namaste :namaste
I hope it is allright for me to discuss here with you in christian DIR
but coming from a christian country this is very interesting to discuss with other christians .
Hi (namaste)
I wonder sometimes how much of our understanding comes from our cultural heritage and how much is learned. I guess i've grown up in a land where the laws we have are somewhat based on christian laws and principles and this surely makes it easier for me to comprehend the bible.
this is what I find most interesting , in england truely practicing christans are in a small minority which is very sad the laws and principles which our society was founded upon are crumbling and a new self interest has taken the place of a christian unity .
but much of what is in the bible is very universal to all cultures (not the mosaic laws, they were for ancient isrealites)
it is sad but I can honestly say that I understand christianity better now but it took me going to another culture to receive the teachings that are in a lot of incidences totaly universal and in line with many christian principles .
i appreciate that it has likely changed over time. But even if it was based on aptitude, being 'born' into a caste would not necessarily make you of the right 'aptitude' for a particular role. And aptitude is usually something we can develop if we are given the opportunity (thats why people go to school and learn a variety of skills. Some skills they will develop better then others and this will determine their aptitude. But being born into a particular group of people is does not automatically make one apt for a particular skill.
of course it is very complex and I have realy simplified it for the sake of this conversation , in the begining of time the world was a very differnt place , we are talking of some very ancient instructions which were given inorder to insure a just society , of course there are incidences where a child does not have the inclination to follow in his caste , this happened with lord Buddha he was born a prince and raised in the ruling class of course as every father does he was full of hopes that his son would follow him and become a King and inherit the principality , but lord Buddha just did not feel right in this situation so he renounced his position . however incidences like this were few as in genneral it was considered ones duty to follow in ones family tradition . in the same way being the son of a Bhramin does not mean that one must become a preist but just that the oppertunity for that education is available to you .
after all it is only in relitively recent years that education has been free to all here in the west , before that if one were born in a wealthy family you had privilages of education that the working class did not have . the son of a blacksmith olny had the oppertunuty to learn a craft from his father .
if anyone knows this, surely it is our creator who made us to be whatever we 'choose' to be.
yes , I belive this also in one respect that the lord created mankind and gave us the free will to follow our own chosen path , he has blessed us , but we must realise this blessing and make the most of our lives , even a person born into a simple life can be a good christian or a good hindu he can be of benifit to his society in the smallest most simple way by being loving and thoughtfull . in the same way one born in the higest position with the benifit of the best education can use this education in two ways , to benifit himself , or to benifit society , to the lord there is no difference between the loving actions of a poor man or the loving actions of the powerfull man it is the motivation by which the lord is most pleased .
yes i know a little of Ghandi and what he fought for. And he's absolutely right, no one is below another person. We are all equals and the bible also teaches us this truth. The bible says we are all brothers and sisters....all of one family.
yes it is this truth that most religions share in common which make us truely human beings ...but there is this ugly nature which occurs in all humanity which because of their lack of true faith fear that they will not have enough , so because of this fear they hord and amass wealth , they become teritorial and fight over posession and control .
So if many hindu's believe this is true, why is the caste system still so deeply ingrained in Indian society?
it is just the same as the problems which have plagued the west where fear in the minds of men causes them to seek to hold power over another and hoard wealth and to work for themselves , throughout the world there are those who abuse the system , look into england and america's recent history , allthough thinking them selves christian countries they took slaves from other nations considereing them to be second class citizens , and allthough we have stoped this un just behavior we still support slave labour in third world countries , we slowly becoming more aware of this and fortunately this is begining to change . .....but isnt it true that we all have to look carefully into our own minds to see when our greed over wheighs our faith and prevents us from being that better person ?
which just leads me to think that we are actualy more alike than we think as it is only culture and distance that seperates us , faith it self is the most precious blessing ,as it is faith that allows us to be better people :namaste
