Discrimination of Caste Hierarchy? Embrace Buddhism.

[icy]

The event 'Chalo Buddh Ki Aur' is being organized by Buddha Diksha Mahotsav Samiti, which claims it to be the biggest ever in the state wherein people will take Diksha to embrace the path of Buddha.

"This would be first single event where around 1 lakh people would embrace Buddhism," convener of the event Deven Vanvi said.

He said people from 19 districts and 51 talukas of the state will come to Junagadh on the occasion. "Over 30,000 families have completed the process of conversion by filling out forms and submitting them to respective local district administrations," Vanvi said.

"The reason behind conversion of dalits to Buddhism is the caste hierarchy that has existed for centuries. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar showed us a different path, where there is no discrimination between human beings," one of the organizers Parikshit Rathod said.

Organizers claim that preacher Jaydev Bapa, a revered religious head among dalits in Gujarat, will also embrace Buddhism along with his followers at the venue.

"We have selected Junagadh for the event as it is an important city from historical perspective. There are several historical monuments of Emperor Ashoka here who had also adopted Buddhism," an organizer said.

[icy]

Gujarats need Protector, Dorje Shugden to clear their obstacles for embracing Buddhism.  OM BENZA WIKKI BITANA SOHA..... May the Three Jewels always be with them.


The Gujarat government has ordered an inquiry into the mass conversion of Dalits to Buddhism at Dungarpur village in Junagadh district on Sunday. Junagadh district collector Alok Pandey told The Indian Express: "I have ordered a probe into the event and asked the Superintendent of Police and sub-divisional magistrate to inquire into the issue and submit a report at the earliest."

Pandey said that though he had prior knowledge about the event, it was mandatory for the organisers to take prior permission on the conversions, under the new anti-conversion law. "The organisers had informed the administration about holding the event. But they went ahead with the programme without obtaining proper permission," Pandey told this newspaper.

He said that the administration had procured videos of the five-hour event and would conduct a thorough probe to see if there was violation of the law.

Under privisions of Section 5 of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Rules, 2008, a proper and prior permission of the district magistrate was mandatory before any religious conversion. Any violation amounted to an offence and invited action.

Devendra Govindbhai Vanvi of the Baudh Diksha Mahotsava Samiti, an umbrella organisation of Buddhists and Dalits in the state that organised the event, however, claimed that he had secured prior permission. "The village panchayat provided its ground for the event. Mamlatdar and other officials gave us permission for using a microphone, provided us ambulance and other facilities," claimed Vanvi. "Why should the administration allow the event and provide facilities for it if the event was illegal," he stated. Vanvi alleged that a probe into the event seemed to have been ordered under political pressure.

Why did Dalits convert to Buddhism? Vanvi said that Dalits were embracing Buddhism to seek "emancipation" from the Hindu caste system that had virtually made them "social slaves" for centuries. Former minister Dinesh Parmar, who had attended the event, said that large-scale conversions of Dalits to Buddhism were planned to be held at all the district headquarters in the state in days to come.

[icy]

At Vishal Hadmatiya village in Bhesan taluka, 21 km from Junagadh, a statue of Dr B R Ambedkar greets visitors. It's been a week since all the 60 families in this Dalit neighbourhood 'converted' to Buddhism at an event in Junagadh. The organisers of the event have claimed that a total of 60,000 Dalits converted to Buddhism.

Dahya Vaghela, 65, a respected elder, says he attended the conversion rally for a 'haircut and shave'. "Local barbers refuse to give me a haircut or shave, saying that he will not get any upper caste customers. So I have to travel all the way to Junagadh. We also have a separate temple," he says. Paintings and photographs of Ambedkar adorn the walls of his house.

While Dalit families in the area get water from the same tank as upper caste Hindus, they are not allowed to enter the local Ram temple.

"My children play with upper caste children. But they have to sit separately while eating their lunch. They ask me why they are not allowed to eat with those children," says Dahya's son, Magan, 35, a farm labourer.

"The main issue is of self-pride. The concept of defilement due to physical contact with a Dalit has waned, but mental untouchability still persists. The contempt that an upper-caste Hindu shows towards a Dalit is humiliating. While the situation will not change overnight, embracing Buddhism is an ideological revolution which will bear fruit in future. Maharashtra is witnessing a change six decades after Ambedkar and others led by him embraced Buddhism," says Ravji Vaghela, Dahya's brother who retired as a head postmaster.

"Our descendants can now simply say they are Buddhists when someone asks them about their caste. They would thus be saved of the humiliation attached with the term Dalit," he adds.

