What is my caste?Please help

[Guest guest]

This is important for my marriage.

 

I have a doubt regarding my caste.

My mother tongue is Maithili. And my gotra is Kashyap.Our family name is Mahaseth. And we belong to Raghopur (Sarsa dist) in Bihar.

We strictly do not eat non-veg although some of my relatives do. My parents ,grand parents do not eat non-veg.Neither do I. Most people in our village run shops as business.My father also runs a shop.

 

I do not know for sure whether I am a Brahmin by birth or not? My parents are also not sure as they are all uneducated.

 

With the information given above, could you tell me whether I am a Brahmin or not ?If not, then to which of the four varnas (Brahmin/Kshatriya/Vaishya/Sudra)do I belong?

 

Hope you give me authentic answers since this is related to my marriage.

Thanks/regards.

[Guest guest]

although this may not be the answer you were looking for, you did ask "Hope you give me authentic answers since this is related to my marriage"

 

your authentic caste is not what you were born into. It is based on quality of personality and your moral charachter.

 

One is a brahmin only if one has good qualities. It has nothing to do with what family you were born into, where you were born, what your parents or you do for a living, etc, etc.

 

Sorry if this doesnt help. Personally i believe you should marry based on who is a good fit, who you love. Dont restrict yourself to those that only fit the old-days definition of caste because you way lose out on true love.

 

By only shopping at Indian diamond jewelers, you may loose out on the best quality diamond of all. But thats me personally. I am no one to tell you how to live or who to marry.

[barney 0]

You gave a good response. That is how one should look at the self. How you conduct your life determines and quality. Your life partner ahould be selected for her qualites bot her cast. Most Hindus do not practice what they preach. I like your answer, it's simple and logic.

[Sephiroth 0]

Having Caste will gurantee your marriage will last? I don't think so.

 

Anyway, this is personal matters so I don't say much. Go and consult with your own family members and also experts in this field. I don't think any one here knows about your caste.

[Guest guest]

or caste system would make no sense. Suppose as someone suggested, caste is determined by quality, then it would take forever for a person to determine his caste-by-quality, because there's always a mixture of three gunas. Which means, a person will be brahmin today, kshatriya tomorrow and so on.

 

Imagine a society built on caste-by-quality where people cahnge their castes on a monthly basis! A person will be a soldier today (by quality) and next month a sage or a worker. How can a solid structure be built on such shaky foundations?

 

That's why Krishna advises people to stick to their caste duties, which is why he asks Arjuna to do his Kshatriya Dharma; and Arjuna is Kshatriya by birth and not quality. The fact that you take birth in a certain caste means your karma has been worked in such a manner that Krishna sanctions your birth in a certain caste, race etc. And your job is to perform the duties of that caste as a service to Krishna, as taught in the gita, and NOT worry about whether you belong some other caste by quality etc. Krishna knows best, which is why he gives you birth in a particular caste, so that you can work out your karma in that caste.

 

So where does caste-by-quality come in? Nowhere at all, but since Hindus feel caste by birth is evil, they find excuses. But actually, gita advocates caste by birth, which is a perfectly correct system. So please try to find your caste by consulting a good astrologer and perform your caste duties as declared in the gita.

[Guest guest]

I agree with Bhimasena.

 

This is hard to comprehend for people who are not from India. But the fact is, there are still several groups of people in this country who are paranoid about going out of their castes for marriages.

 

If X feels he or she has to pick a partner from within the same caste, then that is the right thing to do, for else they are likely risking the chances of being ostracized from the community which will include their own parents!

 

Caste is by birth only and not by behavior. Caste is not a character certificate as some new fangled religious organizations would have you believe. A Brahmana is determined by his Gotra and Pravara only and nothing else.

 

Part of this confusion arises from faulty interpretation of some verses in the Bhagavad Gita. Since the Gita describes the Brahmana as a person with certain qualities, the converse was incorrectly assumed to to be true - that is anyone with the aforesaid qualities should be considered a Brahmana. This is incorrect as nowhere in Indian tradition has such a practise been adopted.

 

Cheers

[Guest guest]

your Varna ashram Dharm is of a Brahmin by birth as your Gotra is Kashyap. so that says it all. Keep up with being a strict vegetarian and worship Adi Narayan and you will attain Him.

