25 Jul 2021
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
[Swāmi told that the answers given to Ms. Purnima must be read on Guru Pūrṇimā day since the word Pūrṇimā exists in Guru Pūrṇimā. Dr. Nikhil told that Guru Pūrṇimā is the conversation beteween preacher (Guru) and the devotee called Pūrṇimā! Swāmi appreciated this comment very much.]
[Ms. Purnima asked: Why Paraśurāma killed all the kings belonging to one particular caste called Kṣatriyas? Some kings like Kārtavīryārjuna might have done wrong, in which case, He should kill only those specific evil people only. Rāma killed only Rāvaṇa and not all Brāhmiṇs. Both Rāma and Paraśurāma are said to be the incarnations of same God Viṣṇu. How such contradicting behavior is observed in the same God?]
Swāmi replied: You are born in the family of Kṣatriyas and I am born in the family of Brāhmaṇas. Hence, you are supporting your own caste and scolding the other caste. I have double responsibility to answer this question because externally from the point of the medium, I am Brāhmaṇa and internally from the point of mediated God Datta, I am Paraśurāma because God Viṣṇu is the incarnation of God Datta. Before answering this question, let Me tell you one firm point that caste shall be decided by the qualities and subsequent deeds only and not by birth. I am a Brāhmaṇa because of My spiritual knowledge and patience and not because I am born in the family of Brāhmaṇas. You are also Kṣatriya for asking this question with anger and emotion and not because you are born in the family of Kṣatriyas. In your question, the reverse concept is radiating because you said that what Rāma (Kṣatriya) did was with knowledge and patience whereas, what Paraśurāma (Brāhmaṇa) did was with anger and emotion. Your question might have been correct if Rāma was simply a Kṣatriya and Paraśurāma was simply a Brāhmaṇa. In such case, I will say that Rāma was the real Brāhamaṇa and Paraśurāma was the real Kṣatriya because of their corresponding qualities and deeds. God Kṛṣṇa said that caste shall be decided by their qualities and subsequent deeds only and not by birth (Guṇa karma vibhāgaśaḥ – Gītā). There may be some ignorant people, who may say that Kṛṣṇa wrote this concept because, He was not a Brāhmaṇa since generally Brāhmaṇas only stress on the concept that caste is by birth. Because Kṛṣṇa was Yādava (OBC), He must have created such a revolutionary concept. All these concepts are based on ignorance and emotion only because, Paraśurāma, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa were the incarnations of same God Viṣṇu or God Datta. Based on this point, I will prove that neither Paraśurāma nor Rāma nor Kṛṣṇa are wrong. Since all these three are the same one God, there is unity and correlation in the actions and words of these three incarnations. Only God Datta present in Me can explain this concept because the same God Datta existed in Paraśurāma, Rāma and Kṛṣṇa. Hence, you have put this question to the exact person.
What Kṛṣṇa said is exactly correct, which is that the caste must be decided by qualities and subsequent deeds only and not by birth. You should not say that the soul enters a specific caste when the qualities of the soul and the qualities of that caste synchronize. Based on this concept, you will argue that a soul containing Brāhmaṇa qualities will be born in the caste of Brāhmaṇas and the soul containing Kṣatriya qualities is born in the caste of Kṣatriyas only. It is also true that the soul will take birth in the atmosphere, which is congenial to its inherent qualities. Up to this, you can develop the theory that the decision of the caste by qualities and deeds and the decision of caste by birth coincide with each other and do not contradict with each other. This means that a Brāhmaṇa soul is Brāhmaṇa by its inherent qualities and the caste of Brāhmaṇas in which such Brāhmaṇa soul is born are both perfectly having Brāhmaṇa qualities only. In such case, the Brāhmaṇa soul, born and brought by Brāhmaṇa family must express only Brāhmaṇa qualities. When the material of the soul and the material induced into the soul by the surrounding congenial atmosphere are one the same, definitely the same material must be expressed by the soul. A fruit having sweet taste and soaked in sugar solution for a long time must be sweet when it is tasted. In such case, how Rāvaṇa born in the family of sages expressed the demonic qualities? Similarly, a fruit salty in taste soaked in salt solution for a long time must be salty when it is tasted. In such case, how Prahlāda born in the family of demons expressed the sage-qualities? You may say that these two are rare cases. Okay. Your theory covers 99% of cases but does not cover 100% cases. Though, your theory exists in general, rarely it fails because the soul sometimes may not enter the congenial atmosphere.
