Hinduism Part 2

The four castes
The Hindu society is divided into four main hereditary classes: the Brahman, or priestly; the Kshatriya, or warrior; the Vaisya, or general populace and the Shudras, or servants. Hindus also believe in a hierarchical categorization of the members of each caste according to the importance of their origin, which means that the social status is handed down through generations. In the Laws of Manu known as “Manu Smriti”, Hindus say: “To bring happiness to this world, Brahma created the Brahman class from his face, the Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaisya from his thighs, and the Shudras from his feet.” Al-Bayrouni described these castes similarly to what was mentioned in the “Manu Smriti”; he says: “First of all, the Hindu institution of the caste system is organized in four classes starting with the Brahman; the highest Hindu caste that emanated from the head of Brahma - as related in their books. Knowing that the head represents the top part of the animal’s body, the Brahman was accordingly considered as the most pure organism amongst species and that is why it became a symbol of the best and supreme position within people. The second caste that follows the Brahman in importance is the Kshatriya which issued from Brahma’s shoulders and hands and was relatively close in position and status to those of the Brahman. The Vaisya and the Shudras come successively after the above two ranks; those classes were created from the legs of Brahma and they are closely related to each other in significance. Despite of this hierarchical system that arranges classes of Hindu society, we find that cities and villages embrace a mixture of the four castes’ homes and dwellings.”

A: The Brahman: In their Holy Texts “Manu Smriti”, Hindus say that Brahma, the supreme god, “commissioned the Brahman to read and teach the Veda, to carry out the task of relating knowledge (Vidya), performing religious celebrations, giving and accepting charities.According to Coller, the members of this caste are “the elite of priests and mentors who are regarded in general as the elite of cultured people whose primary activities are to preserve knowledge, culture, justice and morality in order to please the gods.”

B: The Kshatriya: The Kshatriya is the second of the four Hindu castes after the Brahman, originally a royal and warrior caste with the mission of maintaining the security in the country. Consequently, its members should be distinguished by their courage as by their political and military professional standards so that they would enjoy society’s great reverence. In his definition of the Kshatriya, John Coller said: “The members of the Kshatriya caste are the protectors of society, the administrators of its affairs, and the guardians of its individuals. The Kshatriya is the system that looks after society’s security, supervises and watches over the execution of laws and commands required by the necessary social functions. The Jati - a Sanskrit word denoting the system of caste or varna - also states that heroism, force, integrity, mastership, being valorous even in battles, showing generosity and manifesting skillful leadership; those are the natural and intuitive duties that a member of Kshatriya caste should enjoy.Similarly, Al-Bayrouni says that the qualities accorded to this class require the Kshatriya person to be “revered, courageous, influential, articulate, giving, strong in facing any hardship, capable of solving plights successfully.”

C: The Vaisya or the Waisya: Next in order of rank were the farmers and merchants, the Vaisya caste whose crucial mission in society is to provide the fullness of nourishment and to ensure an ample and stable livelihood conditions. Moreover, this class is in complete charge of the economic affairs and it is not a matter of desirable choice to carry out this job; nay, it is an appointed decree by the “Manu Smriti” or “The Laws of Manu” which dictate the following: “The Vaisya are supposed to fulfill seven tasks which are: taking care and shepherding animals, giving charities, worshipping the Vidya, studying the Vedas, working in commerce, adopting the treatment of usury, and assuming the farming chores.” In fact, this social class is trying hard to gradually advance in position, it is really trying to attain liberation from life’s restraints and achieve freedom from daily worries; however, it remains for ever the servant of the nation and the people because the responsibility of providing continuous and ample productiveness is cast upon its shoulders.

D: The Shudras or the Sudras: The Shudras is the lowest of the four castes in Hindu hierarchical organization of society. The members of this class are almost slaves because their duty lies in serving the society and working hard to fulfill whatever the upper classes burden them with. Al-Bayrouni says: “A Sudras should be diligent in serving and flattering people, he should try to be friendly to any one when performing his duty, and whomsoever shows perseverance and hard-working effort in dealing with his prescribed ordinary task, he will be greatly rewarded.” And the one who does not fulfill his appointed job will be subjected to punishment. Concerning the function of this particular class, the Hindu Laws or the “Manu Smriti” relate: “The supreme god had bound Sudras with a sole requirement which is to serve the higher castes with complete loyalty and devotion.” And by ‘the higher castes’, he is indicating the above mentioned three castes: the Brahman, the Kshatriya and the Vaisyas.

Verily, this Hindu social hierarchy is maintained generation after generation allowing little mobility out of the position, to which a person is born, blocking the way in front any competence or ability-based promotion and consequently leaving no room for justice. The characteristics of this Indian rigid social system paved the way to a sharp division within the Indian society creating a serious need to the dissolution of the artificial and oppressive barriers between the castes. Amongst the considerable attempts aiming at eradicating this unjust social institution was the one led by Mahatma Gandhi in the early twenties. However, this endeavor could not realize the expected and desired results because the class-based discrimination has deep roots in the Hindu mentality, beliefs and society.

