In gita, god says he has divided people into 4 varnas based on gunas.
Gunas are
1, Satvika - People who are not bothered about materialistic life leading a ascetic life. They were called brahmins. Brahmin is one who knows Brahman or god.
2, Rajasic - People who want power. They want land and wealth. Kshatriyas and vaishyas belonged to that.
3, Tamasic - People who are sloth, lazy, enjoying with women and drink all the time. Shudras belonged to that.
Bhagavt gita cleary says this. There were lot of hindu saints who has explained better than me what casteism in Hinduim is. It is never by birth.
After Vivekananda, there was no pan-indian Hindu leader who cud spread the essence of hinduism thruout India.
RE:Casteism in Hinduism
by Confused Mind on Dec 27, 2007 07:12 PM Permalink
There is nothing called low-caste and high-caste. It is a distortion of the original concept. The idea is in order to run a society or even a individual properly one needs to imbibe 4 basic qualities of - Thinker (Bramhin), Protector (Kshatriya), Economist (Vaishya), Worker (Shudra). All of them are equal and do not exist in isolation. Even in life one has to imbibe all the 4 qualitites to be successful. This concept will always be true everywhere in whatever profession people pursue. It has been distorted and abused by confused people over time. Most Hindus are not aware of the same. There is nothing wrong with old-age homes. People in the West are quite comfortable with that. For that matter, Hinduism, has 4 stages of life, bramhcharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, sanyas. During the 4th stage one leaves home. What's wrong if Old-age homes are kept well?
