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The Beginnings of Hindu Theosophy 2.2. 5

was a time in India when the Aryas, that is, the three upper of the four ancient castes, were excluded from Brahmanical piety.‘ Now, as then-- sophy, by its very terms, shuts down on the ritual, the special profession of the Brahmans, there is nothing at all in it to exclude occasional intelligent and aspiring men from the other noble (Arya) castes. This is true even at the present day: Svami‘ Vive~ kananda was no Brahman, but a member of the Kayastha or clerk caste. The Chandogya Upani... shad (4. 4) narrates how Satyakama, the son of the gadabout servant-maid Jabala, was admitted to Brahmanic disciplehood by Haridrumata, for the very reason that he did not try to cover up his low birth. Satyakama, in the end, obtains the highest knowledge. When it comes to higher religion the bars are consciously let down at all times. In the Mokshadharma of the Mahabharata“ the Vaigya (Vanik) caste man Tuladhara, “seller of juices, scents, leaves, barks, fruits, and roots,” teaches righteous— ness to the Brahman Jajali. In the same text 3 the Rishi Paragara declares that Brahmans learned in the Veda regard a virtuous gudra, or low caste man, as the equal of Brahmans.

1 Compare Pandit Shyamaji Krishnavarma, Transactions 0 f Me szt/la International Congress of Orientalirm, vol. ii., p. 218 9 12. zérf. 3 122. 290i. 15