Shudra 6

...Then we have another example from another grand epic, Ramayana, which show how the people from lower castes were stopped from achieving spiritual peace. Not stopping them meant turning upside down the eternal dharma of intelligent people. Lord Rama, the king of Ayodhya returned after achieving a dharmic victory the demon king Ravana of Lanka and finishing a period of fourteen years in jungles. He is considered as a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu along with Lord Shri Krishna of Geeta fame. During his reign a Shudra called Shambuk started to perform the penance to attain spiritual peace. At the same time, a son of a Brahman fell ill. A group of Brahmanas joined together and took the ailing boy along with them to Lord Rama. Ram the king asked about the purpose of their visit. The Brahmans told him that the boy had fallen sick and therefore they had come to see him. Lord Rama said that the boy should have been taken to a physician to get the treatment and get cured. Then he was told that the boy had taken ill not due to natural sickness but because dharma was getting destroyed in his rule. Further the Brahmanas told him that a Shudra was performing penance as a result of which dharma was getting corrupted and destroyed. A Shudra was doing the adharmic deed of performing penance. His rule was becoming sinful. As a result of corruption of dharma the pious Brahman boy was taken ill. This was as simple as that. Nothing exponential logic was involved in that. The causation was there for any twice-born man to see. Only the heathen and brainless creatures could not see such pious logic. Only pious brain could give such a pious logic. The pious Brahmanas said that the only pious course of action was to kill this penance performing sinful Shudra to save the pious dharma. A single Shudra was posing grave danger to divinely ordained dharma. Somebody had to find a solution to this catastrophic problem. Any further delay would have resulted in the death of Brahman boy and king Rama would have been responsible that. The kings were supposed to uphold the dharma. A Shudra had committed the ghastly crime of transgressing upon the dharma of Brahmanas. The corruption of dharma had to be removed at any cost. Its sanctity had to be restored. A human being had defiled it. Therefore Lord Rama took his bow and arrow and went to forest where Shambuk was corrupting dharma by doing penance. Then Lord Rama showing his faith in Sanatana dharma killed armless and meditating Shambuk with a single shot. And behold, the Brahman boy got cured the moment Shambuk was killed thus justifying the causation of his sickness. In this story it is interesting to note that it was necessary for Brahmanas to ask Lord Rama to kill Shambuk. They themselves could have killed him but they chose a Kshatriya to do it to avoid committing the crime themselves. It also meant that the deeds do not define a Varna.

Then there is another example from Mahabharata where a Shudra (Suta-Putra, son of charioteer) was forced to fake his identity to learn the art of warfare. The Sutas were the Shudras and hence not eligible to learn the art of warfare. Karana was eldest of the Pandavas brothers. His mother was Kunti, same as mother of Pandavas of whom Arjuna is most famous. He was born before her marriage to Pandu. So she abandoned him to avoid social disgrace. He was brought by a Suta (a charioteer) of Kauravas who were cousins of Pandavas. Therefore he came to be known as Suta-Putra and hence dharmically ineligible to learn the art of warfare and wielding weapons. So it goes without saying that no high Varna teacher was willing to teach him. But he had a burning desire to learn the art of warfare and specially that of archery. So he went to a far away place where nobody knew him. He went to a renowned Brahman teacher who taught the art of wielding weapons to Brahmanas only. His name was Parshuram. He did not know the true identity of Karana. So Karana put on a sacred thread and claimed to be a Brahman before him. On knowing this Parshuram admitted him as his student. It is unethical to assume the identity of somebody else for personal gains but his inethicality paled before the inethicality of Brahmanas who gave false identities to all the people and prevented Shudras and those below them from fulfilling their dreams, their aspirations, their heart’s desire and their ambitions. The Shudras and those below them had to live a life without dreams. If their hopes were children then it amounted to gross infanticide. Their dignity lied tattered on the earth. One piece here and one piece there, the upper castes walked on them as they wished. And all the blame went to their Karmas.

Parshuram took Karana under his wings and started teaching him the art of wielding weapons. The time went by and Parshuram kept teaching him under the illusion that he was a Brahman. The Brahmanas were allowed to wield weapons to save the dharma under emergency. There came a time when Karana became a skilled exponent of warfare. His favorite weapon was bow and arrow. At that time, one day, Parshuram decided to take rest and Karana offered to his thigh to be used as a pillow. So Parshuram put his head in Karana’s thigh and went to sleep. Soon after a scorpion came there and stung Karana on his leg. The pain was piercing but Karana bore it with all the patience so as not to disturb his teacher. Soon this was going to result in his expulsion and a curse. When Parshuram woke up he noticed the wound on the leg of Karana and asked the reason for it. Karana told him about the scorpion. Then Parshuram doubted his identity since no Brahman could have bore such a pain, only a Kshatriya could have done it. He asked Karana his true identity. Karana in his all sincerity told him that he was a Suta-Putra. That was what he knew at that time. On knowing this Parshuram got angry that a Shudra had learnt the art of wielding weapons. He expelled Karana and cursed him that he would forget all the skill of warfare taught to him when the he needed them most. Justified was the anger of Parshuram and so was the inethicality of the Varna system. The righteous got righteously angry. There was scant regard for anybody’s natural feelings and emotions. The sub humans are not supposed to possess feelings and emotions...