[Guest guest]

Hi.. I'm a learning chap with very little knowledge.. but I can't stop expressing my ideas (may be wrong..) Please look into this and let us all find out the truth..

 

I always had this confusion whether caste is by birth or one can change it in course of life. It has been said in vedic literature that in Kaliyug all the castes will be like Sudras. No one will follow the rules. We can see that many brahmins, kshatriyas etc are even serving others for money. How many Brahmins are learning vedas? How many kshatriyas are now fighting for dharma?

 

Also, a brahmin who married a sudra is no more a brahmin.. In current world no one can be sure of their caste. For example, there is a fight ever for my caste (nair-kerala) whether it is Kshatriya or Sudra. No one knows exact history. What happened is that, people are making changes to ideas in holybooks for money sake. People changes histories. No one is sure what happened in the past. No one can say how a caste originated and in which class the caste can be put into.

 

You might have heard of Aryan invasions. Further there was british invasion and conversions. Most of the people now are confused. Some of their great great grandfathers would have been brahmin or kshatriay or vaisya or sudra or christian or buddhist.. that affects our caste!! because if a brahmin marries a sudra, the child is sudra, if a christian marries a brahmin, what is the kid?

 

If we want to find our caste, we should find out the history of all the ancestors and understand the religion formulas (brahmin * brahmin = brahmin; brahmin * sudra = sudra; brahmin * buddhist = ??). If all these calculations are made, we will get our caste. That would the real one. And after getting that we have to follow the rituals of our own caste, because else we would not be of that caste.

 

I have heard that dwijas (twice-born) should have had their upanayanam at childhood and hav gotten the sacred-thread. Dwijas are brahmin, kshatriya and vysyas. Hence all people who do not hav sacred-thread were sudras. How many of us have that? Are all sudras?

 

Now what god said in vedic literature seems to be getting true.. that all people will be like sudras in kaliyug..

 

Also I heard recently that a ceremony of hiranyagarbham can make a sudra twice-born. This was done to make a nair guy maharaja of travancore(not sure.. i got from a discussion on rediff).

 

I am not concluding anything, as the purpose of this was just for discussion and not for proving anything.. Please share your thoughts..

 

[Guest guest]

 

Now what god said in vedic literature seems to be getting true.. that all people will be like sudras in kaliyug..

 

 

Clearly this did not happen which means either the literature is false or else this is not kali-yuga!

 

I would be interested to know who considers people like Maadhva, Shankara - who lived in Kali-yuga -- to have lived like Shudras. Or for a different perspective, let us take more recent examples of movie stars. They own million dollar homes, private islands, private jets, etc. What exactly is shudra-like about that lifestyle? Even one person not living like a shudra in kali-yuga proves your statement false. I do not see any traditional school accepting this logic of shudra like people in Kaliyuga. If any new fangled school makes this claim, then by their own admission, their founder is also a shudra, which I am sure they would have a hard time accepting.

 

Purana researchers like RC Hazra, etc., are of the opinion that these statements reveal the frustration of the Brahmanas during the time of the Mauryas (300 - 200 BC). It was a time of foreign invasions (Greeks) and Maurya rule (Chandragupta Maurya is believed to have been a shudra). Traditional Brahmana superiority was side-tracked in favor of Shudras and this coupled with royal patronage for Buddhists scared the Brahmanas of their future. These troubled times prompted them to write gloomy forecasts and wait in anticipation of a traditional Kshatriya ruler (Kalki) who would reinstate the Brahmanas back to their original glory. Some of this came true during the subsequent Gupta monarchy, whch also makes some wonder if Kalki was a reference to one of the Gupta rulers.

 

Cheers

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

"I would be interested to know who considers people like Maadhva, Shankara - who lived in Kali-yuga -- to have lived like Shudras."

 

Everyone is born a Shudra in this age of Kali. The exceptions are liberated souls (nitya-siddhas) and empowered incarnations of demigods or God Himself. So Madhvacharya and Shankaracharya are nitya-siddhas, liberated souls. In addition, they are incarnations of Demigods. Madhva is incarnation of Vayu, whilst Shankaracharya is incarnation of Lord Shiva.