The inherent qualities of the soul prevail over the qualities of surrounding atmosphere. The soul of Rāvaṇa was demonic inherently and hence, could not be influenced by the surrounding qualities of sages. The soul of Prahlāda was divine inherently and hence, could not be influenced by the surrounding qualities of demons. Hence, what shall be theory that can cover all the cases including Rāvaṇa and Prahlāda? Such general theory that covers all 100% cases is that you should decide the caste by the expressed qualities only (which are the inherent qualities of the soul) and you should not decide the caste by the qualities of surrounding atmosphere in which a soul has taken birth. Therefore, the theory shall be built-up in this way – the expressed qualities of a soul will only decide the caste of the soul and not the birth, which is related to qualities of surrounding caste. We don’t know whether Rāvaṇa’s soul and Prahlāda’s soul are demonic or divine while the two souls are entering the wombs of their mothers. We can only know that Rāvaṇa is demonic and Prahlāda is divine when their qualities were expressed after their birth. From the expressed qualities only you can infer the soul as demonic or divine. The fire on hill is unseen. Its smoke coming down is only seen. From the seen smoke, the unseen fire is inferred. You cannot say that the fire is on the hill without seeing the smoke. Therefore, it is perfectly logical to decide whether a soul is of upper caste or of lower caste only when you see the qualities of soul expressed in the world. Hence, the theory of Kṛṣṇa in the Gītā is 100% logical and true. Hence, Kṛṣṇa has no illogical caste feeling because He always supported the decision of caste by expressed qualities only and not by birth. Since this concept is very much logical, Kṛṣṇa established this concept in the Gītā and not as you think that He established this concept because He is not a Brāhmaṇa. Kṛṣṇa is God or Brahman, Who created Brāhmaṇas from His face. The caste is decided by qualities and not by birth. If Brāhmaṇas have the caste feeling by birth, why they are not worshiping the photos of Rāvaṇa? Why Brāhmaṇas are keeping the photos of untouchable Śabarī and untouchable hunter (Tinna or Kaṇṇappa) in their prayer rooms? Why Brāhmaṇas are washing the feet of statues of Rāma (Kṣatriya) and Kṛṣṇa (Yādava) and taking the washings as holy water (tīrtham)? Does these acts prove that Brāhmaṇas support the concept of caste by birth? Such Brāhmaṇas are called as sages. Such sages made Romaharṣaṇa born in a low caste as president (Brahmā) of the sacrifice done by them. I don’t completely support all the Brāhmaṇas. There are certainly some ignorant and foolish Brāhmaṇas, who supported caste by birth and felt that they are Brāhmaṇas eventhough, they do not possess the qualities of Brāhmaṇas. The scripture says that such a so called Brāhmaṇa shall be called as ‘Brahma bandhu’ (related to Brāhmaṇas but not a real Brāhmaṇa). Any person born in any caste preaching spiritual knowledge to the society is a real Brāhmaṇa.
Coming to the case of Paraśurāma, He is God and you cannot rub bad qualities on Him. He did not punish the entire caste because a few only were sinful. In that time, almost all Kṣatriyas became demons because of their ruling power and immense wealth. One of these two is sufficient to spoil a soul and what to speak when both joined together like Rum and Whisky together in inducing unbalance! This incarnation of Paraśurāma was taken by God with the initial plan of killing almost all the kings. Such a wish belongs to God originally and not to Paraśurāma after His birth. It is also not true that He killed all the kings based on their birth as Kṣatriyas. For example, He did not kill king Daśaratha, who was a good person. Hence, such ignorant blame on God Paraśurāma is climax of foolishness. You cannot differentiate Rāma from Paraśurāma. In the time of Paraśurāma, 99 were bad and hence, 99 were killed. In the time of Rāma, only one was bad that one was killed. It is an accidental coincidence that all those 99 happened to be Kṣatriyas and that one happened to be Brāhmaṇa. This is called as Kāka tālīyaka, which means that the palm fruit has fallen because the crow landed on that palm tree. Actually, the fruit was ready to fall and would have fallen even if the crow has not landed on the tree. An ignorant fellow says that the fruit has fallen because the crow landed on the tree.
Paraśurāma told that He is ready to fight in the war or ready to give a curse (Śāpādapi śarādapi). People say that He told like this because His father was Brāhmaṇa and His mother was Kṣatriya. This is also not correct because the genes coming from father and mother carry only certain physical mannerisms only and not at all the inherent qualities. Rāma was a born Kṣatriya to fight with Rāvaṇa, but, in how many occasions He was calm and peaceful like a Brāhmaṇa. As per the context, God attained the qualities of Brāhmaṇa and the qualities of Kṣatriya. In the occasion of fight, God is Kṣatriya and in the occasion of expressing peace and patience, God is Brāhmaṇa. The caste is always related to the expressed qualities as deeds.
I find in these days that the person born in one caste tries to suppress other person born in other caste blaming that the ancestors of the other person oppressed their caste in previous times. This is horrible injustice. It is like a small story – one tiger was drinking water of a stream at higher level and a goat was drinking water of the same stream in the lower level. The tiger wanted to kill the goat and eat it. The tiger told the goat that it is contaminating the water by mouth. The goat with all humbleness told that the tiger is first drinking the water and such blame is not valid. The tiger told that the grandfather of the goat made such contamination and grandfather of the tiger was affected and the tiger jumped and killed the goat!
The unity of Hinduism cracked due to this meaningless concept of decision of caste by birth.
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