Dear Brothers,

A study on caste and class as an effect of separateness. The consideration of the relevant planetary school and caste is a hypothetical to be taken best in consideration with reading my two previous papers "The Red Rajputs And The Moryan Dynasty" and  "Kashmere: Brahman Mahatma Of the Lunar Race". JPC.

Four of these planetary schools are responsible for the energy flowing through the foremost exponents of the four castes and this not only in India but in all parts of the world. TCF 1179.

The outstanding disaster which faces humanity at this time is a return to the state of affairs prior to the outbreak of war, and the rehabilitation of the old familiar world, with its imperialism (whether of empire or finance), its nationalisms and its distressed, exploited minorities, its vile distinctions and separative barriers between rich and poor, between the oriental and the occidental, and between the castes and classes which are found in every land - without any exception. EXT 370.

You have this idea symbolized in the four castes in India and you will find also that these four castes are found universally throughout the planet. EXT 508.

Starting with the assertion of de Quatrefages that there are four principal color groups in the human family, of white, yellow, red, and black races, he adds this from the Mahabharata:

The color of the Brahmans is white; of the Kshatriyas red, of the Vaisyas yellow, of the Sudras black. Red Rajputs. WQJ.

Moved by such thoughts of the boundlessness and impersonality of the Deity, Gautama-Buddha, the Hindu Christ, exclaimed: "As the four rivers which fall in the Ganges lose their names as soon as they mingle their waters with the holy river, so all who believe in Buddha cease to be Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras!" IU1 435.

This shifting and interchange is taking place all the time, when, for instance, the Master R. assumed the task of Mahachohan or Lord of Civilization, his Ashram was shifted from the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order to the third Ray of Active Intelligence. DINA2 338.

The Master Rakoczi:

It is nevertheless this third ray energy, as wielded in the Ashram of this English Master, under the direction of the Mahachohan, the Lord of Civilization, which will force a right attitude toward materialism, which will bring about a balance between the material values and the spiritual, and which will eventually thrust back into futility the Forces of Evil which have for so long distracted the world of men. I am choosing my words with care. EXT 667.

The color of the Vaisyas Yellow. WQ.Judge.

MERCURY - The pupils in this planetary school are called "The Sons of Aspiration" or "The Points of Yellow Life." They have a close connection with our Earth scheme, and the old Commentary refers to this in the words:

"The points of golden flame merge and blend with the four-leaved plant of tender green, and change its color to a tinge of autumn yellow. The four-leaved plant through new and fresh inflow becomes the plant with seven leaves and three white flowers." TCF 1179.

The glamor of caste still holds many nations and their peoples. DINA1 341.

In ancient times the term "twice-born" meant spiritual birth, or initiation, but later it became a title indicating a general inherent quality of every Brahmin.

The majority of Brahmins are regularized parasites on the diseased organism of India. The degeneration of this country is a direct result of the most terrible, most cruel caste system. But today, the more educated classes of India are already protesting against the limitations of caste. In some parts of India the lower castes are already being allowed to visit the temples. The women of India are also awakening, and this may become the main factor in the regeneration of the whole country. LHR1.

Vaisyas, and sudras, shall tread the highest path if they take sanctuary with me. How much more, then, holy brahmans and devotees of kingly race!

Vaisyas and sudras are the two lower castes, or merchants and servitors. BHAGAVAD-GITA  Trans WQJ.

Also spelled vaishya, third highest in ritual status of the four varnas. The vaisyas are commoners, not servile groups. Their role lay in productive labour, in agricultural and pastoral tasks, and in trading. Their way of life demands study, sacrifice, and the giving of alms.

The vaisyas share with the two higher classes, the brahmana and the ksatriya, the distinction of being dvija, or "twice-born," achieving their spiritual rebirth when they assume the sacred wool thread at the upanayana ceremony.

(Brittanica CD. Version 97. Encyclopaedia Brittanica Inc., 1997)

"Farming, cow protection and business are the natural work for the vaisyas, and for the sudras there is labor and service to others."

(BG 18.44)

"The means of livelihood of all persons, namely production of grains and their distribution to the prajas, was generated from the thighs of the Lord's gigantic form. The mercantile men who take charge of such execution are called vaisyas."

(SB 3.6.32)

"Being always devoted to the demigods, the spiritual master and the Supreme Lord, Visnu; endeavoring for advancement in religious principles, economic development and sense gratification [dharma, artha and kama]; believing in the words of the spiritual master and scripture; and always endeavoring with expertise in earning money--these are the symptoms of the vaisya."

