13 Apr 2024
[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Sāṣṭāṅga namaskāraṃ Swami. In Satyaanveshi presented by YouTube, the speaker says that people living towards south of Vindhya mountains are Dravida race whereas, people living north to Vindhya mountain are Arya race. How to deal with this topic? At Your holy lotus feet]
Swami Replied:- Some people always want to divide the people by such false statements just like Shakuni divided Pandavas and Kauravas with an intention to destroy both. Bringing split in Hindus through caste system and through Arya and non-Arya race division is always a wicked mentality. Just like the caste system is based on qualities and subsequent deeds, the Arya and non-Arya division must be based on deservingness and undeservingness of souls. Arya means a good person with good and righteous knowledge of scriptures and such Arya deserves respect or worship from the people. All the North Indians are thought to be Aryas and all South Indians are thought to be Dravidas or non-Aryas. If this is the trend, Sita scolding Ravana addressing him as Anaarya or non-Arya is justified because Sita is North Indian and Ravana is South Indian (Māmanārya nirīkṣataḥ- Sundarakanda, Valmiki Ramayana). The poet Valmiki is also North Indian. Now let us see the Abhijnana Shakuntalam written by poet Kalidasa, who is also a North Indian. In this book, Shakuntala scolds Dushyanta as non-Aryan or Anaarya. Both Dushyanta and Shakuntala are North Indians. How do you justify this second case? Here, we must understand that Anaarya does not mean South Indian, but means, a bad fellow, who shall be depreciated. Hence, just like the caste system is based on qualities and deeds, this Arya and non-Arya classification is also based on good and bad qualities of human beings, respectively.
There are both good and bad people in North India as well as in South India. Rama is a good North Indian. Duryodhana is a bad North Indian. Shankara is a good South Indian. Ravana is a bad South Indian. Hence, these classifications are based on good and bad qualities. The classification of castes is not based on birth and the classification of Arya and non-Arya is not based on regional difference. If you take birth as the reason for caste, quarrels and hatred are created between the people of the same Hindu religion. Similarly, if you take the Arya and non-Arya classification based on region, quarrels and hatred develop in people of the same Hindu religion. Swami Dayananda established Arya Samaj, which means the sect of people having the Vedic culture of Hindu religion. He did not differentiate the people of Arya Samaj by bringing the difference between North Indians and South Indians. Any human being following the Vedic culture was said to be Arya by Him. Not only this, He strictly followed the caste system also based on qualities and subsequent deeds (Guṇakarma vibhāgaśaḥ) discarding the caste system based on birth.
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