The Hindu caste system is more than a belief.
It has political implications.
This is why Americans need to give this matter close attention.
We need to know if our political candidates solicit our votes, yet
secretly regard us as inferior to them -- unless of course, we are
wealthy and powerful!
Srila Prabhupada, Chris Butler's guru and founder of the Hare Krishnas, gave initiates the sacred thread of Hinduism.
Prabhupada, Chris Butler's guru, was Bengali, and this was an area where people were especially mindful of caste ritual.
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This thread marked ISKON initiates as Brahmins -- at least according to Prabhupada's interpretation.
So..was Chris Butler given that sacred thread?
How might this have influenced Butler's sense of self -- and that
of his disciples today?
The thread is worn by Brahmins (priestly class), Khstriya(warrors and ruler class) and Vaisyas(merchant class) -- aka the upper castes of Hinduism.
Sudras (farmers) and Dalits (the latter group regarded by upper castes as sources of pollution) could not wear the sacred thread -- and the latter two groups endured abuse from the upper castes who also exploited them and prevented them or limited them from
gaining ownership of land and thwarted their attempts to gain an education.
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Why mention this?
Because Chris Butler's own guru, rila Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), wore the sacred thread.
These upper castes are not merely of a higher social class. They are a superior
spiritual class.
It is presumed that they deserve this privilege due to having accumulated good
karma from previous rebirths.
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It appears that part of some of the initiation ceremony for male initiates
into ISKON was being given the sacred thread.
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Quote
Vaibhavi: When Prabhupada told me my name, I couldn't hear it and he had to repeat it a number of times. I still couldn't figure it out. Prabhupada's Bengali accent was so thick, that it sounded to me like "Boy Bubby", but I knew that couldn't be right. Halfway through the ceremony, we discovered that there were no sacred threads for the brahmana initiations. In actual fact, we didn't even know what sacred threads were, not to speak of how to make them.
I left the crowded temple and ran down the street to buy some string, and, while Prabhupada was initiating people, I was sitting there in the arena making sacred threads, copying the one that Bali-mardana had taken off himself.
One after another, the five devotees chosen to receive their second initiation came and knelt before Prabhupada, who instructed them in the art of counting and chanting the mantra.
Upananda: I was afraid of making a mistake, and watched scrutinisingly as the other devotees went up to receive their Gayatri mantras. Finally I was called up. I was so nervous my hands were shaking, and after Prabhupada showed me once, I got it wrong. Again he showed me, and again I got it wrong; such an apparently simple thing had become so difficult -- my fingers were moving haphazardly, and my mind was totally confused. Finally Srila Prabhupada said loudly: 'No!' Immediately my mind was focused and I was able to receive the mantra attentively.
Vaibhavi: I was called up to sit next to Srila Prabhupada. He started showing me how to count with my fingers, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do because I had been making the brahmana threads and hadn't been watching the rest of the ceremony. So Prabhupada kindly took hold of my hand and pressed my fingers down in the counting position with his fingers. He showed me how to count and repeat the Gayatri mantra, and asked me to repeat it word for word.
The devotees later told me: 'You're a brahmana now. You have to have a sacred thread too.' They told me to make one for myself, which I didn't, because someone told me that women didn't wear sacred threads. We didn't know much.
This meant that caste elitism was built right into the Hare Krishna sect, and this was what Chris Butler inherited.
The ugly truth about India is that these wearers of the sacred thread owe their support to the Dalits, who literally did the shit work that would contaminate the Brahmins.
The Bhagavad Gita, that text so beloved of the Krishnas, supports the caste system.
And this is the document on which Tulsi was sworn into office.
The problem is that the core texts that created the United States of America
presuppose that all men are created equal and have certain inalienable human rights.
This, friends and readers, is the opposite of what the Bhagavad Gita teachings, and is the opposite of the 'Vedic Society' so beloved by the
Krishna Sect -- and the fundamentalist Hindutva movement in India.
For some context, read here:
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2015 08:10PM by corboy.