PHILOSOPHY OF CASTE.
115
denied him such a chance in that particular life which is after all a small portion of the entire human existence. To a Shūdra they gave distinct grounds to hope for a better life and an inducement to better his condition. For our text says: "A Shūdra who is pure, the servant of his betters, gentle in his speech, and free from pride, always seeks a refuge with Brāhmanas and attains in his next life a higher caste" (ix, 335).[1]
- ↑ It should not be considered that a hope of this kind is no hope at all. Such an assertion would show the ignorance of the capability of the human mind. I know for certain that such ideas and hopes regarding happiness in the next birth cheer the mind and control it. In the Toy-Cart (Mrichchkarika, act viii), Shakāra, the king's brother-in-law, asked his slave to kill the damsel Vasantasenā. The slave refused the order flatly in the following words: "Beat me if you will, Kill me if you will. I cannot do what ought not to be done. Fate has already punished me with servitude, for the misdeeds of a former life, and I will not incur the penalty of being born again a slave." I once met a Mahāra, who, fearing that I was going near him and that my purity might then be defiled in case I touched him, and that he might incur the sin of defiling my purity, cried out at once and made his caste known to me. I got into conversation with him. I found that Mahar, though illiterate, could repeat many verses of Tukaram, Namdeo and Chokhamela. He appeared to be well acquainted with the theories of Karma and Bhakti, and of transmigration of soul. He believed that though he was a Mahar in that birth, by some misdoings in his past life, he was going to become a Brāhmana in the next birth, as he felt the desire for learning Sanskrit, and reading Gitä and Puranas. He conceived that these desires were clear indications of the better birth which he was going to get in his next life. I do not know how far such sentiments exist in other members of the tribe. But it is not improbable that very many of the low castes believe, or are made to believe, that they justly suffer in this condition as a retribution for the sins which they did in the past life. How much better it would have been for the whites in the United States, had they taught the negroes the doctrines of Transmigration of Soul and Karma instead of Christianity!
