently<br />
wrapped around us.<br />
The varna system was based on a person’s characteristics,<br />
temperament and innate “nature.” The Vedas describe<br />
one’s nature as being a mixture of the three gunas – tamas,<br />
rajas and sattva. Depending on the relative proportions<br />
of each of these gunas, one would be classified as a<br />
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