Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

47

Social Customs

My brother Noren was telling us tales from his school days at Santiniketan. All my five brothers were students there. I was too young to join it. In those days there were no nursery schools for children. Besides, the then prevailing custom was that at the age of five, not before, ceremonies were performed on a Saraswati Puja day, and the child was initiated in the art of learning.

Well, Noren told us that once a month, in the school kitchen, all the students and teachers too, even the day students like him, would be invited to have lunch there. That was a special day because the sweepers-cum-scavengers would do the cooking. Of course the cooks took a good bath, and wore clean clothes for the occasion. And it was they who served all the guests. Even more than sixty years later, when he was telling us all this, Noren said appreciatively, "They cooked khichuri [a mixture of rice and pulses boiled together]. It was very tasty."

Untouchability, which had taken such a rigid form in Hindu society, was unbearable to most enlightened men. So, in his Ashram, Tagore tried to break that rigidity with some novel schemes. But were mere outward reforms going to change anything basic in a society which seemed to have lost its spirit,

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but had kept a decaying body?

I was wondering why cannot we be like birds? I see them daily. Spotted doves, laughing thrushes, grey tits, bulbuls, magpies, mynas, sparrows, all flock around the feast of rice and bread spread on a tiny space of grass. They are not disturbed to be together. They are disturbed only when a big, black crow comes to eat. Then, in a flurry of wings, all the small birds fly away.

I am often reminded of Sri Aurobindo's description at the Surat Congress of December 1907. "Rich, poor, Brahmin, businessman, Shudra, Bengali, Mahratta, Punjabi, Gujarati, we all stayed, slept, ate together with a wonderful feeling of brotherhood." There is the secret of all social reforms: to evoke a feeling of brotherhood.

Among the Madrasi Brahmins was the poet-cumjournalist Bharati. We have already seen that from his Benares days Bharati had rebelled against the way women were treated in the Hindu society. In his Pondicherry days, when he had the benefit of Sri Aurobindo's company, he went much farther. Let us once again hear from Amrita.

"At home we had a strict observance of orthodox rites and rituals. But the moment Bharati arrived, these began to crumble away; in his presence all rules and ceremonies, habits and customs slipped off from me and disappeared in no time.... My neighbour was no more a stranger to me, whether a Shudra or a pariah; he was as I was, a man; little by little my heart got soaked in the feeling that he was my brother. This feeling began to translate itself into due practice. Today it might appear as nothing uncommon," said Amrita to the young Ashram students in 1960s. "But even to imagine today what difficulties it might

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have created some fifty years ago can make one shudder with fear.... Later on, Bharati did away with these customs and threw them off like chaff, as things without substance."

Amrita continued. "Whether in Bharati's house or by the tanks or beside the big lake, at the time of collective dining the so-called Pariahs, Shudras, Brahmins would all sit together comfortably without any distinction of caste or creed and take their meals. Today," he repeated, "it may appear quite common.... The feeling that all were men had taken deep root in the heart of each of us.... As I grew more and more familiar with Bharati, the rites and ceremonies, rules and regulations dropped off from me as withered leaves from a tree." And old habits and customs "looked like worm-eaten things to me," said Amrita.

Let us admit it. Between the first beginnings of social formation to the present, many debilitating customs have crept into Hindu society. Like parasites they suck dry its life energy. The biggest parasitic growths are caste untouchability and oppression of woman.

It was not birth but occupation that led to the arrangement of chaturvarna—the system of four castes. There was nothing unalterable in the system. It was much later, when the four castes multiplied themselves without any true economic need of the country, that all this rigidified into its present form.

From historical times we have had religious reformers. Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc. do not care for castes. It was only under the impact of Western ideas that India began to have social reformers. From the time of Raja Rammohan Roy the Hindu society has had numerous social reformers. A few were great, many were not so great. The greater ones had to

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overcome the narrow understanding of the anglicized reformers on the one hand, and the deep-rooted hostility of the immobile orthodoxy. The orthodox, said Sri Aurobindo, "labour to deify everything that exists. Hindu society has certain arrangements and habits which are merely customary. There is no proof that they existed in ancient times nor any reason why they should

last into the future Neither antiquity nor modernity can be

the test of truth or the test of useful ness To all things there

is a date and a limit. All long-continued customs have been sovereignly useful in their time, even totemism and polyandry." He argued, "We must not ignore the usefulness of the past, but we seek in preference a present and a future utility."

