DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6523#0296
284
do you belong V—a quite proper question—Satya-
kama did not know. He was desirous of truth, as his
name implies ; he spoke the truth. He said : " I do
not know my Gotra; I was born when my mother was
a maid-servant, at an inn. Jabala was her name."
What was the answer of the Guru ? He embraced the
boy and said : " Because you have spoken the truth, I
accept you as a pupil." So he passed into the Brah-
mana caste—though apparently an illegitimate lad—
because he showed what ought to be the quality of a
Brahmana, that he could not tell a lie, even for his
own credit, even to gain his own end. But he does
not stand alone. I can give you a dozen names of
people who changed their caste in the old days, be-
cause they showed the quality of one in which they
were not born and desired the name as well as the
quality. With all these undoubted facts behind you,
can you say that your modern caste system is right as
a matter of fact ? Never. Birth alone shines out at
every point. Sometimes what ought to be the child-
soul of a Shudra is found in the body of a Brahmana,
or the bargaining soul, as it ought to be, of the Vaishya
in the body of a Kshattriya. Can you pretend that
these are the castes spoken of by Shri Krshna as
emanating out of Him by qualities and character ?
The only thing you can do, in such conditions, if you
wish to keep the outline of caste, is to change it back
to the old flexible form, and say that whatever the
qualities are which the man shows out, they mark his
do you belong V—a quite proper question—Satya-
kama did not know. He was desirous of truth, as his
name implies ; he spoke the truth. He said : " I do
not know my Gotra; I was born when my mother was
a maid-servant, at an inn. Jabala was her name."
What was the answer of the Guru ? He embraced the
boy and said : " Because you have spoken the truth, I
accept you as a pupil." So he passed into the Brah-
mana caste—though apparently an illegitimate lad—
because he showed what ought to be the quality of a
Brahmana, that he could not tell a lie, even for his
own credit, even to gain his own end. But he does
not stand alone. I can give you a dozen names of
people who changed their caste in the old days, be-
cause they showed the quality of one in which they
were not born and desired the name as well as the
quality. With all these undoubted facts behind you,
can you say that your modern caste system is right as
a matter of fact ? Never. Birth alone shines out at
every point. Sometimes what ought to be the child-
soul of a Shudra is found in the body of a Brahmana,
or the bargaining soul, as it ought to be, of the Vaishya
in the body of a Kshattriya. Can you pretend that
these are the castes spoken of by Shri Krshna as
emanating out of Him by qualities and character ?
The only thing you can do, in such conditions, if you
wish to keep the outline of caste, is to change it back
to the old flexible form, and say that whatever the
qualities are which the man shows out, they mark his