Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 164

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHIA
India. There, all of life is included union, calling themselves
in the word religion."
How Caste Was Established.
Brahmins. The traders and agriculturists did likewise, and the institution of caste was established. Soon the Brahmins arrogated to themselves the sole right to teach.
Four Stages of Life
Mr. Gandhi described the life of the people of India in the early days as "simple, scientific, and wise." It consisted, he said, of four stages. The first, say from the age of seven to twenty-one, was the life of a student. The child was sent to a teacher on a day determined by consulting astrologer, and he remained with his master for ten or twelve years, obeying his commands and leading the life of spiritual service which was then considered necessary for proper study. The teacher studied the boy's mind and adapted his teaching to its peculiarities.
The speaker then traced the development of the caste system. In ancient days, he said, there was no priestly class. Every man who was fit to be a teacher and who led a moral life became a teacher or a member of the highest class. If the son of a teacher was found to be fitted for trade and commerce he becomes a member of the second class. If this son's son was adapted to agricultural pursuits he was enrolled in the third class and if he, in turn, had a son qualified only for menial service he became one of the fourth or lowest class. If the menial had a son fit to be a teacher he became one in spite of his low parentage.
By and by however said the speaker, the teachers became
numerous in number and formed a At the end of this season of "purity,
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self-denial. And service," continued Mr. Gandhi, the young man became a house holder a man of family. He earned money, took part in the business, social, and intellectual life of his community and did his duty towards helping the poor and needy.
Then, when he felt that it was time for him to step aside and let younger men take his place, he entered the third stage, he retired; in the language of the East, he become a "dweller in the forest," where he strove to quieten the ambitions and desires of the active life he had been leading.
The fourth stage was that of renunciation, the giving up of all the ties of the lower nature and devotion to the higher spiritual teachings. That was the monk's life. The man then became a teacher.
Opposition to these Stages and Cast System.
This system of the four-fold division or life was opposed, said Mr. Gandhi by the Buddhists and Jainists, who believed that, since death might come at any moment, man could not afford to wait for so gradual an evolution of his nature into the higher state. It was, however, a system due to which the nervous prostration so common in the west was totally unknown in India. These ills he urged, the American people might avoid by changing the manner of their life so as to make the religious life and the social life one, Both Buddhism and Jainism, Mr. Gandhi said, opposed the caste system, which he declared was an innovation and was responsible for keeping India down.
The Jainists gave the people of India a code by which all the scriptures of the world could be