Posted by Varun on May 07, 1998 at 09:04:00:
In Reply to: Re: Couple of questions posted by Ambrish Sharma on May 06, 1998 at 19:12:14:
Dear Ambrish
Caste system as mentioned in GITA was started by God himself. But it is not that caste system what you think. Caste system was very flexible at the beginning. A son of a shudra could become a vaishya(businessman) but slowly the preists of that time started exploiting the shudras as to show their power & for other selfish interests. So this system became rigid. Books like Ramcharitmaanas(ramayan) & Gita were always against it eg. Shabri was a lower caste & God Raam ate her half-eaten fruits. Books like Arthashastra which were meant to increase the monopoly of priests did approve of caste system & so lost fame in a few centuries. All rational thinkers have discarded it. Please write for further clarifications on this topic.
For Arya Samaj question, hinduism has some superstitions I believe but those were suitable in the time hinduism was written. I won't say that hinduism is a fully clean & rational system but I will try to explain some eg. Sati referred to willingly, voulantry(please see it is voulantry) act of the wife as she does not have a very good life after death of such a close companion. In hinduism woman's first duty is as a wife. Same applies for man. Lord Shiv also led a isolated, sad & depressed life for many years after the death of Sati as an example to man race.
Arya Samaj was actually not hinduism.The head Dayanand Saraswati did not believe many things written in Gita.
Write for further clarifications.
Varun