Just because Chandalas are born from Sudra Father and Bramha mother,How justified is it to outcaste them and allocate menial and disgusting jobs?? Could they change their occupations if they gave up meat eating and cruel habits??
1 Answers
No it is not justified. Nor is the definition of Chandala being born of a Sudra father and a Brahmana mother correct. These fanciful Smriti concepts are clearly wrong and are against the Vedas. This is clear from the Chandogya Upanishad definition of Chandala.
Those whose conduct here has been good will quickly attain a good birth (literally womb), the birth of a brahmin, the birth of a Ksatriya or the birth of a Vaisya. But those whose conduct here has been evil, will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog, the birth of a hog or the birth of a chandala.
Chandogya Upanishad V.10.7
As you can see Chandogya Upanishad is specifying conduct as the reason for different births. It has nothing to do with the caste of the father or the mother.
What does the Chandogya Upanishad verse mean?
It has nothing to do with the caste system invented by the Smriti writers. It means that depending on the amount of good conduct a person will be born to parents of high Sattva Guna (Brahmin), to parents of middling Sattva Guna (Ksatriya) or parents of high Rajasa Guna mixed with some Sattva Guna (Vaisya). The vast majority of persons with neither good nor bad conduct will be born of parents who do not have the gunas of Brahmanas or Ksatriyas or Vaisyas but whose conduct is not as bad as that of animals.
Those whose conduct has been exceptionally bad without any redeeming feature will have animal parents or human Chandala parents. This suggests that Chandala is defined as a person whose conduct is like an animal.
Example of Chandalas
The Nazis who gassed Jews were Chandalas and will have either animal birth or parents of the Chandala type.
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1"As you can see Chandogya Upanishad is specifying conduct as the reason for different births" --- All Hindu scriptures say that nothing peculiar to Upanishads. Your Karma determines what will be your next life. – Rickross Dec 09 '20 at 12:12
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So why is birth in an endogamous group used to determine Varna? What is the connection with conduct? – Pradip Gangopadhyay Dec 10 '20 at 13:13
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@Pradip Gangopadhyay Varna classification seem to indicate intrinsic properties attained because of being born to certain parents in certain condition, as well as a child born to certain parents will be like copy/image of the parents. So a virtuous Brahmin's child will grow be like him. An alcoholic's child will tend to mirror his father-- in a way this says: where you're born will largely affect your lifestyle. – Harshiv Jan 27 '21 at 07:50
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In that sense your birth place/time/parents largely affect who you're most likely to become. -- the conduct part is that, a Shudra when serving a practicing Brahmin for entire lifetime with honest heart, embodies Sattva majoring nature of the Brahmin, and would have increased chances of being born in upper casts as his nature becomes more Brahmin like. – Harshiv Jan 27 '21 at 07:58
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1Well, the verse says womb, hence they will be born in a place of privilege that doesn't mean they'll be good or bad. Aswantama is a good example of such where he was born high but fell low due to his evil deeds. – Haridasa Jan 02 '24 at 12:33
https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc201834.html
Quoted here and next verse
– Sethu Srivatsa Koduru Feb 21 '21 at 15:56