VI- Hindu worship and rituals
1- Purity: It is noticeable that the most sacred places that Hindus head toward for pilgrimage are spread throughout river banks. And the holiest amongst all these rivers is the Ganges where people sprinkle the ashes of their dead after incinerating their bodies. It is said that the importance of the Ganges comes from source of which the river issues; it springs from underneath the feet of the god Vishnu, the preserver.Furthermore, the Hindu theology reveals numerous cases of getting purified. For example, the Manu Smriti texts mentioned that the sexual defiling could be purified through washing up “Human beings can rid themselves of the uncleanness of discharging seminal fluid by washing out.” In addition, “Washing up can be the way through which people can free themselves from impurities that they got inflicted with by touching moral-degraded people, by touching a woman during the menstruation period, by touching a woman during the forty days after childbirth, by touching a dead body, or by touching a person who himself had previously touched a dead body.”All the more so, Hindus believe that the blood of a martyr does not need to be cleansed up because it is pure in itself. In their Laws, Hindus say: “The person who dies in the battlefield or during a struggle; who perishes because of a thunderbolt; who is crashed by a cow or by a Brahmin; who had been sentenced to death by the king or the latter wanted to subject him to purification; no one will ever be contaminated by the death of such person.” As for the woman “she should purify herself by washing up a day after the miscarriage to compensate all the months of pregnancy just as she should do after the menstruation period.”

Hindus regard purity as being divided into two types; the first one is related to the body when they wash themselves up with water, and the second type is spiritual such as the purification of the soul through holy knowledge and the purification of the heart through offering worship, and so forth…

2- The prayer: bathing, wearing clean garments of white or yellow color, washing up hands and mouths with scented water are considered as forms of prayer. Men and women take different positions during prayers; the man sits cross-legged while the woman gets down on her knees. Concerning the performance of prayers - as Shalabi stated in his book “The Greatest Religions of India” - it would be as follows: “Hinduism has neither a unifying nor a collective prayer because, all in all, the prayer is individual.”As for ‘when’ and ‘how many times’ Hindus perform their prayers, the Manu Smriti stated that they pray twice a day: in the morning and in the evening. By standing up, priests perform the ceremony of the morning that lasts from the dawn till the sunrise; while by being seated, they recite the evening prayer till the appearance of the stars. Those two adopted methods to pray in the morning and in the evening are believed to wash away the sins of the previous night and the sins of the day respectively.Hindus insisted severely on the performance of daily prayers for the texts of the Manu Smriti clearly stated that people who do not perform the prayers should be expelled and regarded the same way as the outcast Shudras, or they should be deprived from the established rights of the reborn - indicating the people who have a soul that had undergone the cyclical return.

The religious fervor that Hindus enjoy creates in them an intense enthusiasm to lead the life of hermits making from forests and riverbanks their isolated and solitary refuges. Consequently they say: “It is sufficient that the person performs his worship by just reading aloud the Khaytri with a peaceful heart and a sound reason, near a river or in a forest.”Next to water that they use in order to purify things and people, Hindus also utilize, in their ceremonies and rituals celebrated by priests in temples, fire to burn the incense, in addition to the remarkable usage of flours. The prayers that are recited in temples are performed - as Al-Shalabi says - as follows: “The priest recites his traditional enchantments. Then, the person would kneel underneath the worshipped idol and starts his invocations… Later on, the priest spells out his traditional supplications knowing that each social caste has its own different share in this supplication… The priest voices a special invocation. Afterwards, the person says his prayer to be finally sprinkled with water before he departs.”

3- Cremation: In Hinduism, the atman - the soul - is the essence of individuals, which make the body of little importance, especially when it comes to the transmigration of a soul after death. Hindus believe that the soul keeps on undergoing the cyclical return of life because it will be searching the attainment of enlightenment and purification in order to free the spiritual self from attachment to worldly things which will finally end the cycle of birth and rebirth allowing the union with the Universal Soul “Nirvana.”Consequently, Hindus dealt very harshly with their live bodies; as for the after death, they advocate the ritual of subjecting the corpse to incineration until nothing remains but ashes; the ashes are then kept in an urn to be sprinkled afterwards in their holy Ganges River .The ceremony of cremation is based upon the following items - as identified by Doctor Shalabi: “The required elements are: fire, wood, the corpse and water.” And these items would be arranged underneath the worshipped idol by the children or the family of the dead person.The procedure of the cremation: The corpse is washed with pure and limpid water then again washed with fragrant water. All the wounds and incisions should be completely closed. The dead body should be incinerated by means of the revered fire set by the priest. After that the corpse is covered with wood, which is also revered by Hindus… The burning of the body will keep going until only ashes are left; Hindu spells, hymns, and chants will be recited over those ashes” which should be assembled in a vessel to be dispersed afterwards in the Ganges River.

