The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c10.46

c10.46

The situation is somewhat as follows: there never was a time in India when the Aryas, that is, the three upper of the four ancient castes, were excluded from Brahmanical piety.¹ Now, as theosophy, by its very terms, shuts down on the ritual, the special profession of the Brahmans, there is nothing at all in it to exclude occasional intelligent and aspiring men from the other noble (Arya) castes. This is true even at the present day: Svāmī Vivekānanda was no Brahman, but a member of the Kayastha or clerk caste. The Chāndogya Upanishad (4. 4) narrates how Satyakāma, the son of the gadabout servant-maid Jabālā, was admitted to Brahmanic disciplehood by Hāridrumata, for the very reason that he did not try to cover up his low birth. Satyakāma, in the end, obtains the highest knowledge. When it comes to higher religion the bars are consciously let down at all times. In the Mokshadharma of the Mahābhārata² the Vaiçya (Vanik) caste man Tulādhāra, “seller of juices, scents, leaves, barks, fruits, and roots,” teaches righteousness to the Brahman Jājali. In the same text³ the Rishi Parāçara declares that Brahmans learned in the Veda regard a virtuous Çūdra, or low caste man, as the equal of Brahmans.