Then there were the parrots of free thought. These reformers had swallowed European notions hook, line, and sinker, and now pressed for throwing away the baby with the bath water. All customs Indian were to them a mass of superstitions, barbarous and benighted. Their descendants are today's 'secularists.'

We were lucky to have some true great reformers; those who could think for themselves. Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, and others. Free thinkers, they looked at the degraded forest of Indian society. They looked closely at the myriad 'age-old' customs clogging the river of life. Were they really 'age-old' ? Did they really exist from the very beginning? The Reformers waded upstream to find out. They came to the source of social beginnings.

And in our own time India had Sri Aurobindo.

He found out. He saw.

The originator of chaturvarna, or the four castes as it has come to be known, was Brahma himself. From his own body

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he brought them out. From his face were born the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas from his arms, Vaishyas issued from his thigh, and from his feet issued the Shudras. For the good order of the world the Creator assigned to each varna its special, particular duty.

The duty of the Brahmin was to learn and instruct the community, preserve the Scriptures, and lead a simple life; the Kshatriya's duty was to govern, give protection to the weak, and when required make war and give up his life on the battlefield; the Vaishya's duty was to trade, gain and return his gains to the community; the Shudra's duty was to labour for the others. In atonement for his service, the Indian society "spared him the tax of self-denial, the tax of blood and the tax of his riches."

Down the stream of Time travelled Sri Aurobindo.

In the Age of Truth, Satya Yuga (or Krita Yuga), the kingdom of God and the Veda were in the hearts of His people, Sri Aurobindo explained. There was no need of law, government, castes, classes and creeds. People's nature was pure and they had complete knowledge.

Just as they moved in vast physical spaces, the thoughts and ideas of our Indian ancestors moved in vast ranges of Time. They conceived of the lifespan of the Creator Brahma—he is dissolved when he attains the age of 120 of his own time-span. Then another Brahma comes into being. One day of Brahma— a Kalpa—is divided into fourteen parts. Each division is ruled by a Manu—man comes from Manu. So there are fourteen Manus in one day of Brahma. The lifespan of each Manu is called a Manwantara. In each Manwantara there are seventy-one chaturyugas—Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali. One human

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year is one day-night for the gods. Kritayoa lasts for 4,800 god-years, Tretayoga for 3,600 god-years, Dwapara lasts for 2,400 god-years, and Kaliyoga lasts for 1,200 god-years. Which comes to 12,000 god-years for one set of four Ages. Moreover each Age contains in itself the others. In the heart of the Iron Age lies the Age of Gold.

These divisions of time are not geological but are essentially 'soul-times, 'just as when the Upanishads speak of 'worlds' we should take them as soul-conditions, and not geographical divisions of the cosmos. These are the worlds and times of the ancient tradition.

Well, to return to our theme.

I do think that Brahma was right. He had more common-sense than our inane legislators. It stands to reason that for the well-being of a body each of its parts must play its role for which it was created. Can the face do the duty of the feet? Can our arms replace our thighs? Or vice-versa? The same rule applies to the body of a society. But today's Indian politician wants to replace the brain by the feet. It would be more to the point if instead of their strident clamour to make India backward, the Indian legists gave merit its due, and demanded competence from the executive. And, most important of all, teach each part of the body politic to do its duty and have respect for the other parts. Be practical, I say.

A futile hope. Oh, how far have we fallen from those days when a high character and training were expected from all who held authority in the affairs of the people.