 

"Or for a different perspective, let us take more recent examples of movie stars. They own million dollar homes, private islands, private jets, etc."

 

As has been described before, people are born Shudras. But the functions of the varnas still have to be fulfilled. And so people in different occupations will try (even though they are shudras) to fulfil different varna roles. For example, the movie stars have become very rich due to their effort and previous karma - it doesn't change the fact that their nature is still shudra.

 

"What exactly is shudra-like about that lifestyle?"

 

There nature is shudra - doesn't mean they will necessarily want to live like a shudra.

 

"Even one person not living like a shudra in kali-yuga proves your statement false."

 

No, it proves that people are not living according to their nature.

 

"I do not see any traditional school accepting this logic of shudra like people in Kaliyuga."

 

The Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3: "In the age of Kali people tend to be greedy, ill-behaved and merciless, and they fight one another without good reason. Unfortunate and obsessed with material desires, the people of Kali-yuga are almost all sudras and barbarians."

 

Since all traditionals schools accept the Bhagavata-Purana, they consequently accept the above statement.

 

"If any new fangled school makes this claim, then by their own admission, their founder is also a shudra, which I am sure they would have a hard time accepting."

 

No new-fangled school, this is from the authentic scriptures.

 

"Purana researchers like RC Hazra, etc., are of the opinion that these statements reveal the frustration of the Brahmanas during the time of the Mauryas (300 - 200 BC)."

 

Who cares what a researcher speculates? Especially when these texts were written 5000 years ago, not in 300 bc.

 

"It was a time of foreign invasions (Greeks) and Maurya rule (Chandragupta Maurya is believed to have been a shudra). Traditional Brahmana superiority was side-tracked in favor of Shudras and this coupled with royal patronage for Buddhists scared the Brahmanas of their future. These troubled times prompted them to write gloomy forecasts and wait in anticipation of a traditional Kshatriya ruler (Kalki) who would reinstate the Brahmanas back to their original glory. Some of this came true during the subsequent Gupta monarchy, whch also makes some wonder if Kalki was a reference to one of the Gupta rulers."

 

It is all like a dream - you are free to concoct your own ideas, but they are exactly that, concocted ideas. The wise do not waste time on mental speculation - it is a fruitless endeavour.

 

Kind regards.

 

 

[Guest guest]

 

 

Everyone is born a Shudra in this age of Kali

 

 

Excellent.

 

To keep this short, I suggest you try telling a Brahmana on his face that he & the current Matha pontiffs of Sringeri & Updipi are actually Shudras as per iskcon's logic and see where that gets you. Also, you may want to tell some of your iskcon buddies that Prabhupada was born a shudra & check their reaction. Since he was not an avatar (I hope he has not been turned into one in the last couple of years), he also died a shudra.

 

 

Who cares what a researcher speculates? Especially when these texts were written 5000 years ago, not in 300 bc.

 

 

A lot of us care what research turns up. This is how man evolved from caveman times into the present times. And if you are still holding on to the 5000 year belief, then you are evidently very new to all this. Anyway...

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

"To keep this short, I suggest you try telling a Brahmana on his face that he & the current Matha pontiffs of Sringeri & Updipi are actually Shudras as per iskcon's logic and see where that gets you."

 

If they have cultivated the qualities of a Brahman, and if they have been initiated as qualified Brahmans, then they are no longer Shudras.

 

"Also, you may want to tell some of your iskcon buddies that Prabhupada was born a shudra & check their reaction. Since he was not an avatar (I hope he has not been turned into one in the last couple of years), he also died a shudra."

 

Do not blaspheme devotees of the Lord. If you read my post, it said that there are two types of living entities that are not born shudras. One is an avatara. The other is a nitya-siddha, an eternally liberated devotee - and that is Prabhupada.

 

"A lot of us care what research turns up. This is how man evolved from caveman times into the present times."

 

Archaeological evidence shows that human beings have been around for millions of years, putting an end to the absurd evolution theory.

 

"And if you are still holding on to the 5000 year belief, then you are evidently very new to all this."

 

You are holding on to the belief in evolution based on the speculation of scientists. I am putting faith in what is written in scriptures coming from God. I think God knows a lot more than scientists...

 

Cheers.