Sunday, December 30, 2018

Brahminhood

The solution of the caste problem in India, therefore, assumes this form, not to degrade the higher castes, not to crush out the Brahmin. 
The Brahminhood is the ideal of humanity in India, as wonderfully put forward by Shankaracharya at the beginning of his commentary on the Gita, where he speaks about the reason for Krishna's coming as a preacher for the preservation of Brahminhood, of Brahminness. 

That was the great end. 

This Brahmin, the man of God, he who has known Brahman, the ideal man, the perfect man, must remain; 
he must not go …



… The solution is not by bringing down the higher, but by raising the lower up to the level of the higher. 
And that is the line of work that is found in all our books, in spite of what you may hear from some people whose knowledge of their own scriptures and whose capacity to understand the mighty plans of the ancients are only zero. 

                 - Swami Vivekananda, 
                   Address at Madras, 
                  Lectures From Colombo to Almora


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