[Matibhadra]

"Our descendants can now simply say they are Buddhists when someone asks them about their caste. They would thus be saved of the humiliation attached with the term Dalit," he adds.

It is not different in the West. There are the two castes: the Jew (the “Chosen People”) and the Gentile (the non-chosen, the rest, the rejected, the scum). The caste of the “Gentile” (“Goy”) was created by the Jew in order to define and inferiorize the non-Jew, and the so-called “Gentile” (every non-Jew), thinking with the mind of the Jew, do believe that they are indeed “Gentile”, and perceive and even describe themselves as such.

The Jewish-British-American Maurice Samuel author stated: “Jew and Gentile are two worlds, between you Gentiles and us Jews there lies an unbridgeable gulf…There are two life forces in the world: Jewish and Gentile…I do not believe that this primal difference between Gentile and Jew is reconcilable…”.

So, the Jew and the “Gentile” are seen as intrinsically different.

From the idea idea of a “Chosen People” comes nepotism and favoritism, and every kind of social perversion.

Dalit mean “cut off”. So is the “non-chosen”, the “Goy”, the “Gentile”.

[Tenzin K]

Brahmanism, the predominant religion in India during the Buddha's time, divided all humans into four castes (attu vanna), priests, warriors, traders and labourers. Social contact between each caste was minimal and the lower one's position in the system the less opportunities, the less freedom and the less rights one had. Outside the caste system were the outcasts (sudra) people considered so impure that they hardly counted as humans. The caste system was later absorbed into Hinduism, given religious sanction and legitimacy and has continued to function right up till the present. The Buddha, himself born into the warrior caste, was a severe critic of the caste system. He ridiculed the priests claims to be superior, he criticised the theological basis of the system and he welcomed into the Sangha people of all castes, including outcasts. His most famous saying on the subject is : " Birth does not make one a priest or an outcaste. Behaviour makes one either a priest or an outcaste". Even during the time when Buddhism was decaying in India and Tantrayana had adopted many aspects of Hinduism, it continued to welcome all castes and some of the greatest Tantric adepts were low castes or outcastes.

Despite this, various forms of the caste system are practised in several Buddhist countries, mainly in Sri Lanka, Tibet, and Japan where butchers, leather and metal workers and janitors are sometimes regarded as being impure. However, the system in these countries has never been either as severe or as rigid as the Hindu system and fortunately it is now beginning to fade away. The exception to this is Nepal where Tantric priests form a separate caste and will neither initiate into their priesthood or allow into their temples those of other castes.

Malalasekera, G.P. and Jayatilleke, K.N. Buddhism and the Race Question UNESCO, 1968.

The Buddha condemned the caste system, which he considered unjust. He pointed out that there existed wicked and cruel people as well as virtuous and kind people in every caste. Any person who had committed a crime would be punished accordingly by his karma no matter what caste he belonged to. He said a person may be considered to have come from a high or low caste according to his good and bad deeds. Therefore, according to the Buddha it is the good and bad actions of a person and not his birth that should determine his caste.

The Buddha introduced the idea of placing a higher value on morality and the equality of people instead of on which family or caste a person is born into. This was also the first attempt to abolish discrimination and slavery in the history of mankind.

The Buddha said:

By birth one is not an outcaste,
By birth one is not a Brahmin;
By deeds alone one is an outcaste,
By deeds alone one is a Brahmin

[dondrup]

It is sad that in the 21st century, where humanity had made great advances in their lives, there remains the extreme form of discrimination like the caste hierarchy among the fellow human beings.

Governed by the three poisons - ignorance, attachment and hatred, humans continue to subject themselves to more and more destructive actions like discrimination.

In fact it is the mind that discriminates, that the concept of duality arises. There is the higher and lower caste, rich and poor, powerful and weak, and so on. There is no equality status.

Our ordinary and impure human mind obscured by our negative karma, cannot perceive the purity of buddhanature in every sentient being. In reality all sentient being are equal because every sentient being has the same buddhanature or potential to become a Buddha!

Buddhism provides a means to overcome inequality. By embracing Buddhism, one will learn the truths about life and how equality arises.  Buddhism provides the path to cessation of all forms of suffering (including inequality) and the attainment of lasting happiness.

