The Hindu Caste System and identification of Archetypes based on the collective unconscious

Can caste system be abolished?

A shoemaker of Mochi sub-Caste making shoes in a village near Jodhpur

No system can survive without degeneration for centuries if the foundation of such system is not laid on strong rational belief. The caste system in Hindu is one such belief which still stronghold the Indian society. The society was dominated by Muslims and then by the British for many centuries who did not support caste system. On the contrary, their forced conversion of lower caste Hindus on the ground of discrimination, forced upon them by upper caste Hindus. The caste system is the backbone of Hindus who are in majority in Indian society.

The personal unconscious of a Hindu is dominated by the collective unconscious of the caste that has peculiar idiosyncrasies assigned to that caste. The grounds for "division of labour" were not arbitrary but scientific. Manu was the first social scientist to codify the prevailing order in the society. The order was established many centuries before Manu-Smirti was written around the 2nd century BCE to 3rd century CE.

The caste allocation was based on many physical and mental attributes of the individual. It later on became hereditary, especially when it was codified and a 'status stigma' was attached and caste were discriminated as upper and lower on the basis of tasks assigned to them.

Brahmins did interpretation, analysis and teaching of scripts written in Sanskrit. When caste became hereditary the Brahmins born with inferior mental capabilities gave thrust on rituals. With advent of materialism a caste which was supposed to depend on alms and charity of affluent segment of the society also started extracting wealth by creating fear of hell. This style has been followed in almost all religions of the world.

The ego born by personal unconscious related with superiority of caste is the hallmark of this caste. Scholarly achievements and progress on the path of enlightenment were their major pursuit.

Kshatriya the warrior caste constituted the Army. They invariably had a good physique and were obsessed with developing expertise in the use of weapons. Bravery, chivalry, philanthropy and magnanimity were inherent virtues of this caste.

Vaishya were associated with business. Ethics in business were important. If Brahmins were revered for scholarly achievements, Kshatriya for chivalry the Vaishya were revered for accumulation of wealth by ethical means. They were shrewd, visionary, ethical, submissive and moderate in nature.

Shudra which was servant class of the society did all kinds of menial jobs. They were shoemakers, tailors, sweepers, barbers, blacksmith and other hundreds of essential functions were assigned to them. They were physically strong, meek, obedient and hard worker.

No caste was superior to another. They all were equally important to the society.

Though in Rajasthan the caste has strong roots. 

TISC has conducted some research in this

We can assume that Brahmin represents the Super Ego, Kshatriya and Vaishya, Ego, and Shudra represented Libido.

Emperor Jones fled to the forest in the play of Eugene O’Neill and was haunted by the illusion of being sold as slave though in real life he had never been sold as slave due to collective unconscious of Congo tribe that he belonged, similarly let us see what would haunt different caste archetypes in similar situation.

A brahmin would be haunted by sexual crime, even if he has not committed any, since there is lots of sexual suppression on the path of enlightenment, Kshatriya would be haunted by an act of cowardice, because he is supposed to prefer death to cowardice, Vaishya for earning money by unethical means due to greed and Shudra for punishment for disobedience. These fears have roots in their collective unconsciousness which surfaces when they have no veneer of culture to protect them.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

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The Art of Story Writing

Art is Long but The Story is Short

The short story has not been defined precisely in the lower limit of word count.  The Novel is over 40000 words, Novella is 17500 to 40000 words, Novelette is 7500 to 17500 words and a short story is less than 7500 words.

There is a myth that Earnest Hemingway wrote Eight Word shortest story of the world.

For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Augusto Monterroso is a Guatemalan short story writer best known for his 8-word story titled “El Dinosaurio”:

When I woke up, the dinosaur was still there.

The famous story of two strangers travelling in a train. One asked “Do you believe in ghost?”

“No, ” said the other, and disappeared.

The title of the smallest book in the world is “Who rules the world?” And it is said that it has only one page with one word written on it “Money”.

The “Chicken soup for the soul” series is a compilation of many motivational and inspirational stories.