In the event, given the almost infinite sweep of time, it should not surprise us that at the end of Satya yuga, man's memory

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of his origin had dimmed. That is why in the Treta people needed a prop for their memory. Therefore was written down the law, the Veda. It was used simply as a guide, for there remained great elasticity and freedom. The functions were interchangeable. The great Parasurama, a Brahmin by birth, had no hesitation in using his axe in an effort to exterminate the Kshatriyas. Rama, a Kshatriya prince of the Solar dynasty, killed in battle Ravana, the king of Lanka, who was a Brahmin by birth. The boys and young men who were brought up in the old ashramas were trained in many things belonging to life, including the use of arms. Knowledge, the Veda, could be had by everyone. Satyakama Jabala, son of the prostitute Jabala, was accepted by the Rishi Haridrumata Gautama as a disciple worthy of receiving the supreme Knowledge. What mattered was the Truth. Truth of spirit.

By the third Age, Dwapara, Brahma's creatures had gone a long, long time from him. The idea and the spirit no longer ruled the roost. Form and rule became the true governors of ethics and society. It was the age of Vyasa, the great codifier and systematizer of knowledge. In Dwapara everything was codified, ritualized, formalized. It was then that came Sri Krishna, the Iconoclast. He mocked at the strong hold rule had taken in the hearts of men. Dismissing the set ethical systems, defying conventional wisdom, he established in the Gita an inward and spiritual rule of conduct. He "prepared the work of the Kali," said Sri Aurobindo.

Kali, the fourth Yuga, is the shortest time-wise. But, oh, how concentrated is the battle between the forces of purity and impurity, between the forces of light and darkness. It is horrible to see the ugliness of it all. Cruelty and corruption have taken

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the place of justice and purity in men's hearts. It is horrid to see the degradation of humans. Unimaginable. As though the Panis had taken over the Earth. Everything is twisted out of recognition. Where is the truth? The Divine and the undivine Forces battle it out, destroy everything, everything is called into question. "The end of a stage of evolution is usually marked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of the evolution," to quote Sri Aurobindo. The battle is fiercest in Kali-yuga because Kali ushers in a new Satya Yuga. A new Age of Truth. "The seed of dawn sleeps in the heart of dusk."

At any rate, although the system of the four castes was well established, it did not count as an obstacle in the pursuit of knowledge and spiritual advancement. Kingjanaka of Mithila, a Kshatriya king of the Solar dynasty, was a seer, and Brahmins came to him to learn the supreme knowledge. Satyakamajabala became the guru to the purest and highest blood in the land. Vyasa's mother Satyavati was the daughter of a fisherman. King Shantanu of the Kurus, married her. There are hundreds and hundreds of such examples. Nobody was shut out of spiritual truth and culture on the ground of caste. Vidura, the half-brother of Kuru king Dhritarashtra, born of a Shudra servant-woman, was honoured for his knowledge of ethics. So much so that he was made an adviser at the court of the Kuru king. As for Yogis caste never counted for anything. All were free to search for the Divine.

In Europe "social hierarchies had begun to emerge in some Ice Age societies."¹ Like it or not hierarchy is a fact of life.

¹ To quote from the National Geographic (July 2000, p.110).

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Not everybody is slotted to do the same thing as everybody else. Nor is everybody equally gifted. Had that been the case then all the students in a class would have stood first, and a field of runners would have breasted the tape together in the same split second. But it does not mean that culture should not be brought to every doorstep. Shutting out someone from culture was an invention of later times. But even in later times when the four orders had grown into a fixed social hierarchy, when we had lost almost all our freedom, there remained the individual's freedom to pursue his or her spiritual knowledge. In India we find, said Sri Aurobindo, "up to the end the yogins, saints, spiritual thinkers, innovators and restorers, religious poets and singers, the fountain-heads of a living spirituality and knowledge as distinguished from traditional authority and lore, derived from all the strata of the community down to the lowest Shudras and even the despised and oppressed outcastes." From the outcastes themselves came saints revered by the whole community. It was this freedom to pursue an individual's spiritual experience which saved India from going the way of other ancient civilizations like Greek, Egyptian, Roman.

Time as we know is a great corrupter. With time the downward pull becomes so great that it seems irresistible. The essential becomes immaterial. Human institutions begin to degenerate. They decay. India entered her Dark Age. The vigorous free-growth forest of Indian society was stifled by the parasitic growth of the temporary forms created in the last few hundred years. The Indian intellect was greatly impoverished. A sort of rigor mortis had set in in its functioning.

