THEBSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Evening Star, Issue 22686, 28 June 1937, Page 1

THEBSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Speaking last evening in the Theo* sophical Hall on the caste system in India, Mr J. M.-M‘£wan said, that man was a being—body, soul, and spirit. The spirit was aware of the scheme of evolution for mankind and sent forth a portion of itself in every life on earth with the object of adding new faculties and powers to show the inherent Godliness. The world might be regarded as a school with the races as classes. We belonged to the. fifth class,, or Aryan race. Our teachers were the officials who belonged to the great White Lodge, the chief one concerned with ■ the formation of the race types and bodies being the Manu. It was _he who, at the; beginning of the civilisation of the Ayran race in India* established the caste systenij embodying the duties of every citizen—viz., the shudra, or servant, the vaishya, or trader, the kshattriya, or soldier, and the brahman, or priest. The servant was not - a slave to other people’s behests, but one who, by fidelity and devotion, gradually learned enough to graduate into the next caste. His duty was to work for others to his full ability. The trader was the keen business man, developing intellect by trad l * ing and the power to see into the future. His duty was to maintain the race in the necessities of life, then to give his acquired wealth to his family, to the poor, and to learn thus the lesson of .self-sacrifice. Next was the soldier who began by aggressive warfare to protect his own and others’' interests, then learned the duty of administration. The king was the head of this caste. Last came • the priest or teacher whose duty was to give spiritual food to the people, to,advise the king, and to live' a life of utmost purity. , They were the cream of the race—its philosophers, its legislators, its artists, who- worked only to teach and not for money. The Mann also formulated that one-sixth of the people (soldiers and priests), who were nonproductive, should he maintained by the rest of the people, for they contributed their own valuable gifts to the .race. Responsibility was not looked for in the servant, nor was he. morally evolved, but it was expected in those of higher caste. Nowadays there was a tendency to forget that privileges (as grants from a Government) come only as the reward of responsibility and duties carried out. When all the various castes which existed not only in India, but in bur own country, earned out the special duties allotted to them, then we should have an ideal 1 civilisation.