This is like, if you do not think of Christ's resurrection as an actual event, not only are you not a Christian, you are in no position to hold a respectful dialogue with those who are.
There are Chinese who like to claim, yes, the Mahabharata war happened, but it happened maybe 1400 years ago, because a Chinese traveler who was passing through at the time saw bones, leftovers from the war. That thinking is designed to suggest the Chinese as a people are 5,000 years old, but the Indians are much younger.
But nobody beats the Caucasians and the Hindus quite like the Hindus themselves who say the war described in the Ramayana happened a few hundred thousand years ago. One Hindu scholar, well respected in Kathmandu, even told me on the phone only a few weeks ago that that war did not even take place on earth, but in another world! I was left scratching my head. My hometown is Janakpurdham, which is an actual town on earth in the southeast of Nepal. That town plays a large role in the Ramayana story. It is not in another world.
The Bible is not scripture because it is a long book. War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy is equally long. But neither Tolstoy nor anybody else has ever suggested that novel is scripture. A scripture has qualities. The Bible has them. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata also have them. One quality is statements of prophecy. God, in whom all time past, present and future is contained, of course sees every future event already, and passes some of that information through the scriptures. We call them prophecies. God in every scripture is described as someone who is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, the True God is.
Columbus did not discover America. There were human beings living on the continent for thousands of years before Columbus ever showed up. But if you think Columbus discovered America, that is a very peculiar Eurocentric view going back less than 600 years. Columbus did discover America, if you are European, he sure did, for Europeans of his time he did. But that was not like Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. So far there is no evidence there were people on the moon before that.
You could observe the caste system as it exists today, and it is inescapable. The caste system is like the social operating system on the Indian subcontinent. It is in a degenerate form and ties up any possibility of progress. In its current form it is only a few thousand years old.
First you have to get the dates right. There are precise astronomical observations in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, so precise they can be of use to modern astronomers. You can decipher the dates in the two scriptures (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) from those observations. The Ramayana talks about events from about 7,000 years ago. The Mahabharata talks about events from about 5,000 years ago. That is modern astronomy, and completely discredits the Caucasian theory and the Chinese theory too.
You have to get the dates right. And you have to get the concept of the four yugas, or the ages. The ages, by the way, are also mentioned in the Bible. There is talk of "this age" many places in the Bible. As in, this among several ages. There is talk of "the end of this age." As in, the end of this age, and the beginning of a new one.
I am least interested in the history of the caste system. I am completely interested in the idea of reorganizing it. I would like to see two billion Brahmins on earth all over the world.
Not one character in either the Ramayana or the Mahabharata has been called a Hindu. There is only talk of dharma, which is not religion. Dharma means right conduct. It is about right and wrong. There is talk of eternal religion, or Sanatana Dharma. If God has no beginning and no end, how can humanity's relationship with that God be tied to this or that geography, or this or that span of time? The God of many universes surely is not the God of this or that country on earth.
The current age, or the Kali Yuga, the age when much sin happens, the worst of the four ages, has gone on for more than 5,000 years now. When the events of the current age were described to some of the leading characters in the previous age, they were in disbelief. Is that even possible? Could people treat each other so badly?
It is like there is a creature that is alive for just 10 days in summer. Try describing winter to that creature. It might not understand the concept of snow. Events in the Mahabharata are from the previous age, events in the Ramayana are from the age before that. It is hard for people alive today to wrap their heads around those events.
8b. The Caste System
4. Attitudes about caste
History of India's Caste System
A look at how and when India’s caste system emerged
Evolution of the Caste System in India
Origin of Caste System in India
The Indian Caste System: Origins and History
What is India's caste system?
Caste System in Ancient India
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON INDIA TODAY
The Caste System
A Brief History Of The Caste System And Untouchability In India
History of India’s Caste System
The Caste System of India
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भगवान कल्कि जन्मेको मटिहानी
