The Origin of the Caste System
June 30, 2015
The Origin of the Caste System
From the standpoint of Reality, as
made manifest through Divine Man prior to the fall, there was a recognition of
the variations in individual capacity and focalization of talents. These definite
recognitions of the various levels in which human beings found their natural
expression of life, and therefore their proper sphere of function in the
coordinated expression of the Whole, did not stand as arbitrary limits imposed
upon individual achievement. It was recognized that individuals might, as they
did in fact, move from one level to a higher level of capacity and focalization
of consciousness after varying periods in lower levels. To illustrate the
point, one individual might remain at a given level of consciousness in a
certain range of capacity for ten hours, while another person might remain in a
similar level of focalization for a hundred years. The period of time that any
given individual remained at any given level was largely a matter that rested
with the individual himself, and since all levels in the Pattern of Reality are
contained as integral parts of the whole, no condemnation rested upon any
individual by reason of the length of time that he might remain at some
specific level. The basic essential was simply that he should maintain correct
polarities at that level, as much as at any other level for any other
individual. However, the degrees of regulation depended upon the levels to
which the individuals attained. Those who functioned in the lower levels had to
be governed, and those who functioned in the higher levels had to do the
governing, all within the framework of Reality.
After the fall, there was a
continued recognition of these various levels of achievement, even in the
fallen state, and since the polarities involved had been disturbed to varying
degrees, there were varying degrees of what we might call the manifestation of
evil. After the cataclysmic changes that came into the world, the clear vision
of the ideal state was, before long, lost, because the consciousness of man
that remained on earth was out of polarity, and, therefore, incapable of a
clear vision of Reality. Such legends as continued from generation to
generation, by means of which Truth and understanding were conveyed from one
generation to the next, were, therefore, necessarily colored, even though they
might contain fundamental keys to a realization of basic Truth.
The origins of the Oriental
religions antedate recorded history, and when the degenerate priesthood, for
its own purposes, advanced the ideas of transmigration of the soul, picturing
the cycles supposedly made manifest from life to life, they were utilizing the
basic Truth that the individual, during life, naturally passes through certain
cycles in the ascending spiral. Instead of keeping the Truth focalized with
respect to the individual life within the scope of the life span, they applied
the Principle on the basis of one life to another, in order to establish a
means by which arbitrary control could be maintained over vast numbers of
people. Therefore, it was only natural that definite divisions as to levels of
attainment, consciousness and capacity, should be recognized, but since the
basic Truth had been perverted to the concept of the transmigration of souls,
in the process that is ordinarily thought of as reincarnation, the individual
who happened to be in any one class was more or less arbitrarily held in that
particular class throughout the period of his lifetime. Therefore, these
divisions provided the origin of the Caste System, as it has continued in
India, for instance, down to the present day. In other countries the same
principle has been present with various modifications on the basis of class
differences, which have been largely controlled by money, or wealth, which, in
turn, was recognized as the medium supporting position.
Because of the abuse of money and
position that was made evident in certain cases, where individuals of lower
class came, by some means, into positions correlating with higher classes, it
was assumed that it was impossible, or at least unwise, for anyone to aspire to
move from one class to another, and the basic idea generally promulgated was
that anyone born into a given class should be content to remain in that class
for the entire period of his life. All this, of course, was a perversion of the
basic Truth as it was made manifest in Reality.
The importance of all of this in
relationship to our present day lives can be recognized when the original
Principles are seen in the Light of pure Truth, where the actuality of
increased capacity and the development of higher focalizations of consciousness
provide the only means by which transition of the individual from one level, or
class, to a higher level may be achieved. In the early period of our history
here in the United States, and continuing to some degree still, this Principle
was, to some degree, in operation. Many individuals, starting from extremely
lowly stations in life, achieved greatness. Where such achievement was not
merely the result of some more or less fortunate circumstance which permitted
the amassing of wealth, which in turn, provided the basis of position and
power, it is recognized that the individual made manifest a spirit of life and
an intellectual capacity which released varying types and degrees of blessing
to man as a whole.
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