(Below is a continuation of the post Keep The Faith Intact)
Did Acharya Vinoba Bhave not command great respect from the people? Was Mahatma Gandhi an arrogant person? Was Vinoba Bhave an egoistic person? What about Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa? All these are the concepts of your own mind. You should not have such prejudices in the mind.
If you are good by nature but people around you do not find you good, then that means that you are not expressing yourself correctly; you have not been able to fully express yourself the way you truly are. Do not simply blame other people for this. Do not hold society responsible for this. Society is essentially good. It is not as bad as you think. In fact, Society and its people are much better and nobler than what you think of it.
We often feel this way because we tend to generalize and eternalize the problem. Then we end up saying, “Oh! Everyone is so bad”. It is not so. Just see from my eyes. People are not bad. Do not blame the society or the people. In every society, there are some bad anti-social elements. But that does not mean that the entire society is bad. If you think that way, then you will either justify yourself or think that others are not righteous.
If you say that “Everyone is hopeless”, then you too may be one of them. Is it not so? This subtle understanding must come in our mind.
Just look back in history at all the things that used to happen in the name of caste in our country and compare it with the situation that you see today. You will realize that the evils and problems that arose due to casteism have greatly reduced since those days.
In earlier days, they would keep different tumblers and glasses in hotels for people from different castes. In fact, in those days people from different castes would not sit and share a meal together in a hotel. There used to be a lot of friction and hostility between people because of caste. If you see the hotels, cinema theatres, hospitals, etc., today, where is the discrimination due to caste anymore? Yes, during marriages the issue of caste is still given importance today, but people are overcoming this gradually with more and more inter-caste marriages happening all over our country.
Secondly, we can eliminate this problem by imparting right education to our younger generation.
See, if someone wishes to adhere to and maintain the norms of his own caste, then it is alright. There is nothing wrong in doing that. But it is wrong to think of some caste as superior and some as inferior. No caste is superior or inferior to another.
Now you might say that, in the Vedas it is said that the Shudras arose from the feet of the Divine Lord. Are the feet useless and of no importance? If you think that your feet are of no use at all, then you will not be able to walk around. Society is kept in motion by the labour class and hard workers. Shudra means those who toil and work hard. How will society run if there are no people who work hard? That is what is said in the Veda – that the society is run and kept in motion by the Shudras who arose from the feet of the Viraat Purusha (Cosmic Being). This is what is meant by the Veda but we have wrongly understood and interpreted it. We think of them as menial and useless, which is not the case at all.
When any guest comes to your house, do you worship their feet or their head? (Referring to a traditional Indian custom of welcoming a guest by washing his feet) When some elderly or respected person comes to your house, do you honour them by washing their feet or their head?
It is called as Paad-puja and it is the best form of worship. There is nothing greater than the Paad-puja and the way we honour a guest by doing that. We must once again start doing the Paad-puja.
But here, I do not mean the Paad-puja for any particular person. Rather it should be for the labour class of our society. It is the labour class that helps the society run smoothly. So they too should be honoured and worshipped. This is what is meant by the verse from the Vedas. We should honour and respect those whom we think belong to the lower castes or lower strata of our society.
You know, in the Rudrabhishekam (a set of verses chanted during the worship of Lord Shiva), in one of the verses, God is said to be untouchable and belonging to the lowest rung of society! Does that mean that God becomes lowly and useless? No, it is not so at all. This is a misunderstanding here.
There have been so many wise sages and enlightened masters in the past who belonged to the lower strata of society. Very few of them were actually Brahmans (the class of society responsible for preservation and promotion of knowledge, as per the Vedic system of society). If you see the list or refer to the Rig Veda, you will be surprised to find that 17 of these wise sages were Rishikas (female sages). Many Rishis and Maharishis belong to the class of Dalits in our country today. They have written such great scriptures. Even the greatly revered Avatars like Lord Rama and Lord Krishna did not belong to the class of Brahmans. In fact, if you analyse, you will find that Lord Krishna belonged to the OBC class (Other Backward Castes). You need to explain this to people. Once people understand this, casteism will come to an end.
See, all that wandering around has gotten you tired. So now that you are here, just relax and be happy. Once you come to my school, then you are here for good, even after you have graduate.
Usually in schools when you graduate, you move out. But my school is not like that. I will not make you run around from one grade to another. This is a school that takes you all the way to your (ultimate) goal and establishes you there, so that you can be content and at rest. Just by being here you will get all that you need to reach the goal. Once you have reached your home (here meaning one’s final destination), do you ever ask where you should go from there? So now that you are home, just relax.
There are two ways to eliminate this:
1. Awaken the self-confidence of the poor and marginalized sections of the society. The poor people should become self-reliant and be able to make a living for themselves
2. Kindle sympathy and compassion in the hearts of the rich people
We cannot make everyone completely equal in society so that there are no more poor or rich people at all. You know, the Communist nations of the world have experimented with that social model for 40 years. They found that that rich became poor and the poor remained poor. So that approach did not help in anyway. The whole experiment failed. China also tried to implement this approach but failed. A small island like Taiwan became so rich and prosperous, whereas China remained poor and was lagging behind. But soon after that China completely turned its foreign and economic policy around. It started giving importance to foreign trade, commerce and skill development of its people. This greatly helped the Chinese people become self-reliant, skillful and be able to earn money for themselves and their families.
So do not think that the poor people are always the exploited ones in society. Also, the rich people are not always the ones who exploit others for their gains. This is just a wrong notion that some people spread in the minds of others. They try to preach that the rich people are the ones who are dishonest and exploit the poor. All rich people do not have the need to be dishonest. It is a very wrong concept. By spreading such false notions, they create a sense of conflict and ill-will between the rich and the poor.
Such misleading people will tell others, “If so and so person is rich, take it for granted he must be exploiting others. He must be using dishonest means to earn money”.
They will say things like, “Oh! See, that person is travelling by his own car while you are travelling by the public bus. He surely will exploit common folk like you”, or they will say, “See! He is studying in such a good school or medical college, while you are not able to. So you will be surely exploited by rich people like him”.
This mindset is very dangerous. A person moves ahead in life as per his capabilities and the resources available to him.
If someone is able to be rich while being in the path of honesty, then he should have a sense of gratitude and contentment for that. Such a person can help other people also to become rich and can provide employment and earning opportunities to many others.
What is the reason that there is not one good industry or industrialist in Kerala today? It is this very reason. People have been told that if someone is a factory owner or a businessman, he will surely exploit others for his own selfish gains. The same is happening in West Bengal also. The government there is getting influenced in the same manner and framing laws that are making it difficult for people to set up new businesses and earn their livelihood. If someone cannot setup their own business, then how will he provide employment to others? So this whole concept that 'A rich person is one who exploits, a poor person is always the one who gets exploited' is wrong. People become poor because of their bad habits and their laziness.
For example, if there are 10 children studying in the same school, then why does it happen that a few really excel ahead in life while some of them lag behind and even drop out? Is this someone else’s doing? You know, a laborer in a city actually earns roughly the same amount that a white collar worker earns in the city after a day’s work. The salary that a clerk gets is approximately the same that the laborer gets. In some places it could be more also. But usually we see that one excels while the other sinks deeper in poverty. Why does this happen? It is because of alcohol. The poor person spends 60% of what he earns in drinking alcohol. Then how can one expect to eradicate poverty in this manner? This is a crime one does onto himself.
Alcohol has become the biggest problem in our country today. The sale of alcohol has increased by nearly three to four times than what it used to be in the earlier years. This is ruining the health and also not letting the poor and marginalized people rise above their poverty.