(SB 7.11.23)

"The occupational duties of the vaisya are conceived in four divisions: farming, commerce, cow protection and moneylending. Out of these, we as a community are always engaged in cow protection."

(SB 10.24.21)

The respective duties of the four castes, of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras, are also determined by the qualities which predominated in the disposition of each, O harasser of thy foes.

The natural duty of a Brahman compriseth tranquility, purity, self-mastery, patience, rectitude, learning, spiritual discernment, and belief in the existence of another world.

Those of the Kshatriya sprung from his nature, are valor, glory, strength, firmness, not to flee from the field of battle, liberality and a lordly character.

The natural duties of the Vaisya are to till the land, tend cattle and to buy and sell;

And that of the Sudra is to serve, as is his natural disposition. BHAGAVAD-GITA  Trans WQJ.

The Sudras, he says, were the tillers of the soil. Indian writers say that their function was to wait upon the three «twice born» castes above them. Outline History HG Wells.

The brahmans, ksatriyas, and vaisyas are dvija, twice-born, because they have a second, spiritual birth when they are invested with the sacred thread. www.

It is inevitable that racial differences, national quarrels and caste distinction exist, but it is equally imperative that they disappear. The world is one world. Humanity is one unit in the evolutionary process. Differences are man-made and engender hatreds and separation. EXT 195.

This is the circumstance which necessitated his "coming-in" during the Atlantean root-race. Men of this type refused to incarnate earlier, as the bodies were too coarse; this was the cyclic reflection (on the lowest plane) of the refusal of the Monads to incarnate at the dawn of manvantaric opportunity. No real "sin" was committed; it was their privilege to discriminate, and this refusal has its bearing upon conditions upon Earth, being the basis of the great class distinctions which - in every land - have been so fruitful of trouble and the esoteric foundation of the "caste" system, so abused now in India.

The problem of labor and capital has its roots in the subjective distinction between "equipped and unequipped" Egos, between those units of the human family on earth who have passed out of the Hall of Ignorance, and those who are yet groping in its dark and gloomy corridors; between those Egos who are only "bud" Egos, and those who have organized the outer circle of petals, and whose petals are ready to open up. TCF 826.

This secret of translation is the underlying cause of the caste system, and caste is a symbol of translation. In the last analysis, souls pass from caste to caste as they "translate" their bodies. The clue to the translation is to be found in the fact that no act of translation ever involves one body alone, and no "passing on and up" into another dimension, into another state of consciousness and another "caste," ever takes place unless an alignment has been produced between (for instance):     

The physical body and the emotional body.     

These two and the mental body.     

These three and the soul.     

These four and the group of World Servers.

In these four alignments we have the esoteric parallels of which the outer caste system is the prostituted symbol. Ponder on this, for the caste system is universal in the world. It is when the third alignment has been truly accomplished and when the light of the fourth constituent to the relationship dominates the inherent light of the other three, that the objective of man's evolution is reached. EP1 328.

Culture used to be centered in the north of India, but only a limited class of people possessed knowledge. Castes foolish mustiness have hindered culture. Indeed, the Lord Buddha wished to abolish this caste foolishness. LOMG2.

We should not have in mind only the castes of India, because, unfortunately, castes exist under different names in all countries. They are just as harmful everywhere and should be eliminated. SMD2 274.

Certain views of the caste system must likewise be reformed. In ancient times its restrictions were wisely applied, but evolution has since taken many turns. It is now wise to reevaluate the conditions of life, and we must not allow prejudiced thinking to be an obstacle.

The Thinker taught that there should be no condition of slavery on Earth, for the nature of mankind is divine. SMD2 441.

And, outside the castes, the Pariahs. Brief Outline of History H.G.Wells.

Outcast Heteym, Pariahs of the desert, whose poor children were commonly sent on hire as shepherds to the tribes about them. Seven Pillars of Wisdom T.E. Lawrence.

The ancient natives, however, who were called Pariahs, formed a class of despised and miserable slaves and never could hope to be anything else. THE STORY OF MANKIND BY HENDRIK VAN LOON

BONI AND LIVERIGHT.

Now, there was a family of Pariahs living near the place. The Pariahs number several millions in the whole of India and are a sect of people so low that some of our books say that if a Brahmin coming out from his house sees the face of a Pariah, he has to fast that day and recite certain prayers before he becomes holy again. In some Hindu cities when a Pariah enters, he has to put a crow's feather on his head as a sign that he is a Pariah, and he has to cry aloud, "Save yourselves, the Pariah is passing through the street", and you will find people flying off from him as if by magic, because if they touch him by chance, they will have to change their clothes, bathe, and do other things.