4- The Yoga: In Hinduism, the essence of human beings is all about the “atman” and his body is very likely to be an obstacle hindering the way of the spiritual self which is trying to liberate itself from the cyclical and entangling return to life to finally reach the union with the Universal Spirit or the god Brahma.Hence, as says Al-Suhmurani, Hindus adopted the concept of “Karma”; a conventional term to indicate their philosophy about the human cyclic life concerning birth, Samsara - transmigration between bodies - and the quality of people’s future lives, the soul in particular, which is determined by their accumulated merit and demerit behavior in this and in previous lives.So, if the human being took the right path: doing good and charitable deeds, performing his religious duties through expiations and rituals, renouncing all worldly desires, his soul will achieve release (moksha) from the entire process of samsara to be unified with the Universal Soul - Brahma. On the other hand, if the human being sought the profane rewards of this world: taking the path of evil and wrong doings, neglecting his duties, his soul will be endlessly stuck in the cycle of birth and rebirth, passing from one body to another, experiencing successively life and death.Accordingly, Hindus adopted the Yoga discipline. The Yoga is a Sanskrit term meaning ‘the yoke’ used to signify the fact that the exercise of Yoga achieves the salvation of the soul from the yoke of the body.Verily, as we have said earlier, Brahma and the Atman (the essence or the soul) are one entity. Therefore, the purpose of practicing Yoga - as Coller notes - is to reestablish that unity which had split when the soul inhabited the body. So, in order to be liberated and realize again this oneness with Brahma, the soul necessitates the Yoga discipline. Coller adds also that the marvels of this bodily control, which may achieve liberation from the limitations of flesh, the delusions of sense and the pitfalls of thought are not enough if the human being was not introduced to wisdom and disinfected from ignorance… Once the wisdom is fulfilled, no suffering will exist any more because there will no longer be a misconnection between the soul (Borosha) and the substance (Brakriti) - the changing and sufferable entity.On this basis, Shalabi says that realizing the gratification of god, the creator, is the ultimate goal Hindus try to achieve through practicing Yoga; the kind of exercise based on remembrance, meditation and silence. Coller also states that the Yoga is the answer of salvation from pain and tragedies; it is the path through which human beings reach the Nirvana that achieves the complete union and fusion between the atman (the soul) and Brahma.Moreover, Al-Suhmurani said that the Yoga saves and releases the spirit from the bond of the body and from its primitive instinctive impulses and drives to make from the human being a more tender and loving person to people all. By reaching this noble level, the concerned person will be called “Mahatma”; a title ascribed to Hindu Saints and good people. The word is etymologically divided into two syllables: ‘Atma’ or ‘Atman’ meaning the Soul; and ‘Maha’ to signify the Great. Like so, the person who reaches salvation will be deemed as the person of the Greatest Spirit.

5- Sraddha or Shraddha: the Sraddha, as described by ‘Al-Bustani in “The Circle of Knowledge,” is an Indian term meaning ‘faith or trust’ and it is used to designate an Indian ceremony celebrated to honor the dead and their spirits; it mainly includes offerings of food and water to dead ancestors. Indeed, Hindus believe that carrying out this festival shortly after the death of the person would immediately guide his soul to heaven and facilitate its acceptance amongst the pure souls. In return, if that ceremony is never held, the soul of the dead will remain lost forever wandering aimlessly in earth with the rest of defiled spirits. Moreover, the person who keeps on delaying the fulfillment of his duties towards his dead relatives; will be damned by the gods and the humans; consequently, the spirits of his relatives will be deprived from the feast of the pure souls for several years. As for the person who dies without leaving a son to complete the funeral requirements after him, he would become the main cause of expelling the spirits of his ancestors from heaven to be sent hell.

At the beginning of each lunar month, the Brahmans lead some conjoined Sraddhaas for the sake of their ancestors in general, in which they make daily offerings. And as individuals, they hold a special and private Sraddhaa once a month or once a year. The Book of Manu minutely describes the Law of Sraddhaa: If a person offers the spirits of the dead a ball of rice simmered with milk, honey and dripped butter during one of the lunar days when the shadow of Ganesha - an elephant-headed Hindu god - is directed towards east; he would be pleasing them for a whole year; as for the other offerings, they may satisfy the souls for two or three months, or even more regarding the kind of offerings that are being given. All the more so, the soul can attain an eternal gratification and satisfaction if the following oblations are made: the meat of a rhinoceros, the flesh of crabs, goats of nearly red hair, honey, or some cereals of which a hermit had eaten, etc… These Indian customs are completely similar to the Greek and Roman customs. To the ceremony held for the sake of the dead, Hindus do not invite but the pure people. Two people, however, should be present at this festival: a Brahmin who covers all the required rules and a person of a deep knowledge in the religious Texts whose presence is better than the crowd of a million knowing nothing about it. In addition, if the dead person had no son to carry out this ceremony, the adopted child - if he had one - would be commissioned to fulfill the duties of the Sraddhaa; something that tightens and strengthens the father-son relationship.

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