Talk:Varṇa Dharma for Universal Well-being:The Universal Remedy

By Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami

In the past, though people were divided on the basis of caste, they were free from hatred and ill-will. It is now that we see ill-will and hatred everywhere in the country. One state is at loggerheads with another; one state has disputes with another over the sharing of river waters; and again one state has a quarrel with another on the question of boundaries.

In the past, Cettiars [of the South] built dharmasālās (free boarding and lodging houses) for pilgrims from Kāśī. Correspondingly, the Sethjis constructed dharmasālās for pilgrims going to Kāśī and Badarīnātha. People then were united as devotees of the Lord. Everything has gone awry today because of increased political activity and empty talk.

So, as a medicine for our ills, as a sovereign remedy, we must pray that people become more devoted to the Lord.

The incessant cry that "Caste must go" has resulted in an aggravation of hatred between one jāti and another. Though the propaganda against caste has been going on for 30 or 40 years, the caste factor comes to the fore even today during elections. Caste feelings run so high that violent clashes between communities are not infrequent.

Here it is not hatred between Brahmins and non-Brahmins. Fortunately, the Brahmin has been made to distance himself from politics. It is a matter for some comfort that, even though they have not quit politics on their own, others have pushed them out of it. So the present quarrels are between other castes.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Khammas and the Reddis are quarrelling among themselves; in Karnataka, the Liṅgāyats are at war with some other community. Ironically enough, it is in these days—when the cry of equality is the loudest—that we witness so many caste wars.

This phenomenon is something unknown to the śāstric tradition.

Here in Tamil Nadu, candidates are chosen for elections on the basis of jātis: Padayacis in one district, Gauṇḍars in another, Tevars in a third, Mukkulattārs in a fourth, and so on. Elections are fought not on the basis of ideology but on that of caste.