William Shakespeare in Hamlet says “Brevity is the soul of wit”.

Art of brevity is the soul of Twitter also. To express oneself shortly and precisely is the theme of the world. People skip the pages filled with long narration even when they read voluminous classical novels.

William Strunk’s “The Elements of Style” a writing manual is popular because of its brevity.

Stephen King in his second forward of “On Writing” admits “shorter the book, the less the bullshit” and in third forward says “to write is human, to edit is divine”.

A short story has a fully developed theme. "TheAccident" is a wonderful story written by Bhisham Sahni.

The protagonist is a young woman who is engrossed in conversation with her friend. She missed the saag meat cooked by her servant Jagga, so she narrates his story to her friend. The young wife of Jagga was seduced by the younger brother of her husband. When Jagga comes to know about it, he commits suicide. The husband of protagonist settles police, widow and other relatives of Jagga amicably. Shockingly, he knew that his younger brother was having an illicit relationship with the wife of Jagga. He defended the evil act of his younger brother by saying to his wife “In youth everyone sows his wild oats and so did Vikki”.

The story is a satirical tragedy. Despite the depressive end of Jagga the story is full of humor. The chauvinistic male in Indian society is insensitive and callous to a great extent. Women do not despise such man. On the contrary, they praise it as manly quality. When her husband gives money to Jagga’s wife and father to compensate his own guilt, she says “It’s all over and done with, what’s the point in squandering money like this?” The reader is baffled by the meanness of husband and wife.

It shows a middle class bourgeois tendency to exploit the labor class of society.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Exorcism

Cure of Evil Spirits By Priest and Guru

Tarot Expert Viviana Druga

Exorcism is an age-old technique of evicting an evil spirit occupying a person or a place. All regions, cults, sect, clan, schools of faith describe evil spirits and have a ritual of exorcism. The rites performed across the globe  has many similarities.

In Hindu Mythology Garuda Purana has long descriptions of Hell and Heaven that every soul is allowed to dwell depending upon the Karma. A detailed account of all your deeds in every past birth is kept by Dharmaraj.

Performance artist and Tarot Expert Viviana Druga

According to Christian belief the judgment is pronounced on doomsday. Dr. Faustus a play by Christopher Marlowe gives interesting descriptions of miracles of Dark Magic. Catholic exorcist is a consecrated priest who practices Ritulae Romanum by the authority of Bishop. Since the technique is complicated the risk factor cannot be over ruled.

Since it is believed that all Priests, Mullah and Sadhu (Guru) are messengers of God and represent good spirit, they are entitled to perform the ceremony of exorcism.

It does not need a survey to find that females are more likely to fall victim of evil spirits.

Famous shrines like Mahendipur Balaji in Rajasthan and Meera Datar Dargah in Gujarat are the most effective places for exorcism.

It is possible that some of the visitors suffer from psychic disorder. They may be patient of Hysteria or Schizophrenia and need help of Psychiatrists. Due to illiteracy and superstitions people have faith in exorcism. Paulo Coelho in his book "Witch of Portobello" has described clairvoyant powers of witchcraft.Athena  the main character's mind was free and looked at witchery as a better religion than Catholic.

Performance Artist and Tarot Expert Viviana Druga

Voodoo is a mixture of Southern American and African practices combined with Roman Catholic rites performed as part of sorcery for scaring away evil spirits.

Persons who are emotionally unstable or born under weak planetary positions are more likely to become victim of evil spirits. The teenage girls are the most common prey for evil spirits. It could be due to unhygienic practices during  menstruation and contempt for evil spirit in teenage girls.

In Hindu the exorcism is of many kinds. If you have simply been caught by an ‘evil eye’ specially when you look cute or achieve unexpected success, it can be cured by a priest of the temple of Hanuman. Every Hindu child must have been taken by his parents to such a shrine in childhood for cure. If the ‘evil eye’ was strong, you may be required to visit more than once.

In such rite universally the sacred words are chanted, holy water is sprinkled on the patient and a broom made of feathers is used to clean the possession.