And the Pariah for thousands of years has believed that it is perfectly right; that his touch will make everybody unholy. Now my Master would go to a Pariah and ask to be allowed to clean his house. The business of the Pariah is to clean the streets of the cities and to keep houses clean. He cannot enter the house by the front door; by the back door he enters; and as soon as he has gone, the whole place over which he has passed is sprinkled with and made holy by a little Ganga water. By birth the Brahmin stands for holiness, and the Pariah for the very reverse. Vivekananda.

The corpses of those who are not worth burning are thrown in the same rivers, and their number is great, because it includes all Shudras, pariahs, and various other outcasts, as well as Brahman children under three years of age.

Only rich and high-born people are buried pompously.  It is for them that the sandal-wood fires are lit after sunset;  it is for them that mantrams are chanted, and for them that the gods are invoked.  But Shudras must not listen on any account to the divine words dictated at the beginning of the world by the four Rishis to Veda Vyasa, the great theologian of Aryavarta.  No fires for them, no prayers.  As during his life a Shudra never approaches a temple nearer than seven steps, so even after death he cannot be put on the same level with the "twice-born." Caves, Jungles. HPB.

"The 'second birth' is another well-recognized term for Initiation; even now in India the higher castes are called 'twice-born,' and the ceremony that makes them twice-born is a ceremony of Initiation. BC 46.

The Pariah Syndrome:

I. Out of India.

The Romani people (Roma, or Gypsies) are of northern Indian origin, having moved out of that area probably some time between AD 800 and AD 950, migrating westwards into Europe and arriving there some time after AD 1100. According to Sampson (1923), linguistic evidence suggests that the ancestors of all Gypsy populations, whom we may refer to as the Domba, following Kaufman (1984), left India at the same time.

Kenrick and Puxon believe that the present-day hatred of Gypsies in Europe is a folk-memory of this first encounter, stemming from "the conviction that blackness denotes inferiority and evil [which] was well rooted in the western mind. The nearly black skins of many Gypsies marked them out to be victims of this prejudice" (1972:19). European folklore contains a number of references to the Gypsies' complexion: a Greek proverb says "Go to the Gypsy children and choose the whitest," and in Yiddish, "The same sun that whitens the linen darkens the Gypsy," and "No washing ever whitens the black Gypsy." One word in Romani which Gypsies in some countries use as a name for themselves means 'black', and is an Indian word of ultimately Dravidian origin: Caló, among the Spanish Gypsies, and Kalo in Finland. Caucasian non-Gypsies are called Parné or Panorré "whites" in some Romani dialects, even by fair-skinned Gypsies. Hoyland repeats the Elizabethan belief that this dark skin was acquired: "Gypsies would long ago have been divested of their swarthy complexions, had they discontinued their filthy mode of living" www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/pariah-ch1.htm

Untouchables are members from a large variety of Hindu groups that were, and in many cases still are outcasts in their society. An Untouchable, now called a Harijan, in traditional Indian society, is a person outside the caste system. These outcasts were greatly discriminated against until 1949 in India, when the use of the term "Untouchable," and the social disabilities that come along with the term were declared illegal. Britannica. www.

The word "caste" is derived from the Portuguese casta, meaning "pure" or "chaste." The Sanskrit words varna and jati are commonly translated as "caste" but this is misleading and obscures important differences between them.

Varna refers to the form and colour of something and is used in the Rg Veda to differentiate the Aryans from the indigenous peoples. The Dharma Sutras and Dharma Sastras have a socio-religious stratification in a four-tiered ideal, the catur-varna, the four caste-orders. At the highest tier are the brahmans, priests, then come the ksatriyas, warriors, the vaisyas, commoners, yeomen farmers, and merchants, and the sudras, servants. From a very early time it seems that membership of each varna was determined by birth. The brahmans, ksatriyas, and vaisyas are dvija, twice-born, because they have a second, spiritual birth when they are invested with the sacred thread.

Jati comes from the root jan meaning "to beget" or "to produce" and is used to denote origin and the group or class which something belongs to. In terms of caste, jati is the social stratum in which one is born. One is fixed in a jati by birth and there are sets of rules governing acceptable occupations, foods, marriage, and association with other jatis. Though there are only four varnas, there are thousands of jatis. The jatis are the contemporary "castes."