Without ever tinkering with reality in his letter to his

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brother Barin, Sri Aurobindo presents a round vision. "Our forefathers swam in a vast sea of thought and gained a vast knowledge; they established a vast civilisation. But as they went forward on their path they were overcome by exhaustion and weariness. The force of their thought decreased, and along with it decreased the force of their creative power. Our civilisation has become a stagnant backwater, our religion a bigotry of externals, our spirituality a faint glimmer of light or a momentary wave of intoxication. So long as this state of things lasts, any permanent resurgence of India is impossible."

It was high time to reinvigorate the degraded Hindu society.

The instrument we needed most was the ability to think for ourselves. Independently. Not like the present-day dumb slogan-shouting politicians, who hold opinions at third or fourth hand—not even second hand. Thought free of prejudgments, unsparing on whatever obstructs the growth of the nation, "shearing sophism and prejudice asunder as with a sharp sword, smiting down obscurantism of all kinds as with the mace of Bhima ..."

But don't you need strength to wield sword or mace? Where do you find strength? A nation's source of strength springs from the strength of its woman. But woman power in India was strangulated by social bondages. Again a result of the accretions of the last few centuries. It was not always so in India.'

'Just think of princess Chitrangada of Manipur, the protector of her people, who was not averse to battling with Arjuna! Then they fell in love and got married.

Rudramba (thirteenth century AD), daughter of King Ganapati Kakatiya, succeeded her father at Warangal as ruler. She stoutly defended her kingdom. The Celts, like the Indians, had no objection to being led by women.

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In law and theory at least women in ancient India enjoyed civic rights. They may or may not have always exercised those rights. Records have come down to us that women figured not only as queens and administrators, "and even in the battlefield, a common enough incident in Indian history, but as elected representatives on civic bodies." This state of affairs was quite contrary to the sentiments of most other ancient peoples. Except in the Egyptian and Celtic societies. "The position of women ... at a time when women were treated as mere chattels in most European societies, was amazingly advanced. Women could be found in many professions, even as lawyers and judges.... The Romans looked upon women as bearers of children and objects of pleasure, while the Druids included women in their political and religious life."¹ Druidesses played a co-equal role in the activities of the Druids. There was no such practice in the Indian society, although there was no official bar. In the Egyptian society woman had a remarkable status, almost equal to that of man and far more advanced than in Rome or Greece.

It was with the advent of Muslims and their barbaric ways that women in India were shackled. For to the Mussulmans woman is the property of man. A few centuries of habit built up a multi-storied building in Indian society. But thanks to the efforts of reformers and free thinkers the idea is crumbling into dust. The claim of woman is to be regarded and treated as a free individual being.

If you remember, one of the tasks given to Sri Aurobindo by Sri Krishna was "to try and bring about certain social changes."

The Druids, Peter Beresford Ellis.

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He was never afraid to call a spade a spade. He used all the arrows in his quiver. Open attack, unsparing criticism, the severest satire, the most wounding irony, all, all were used to the full. Above all, Sri Aurobindo pointedly asked the Indian society some pertinent questions.

"Whether the spirit as well as the body of caste should remain, is the modern question."

He lamented the impoverishment of the average Indian intellect which was stormy over insignificant details, but gave nary a thought to important things. "I do not care" he said "whether widows marry or remain single; but it is of infinite importance to consider how woman shall be legally and socially related to man, as his inferior, equal or superior; for even the relation of superiority is not more impossible in the future than it was in the far-distant past." This was in 1910.

The Rishi sent his penetrating gaze to the far-distant future. "Unknown to men the social revolution prepares itself, and it is not in the direction they think, for it embraces the world, not India only. Whether we like it or not, He will sweep out the refuse of the Indian past and the European present. But the broom is not always sufficient; sometimes He uses the sword in preference. It seems probable that it will be used, for the world does not mend itself quickly, and therefore it will have violently to be mended."

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