Posted on: 26 May 2024
[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Sāṣṭāṅga namaskāraṃ Swami, in YouTube, I saw a video entitled ‘Manusmruti Vs. Bible’ by a pastor (Aruna Kumar) in which he was scolding Manusmruti in which it is written that the Brahmana caste is greatest before which all others are treated as servants. By this, he was blaming the Hindu religion. What is Your answer to this pastor?]
Swami replied:- We have to sympathize with the pastor for committing a great error before he started this topic. British rulers projected the caste differences so that they can divide and rule the India. This pastor belongs to their religion and is doing the same.
The greatest error of this pastor is that he took a Brahmana to be called as Brahmana based on birth in the family of Brahmanas while the Hindu Scripture (Skanda Puraana) is clearly saying that any soul born on this earth is Shuudra by birth and any soul becomes Brahmana by qualities and deeds (Janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ, karmaṇā jāyate dvijaḥ). The Brahmana has to speak true spiritual knowledge to guide the society by saying that God exists to punish sins and reward merits in hell and heaven respectively so that even if one escapes courts here, it is impossible to escape the punishment from the unimaginable God functioning in unimaginable ways. The pastor agrees that the Pope preaching spiritual knowledge in their religion is the highest personality to be respected by all their people. The Pope is selected by virtue of his spiritual knowledge and not because his father was also a Pope. The Pope of Christianity is just like the Brahmana of Hinduism.
The Brahmana is selected by virtue of his merits and deeds (merit is his spiritual knowledge and deed is the propagation of such knowledge) and not because his father was also a Brahmana. In Hinduism, caste is decided by professional qualities (qualities and deeds). This pastor also runs and serves whenever he sees the Pope. Therefore, the fundamental error of this pastor is to think that a Brahmana is selected as Brahmana based on birth. But, this pastor will not agree that a Pope is selected because he was born to a Pope! Not only the Manusmruti, but also the Bhagavad Gita says that the caste is decided by qualities and deeds only (Guṇa karma vibhāgaśaḥ…). This pastor thinks that a Brahmana is selected by his birth to Brahmana parents irrespective of his spiritual knowledge. But, he doesn’t agree that a Pope is selected since he is the son of another Pope. The pastor says that a Pope is selected by his qualities and deeds and not by birth. When a Pope arrives, all the Christian public serves him, and this is very much appreciated by this pastor. But, he does not agree the same status for a Brahmana, who is none but a Pope in Hinduism!
If the pastor scolds Hinduism based on the status of the Brahmana, he must equally scold Christianity based on the status of Pope. Let us not scold the pastor, who slipped in the first step itself and based on him, let us not scold Christianity because the Bible and Jesus are as holy as the Manusmruti and Manu. The same unimaginable God took different forms and established the scriptures of various religions in which the subject is one and the same. All the religions are one universal religion only and all the castes are one humanity only. In every religion, there are different groups like the castes in Hinduism. But, these castes or groups differ only in professional qualities and every human being can become high or low based on its qualities and deeds. The Brahmana is born from the face of God does not mean that he is holy. The Shuudra born from the feet of God is very much holy like the most holiest river Ganga born from the feet of God. The Brahmana born from face means the spiritual knowledge of the brain and preaching of it through mouth. The Shuudra born from feet denotes agriculture since the feet only touch the earth always. Agriculture is food without which no human being can survive. The Shuudra is meant for service, which means that they are doing all the official posts of public service.
In “Paricaryātmakaṃ sevā, śūdra karma svabhāvajam”, the word ‘paricarya’ means only service (to the society) and service to Brahmanas is not mentioned. Even if you take it as service to Brahmana, it is justified like the service of the society to the holy Pope. Birth of souls from the various parts of the divine body of God can be done by the miraculous power of God. The pastor is criticizing that how birth can take place from the head since both male and female are required for the reproduction. In such a case, how the single God created Adam and Eve? Did the pastor forget that Jesus was born to a virgin by the miraculous power of God? The pastor is very hasty in blaming Hinduism. The Manusmruti was written in the Kruta Yuga in which Brahmanas were very holy. If you take Brahmanas of this Kali age, applying the Manusmruti to them is not correct. However, if you want to take the present Brahmanas, we will also take the present pastors. Present Brahmanas are as holy as present pastors! We must give due importance to the time factor also. The Kshatriya born from hands denotes fight to save justice from injustice like the present police and army.
Vaishyas denote thighs of God indicating financial business since Goddess Lakshmi sits on the thigh of God. All the misunderstandings are created among Hindus only to divide and rule them. A person scolding another religion will be severely punished by God and hence, let us not do that sin by criticizing other religions. Let us preach that God is only one in different forms of different religions and that one God spoke only one subject in the scriptures of different world religions. Shankara united all the sub-religions of Hinduism and Paramahamsa through Swami Vivekananda tried to unite all the religions of the world. Intra-quarrels in Hinduism and inter-quarrels among world religions must be avoided following the path shown by the above-mentioned incarnations of God.
Every religion has merits due to good followers and has defects due to bad followers. You must filter all the defects of all the religions and the residue leftover on the filter paper shows only merits and you will be surprised to see that these merits alone exist in every religion, which were spoken by God originally in the scriptures of all the religions. Hence, scholars with dignified language must sit together and discuss about the unity of all religions and this pleases God very much. Bad followers with vulgar language quarrel with each other like street rowdies and God will become very furious and will give severe punishments to such bad devotees. If you are scolding the form of God and the scripture of another religion, know that you are scolding your own form of God and your own scripture since God and scripture of all religions are one and the same. This is the precaution given by God to the followers of every religion.