The relationship between the varnas and jatis is complex. Some scholars believe the varnas evolved into the jatis. However, there is controversy over the varnas, whether they were marriage-restrictive and whether a considerable proportion of the population lived completely outside the varna structure. But many orthodox Hindus believe the original varnas are still in place and serve to express divine justice through the transmigration of souls. The varna-jati one is born into reflects the reward or punishment of each soul for its previous life. All the jatis of the brahmans link into the all-India brahmanavarna, which is the classical varna. A large number of jatis are considered by higher jatis to be outside the varna system; these are the untouchables. The actual rank of a jati is not so much due to social and occupational practices of the members but is more because of the purity of the souls of the members resulting from their previous lives.

History:  Legend says that in the Krita Yuga, the first age, all the people of the world were of one caste, the Hamsa. Because of the degeneration of mankind other castes came into being during successive ages. The brahmans belong to the original caste, the ksatriyas to the Treta Yuga or second age, the vaisyas to the Dvapara Yuga or third age, and the sudras to the Kali Yuga or present corrupt age. Manu, the legendary lawgiver and father of mankind, is said to have laid down the basic rules of caste behaviour.

There are various theories about the origin of caste. It may have been on the basis of colour. The Aryan was originally white and Patanjali said blonde hair was an essential attribute of a brahman. But blonde brahmans soon became rare, and even Rama and Krishna are dark. A racial or tribal origin is another possibility. But priests of all races and tribes became brahmans and similarly with the ksatriyas. It is more likely that religious belief and practice in different cults and sects caused caste division.

Many castes have their own theories of origin, being descended from association with rivers, pools, trees, and sacred grasses. The Kumbi caste of ksatriya cultivators in Gujarat were created from perspiration at the waist of the goddess Parvati.

The Kammalan caste is descended from as Visvakarma, architect of the universe, and their members are artisans such as goldsmiths and stonemasons. Occupation was an important factor and guilds of craftsmen formed castes as the Kammalan caste did, while some occupations formed separate castes. With change, especially technological change, subcastes were formed. One belief to explain the multitude of jatis is that they were created from the four varnas over time as a result of expulsions for violations of marriage rules.

At a very early date the custom of investiture with the sacred thread to mark adulthood fell into decline with most ksatriyas and vaisyas and it came to be applied almost exclusively to brahmans. There are a few non-brahman castes which follow the practice.

It is historically obscure how the untouchables were produced by the evolution of the caste system. The occupations of the untouchables came to be those which the upper castes considered polluting and economically impoverished. Many untouchables have converted to Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity in the hope of a better life. It may have been revolt against caste and its punishments for breaking caste inviolability that helped to inspire the Buddha's renunciation of Hinduism and the founding of a new religion.

There have been several attempts to reject the caste system within Hinduism. In the twelfth century there was Basava and the Virashaivas (see separate entry), and in the fifteenth century came Kabir and his disciple Dadu (see Kabirpanthis and Dadupanthis). But these sects became castes within Hinduism and in their own sects there arose caste divisions.

Many Indians lost caste status because of association with foreigners. Gandhi was excommunicated from his caste on returning from England for crossing the polluting kalapani, black waters.

Ram Mohan Roy in the nineteenth century started a more humane way of looking at caste and his views continue in the Brahmo Samaj. Dayananda and the Arya Samaj wanted to revert to the traditional varnas and remove the innumerable jatis. Gandhi in the 1920's worked on behalf of the untouchables, giving them the name "Harijans," meaning "the begotten of God," which is used today.

Despite legislation in the Indian Constitution against caste discrimination, untouchability is still very much a part of Indian life. There have been protests and attacks on Harijans by higher caste Hindus who are against change, such as making employment opportunities in government for Harijans. In the cities change in caste is being forced by interaction with the West through technological progress, foreign travel, satellite television, and other factors. In the villages, where most people live, change comes more slowly.

Symbols:

Colours are associated with the four varnas: white for a Brahman, red for a Ksatriya, yellow for a vaisya, and black for a sudra. Brahmans can have gold and silver ornaments, while ksatriyas can have ornaments of inferior quality gold and silver. Vaisyas must use brass ornaments and sudras those of iron. Caste Hindus can build a two-storey house and carry an umbrella, but outcastes cannot even if they are rich.

The sacred thread of the brahman is of munja grass, that of the ksatriya is a bow-string, and the vaisya wears one of hemp or wool.

Traditional modes of greeting differed according to caste. The brahman stretches his right hand forward on a level with his ear, the ksatriya holds his hand level with his chest, and the vaisya level with his waist. The sudra bows low and stretches forward his joined hands.

Many of the symbolic caste distinctions are becoming obsolete with change. http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:w_S44Dn6DQcJ:philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/hindu/ascetic/castes.html+vaisyas&hl=en

Jeremy Condick. jpcondick@ntlworld.com