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Thursday, January 11, 2018

Actual Varna Vyavastha and Swami Dayanand

Today, a great antagonism can be witnessed about Varna Vyavastha in many rallies and public statements by some proclaimed dalit leaders. If it had been in 1950s or 1960s, I would have said that it is their anger towards the discrimination that they faced in the past few centuries. But today, in year 2018, I am forced to say that this is mere a politics.

Without understanding the form of Varna Vyavastha that was based on guna karma swabhava of a person, these leaders want to burn the scriptures wherefrom it came. Swami Dayanand, the great social reformer and scholar of his time, pointed towards the ancient Varna Vyavastha. According to this, anyone with intellectual abilities is Brahmin, the warrior class is called Kshatriya, the business minded individuals are known as Vaishya and those who are unable to do all this and can perform only physical labor are Shudra. There are some examples that we can see in ancient history. Vishwamitra, who was born as Kshatirya became Brahmin in his later age, Jaballi Rishi whose father was unknown and it is said that he was a son of a prostitute, also got the status of Brahmin. As per Manu Smiriti, which many people want to burn, Brahmin can become Shudra also and Shudra can also become a Brahmin. Kathak Samhita says, “Don’t ask Brahmin who is his parents, if he has fulfilled the eligibility of knowledge, then he is the Brahmin”.

Ironically, I have seen a proud Hindu condemning Swami Dayanand as he said at a place in Satyarth Prakash that Shudras should serve other three varnas. I would only like to say here that first one should understand the actual meaning of varnas. Swami Dayanand’s Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra  were not birth based, but they were just adjectives to a person’s qualities as stated in ancient scriptures.