Posted on: 28 Mar 2022
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked:- While explaining the caste system, You said that Gayatri was not allowed for all women and the fourth caste. Does this not bring hatred in the hearts of all women and the fourth caste against the priests, who were responsible for this? Will it not lead to further division of Hinduism?]
Swami Replied:- The hatred in the minds of the assumed victims will come provided there was real loss. The real loss was only to the priest and the assumed loss did not happen to the assumed victims. The ignorant priests did not sing the praise of God (the real Gayatri is singing the praise of God with devotion), thinking that a specific hymn written in the metre called Gayatri is the real Gayatri and thus they have lost the benefit of Gayatri. In fact, women and people of the fourth caste are singing songs on God and are blessed by the real Gayatri. Anybody, who thinks of harming the innocent public will be severely punished by God and this is the best example.
Moreover, all the priests are not bad. Only some egoistic priests are bad. In any category, a few only will be bad and bring bad name to the entire category to which they belong. Like this, in the past, some bad egoistic priests behaved foolishly, which brought unnecessary hatred on the present-day good priests. These good priests are unnecessarily suffering the hatred from others. Even the majority good priests in the past kept silent on this issue for one main reason: the fourth caste and all women were always engaged in agriculture and household work respectively. They could sing on God while doing their work. It would not be convenient if we restrict them with bath and the worship of God in the morning itself, in which time, there will be heavy pressure for doing work. Anyway, Gayatri means singing the praise of God and not taking bath to recite some hymns.
Such type of rigid worship (morning bath and sitting to recite some hymns) is not at all mandatory for any human being. The fourth caste and the women were in any way getting the ultimate benefit of blessings of God through singing divine songs, which is the main essence of Gayatri and they were not put to any trace of loss due to the prohibited,rigid worship-ritual. This arrangement was made with the important convenience to work by good priests, but, a few bad egoistic priests without understanding the true background misused it in insulting women and the fourth caste by saying that they were not allowed to this ritual since they were of low grade. The original idea of the good priests was perfectly correct since it is quite logical and justified. The few bad priests did not understand the whole true background of the ritual and misused it in a wrong way to mock and insult women and the fourth caste.
If anybody thinks that the plan of the good priests was based on caste feeling (which is insulting the fourth caste), I ask the following question: in such a case, these good priests have prohibited not only the fourth caste but also the women of their own caste! So, can this be due to caste feeling? Hence, they have arranged it in this way for the sake of work convenience only based on the true background of the ritual. The good priests prohibited women and the fourth caste from the blind recitation of the Veda because the knowledge of the Vedas is well presented in the secondary scriptures (purāṇams etc.), which can be heard and understood by women and the fourth caste. The Veda means only knowledge (Vidul - Jñāne). If the knowledge of the Veda is understood through any type of means, such soul is a Vedic scholar only. The Veda does not mean simple blind recitation of words without knowing its meaning. Hence, in this point also, the good priests did not harm women and the fourth caste in any way. Again, only these few bad egoistic priests insulted women and the fourth caste that the Vedas were prohibited to them since they were of low grade!
What is prohibited? Only the blind recitation of the words without knowing the meaning is prohibited because the women and the fourth caste were having serious and continuous work of the house and society respectively. All these misinterpretations of the few ignorant bad priests brought a lot of havoc in the Hindu religion resulting in internal splits helping the process of “divide and rule” by other sects. All these misunderstandings are cleared now and Hinduism must become strong by perfect unity of all its members. Similarly, we wish that every other religion must also be united and become strong so that all the strong worldly religions shall be united by universal religion so that there will be one family of theists on this earth (Vasudhaika kuṭuṃbakam). I expect this message will remove unnecessary hatred in all the souls of the world.