[cookie]

The word "Dalit" does not appear in any sacred scriptures or historical texts of India. It is actually a word based on 17th-century European notions about the Indian caste system.The word is derived from Sanskrit, and means "ground", "suppressed", "crushed", or "broken to pieces". It was first used in the nineteenth century. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous social groups from all over India; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions. While discrimination based on caste has been prohibited and untouchability abolished under the Constitution of India, discrimination and prejudice against Dalits in South Asia remains. This title expresses their "weakness, poverty and humiliation at the hands of the upper castes in the Indian society." Currently many Dalits use the term to move away from the more derogatory terms of their caste names or even the term Untouchable. The contemporary use of Dalit is centered on the idea that as people they may have been broken by oppression but they survive and even thrive by finding meaning in the struggle of their existence towards human dignity. It is now a political identity similar to the way African-Americans in the U.S. moved away from the use of Negro to the use of Black or even African-American.
Hence with the introduction of Buddhism to this community it will further help them with their struggle of being discriminated from the moment they are born. As Buddhists, all are treated as equal, irrespective of the level of wealth or beauty or fame. Everyone has a Buddha-nature in them which can be developed and realised in order to eliminate all sufferings.

[Matibhadra]

The word "Dalit" does not appear in any sacred scriptures or historical texts of India.

These scriptures use the word “Chandala”. The referent is the same.

It is actually a word based on 17th-century European notions about the Indian caste system.

Another silly, unreferenced and unwarranted statement from Wikipedia, probably “contributed” by some Hindu supremacist.

It is worth to note that (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit#Etymology)
 

"Adi Dravida", "Adi Karnataka", "Adi Andhra" and "Adi-Dharmi" are words used in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab respectively, to identify people of former "untouchable" castes in official documents. These words, particularly the prefix of "Adi", denote the aboriginal inhabitants of the land.

which suggests that behind the caste system there are invaders and people suffering invasion.

In Australia, Africa and the Americas there are millions of aboriginal people suffering conditions analogous to those of the Dalits in India, thanks to their European invaders. Like the Dalits in India, they most often adopt the religion of their invaders and oppressors.

Also, from a religious viewpoint, people in Europe, and then in European-colonized countries, not adopting the world view of their Judeo-Christian ideological invaders would be labeled “pagans”, and then ostracized, persecuted and virtually eliminated.

In the same way, in the Middle East, Central Asia, much of India, North Africa, and so forth, people not adopting the world view of their Judeo-Muslim invaders would be labeled “infidels”, and then ostracized, persecuted and virtually eliminated.

Therefore, Christianity and Islam, both having adopted the bloodthirsty Jewish ethnic god “Jehovah” as their “God”, are hell bent on converting the rest of humanity to their god and to their ultimately Jewish scriptures and worldview.

Interestingly enough, the Jew does not attempt to convert others to Judaism (they are the exclusivistic “elected people”, inherently different from and superior to the “Goy”, after all), but through Christianity and Islam does attempt to convert others to the Jewish god, scriptures and worldview. Such attempts were apparently already taking place even centuries before Christianity.

Therefore, both Christianity and Islam are arguably nothing but Judaism for external use, or for export.

So many Indo-Aryan, pre-Colombian American, Chaldean, Egyptian, African, Dravidian, and Asian religions have been demonized, persecuted and eventually destroyed in the wake of this Abrahamic, Judeo-Christian-Islamic barbaric ideological invasion of human mind and physical war against humanity.

It makes sense therefore that the Kalachakra Tantra refers to the “barbarians” (mleccha) as the followers of the “eight profets”: [1] Adam, [2] Noah, [3] Abraham, [4] Moses (all of them from the Jewish mythology), plus [5] Jesus (himself a Jewish rabbi), [6] Mohamed (an illiterate butcher ideologized against the Chaldean astrological gods by the Jewish rabbis of Medina), [7] Mani (founder of Manichaeism and a Jew himself), and [8] the future Muslim profet Mahdi.

To sum up, we are arguably witnessing a millenary and worldwide massive process of Dalit-zation of humankind by Abrahamic religions.

[Kim Hyun Jae]

The discrimination of the caste system in India had been prevalent from centuries started by the upper class to prevent the transference of their property (of course,  selfish means) and to control the vast population by segregation of classes to confine them in their respective category. It may be relevant for the acceptance of this system in ancient times but this is now the 21st century. With the onslaught of the internet and education, this sytem may be less relevant now and in the future.

If a rally was held to convert the Dalits into Buddhism just to get out of the caste system, I am afraid the motivation could be wrong and temporary. Embracing Buddhism should be learned and infused into their thoughts/mind, speech and action to permanently erase themself out of the caste system forever.