If an evil spirit is powerful, very offended with the patient (if patient has urinated at the dwelling of evil spirit viz. deserted places, abandoned buildings, old tree, graveyard), it would need a specialist. Such specialists in the Hindu religion are called Tantric. They could be of any caste, but mostly they are Sadhu, Baba, Aghori or Guru.

Padmini Kolhapure in Gerhard

The ritual is a sacred ceremony performed in privacy. Like a doctor examines the patient in privacy and one trusts the doctor  similarly you have to trust the Tantric/Sadhu/Guru also. If you lack the belief why did you opt for the treatment. The Tantric touches certain plexuses or chakras to strengthen them for the cure. How you willingly take off your cloth on the command of the doctor and never blame him for touching your body, similarly for tantric cure it would be highly malicious to accuse a Sadhu's intentions in the performance of rites.

Tweet: Eradication of Evil is Exorcism; Be it an individual or the society.

References

A key to Indian Mysticism " Maya in search of Tantric father"

Performance artist and Tarot Card Expert : Viviana Druga

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

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Mortal Sins By Immortal Men

Hollow Modern Women castigated By T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land

Reputation is more important than chastity for Modern Women

Rhine-Daughters

Modern Man and the Ape Man came across each other at the bridge, once again. Modern Man had come to admire nature on the recommendation of his Psychiatrist and Ape Man had come to admire the technology of man-made bridge. When Modern Man asked Ape Man about his views on boredom, he was reluctant to share. When Modern Man insisted he spoke only one line.

“Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit”

For Modern Man the line was simply absurd. What can someone do if not stand, lie or sit? Fly? He was annoyed at the Ape Man, as if he was responsible for what Tiresias said.

"No you can’t even fly, because you do not have a powerful imagination like Super Man". Modern Man felt stuck. He looked at Ape Man.

Ape Man explained “To look for anything is to act on the hypothesis that it exists, faith precedes faith in regressive manner.” Modern Man remembered having heard this too. Ape Man said “You can’t take stand for your belief, you can’t prostrate in surrender, nor you can contemplate in lotus position. So you are doomed.”

Modern Man was stunned till he received a voice message from his wife. “I am at a party and will return home at late tonight. Do not wait for me. Serve dinner yourself. Love you, baby”. Followed by the sound of a kiss.

They had an instant eye contact. Ape Man was smiling satirically. Both had noticed that excuse to party was lame. The voice was hollow and there was no background noise of the party.

Ape Man said “If there were water…or….if there were the sound of water only.” After a pause, he said "Hollow Woman”.

Modern Man ignored the remark. He did not want to discuss his personal relationship with his wife with the Ape Man.

Ape Man could read the mind of Modern Man. He changed the topic. He told to Modern Man “Your civilisation is travelling back, towards us and our civilisation is travelling forward towards you. Like a time traveller we are neither past nor future. I hear about your nude beaches and organic farming. You are back to nature on the advice of your psychiatrist. In my clan many women have started covering their private parts with sheep skin. I know this shame will make our society corrupt. Women with covered skin becomes more desirable. This will lead to all other types of corruption.”

“Stop them from wearing loincloth. You are the Head” Modern Man retorted.

“Society is also dynamic. It evolves and undergoes a change with the advancement of time like an individual”. Ape Man was now in a trance. He continued "Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart could not stop society from evolving”.

Modern Man knew he was talking to a Time Traveller.

Modern Man decided to take his opinion. “Why did you call our women as hollow” he asked.

“Because they are more bothered about reputation than chastity. Remember Philomela?” Ape Man asked.

Modern Man nodded. He had been reading The Waste Land many times a day. Chastity was no more a virtue in his society. Everything is mechanical. Even Sex. Mechanisation is Boredom. Even all the attempts to break the monotony have also become stereotyped.

Chastity of Pamela by Richardson was mocked at in Shamela by Henry Fielding. Chastity even a fake chastity is better, as a bad man is better than bad name.©

Things were falling into place when the Modern Man received a voice message from his girlfriend.

To save himself from embarrassment Modern Man walked away.

Read story of The Old Man and The Nymph

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

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